Savage

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

In 1999 the Volgan Republic of Asia invaded Western Europe, defeating and occupying Britain in hours, leaving only resistance groups fighting for liberty. When London lorry driver Bill Savage found out his family had been killed in the invasion, he took up arms against the invaders.

One of Two Thousand AD's debut titles in 1977 under the name of Invasion! and written by then editor Pat Mills the original story lasted 44 issues before being discontinued. However in 2004 the story was resurrected by Mills and recalled Savage.

Tropes used in Savage include:
  • Alternate History: Savage's solution to the The Great Politics Mess-Up. Here the timeline diverged in 1989 when the Volgan Peoples Party was founded.
    • Possibly even earlier, as the SLR (A British FN FAL clone) is still in service in 1999. Justified, though, as at the time Invasion! was published, the SLR was still Britain's service rifle and the SA80 had not been designed yet.
    • Might be even ealier, Vashkov's Motive Rant centers around Bomber Harris using poison gas on the order of Winston Churchill during the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Heavily used in Invasion! all Aristocrats that appear are collaborateurs.
  • Badass: Savage, who is able to take out an armoured car with only a shotgun.
  • Break Out the Museum Piece: By the time of Book 4, Electromagnetic Pulse technology has reduced Britain to early eightes technology.
    • Fashion also appears to have regressed.
  • British Royal Family: King Charles flees to canada to lead a Government in Exile at the beginning of Invasion!.
    • The final arc of Invasion! involes Savage getting the (fictional) heir of the throne Prince John out of Britian after he stowed away on a british submarine
  • Blood Knight: Savage.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Savage retcons away a prolog to Invasion! called Disaster1990 which had a nuclear explosion at the north pole, melting the ice, flooding britian.
    • Quite possibly also Savage's cameo in Armoured Gideon.
  • Captain Ersatz: Pat Mills was forced to make the Volgans this after Executive Meddling in Invasion!
  • Character Development: Savage goes from little characterization (Barely any backstory and sterotypical working class attitude) in Invasion! to having a much more detailed backstory along with a wider family and more justification for his contining struggle in Savage.
  • Darker and Edgier: Savage compared to invasion
  • Day of the Jackboot
  • The Great Politics Mess-Up: Averted in Savage. The Volgans are turned into a fascist party that took over the USSR in the 1991 coup.
  • Hufflepuff House: The entirety of mainland Europe. Apart from one cross-channel hop in Invasion! and savage being part of the Free European Army (FEAR) in Savage, the struggle in Europe is not mentioned.
  • Les Collaborateurs: Called Double Yellows
  • Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness: Happens in-universe during Savage. The series starts off firmly grounded in reality with some advanced technolgy based on things being developed in Real Life. However soon comes alone EMP bombs, Humianoid battle robots, Teleporters, and finally a particle accelerator built under central london.
  • Monster of the Week: Invasion! followed this pattern with single issue stories of savage defeating the volgans in a different location with the occasional longer story.
  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Volgans
  • The Neutral Zone: Ireland, at least early on. Later, the Allied forces use Ireland as a base to launch their assault on Britain with the Hammerstein Mk 1s.
  • Occupiers Out of Our Country!
  • The Quisling: Scooty, the puppet Prime Minister in Savage
  • Television Geography: An example occurs in Savage. After Savage and a group of resistance fighters have formed blockade on Oxford Street, a truck comes to take them to the Centre Point building. However Centre Point is on nearby New Oxford Street. They should bearly have to walk five minutes to get to it.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Savage has a preference for "shooters" in combat. Chantry manages to identify him this way when he takes on his brother's identity (and face).
  • State Sec
  • Robot War: Doubles as a crossover with ABC Warriors" when the Americans finally attempt to liberate Britian they use mark one Hammerstein robots against the Volgans
    • Book seven also gives up the mark 1 blackbloods
  • Working Class Hero: very strong in Invasion!, much less so in Savage.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: in Savage at the end of book 3, Savage succeeds in driving the Volgans out of southern britian. However by book 4 the Volgans have reinvaded (off panel).
  • Zeerust : Invasion!'s depiction of future britian is now incredibly dated, its basicly the late 70's with a few futuristic pieces of technolgy.