Great News For All Readers: ‘2000 AD’ Merges With ‘Battle Action’?
by Richard Bruton
Hang on, 2000 AD merges with Battle Action? How can that be? Fear not, it’s just a very special one-off for 2000 AD Prog #2350…
Anyone of a certain age in the UK will recognise the words ‘great news for all readers’ with a combination of fear, dread, and hope. It generally meant one of two things, either your favourite comic was being cancelled and merged into another title or that your comic was the one about to receive strips from another, soon-to-be-cancelled comic.
It was all part of the famous ‘hatch, match and dispatch’ method of the times, where publishers like IPC launched new titles regularly with the intention of drawing in new readers, who would then, hopefully, transfer to another, older title that their new comic would be merged with to bolster its sales. You’d generally see a few of the cancelled title’s characters in the pages of the merged comic, sometimes becoming successes (but more often disappearing into the ether after a few weeks or months.)
It’s happened before with 2000 AD, as the short-lived Starlord merged into it in 1978, bringing Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters into the Progs.
And now, for a special one-off Prog #2350, it’s happening again. It’s another ‘what-if’ bumper 48-pager after last year’s The Darkest Judge asked ‘what if Judgement Day went another way?’. Only this time, it’s what if Battle Action had merged with 2000 AD in the early 80s.
Inside Prog #2350, you’ll find Judge Dredd, of course, in ‘Juves Rule’ – surely a Mega-City One version of the classic and controversial ‘Kids Rule OK’ from Action. Other strips include El Mestizo, Major Eazy, Death Game 2049, Hellman of Hell Force.
2000 AD Prog #2350 should be out (if I’ve done my sums right) on 20th September 2023 in the UK and on digital. US readers, you’ll have to wait just that little longer to get the monthly bundle from your local comic shop.
