ABC Warriors

ABC Warriors is a long-running comic strip written by Pat Mills, which first published in 1979. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins and Brendan McCarthy, who among them designed the original seven members of the team.

The A.B.C. Warriors themselves are a team of war robots designed to withstand Atomic, Bacterial and Chemical warfare. They were built to take part in the long-running Volgan War, but since then have been involved in various bizarre adventures across time and space. Each robot has a distinctive personality, often one programmed by its human creators, but each is more or less able to act with free will.


 * Alternate History - The continuity is based around the idea that the Soviet Union was taken over by an ultra-Stalinist leader in the late 20th century.
 * And acts as a sequel to Savage.
 * Arm Cannon - Hammerstein has these, Mongrol has a number of guns built in and, in a recent story, Joe Pineapples improvises a weapon using one of these taken from a taxi driver.
 * Author Tract - Some of the chaos magic stories come off like this at times.
 * Bedlam House - Mek-Quake was incarcerated in one of these for a time. Apparently it was designed by the inmates to make them feel more at home.
 * Canon Discontinuity - Virtually everything that happened in Pat Mills' Khronicles of Kaos was immediately undone by the next creative team. Except for the new Warriors that Mills had introduced — they were brutally slaughtered on-panel.
 * As a result of this (and a few other strips that Mills created and handed over to others), if Pat Mills created it, no other writer is allowed to write about it.
 * Canon Welding - ABC Warriors takes place in the same continuity as Ro-Busters, Invasion!, Savage, Flesh and Nemesis the Warlock. It was also at one time in the same universe as Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper and all their various spinoffs.
 * Catch Phrase - "Spread the word!" "Increase the peace!" "Nourishment!" "A1!" "Mongrol smush!" "Ssssss!" "Bzzzt!" "Bigjobs!"
 * Cloudcuckoolander - Mek Quake.
 * Cold Sniper - Joe Pineapples. Probably literally, given that he's a robot.
 * Continuity Snarl - In the early stories, ABC Warriors was specifically set in the same universe as Judge Dredd. The timeline has now been rewritten so that it couldn't possibly take place in the same universe - unfortunately, both ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd have battled descendents of Old One-Eye, a character from the earlier story Flesh, who in turn battled time-travelling 23rd-century cowboys (long story) — thus, both ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd must have the same 23rd century, even though their timelines now wildly diverge.
 * Cool Sword - Deadlock derives much of his power from the soul-drinking Ace of Swords.
 * Cool Tank - Mek-Quake is one.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder - Blackblood worships a robot named Judas, who was the first to rebel against humanity. Betrayal is literally a central tenet of his religion.
 * Cyber Cyclops - Hammerstein, during his Ro-Busters days
 * Deadpan Snarker - Blackblood; to a lesser extent, Deadlock and Ro-Jaws
 * Easily-Detachable Robot Parts - Mostly Hammerstein, who in the middle of a battle pulls his own arms off to replace those of a comrade. In an early story, Joe Pineapples takes his head off in the bath.
 * Evil Cripple - Blackblood has a road drill for a leg and one eye.
 * Fantastic Racism - Robot-hating is extremely widespread, usually with little or no justification, and most humans are willing to abuse and exploit even their own robots even when doing so would hinder their longterm plans (such as refusing to maintain a mining robot until it breaks down and has to be scrapped, even though maintenance would be considerably cheaper than building a new robot.) You have to wonder why so many robots are made if they're so universally loathed.
 * FemBot - Morrigun
 * Good Old Robot - Sort of. Given that the Warriors are all centuries old, they probably all qualify.
 * Hulk Speak - Mongrol.
 * Humongous Mecha - Several, but particularly memorable was George the Gargantek.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun - Two of the characters are named Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.
 * Info Dump - Writer Pat Mills is very fond of these.
 * Just a Machine - The standard human view of robots.
 * Magitek - Describes Deadlock to a T. Also, to some extent, Steelhorn.
 * Mechanical Lifeforms - Robots have hearts and circulatory systems, apparently. Oh, and it's somehow possible to castrate a robot to prevent them from reproducing.
 * Mechanical Monster - Mongrol and Mek-Quake. although they're a slight subversion, in that they're both technically good guys.
 * Multi-Armed and Dangerous - Hammerstein during his early days.
 * More Dakka - Especially in the storylines drawn by Simon Bisley and Kev Walker.
 * Real Men Wear Pink - Joe Pineapples is the greatest sniper in the universe. And a Transvestite.
 * That one was swiftly retconned out in the very next story arc due to hostile reader response.
 * At least artist Kev Walker lets him wear a very flamboyant leopardskin jockstrap in the next storyline.
 * The Red Planet - most of their adventures take place on Mars.
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots - And one Ridiculously Robot Human...
 * Robosexual - Joe Pineapples was apparently reassigned following a scandal involving a human officer's wife.
 * Robotic Psychopath - Mek-Quake and Blackblood.
 * Robot Religion - Blackblood is a member of the Church of Judas, a religion for robots who have betrayed their masters. Deadlock is a great fan of Khaos.
 * Robot War - Pretty much the point of the series.
 * Room Full of Crazy - Volkhan had the telekinetic ability to write messages in oil on the walls of his room when incarcerated.
 * Rule of Cool - Why does Joe Pineapples need a leather jacket? Why does Hammerstein have a hammer instead of a more useful hand? Why doesn't Blackblood just get a new leg? Why is Deadlock a robot monk? Rule of cool, my friend.
 * Seven Robot Band: Has changed many times over the years, but the main constants are:
 * The Hero: Hammerstein
 * The Lancer: Joe Pineapples
 * The Big Guy: Mongrol
 * The Smart Guy: Deadlock
 * Token Evil Teammate: Blackblood
 * The Chick: Terri
 * The Load: Ro-Jaws and Mek Quake
 * The Sixth Ranger: Zippo, Steelhorn, Morrigun, Mad Ronn, Hitaki.
 * Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence
 * Spin-Off - Ro-Jaws, Hammerstein and Mek-Quake all appeared in the earlier strip Ro-Busters.