2000 AD crossovers are crossover stories appearing in British comic 2000 AD, its sister title the Judge Dredd Megazine, and other related output, such as novels, audio plays, films and role-playing games.
Contents
- Stories set in a shared universe
- Connections between stories
- Crossovers
- Spin offs
- Early progs
- Rogue Trooper
- Laissez faire approach
- Stories by Pat Mills
- Stories by Ian Edginton
- Stories by John Smith
- Judge Dredd stories
- Rogue Trooper and Mercy Heights
- Judge Dredd spin offs
- Rogue Trooper spin offs
- Other spin offs
- Parallel universes
- Intercompany crossovers
- Aliens
- Batman
- Lobo
- Predator
- Predator vs Judge Dredd vs Aliens
- Doctor Who
- Pseudonyms and cameos
- Pseudonyms
- Cameos
- Timeline
- References
Not all of the stories told in 2000 AD and its related publications exist in the same shared universe, unlike in some other comics, for example the Marvel Universe. Indeed the majority of stories which have appeared in 2000 AD since 1977 have never been connected with each other. However, the series which are so connected are generally the most significant ones in the comic in terms of the number of issues they have appeared in, their popularity with readers, and their significance in the history of the comic.
Stories set in a shared universe
Those 2000 AD stories which occupy a shared universe and have crossed over with each other include:
Connections between stories
Series can be linked to each other in either of two ways: crossovers and spin-offs. There are also combinations of both.
Crossovers
Firstly, series which were completely independent of each other when they were created – often by different writers, and sometimes even in different comics – were later linked to each other. This could be done either by a crossover story in which two or more characters from the respective series meet each other, or by a caption or piece of dialogue explicitly referring to events which occurred or characters who appeared in an earlier story in another series. Two examples of the former kind are the Judge Dredd stories "Top Dog" and "Judgement Day", which both featured Johnny Alpha from the series Strontium Dog in a major role. Alpha lived over half a century in Dredd's future, and the crossover was accomplished by having Alpha time-travel back to Dredd's era. An example of the second kind is the Judge Dredd story "The Cursed Earth," which featured a dinosaur called Satanus who was described as the clone of the offspring of the female dinosaur which had appeared in most episodes of the earlier series Flesh. Flesh was a previously unconnected series about humans time travelling back to the Cretaceous era to harvest dinosaurs for their meat.
Sometimes the link between two series can be of paramount importance to the story (such as Alpha's appearance in Judge Dredd); in other stories the reference can be a passing homage to an earlier tale with no effect whatsoever on the plot of the story in which it occurs (such as the reference to Satanus' ancestry in "The Cursed Earth"). In either case, once a connection between two series was established, it was often repeated. For example, "Top Dog" was followed up by "Judgement Day," and the reference to Flesh in Judge Dredd was reciprocated by the cameo appearance of a Mega-City judge in Nemesis the Warlock Book V, which was itself a crossover with Flesh because it featured Satanus in a major role.
This latter example illustrates how series were not just linked to each other in pairs, but in multitudes. Pat Mills, the first editor of 2000 AD and creator of many enduring series, was responsible for many such connections. He deliberately connected his own series ABC Warriors to Flesh, and then linked Nemesis to both. (All three series were created by him, but they had originally had nothing to do with each other.) For example, ABC Warriors made a passing reference to a dinosaur being the son of Satanus. Satanus himself subsequently played an important part in Nemesis Book V, by which time the entire cast of ABC Warriors had themselves moved to the Nemesis strip. This therefore established that Judge Dredd, Flesh, Nemesis, and ABC Warriors all existed in the same continuity: a list which would be added to many more times.
Spin-offs
Secondly, a new series can be created as a deliberate offshoot from a parent series. This can also occur in two ways. One method was to take a supporting character from an existing series and start a new series with that character in the lead (sometimes with the lead character from the original series appearing in a cameo). Two examples are Judge Anderson, first introduced in Judge Dredd, being given her own series, Anderson: Psi Division, five years later; and Durham Red getting her own series after her debut in Strontium Dog. Since Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog occupy the same universe, it follows that Anderson and Red do too (although they have never both appeared in the same story).
Another method was to create a brand new character for a new series, but to state from the outset that the story took place in an existing environment from an established strip. Most of the series in the Judge Dredd Megazine were created in this way. In 2000 AD The 86ers was a series set in the world of Rogue Trooper which did not feature the established cast of its parent strip.
Early progs
In the earliest progs and annuals, connections and crossovers would link up many of the earliest strips. The most prominent examples are Harlem Heroes ending and then Giant's son turning up as a cadet judge in the next prog; The Cursed Earth linking Dredd's future to Flesh with Satanus, the cloned son of tyrannosaur One-Eye; and ABC Warriors starting as a prequel to Ro-Busters, sequel to Invasion!, and then introducing a sequel to Flesh and Cursed Earth with Satanus' son. Minor links included Ro-Jaws watching the Harlem Heroes and a comrade of Hammerstein referring to the under-construction Mega-City One in Ro-Busters flashbacks; a Mega-City Time Tour feature in an annual, where Flesh corporation Trans-Time offered holidays to both 2103 Mega-City One and 1999 Volgan-occupied England.
Rogue Trooper
The series Rogue Trooper was both a crossover and a spin-off from itself. The original series ran in 2000 AD from issues 228 to 635, when it ended. A completely new series of Rogue Trooper then began in issue 650, by a different writer. This was not intended to be a sequel to the old version, but was a brand new, modernised reinterpretation of the character, with significant differences from the old version. It was not supposed to be set in the same universe or continuity, but was a total replacement of both. However, years later and in the hands of a new writer, a story was written which established that the new and old Rogue Troopers were two different people inhabiting the same universe, and a convoluted continuity was contrived to explain their co-existence. In an unusually complicated crossover, the two Rogue Troopers actually met each other. This state of affairs did not continue for long, however, and the old version was killed off. Ironically, the new version declined in popularity and the strip was discontinued, only to be replaced with the original version, in stories set before the original's death.
There have been a number of less complicated Rogue Trooper spinoffs largely following the adventures of the various G.I.s, like Venus Bluegenes, Rafaelle Blue and Tor Cyan.
Laissez-faire approach
While writers and editors have generally ensured that events occurring in spin-offs and their parent series are usually mutually consistent with each other, so that events in one such strip do not contradict events in another, much less care – if any – is taken to ensure a uniform continuity between crossover series. Therefore, while events which occur in the Anderson, Psi Division spin-off may have repercussions in Judge Dredd and vice versa, the continuity of Strontium Dog might be ignored.
This can even occur within the crossover story itself: in "Judgement Day" Johnny Alpha travelled back in time from 2178 to 2114 to arrest a time-travelling criminal so he wouldn't wipe out Earth (and thus, the future). The death of three billion people and destruction of five whole mega-cities then seemed to have no impact on Alpha's era. It was never explained in the story how an event as significant as a world war did not appear to be remembered by history in Alpha's era. On top of that, the future history of Strontium Dog bears little resemblance to Dredd, with no mega-cities and mutants as an underclass in 'norm' cities in 2150. (The Americans in Judge Dredd Megazine no. 283 implied that Strontium Dog's nuclear war will occur in 2150, but this was a MacGuffin to drive the story forward.)
In these cases, the crossover is not a serious attempt at world-building and continuity, simply a means of having two popular characters meet. Writer John Wagner has even stated that he does not view Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd as being in the same continuity.
Writers have also changed their minds over time. In the 2000s ABC Warriors stories, there's no attempt at fitting the Volgan War into Dredd's timeline or Harlem Heroes (but he does refer to Nemesis The Warlock in Dredd: Blood of Satanus II, in order to declare Satanus Unchained out of canon). Other writers have also made no mention of this, and generally don't link up non-Dredd strips. It's also a habit of writers who created a strip to ignore the work of others if they feel like it. The John Wagner story Origins refers to Pat Mills' Dredd stories but makes no attempt to acknowledge Invasion!, ABC Warriors, and Ro-Busters (or Harlem Heroes); Life and Death of Johnny Alpha acknowledge and retcon his death under Alan Grant, but deliberately erase Strontium Dogs (with a narrator calling Peter Hogan's strips the work of "notorious fantasist Ho Gan"). In the sequel series Savage, Mills acknowledges the original Invasion! (to the extent that there's a King Charles III in the 2000s, just as prog 1 said) but ignores the prequel strip Disaster 1990!. And while Harlem Heroes was linked to Dredd, the sequel strip Inferno was left separate until Al Ewing's Dredd Year One: Wear Iron novella.
Crossovers
As most of the 2000 AD crossovers occur on the same timeline, not in parallel universes, the majority of crossovers take place thanks to the widespread, but temperamental, time travel technology that was invented at the beginning of the 22nd century.
Stories by Pat Mills
Pat Mills was responsible for the majority of the crossovers.
Stories by Ian Edginton
Writer Ian Edginton has begun linking his pseudo-historical strips together, both covertly and overtly. Images of both Jack Dancer from The Red Seas and Hastur from Leviathan later appeared in Stickleback; the pub "The Jolly Cripple", a haunt of the Red Seas pirates, reappears as the haunt of the character Detective Valentine and contains a portrait of the original proprietress from Red Seas; and Leviathan villain William Ashbless briefly appears in Stickleback as a member of the sinister City Fathers group.
In the second Stickleback, the eponymous lead visits the London-based Brotherhood of the Book from The Red Seas, in the process meeting (and revealing history with) Seas villain Orlando Doyle. There is also an appearance by Herbert Sewell, an unfortunate and long-suffering scientist/time traveller in Edginton's Judge Dredd stories, being dragged into Bedlam; and an ogre of the same species seen in Edginton's American Gothic Wild West strip is seen at the villain's Wild West show. The Red Seas would later reveal that Stickleback's Orlando was from an alternate universe, and that the Brotherhood of the Book exists in multiple universes.
Ampney Crucis Investigates made the connections stronger: characters referred to the Leviathan ship and the myth of the Hollow Earth from The Red Seas; the otherwordly monsters were given a similar background as in Stickleback; and a shadowy antagonist was shown to have a staff with a bust of Hastur's head. Stickleback's son appears in the fourth Ampney Crucis story as an adult, London's crime lord in an alternate dimension where the First World War never happened; in the same world, an underground society of cyborg fanatics called "Babbagists" has sprung up around the works of Countess Bernoulli, a Stickleback villain.
Stories by John Smith
The writer John Smith often places a number of his characters in the same stories, which has become known among fans as The Smithiverse. These have never been explicitly linked to the other 2000 AD stories, but stand together as an independent universe of their own. However, one particular species of alien of Smith's creation has appeared in both the Smithiverse (in Firekind and Tyranny Rex) and in a Judge Dredd universe story (Pussyfoot 5, a spin-off from Devlin Waugh).
Smithiverse stories include Indigo Prime, Tyranny Rex and Firekind.
Judge Dredd stories
A number of characters have appeared in Judge Dredd stories (or vice versa).
Ant Wars
Dredd spinoff Zancudo! by Simon Spurrier revealed itself to be a sequel to Ant Wars, a 1970s strip about giant ants rampaging through South America, in the cliffhanger ending to Part 2. The giant ants were revealed to be living in the jungles near Ciudad Barranquilla, and were at war with the giant mosquitos that formed the strip's villains.
Harlem Heroes
The first Judge Giant was the son of Giant of the Harlem Heroes, and his father was shown upon Giant's graduation from the Academy of Law. Later on, Judge Giant Jr (the first Judge Giant's son) would meet his aged grandfather a few days before he died.
Rogue Trooper
Souther troops flee Nu-Earth back through time to Mega-City One in 2116. They reach an agreement with the judges where they swap medical aid for technology. Friday is blamed for the massacre but, as his memory returns, he realises a traitor is at work and tries to track him down. Unfortunately it seems a far more famous clone may try and stop him – Judge Dredd.
An early version of the Genetic Infantry program is shown in Judge Dredd: Warzone.
Skizz
The Gunlords of Omega Ceti try to kill Skizz by travelling back in time but somehow end up in 22nd century Australia where they met Dredd.
Strontium Dog
Dredd has crossed the path of Strontium Dogs Johnny Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer a couple of times. In the first encounter they travelled back in time to Mega-City One, 2112, and were nearly arrested by Dredd. Later, Johnny Alpha again stepped back in time to 2114 and helped Judge Dredd save Mega-City One from a zombie apocalypse during Judgement Day. A spin-off audio drama, Pre-Emptive Revenge, by Big Finish showed Dredd and Alpha in the immediate aftermath of Judgement Day.
Judge Dredd: "Helter Skelter"
Helter Skelter was a storyline by Garth Ennis, featuring an invasion of Mega-City One by an alliance of villains from parallel universes. Due to the distortion of reality, characters from dozens of 2000 AD strips made cameo appearances, either in the background or as parts of the plot (Dredd is attacked by the vampires from Fiends of the Eastern Front and then has to avoid Old One-Eye from Flesh).
Judge Dredd: "The Cold Deck" and "Trifecta"
The Cold Deck was a story written by Al Ewing which ran in 2000 AD at the same time as two other series set in Dredd's world, The Simping Detective and Low Life. These stories initially appeared to have no other connection with each other, but after each of them had been running independently for a couple of issues their plotlines unexpectedly intertwined with each other, and it became apparent that Ewing had collaborated with the writers of the other two series, Simon Spurrier and Rob Williams, to create a single large crossover story. The three series merged into a single story for their concluding part, called Trifecta, which took up every page of 2000 AD #1812.
Rogue Trooper and Mercy Heights
Spin-offs
This list does not include direct sequels, such as Inferno and Savage.
Judge Dredd spin-offs
Judge Dredd spin-offs include:
Rogue Trooper spin-offs
The original Rogue Trooper led to:
See also Tor Cyan
Other spin-offs
Parallel universes
As well as the tying together of a lot of the stories in 2000 AD, other parallel universes are known to co-exist alongside the main one, and some of them have intruded into it. Most famously in Judge Dredd, this has happened with Judge Death and the Dark Judges, coming from a reality where life is a crime. The aforementioned "Helter Skelter" had a wide range of deceased villains coming from alternate dimensions where they had won, and "Rehab" (progs 1644-8) featured an incursion from a utopian Earth where the Judges are pacifists focused on rehabilitation.
Since 2003, Sinister Dexter has been running a storyline where criminals from a parallel Earth, led by "Holy" Moses Tanenbaum (dead in the main universe), have been trying to take over the city of Downlode in the main universe. When the other Earth was shown, it was revealed a major reason for the move was that China ("the ChiComs") were winning a war against Russia and rapidly advancing towards Downlode. The final part saw Sinister and Dexter chasing a target through other 2000 AD strips, which turned out to be other realities.
Intercompany crossovers
There have been numerous intercompany crossovers between 2000 AD stories and with stories published by other companies (DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics). Given his high profile these often mix other characters with Judge Dredd. These include:
Aliens
Mr Bones eventually manages to launch his revenge on Mega-City One, unleashing the Xenomorph (called the Incubus here) into the Grand Hall of Justice itself. The story has been mentioned a few times, though the xenomorph's exact origin was kept quiet.
Batman
There have been four crossovers with Batman: a team-up with Dredd to defeat the combined might of Judge Death, Mean Machine, and The Scarecrow, with the two heroes clashing; Dredd going to Gotham City to save Batman from the Ventriloquist; both heroes being part of a faked deathmatch run by the Riddler; and the Joker and the Dark Judges teaming up, with the Joker becoming a fifth Dark Judge.
The Batman crossovers have had significant impact on Dredd's world. A vision of the fourth crossover, Die Laughing, causing Cassandra Anderson to return to being a Judge, as the crossover was written before she had quit and had been delayed. Judge Death was finally captured due to the events of Judgement on Gotham. Die Laughing had the Dark Judges encased in plasteen crystals, which is how they would always be shown in later stories and the Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death video game; the 2002 story My Name is Death had Dredd refer to "that Gotham clown".
Lobo
Lobo, the intergalactic mercenary, became a popular character when Alan Grant took on the writing duties so a run-in with Dredd was a logical progression.
Predator
The Predator has made many visits to Earth throughout history, and in a number of parallel universes, so it was almost inevitable that they would eventually clash with Dredd. The events of the first Predator film and the first comic issues are placed in Dredd continuity: not only are the Judges aware of the events, Psi-Judge Schaefer is a direct descendant of the film character "Dutch" Schaefer.
Predator vs Judge Dredd vs Aliens
Starting in July 2016, Dark Horse Comics published a four-issue mini-series, Predator vs Judge Dredd vs Aliens, written by John Layman and illustrated by Chris Mooneyham.
Doctor Who
There has never been a crossover between a 2000 AD character and Doctor Who. However writer Dave Stone, who has written several Judge Dredd and Doctor Who novels, planned a crossover novel featuring both Dredd and the Doctor, called "Burning Heart." This idea was cancelled due to the lack of success of the 1995 Judge Dredd film, and the book was published in 1997 as a Dr Who book without Dredd. The Virgin Books Who stories featured the Guild of Adjudicators, a law enforcement agency who were often presented as similar to the Judges.
In the revived television series, the episode Gridlock was based on Mega-City One, and one character was deliberately dressed like Max Normal. Character Sally Calypso was also homage to 2000 AD strip Halo Jones, which featured a similar character named Swifty Frisko.
Pseudonyms and cameos
Occasionally real life creators and individuals pop up in disguise.
Pseudonyms
Some work in 2000 AD has been done by people using pseudonyms to prevent readers from guessing that their series were connected, when writing stories where the connection was to be a surprise:
Cameos
People from the comics world, as well as public figures, have made cameo appearances within 2000 AD including:
Timeline
Unlike both the DC and Marvel Universes, many of the 2000 AD crossovers are done via a timeline: characters and concepts appear in the past/future of other strips, and may time travel to each other. Listed in chronological order, these are: