ABC Warriors Time line

[Goaty]

It better than Sláine. Sláine is shite and dull.

[positronic]

Yeah, the story moves forward in publication order as you would expect (or the framing devices, at least). After the Shadow Warriors - Volgan War 1-4 - Return to Earth - Return to Mars - Return to Ro-Busters.

I can see why you went with the order you have, but that's why it was suggested by folks initially that you read strictly in publication order. No wonder you've been getting confused about what happens and when...!

I guess it's a choice of where are you more likely to be confused, by proceeding forward or backward?

Except that it isn't just one question, it's really TWO, isn't it? As applied to publication order, and as applied to chronological order.

My way of thinking is that it's more difficult to try RE-insert new information to smoothly fit your understanding of past events, when by the time you're able to process that new information, the exact details of your memories of the original events has gotten slightly hazy in the intervening amount of time between the time you read the original stories and the time it's taken for you to arrive at the flashback stories. This is kind of a mental gap where comic writers try to fudge things a little sometimes, hoping that readers' memories for small details or their ability to contextualize additional new data may not question logical inconsistencies. Pat Mills knows the details pretty well, so he's not fudging as much as some 'retcon' writers might do.

Trust me, I may be a little confused right now because I haven't yet gotten up to the point you guys have. But by the time I do, I'll have moved the various puzzle pieces around to their proper positions in the larger picture.

[positronic]

Although to give a counter-example to the "mental gap" I was talking about where writers sometimes try to 'pull a fast one' on the readers whose memories of reading a story quite a while ago might be hazy, my understanding is that this is exactly the sort of thing that applies to the end of Strontium Dog: The Final Solution, compared to the many-years-later sequel/retcon The Death and Life of Johnny Alpha.

[Magnetica]

Although to give a counter-example to the "mental gap" I was talking about where writers sometimes try to 'pull a fast one' on the readers whose memories of reading a story quite a while ago might be hazy, my understanding is that this is exactly the sort of thing that applies to the end of Strontium Dog: The Final Solution, compared to the many-years-later sequel/retcon The Death and Life of Johnny Alpha.

I wouldn't call what they did with Strontium Dog a "fast one". The story made it perfectly clear it was going to reveal what "really" happened to Johnny Alpha i.e. he didn't die and the previous account was "false".

Changing it was the whole point.

[IndigoPrime]

The problem with the rebooted Strontium Dog is that The Kreeler Conspiracy feels like an Elseworlds-style tale, like it takes place in an alternate universe – not only to the original SD run, but also to what happened later.

As for retconning and ABC Warriors, the entire timeline's been shifted, and so there's been more than a little rearranging deckchairs. Given the nature of the strip, I don't suppose that really matters – it's more apparent with a grounded strip like Strontium Dog (even with its own time travel shenanigans).

It better than Sláine. Sláine is shite and dull.

To my mind, Sláine's an odd one. To some extent, the pinnacle that was The Horned God is part retelling, but it works so well that you don't mind. But the most recent run for me has been really uneven. I loved the first Brutania Chronicles book. It was strange and otherworldly, with some great art. The second book, though, did nothing for me.

[Dark Jimbo]

Goaty's just trying to get a rise out of positronic, who he's convinced himself is the missing Mayor.

[I, Cosh]

Goaty's just trying to get a rise out of positronic, who he's convinced himself is the missing Mayor.

This seems unlikely.

[Dark Jimbo]

It does. I think he's just basing it on all the very long posts...

[TordelBack]

Goaty's just trying to get a rise out of positronic, who he's convinced himself is the missing Mayor.

This seems unlikely.

The Bizarro Mayor, possibly.   

[JayzusB.Christ]

Don't sit on the fence, Goaty, say what you really think!

To be fair though, i haven't really enjoyed Sláine stories for a long time. But the artwork remains excellent.

[positronic]

Although to give a counter-example to the "mental gap" I was talking about where writers sometimes try to 'pull a fast one' on the readers whose memories of reading a story quite a while ago might be hazy, my understanding is that this is exactly the sort of thing that applies to the end of Strontium Dog: The Final Solution, compared to the many-years-later sequel/retcon The Death and Life of Johnny Alpha.

I wouldn't call what they did with Strontium Dog a "fast one". The story made it perfectly clear it was going to reveal what "really" happened to Johnny Alpha i.e. he didn't die and the previous account was "false".

Changing it was the whole point.

No, what I meant is that I'd read somewhere (online, probably) that The Final Solution shows one series of details surrounding the events of Johnny Alpha's death, while in The Life & Death of Johnny Alpha, flashback sequences reiterating those same moments show differing details, that allows Wagner to fudge some specifics when resurrecting JA. The two pieces don't fit together seamlessly like a dovetail joint.

Perhaps this is more similar to something like those old movie serial cliffhangers where if you watch the ending to one chapter immediately prior to the beginning of the next, you see that the two scenes (the next chapter usually begins with a couple minutes' recap of the prior cliffhanger ending) are actually different, which allows for some trickery. You see some details that were missing in the first cliffhanger. It's a "cheat".

I'm not sure what you mean by "previous account"... that implies that The Final Solution is like an eyewitness story being told, in which the eyewitness lied, forgot, or wasn't aware of certain things that actually happened. Is that the actual case?

[positronic]

The problem with the rebooted Strontium Dog is that The Kreeler Conspiracy feels like an Elseworlds-style tale, like it takes place in an alternate universe – not only to the original SD run, but also to what happened later.

I think at this point I've convinced myself that I ought to head straight from The SD Files & The Final Solution to The Life & Death of Johnny Alpha, and just skip The Kreeler Conspiracy/Blood Moon/(forgot the third title), as it might be less confusing that way. It's almost as if after three connected stories, Wagner decided that "Well, that didn't quite work out the way I'd hoped, and now I don't know where to go from here... let's change gears, then."

[positronic]

Actually, the Kreeler trilogy isn't unlike the whole War Machine/Friday stories in Rogue Trooper. A reboot attempt that petered out when readers didn't really care for the new direction, and demanded to get back to the pre-rebooted version of the character.

Even if Friday's stories were eventually justified as being in the same universe as the original Rogue's. Oh, it's not just Nu Earth, it's dozens of planets where the war's being waged. Friday's circumstances just happened to be similar to Rogue's, in the basics. And after all, they're both Genetic Infantrymen with the identical DNA, just not the same individual. There are some differences, of course.

[sheridan]

Even if Friday's stories were eventually justified as being in the same universe as the original Rogue's. Oh, it's not just Nu Earth, it's dozens of planets where the war's being waged.

To be fair, original Rogue had already established that the war between Nort and Southers was being waged on multiple planets (who can forget Horst?)

[Leigh S]

The Kreeler Conspiracy is the only "modern" Stront to not follow the same continuity as the original run, and even then, it has the conceit of it being a historical account of an event in his life from the perspective of an archival droid somewhere in teh future piecing together scrambled facts. 

All the other books are solidly flashbacks in the continuity of the original run, up until Wagner decided to deliberately refurnish the ending of Final Solution to allow Alpha to be reborn (personally, I've much preferred the flashback tales, as I found the rebirth bogged down by firstly having to jump through teh requisite hoops to bring him back, then go off on a rather pointless retread of the Mutant War angle, where Alpha does something decidedly UnAlpha-ish... that said, now we are back to bounty hunting, I'm happy to put those behind me and pretend they didnt happen in much the same way I applied myself to FS!