Invasion! (2000 AD)
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Invasion! was a series created by Pat Mills and written by Gerry Finley-Day that appeared in the first 51 editions of the weekly comic book 2000 AD. The series introduced the character of Bill Savage, a classic anti-authoritarian character of the type which Mills is best known for.
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[edit] Synopsis
Set in the year 1999, the series depicts a United Kingdom that has been swiftly over-run by an invasion from an Eastern European power called the "Volgan Republic of Asia" (a nation that combines the political philosophies of the Eastern Bloc (e.g the Soviet Union and her Warsaw Pact allies) and Nazi Germany). The UK Government capitulates and military resistance is depicted as being class bound and ineffectual.
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.
At the end of the series Savage is tasked with taking the Heir to the Throne to safety in Canada though he has organised an effective resistance to the Volgans. The Volgan War became part of a connecting backstory for a number of 2000 AD series including ABC Warriors.
[edit] 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 870 pump-action shotgun (the pump-action shotgun Bill Savage uses resembles the Remington Model 870).
- The Kalashnikov AKSU-74 sub-machine gun (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 FN FAL automatic rifle.
- The Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun.
- Various types of AK rifles the Volgan Army uses.
[edit] Other stories
After "Invasion!" in progs 1-51, the character Bill Savage returned in a prequel set nine years earlier, "Disaster 1990," in progs 119-139, in which Britain had been almost entirely submerged in a flood. He then returned in a new series called "Savage," which was a sequel to "Invasion" which carried on five years after the original story left off. Three installments of "Savage" have been published so far, all by Pat Mills and Charlie Adlard:
- "Taking Liberties," progs 1387-1396
- "Out of Order," progs 1450-1459
- "Double Yellow," progs 1526-1545
