Robo-Hunter

Robo-Hunter
2000AD Prog 259 cover, art by Ian Gibson
Publication information
Publisher	IPC Media
First appearance	2000 AD #76 (1978)
Created by	John Wagner Ian Gibson
In-story information
Alter ego	Sam Slade
Abilities	None

Robo-Hunter is a recurring strip in the British Comic 2000 AD, initially written by John Wagner and illustrated by Ian Gibson. The series starred Sam Slade, a laconic, ageing, cigar-smoking bounty hunter of robots that have gone renegade. Though action oriented, the series was noted for its humorous tone.

The character first appeared in 1978. José Ferrer was the original artist, but the editorial team were not happy with his work and quickly replaced him with Ian Gibson, who redrew parts of Ferrer's episodes before taking over himself.

In the first storyline, "Verdus" (also known as "The Robot Planet"), Slade is dispatched to a distant colony planet to solve the mystery of its vanished colonists. An act of sabotage on his space craft causes time dilation during the trip, meaning that Slade arrives at the planet restored to his early 20s while the ship's pilot, Kidd, is now a cynical talking baby. The colony world is populated entirely by robots. These robots, charged with terraforming the planet and preparing it for colonization, have been programmed by their initial creator, a wood-burning droid called Smokin' Joe, to believe that "humans are superior to robots in every way". By the time the first colonists arrive, however, the robots' strength and technology is so far advanced that this thesis no longer holds true, thus the Verdus robots deny the humanity of their masters. Colonists are imprisoned as "simulated humans" on arrival.

The robots adhere to a strict hierarchy, with the leader of Verdus, Big Brain, as Class 9 and all others below him. Civic and military leaders are Class 7, vending and repair droids Class 1 and all others in between. For unexplained reasons, there appears to be no Class 8. Partly for Big Brain's amusement, the robots have established a society that mimics the worst elements of Earth including celebrity culture and party politics. After Big Brain's malfunction a civil war erupts between the human-loyalist First Army and the "anti-hume", or Denialist, Second. The First Army, led by a cowardly general and designed by Gibson to resemble the British Tommies of the First World War, is annihilated. Slade resolves the problem by building a radio transmitter that destroys all the planet's Robots - including Slade's ally "Boots", the first robot to believe the duo are human. Slade and Kidd show little remorse for any of the robots, although Smokin' Joe is repaired and taken back to earth, where Slade receives the "World Medal of Honour".