Invasion! (2000 AD)
Encyclopedia
Invasion! was a series created by Pat Mills
and mostly written by Gerry Finley-Day
that appeared in the first 51 editions of the weekly comic 2000 AD
.
The series introduced the character of Bill Savage
, a classic anti-authoritarian character of the type which Mills is best known for. It has been continued in the sequel series Savage, beginning in 2004
, by Pat Mills and Charlie Adlard
.
by Marshall Vashkov in 1991. In 1992, vast new reserves of North Sea oil
were discovered off the coast of Britain. Ken Livingstone
became head of the Labour Party
, and his "True Labour" movement gained power over Shirley Brown's Conservative Party in a 1995 general election. In 1996, Prime Minister Livingstone ordered the removal of all American military bases from the British Isles; by 1998, a newly isolationist United States had withdrawn completely from Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
By 1999, Prince Charles
was King of the United Kingdom. The United States and Volgan Republic had a secret agreement, carving up the world into spheres of influence. Meanwhile, a fifth column
among the establishment, feeling threatened by the new left-wing government, made overtures to the Volgans, offering to help with any invasion.
Progs 119 to 139 contained the prequel story Disaster 1990, which shows Britain being flooded by melting polar icecaps in 1990. Savage has not treated this as canonical.
being swiftly over-run by an invasion from the Volgan Republic known as the Eight-Hour War. North Sea oil rigs are seized by helicopter-borne commando units, Heathrow airport is captured by paratroopers allowing heavy transport planes to land delivering heavy armour close to London, and the Midlands
are hit by nuclear weapons, including a 50 megaton
warhead. The UK Government capitulates, with many hardline anti-Volgan MPs, Lords and generals along with the Prime Minister Shirley Williams being executed; a puppet government, under Prime Minister Simon Creepton, takes control for the puppet state of The People's Republic Of Britain.
Bill Savage, an East-End
lorry-driver begins a one-man resistance movement against the Volgans after his wife and children are killed when Savage's home is hit by a Volgan tank shell during the invasion. As with similar characters that Mills and Day had created for other titles such as Action and Battle Picture Weekly
, Savage is given a gimmick, with a hauling hook and a sawn-off shotgun
being his preferred weapons. Initially solo, he is recruited by Lt. Peter Silk into the British resistance. Initially leading the Mad Dogs cell out of the Isle of Dogs
, Savage would later be mobile and take part in resistance action throughout the country. Throughout the series, Savage's brutal violence and working-class common sense leads to victory, whereas military resistance is depicted as being class bound and ineffectual.
At the end of the series, Savage is tasked with taking the heir to the throne, Prince John, to safety in Canada
. He smuggled the prince into North America on a US cargo ship; as Volgan agents murdered most of the crew trying to stop him, the series ended with Savage believing the United States would now get involved against the Volgans.
The Volgan War (AKA the Fourth Oil War) became part of a connecting backstory for a number of 2000 AD series including ABC Warriors
.
groups like the Free European Army and Traitor's Gate. Escapist fiction like Lord Cyboid and the Silver Rapier is abundant, produced by the Volgans to pacify the general public; propaganda campaigns try to convince people to accept the occupation and not be "bitter-enders". Some people have come to accept the occupation or actively collaborate with it; they are described as "Double Yellows", after the twin yellow stripes on the uniforms of the British State Security agents and police officers who collaborate with the Volgan regime.
Despite the non-aggression agreement with the United States, American small arms and other weapons are used by resistance movements. Savage also has a CIA contact, and the two share information against the Volgans. Any major activity, however, is not taken and occupied Britain does not seem a high priority. (They would also be caught off-guard and be left out in the 2004 uprising)
Under the direction of Savage, the resistance manages to almost force the Volgan peacekeepers to withdraw from Britain in 2004, though they manage to cling onto power and send renewed troop numbers in. Subsequently, Savage assassinated Vashkov.
Consequently, State Security agents retaliated by murdering his brother Tom after discovering he had secretly written stories that would be embarrassing for the regime. Savage and his sister Cassie killed all the agents responsible, only for it to be discovered that Savage's former-MI6 resistance contact had been behind it and was secretly a collaborator. Savage then killed him and his security team and sent a copy of his brother's work on the Internet
. As a result, the resistance alongside the population, rose up against the Volgan "peacekeepers" and liberated most of Southern England.
Book Four, however, opened with the country re-occupied after 2006, when a fresh surge of troops was deployed. By now, some people in Britain were coming to accept Volgan rule; the United States, however, was now heavily outfitting resistance units with American weaponry and preparing to use Ireland
as a staging ground for a liberation. Savage prevented the Volgans from causing a fake terrorist atrocity to drive off the Americans, and by 2009 the Allied forces were openly bombing Volgan targets in London. They had also used electromagnetic weapons to "e-bomb" the city, wiping out most electronics and reducing it to a 1984 level of technology; many citizens were disgruntled, wondering why the Americans were not bombing the Volgans.
2009 also saw the liberation of Britain begin, with army robots
being used as the advance wave at Fishguard
. The Volgans Develop a teleport machine that sends their troops into the American bases killing the commanding officers. Luckily Bill Savage and some of the resistance destroy the base in London but use it once to put a Siberian Tiger in a Volgan General's tank. The Volgans have started creating their own battle robots called Mark 1 Blackblood robots. Bill Savage finds two American pilots who escaped from a Volgan P.O.W camp in Siberia they tell him they have found a secret city underground called Ugelgorsk where the Volgans are building Mark 1 Blackblood robots and planning to use them in Wales then Ireland, Bill and his accomplices now have to get the pilots to Liverpool cost where there will be a boat to take them to Dublin, They succeed and Bill is later told that Three U.S Long-Range Bombers have destroyed Ugelgorsk and most of the Mark 1 Blackblood robots, Bill Savage feels happy saying it is only a matter of time before the Allies breakthrough The Welsh Front and liberate Britain.
The various firearms Bill Savage used in both the Invasion! and Savage series comics besides his tried and trusted double-barrel, side-by-side shotgun are...
:
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
and mostly written by Gerry Finley-Day
Gerry Finley-Day
Gerry Finley-Day was a prolific British comics writer from the 1960s to the 1980s, best known as the creator of Rogue Trooper.He started out at D. C. Thomson & Co., before becoming the editor of IPC's girls' title Tammy in 1971, for which he wrote strips such as "Ella on Easy Street" and "The Camp...
that appeared in the first 51 editions of the weekly comic 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
.
The series introduced the character of Bill Savage
Bill Savage
Bill Savage is a fictional character in 2000 AD. He first appeared in the story Invasion! in progs 1-51. He is a resistance fighter in the Free European Army against the Volgans, who invaded and conquered Britain in 1999 during the Eight Hour War...
, a classic anti-authoritarian character of the type which Mills is best known for. It has been continued in the sequel series Savage, beginning in 2004
2004 in comics
-February:*February 6: Marvel Enterprises and Electronic Arts announce a multi-year agreement in which EA will develop a new generation of fighting video games pitting Marvel superheroes against a new, original set of EA heroes....
, by Pat Mills and Charlie Adlard
Charlie Adlard
Charles "Charlie" Adlard is a British comic book artist and penciller.He is best known for providing art on The Walking Dead and Savage.-Biography:...
.
Alternate historical background
In the alternate recent history established in Savage, Russia fell to a Fascist military coup and was renamed the Volgan RepublicVolgans
The Volgans are a fictional fascist Russian government appearing in 2000 AD in the stories of Bill Savage and the ABC Warriors. The Volgans in both series are in the same fictional universe - this was explicitly shown shown with ABC Warriors: The Volgan War Book 1 referring to a specific event ...
by Marshall Vashkov in 1991. In 1992, vast new reserves of North Sea oil
North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the...
were discovered off the coast of Britain. Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
became head of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, and his "True Labour" movement gained power over Shirley Brown's Conservative Party in a 1995 general election. In 1996, Prime Minister Livingstone ordered the removal of all American military bases from the British Isles; by 1998, a newly isolationist United States had withdrawn completely from Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
By 1999, Prince Charles
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
was King of the United Kingdom. The United States and Volgan Republic had a secret agreement, carving up the world into spheres of influence. Meanwhile, a fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
among the establishment, feeling threatened by the new left-wing government, made overtures to the Volgans, offering to help with any invasion.
Progs 119 to 139 contained the prequel story Disaster 1990, which shows Britain being flooded by melting polar icecaps in 1990. Savage has not treated this as canonical.
Invasion!
Set in the year 1999, the first part of the series depicts Western Europe and the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
being swiftly over-run by an invasion from the Volgan Republic known as the Eight-Hour War. North Sea oil rigs are seized by helicopter-borne commando units, Heathrow airport is captured by paratroopers allowing heavy transport planes to land delivering heavy armour close to London, and the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
are hit by nuclear weapons, including a 50 megaton
TNT equivalent
TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...
warhead. The UK Government capitulates, with many hardline anti-Volgan MPs, Lords and generals along with the Prime Minister Shirley Williams being executed; a puppet government, under Prime Minister Simon Creepton, takes control for the puppet state of The People's Republic Of Britain.
Bill Savage, an East-End
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
lorry-driver begins a one-man resistance movement against the Volgans after his wife and children are killed when Savage's home is hit by a Volgan tank shell during the invasion. As with similar characters that Mills and Day had created for other titles such as Action and Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly, at various time also known as Battle Action Force, Battle and Battle with Storm Force, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle...
, Savage is given a gimmick, with a hauling hook and a sawn-off shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
being his preferred weapons. Initially solo, he is recruited by Lt. Peter Silk into the British resistance. Initially leading the Mad Dogs cell out of the Isle of Dogs
Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a former island in the East End of London that is bounded on three sides by one of the largest meanders in the River Thames.-Etymology:...
, Savage would later be mobile and take part in resistance action throughout the country. Throughout the series, Savage's brutal violence and working-class common sense leads to victory, whereas military resistance is depicted as being class bound and ineffectual.
At the end of the series, Savage is tasked with taking the heir to the throne, Prince John, to safety in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He smuggled the prince into North America on a US cargo ship; as Volgan agents murdered most of the crew trying to stop him, the series ended with Savage believing the United States would now get involved against the Volgans.
The Volgan War (AKA the Fourth Oil War) became part of a connecting backstory for a number of 2000 AD series including ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors is a long-running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, which first appeared in prog 119 in 1979 and continues to run today. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, and Brendan McCarthy - who between them designed the original seven members of...
.
Savage
In the sequel series Savage, the Volgans are still in command in 2004 and are being opposed by terrorist insurgentInsurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
groups like the Free European Army and Traitor's Gate. Escapist fiction like Lord Cyboid and the Silver Rapier is abundant, produced by the Volgans to pacify the general public; propaganda campaigns try to convince people to accept the occupation and not be "bitter-enders". Some people have come to accept the occupation or actively collaborate with it; they are described as "Double Yellows", after the twin yellow stripes on the uniforms of the British State Security agents and police officers who collaborate with the Volgan regime.
Despite the non-aggression agreement with the United States, American small arms and other weapons are used by resistance movements. Savage also has a CIA contact, and the two share information against the Volgans. Any major activity, however, is not taken and occupied Britain does not seem a high priority. (They would also be caught off-guard and be left out in the 2004 uprising)
Under the direction of Savage, the resistance manages to almost force the Volgan peacekeepers to withdraw from Britain in 2004, though they manage to cling onto power and send renewed troop numbers in. Subsequently, Savage assassinated Vashkov.
Consequently, State Security agents retaliated by murdering his brother Tom after discovering he had secretly written stories that would be embarrassing for the regime. Savage and his sister Cassie killed all the agents responsible, only for it to be discovered that Savage's former-MI6 resistance contact had been behind it and was secretly a collaborator. Savage then killed him and his security team and sent a copy of his brother's work on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. As a result, the resistance alongside the population, rose up against the Volgan "peacekeepers" and liberated most of Southern England.
Book Four, however, opened with the country re-occupied after 2006, when a fresh surge of troops was deployed. By now, some people in Britain were coming to accept Volgan rule; the United States, however, was now heavily outfitting resistance units with American weaponry and preparing to use Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
as a staging ground for a liberation. Savage prevented the Volgans from causing a fake terrorist atrocity to drive off the Americans, and by 2009 the Allied forces were openly bombing Volgan targets in London. They had also used electromagnetic weapons to "e-bomb" the city, wiping out most electronics and reducing it to a 1984 level of technology; many citizens were disgruntled, wondering why the Americans were not bombing the Volgans.
2009 also saw the liberation of Britain begin, with army robots
ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors is a long-running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, which first appeared in prog 119 in 1979 and continues to run today. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, and Brendan McCarthy - who between them designed the original seven members of...
being used as the advance wave at Fishguard
Fishguard
Fishguard is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, with a population of 3,300 . The community of Fishguard and Goodwick had a population of 5043 at the 2001 census....
. The Volgans Develop a teleport machine that sends their troops into the American bases killing the commanding officers. Luckily Bill Savage and some of the resistance destroy the base in London but use it once to put a Siberian Tiger in a Volgan General's tank. The Volgans have started creating their own battle robots called Mark 1 Blackblood robots. Bill Savage finds two American pilots who escaped from a Volgan P.O.W camp in Siberia they tell him they have found a secret city underground called Ugelgorsk where the Volgans are building Mark 1 Blackblood robots and planning to use them in Wales then Ireland, Bill and his accomplices now have to get the pilots to Liverpool cost where there will be a boat to take them to Dublin, They succeed and Bill is later told that Three U.S Long-Range Bombers have destroyed Ugelgorsk and most of the Mark 1 Blackblood robots, Bill Savage feels happy saying it is only a matter of time before the Allies breakthrough The Welsh Front and liberate Britain.
The weapons of Bill Savage
When Invasion! started, Bill Savage was armed with a double-barrel side-by-side shotgun. After getting into contact with the British Resistance, he was given a pump-action shotgun. Throughout the original series and in the new Savage series, Bill Savage is shown that he is skilled in the use of different types of firearms - both friendly and enemy.The various firearms Bill Savage used in both the Invasion! and Savage series comics besides his tried and trusted double-barrel, side-by-side shotgun are...
- The Remington Model 870Remington 870The Remington Model 870 is a U.S.-made pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms Company, Inc. It is widely used by the public for sport shooting, hunting, and self-defense. It is also commonly used by law enforcement and military organizations worldwide.-Development:The Remington 870 was...
pump-actionPump-actionA pump-action rifle or shotgun is one in which the handgrip can be pumped back and forth in order to eject a spent round of ammunition and to chamber a fresh one. It is much faster than a bolt-action and somewhat faster than a lever-action, as it does not require the trigger hand to be removed from...
shotgunShotgunA shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
(the pump-action shotgun Bill Savage uses resembles the Remington Model 870).
- The Kalashnikov AKSU-74 assault rifle (as seen in the recent Savage series).
- The Beretta Model 92FS pistol (as seen in Savage: Taking Liberties in which he used in conjunction with his pump-action shotgun).
- The L1A1 Self-Loading RifleL1A1 Self-Loading RifleThe L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, also known by the Canadian Army designation C1, as the SLR, or as the "inch pattern" FAL,especially on the American surplus market is a British Commonwealth derivative of the Belgian FN FAL battle rifle, produced under licence...
7.62.mm automatic rifle. As Invasion was published in 1977 the writers had no idea that by 1999 the British Army would be using the L85 series of 5.56.mm rifles.
- The Heckler & Koch MP5Heckler & Koch MP5The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a 9mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH of Oberndorf am Neckar....
sub-machine gun.
- Various types of AKAK-47The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
rifles the Volgan Army uses.
Russian/Volgans
The Volgans were originally intended to be the Russian army, but IPC's management forced a last-minute change to a fictional group for fear of offending the Russian embassy. Savage has the Volgans as being Russians following a name change.Collected editions
The titles have been collected into trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
:
- Invasion (March 2007, ISBN 1-905437-26-9)
- Savage, Volume 1: Taking Liberties (June 2007, ISBN 1-905437-28-5)
External links
- Savage: Taking Liberties review, Comics BulletinComics BulletinComics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...
- Invasion! review at 2000 AD Review