Crossovers

Firstly, series which were completely independent of each other when they were created – often by different writers, and sometimes even in different comics – were later linked to each other. This could be done either by a crossover story in which two or more characters from the respective series meet each other, or by a caption or piece of dialogue explicitly referring to events which occurred or characters who appeared in an earlier story in another series. Two examples of the former kind are the Judge Dredd stories "Top Dogs" and "Judgement Day", which both featured Johnny Alpha from the series Strontium Dog in a major role. Alpha lived over half a century in Dredd's future, and the crossover was accomplished by having Alpha time-travel back to Dredd's era. An example of the second kind is the Judge Dredd story "The Cursed Earth," which featured a dinosaur called Satanus who was described as the clone of the offspring of the female dinosaur which had appeared in most episodes of the earlier series Flesh. Flesh was a previously unconnected series about humans time travelling back to the Cretaceous era to harvest dinosaurs for their meat.

Sometimes the link between two series can be of paramount importance to the story (such as Alpha's appearance in Judge Dredd); in other stories the reference can be a passing homage to an earlier tale with no effect whatsoever on the plot of the story in which it occurs (such as the reference to Satanus' ancestry in "The Cursed Earth"). In either case, once a connection between two series was established, it was often repeated. For example, "Top Dogs" was followed up by "Judgement Day," and the reference to Flesh in Judge Dredd was reciprocated by the cameo appearance of a Mega-City judge in Nemesis the Warlock Book V, which was itself a crossover with Flesh because it featured Satanus in a major role.

This latter example illustrates how series were not just linked to each other in pairs, but in multitudes. Pat Mills, the first editor of 2000 AD and creator of many enduring series, was responsible for many such connections. He deliberately connected his own series ABC Warriors to Flesh, and then linked Nemesis to both. (All three series were created by him, but they had originally had nothing to do with each other.) For example, ABC Warriors made a passing reference to a dinosaur being the son of Satanus. Satanus himself subsequently played an important part in Nemesis Book V, by which time the entire cast of ABC Warriors had themselves moved to the Nemesis strip. This therefore established that Judge Dredd, Flesh, Nemesis, and ABC Warriors all existed in the same continuity: a list which would be added to many more times.

Spin-offs

Secondly, a new series can be created as a deliberate offshoot from a parent series. This can also occur in two ways. One method was to take a supporting character from an existing series and start a new series with that character in the lead (sometimes with the lead character from the original series appearing in a cameo). Two examples are Judge Anderson, first introduced in Judge Dredd, being given her own series, Anderson: Psi Division, five years later; and Durham Red getting her own series after her debut in Strontium Dog. Since Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog occupy the same universe, it follows that Anderson and Red do too (although they have never both appeared in the same story).

Another method was to create a brand new character for a new series, but to state from the outset that the story took place in an existing environment from an established strip. Most of the series in the Judge Dredd Megazine were created in this way. In 2000 AD The 86ers was a series set in the world of Rogue Trooper which did not feature the established cast of its parent strip.

Early issues

In the earliest issues and annuals, connections and crossovers would link up many of the earliest strips. The most prominent examples are Harlem Heroes ending and then the lead character's son turning up as a cadet judge in the next issue; The Cursed Earth linking Dredd's future to Flesh with Satanus, the cloned son of tyrannosaur One-Eye; and ABC Warriors starting as a prequel to Ro-Busters, a sequel to Invasion!, and then introducing a sequel to Flesh and The Cursed Earth with Satanus's son. Minor links included Ro-Jaws watching the Harlem Heroes and a comrade of Hammerstein referring to the under-construction Mega-City One in Ro-Busters flashbacks; a Mega-City Time Tour feature in an annual, where Flesh corporation Trans-Time offered holidays to both 2103 Mega-City One and 1999 Volgan-occupied England.^[1]

Rogue Trooper

The series Rogue Trooper was both a crossover and a spin-off from itself. The original series ran in 2000 AD from issues 228 to 635, when it ended. A completely new series of Rogue Trooper then began in issue 650, by a different writer. This was not intended to be a sequel to the old version, but was a brand new, modernised reinterpretation of the character, with significant differences from the old version. It was not supposed to be set in the same universe or continuity, but was a total replacement (or "reboot") of both. However, years later and in the hands of a new writer, a story was written which established that the new and old Rogue Troopers were two different people inhabiting the same universe, and a convoluted continuity was contrived to explain their co-existence. In an unusually complicated crossover, the two Rogue Troopers actually met each other. This state of affairs did not continue for long, however, and the old version was killed off. Ironically, the new version declined in popularity and the strip was discontinued, only to be replaced with the original version, in stories set before the original's death.

There have been a number of less complicated Rogue Trooper spinoffs largely following the adventures of the other G.I.s, like Venus Bluegenes, Rafaelle Blue and Tor Cyan. The new version of Rogue met Judge Dredd in a special story which took up the whole of issue 900 (the first time this had ever happened in what is usually an anthology comic containing five stories per issue).

Laissez-faire approach

While 2000 AD writers and editors have generally ensured that events occurring in spin-offs and their parent series are usually mutually consistent with each other, so that events in one such strip do not contradict events in another, much less care – if any – is taken to ensure a uniform continuity between crossover series. Therefore, while events which occur in the Anderson, Psi Division spin-off may have repercussions in Judge Dredd and vice versa, the continuity of Strontium Dog might be ignored.

This can even occur within the crossover story itself: in "Judgement Day" Johnny Alpha travelled back in time from 2178 to 2114 to arrest a time-travelling criminal so he would not wipe out Earth (and thus, the future). The death of three billion people and destruction of five whole mega-cities then seemed to have no impact on Alpha's era. It was never explained in the story how an event as significant as a world war did not appear to be remembered by history in Alpha's era. On top of that, the future history of Strontium Dog bears little resemblance to Dredd, with no mega-cities and mutants as an underclass in 'norm' cities in 2150. (The Americans in Judge Dredd Megazine no. 283 implied that Strontium Dog's nuclear war will occur in 2150, but this was a MacGuffin to drive the story forward.)

In these cases, the crossover is not a serious attempt at world-building and continuity, simply a means of having two popular characters meet. Writer John Wagner has even stated that he does not view Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd as being in the same continuity.^[2]

Writers have also changed their minds over time. In the 2000s ABC Warriors stories, there is no attempt at fitting the Volgan War into Dredd's timeline or Harlem Heroes (but he does refer to Nemesis The Warlock in Dredd: Blood of Satanus II, in order to declare Satanus Unchained out of canon). Other writers have also made no mention of this, and generally do not link up non-Dredd strips. It is also a habit of writers who created a strip to ignore the work of others if they feel like it. The John Wagner story Origins refers to Pat Mills' Dredd stories but makes no attempt to acknowledge Invasion!, ABC Warriors, and Ro-Busters (or Harlem Heroes); The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha acknowledges and retcons his death under Alan Grant, but deliberately erases Strontium Dogs (with a narrator calling Peter Hogan's strips the work of "notorious fantasist Ho Gan"). In the sequel series Savage, Mills acknowledges the original Invasion! (to the extent that there's a King Charles III in the 2000s, just as prog 1 said) but ignores the prequel strip Disaster 1990!. And while Harlem Heroes was linked to Dredd, the sequel strip Inferno was left separate until Al Ewing's Dredd Year One: Wear Iron novella.

Stories by Pat Mills

Pat Mills was responsible for the majority of the crossovers.

• Judge Dredd: "The Cursed Earth" introduced the dinosaur Satanus and linked Judge Dredd to Flesh.^[3]
• ABC Warriors: "Golgotha", in the first series, featured the son of Satanus and linked ABC Warriors to Flesh.
• Nemesis the Warlock: "Book IV: The Gothic Empire" introduced both the ABC Warriors and the Ro-Jaws character from Ro-Busters to Nemesis. "Book V: The Vengeance of Thoth" featured the return of Satanus in a major role, and a cameo by a judge of Mega-City One, linking Nemesis to Flesh and Judge Dredd. In a later Dredd strip by Mills, Dredd referred to Satanus' return to the Cretaceous in Nemesis (how he knew about it was not explained).
• Judge Dredd: "Hammerstein" featured ABC Warrior Hammerstein in the Cursed Earth outside Mega-City One, following the Atomic Wars started by President Booth in 2070. This linked ABC Warriors to Judge Dredd, in addition to the existing Satanus connection. (This link was retconned away in other strips.)
• The Volgans appear as the enemies of Bill Savage in Invasion!, and also in early episodes of ABC Warriors as the enemies of the character Hammerstein and the creators of the ABC warrior Blackblood. Flashback stories have shown more of the Volgan War, and Volgan robot Volkhan was introduced as a 'present' day villain in The Volgan War Book One.
• Savage Books 5, 6 and 7 included characters and backstory from Ro-Busters.
• Another ABC Warriors story in 2012, "Return to Earth," established further links between Savage and Ro-Busters.^[4]

Stories by Ian Edginton

Writer Ian Edginton has begun linking his pseudo-historical strips together, both covertly and overtly. Images of both Jack Dancer from The Red Seas and Hastur from Leviathan later appeared in Stickleback; the pub "The Jolly Cripple", a haunt of the Red Seas pirates, reappears as the haunt of the character Detective Valentine and contains a portrait of the original proprietress from Red Seas;^[5] and Leviathan villain William Ashbless briefly appears in Stickleback as a member of the sinister City Fathers group.^[6]

In the second Stickleback, the eponymous lead visits the London-based Brotherhood of the Book from The Red Seas, in the process meeting (and revealing history with) Seas villain Orlando Doyle. There is also an appearance by Herbert Sewell, an unfortunate and long-suffering scientist/time traveller in Edginton's Judge Dredd stories, being dragged into Bedlam; and an ogre of the same species seen in Edginton's American Gothic Wild West strip is seen at the villain's Wild West show. The Red Seas would later reveal that Stickleback's Orlando was from an alternate universe, and that the Brotherhood of the Book exists in multiple universes.

Ampney Crucis Investigates made the connections stronger: characters referred to the Leviathan ship and the myth of the Hollow Earth from The Red Seas; the otherworldly monsters were given a similar background as in Stickleback; and a shadowy antagonist was shown to have a staff with a bust of Hastur's head. Stickleback's son appears in the fourth Ampney Crucis story as an adult, London's crime lord in an alternate dimension where the First World War never happened; in the same world, an underground society of cyborg fanatics called "Babbagists" has sprung up around the works of Countess Bernoulli, a Stickleback villain.

Stories by John Smith

The writer John Smith often places a number of his characters in the same stories, which has become known among fans as The Smithiverse. These have never been explicitly linked to the other 2000 AD stories, but stand together as an independent universe of their own. However, one particular species of alien of Smith's creation has appeared in both the Smithiverse (in Firekind and Tyranny Rex) and in a Judge Dredd universe story (Pussyfoot 5, a spin-off from Devlin Waugh).

Smithiverse stories include Indigo Prime, Tyranny Rex and Firekind.

Stories by other writers

Judge Dredd spin-offs

Judge Dredd spin-offs include:

• Anderson: Psi Division
• Armitage
• Banzai Battalion
• Chopper
• Surfer
• Cursed Earth Koburn
• The Dead Man
• Devlin Waugh
  • Pussyfoot 5
• Dreadnoughts
• The Helltrekkers
• Insurrection
  • Lawless
• Janus: Psi Division
• Judge Death
  • The Dark Judges
  • The Fall of Deadworld
• Judge Hershey
• Mean Machine
• Missionary Man
• Purgatory
• Red Razors
• Shimura
• The Simping Detective
• Tales from the Black Museum
• Walter the Wobot

Rogue Trooper spin-offs

The original Rogue Trooper led to:

• The new version, "Friday"
• Venus Bluegenes
• The 86ers
• Jaegir
• Hunted

See also Tor Cyan

Other spin-offs

• ABC Warriors was a spin-off from Ro-Busters
• Deadlock was a spin-off from ABC Warriors
• Durham Red, Young Middenface, Tales From the Doghouse and Strontium Dogs were spin-offs from Strontium Dog
• Tor Cyan was a spin-off from Mercy Heights

Aliens

Mr Bones eventually manages to launch his revenge on Mega-City One, unleashing the Xenomorph (called the Incubus here) into the Grand Hall of Justice itself.^[14] The story has been mentioned a few times, though the xenomorph's exact origin was kept quiet.

Batman

There have been four crossovers with Batman: a team-up with Dredd to defeat the combined might of Judge Death, Mean Machine, and The Scarecrow, with the two heroes clashing; Dredd going to Gotham City to save Batman from the Ventriloquist; both heroes being part of a faked deathmatch run by the Riddler; and the Joker and the Dark Judges teaming up, with the Joker becoming a fifth Dark Judge.^[15]

The Batman crossovers have had significant impact on Dredd's world. A vision of the fourth crossover, Die Laughing, causing Cassandra Anderson to return to being a Judge, as the crossover was written before she had quit and had been delayed. Judge Death was finally captured due to the events of Judgement on Gotham. Die Laughing had the Dark Judges encased in plasteen crystals, which is how they would always be shown in later stories and the Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death video game; the 2002 story My Name is Death had Dredd refer to "that Gotham clown".

Lobo

Lobo, the intergalactic mercenary, became a popular character when Alan Grant took on the writing duties so a run-in with Dredd was a logical progression.^[16]

Predator

The Predator has made many visits to Earth throughout history, and in a number of parallel universes, so it was almost inevitable that they would eventually clash with Dredd. The events of the first Predator film and the first comic issues^[17] are placed in Dredd continuity: not only are the Judges aware of the events, Psi-Judge Schaefer is a direct descendant of the film character "Dutch" Schaefer.^[18]

Predator vs Judge Dredd vs Aliens

Starting in July 2016, Dark Horse Comics published a four-issue mini-series, Predator vs Judge Dredd vs Aliens, written by John Layman and illustrated by Chris Mooneyham.

Judge Dredd vs Razorjack

In May 2018 writer Michael Carroll and artist John Higgins produced a crossover story featuring Razorjack, an independent comic on which they had both worked before.^[19]

Doctor Who

There has never been a crossover between a 2000 AD character and Doctor Who. However writer Dave Stone, who has written several Judge Dredd and Doctor Who novels, planned a crossover novel featuring both Dredd and the Doctor, called "Burning Heart." This idea was cancelled due to the lack of success of the 1995 Judge Dredd film, and the book was published in 1997 as a Dr Who book without Dredd.^[20][21] The Virgin Books Who stories featured the Guild of Adjudicators, a law enforcement agency who were often presented as similar to the Judges.

In the revived television series, the episode Gridlock was based on Mega-City One, and one character was deliberately dressed like Max Normal. Character Sally Calypso was also homage to 2000 AD strip Halo Jones, which featured a similar character named Swifty Frisko.^[22][23]

Pseudonyms

Some work in 2000 AD has been done by people using pseudonyms to prevent readers from guessing that their series were connected, when writing stories where the connection was to be a surprise:

• Cal Hamilton – Dan Abnett, first used the pseudonym when he did the initial run on James Bond Jr. (he then took over writing duties under his own name) and later resurrected it to disguise the fact that Malone tied into Sinister Dexter.^[24]
• Keef Ripley – John Wagner used the name when he wrote "The Dead Man" so that fans wouldn't guess it was actually a Judge Dredd story.
• G. Powell – Simon Spurrier used this name when he wrote "The Vort" so that fans wouldn't guess the disfigured character nicknamed 'Crispy' was in fact Lobster Random.

Cameos

People from the comics world, as well as public figures, have made cameo appearances within 2000 AD including:

• B.L.A.I.R. 1 was clearly based on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as being a parody of early strip M.A.C.H. 1. Tony Blair is also parodied in Day of Chaos as mayoral candidate Tony Blore.
• Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan have appeared in Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, respectively. In Reagan's case, it was a significant multi-part story.
• Judge Cal's appearance was based on Pat Mills, and his persona was based on Caligula as shown in the popular I, Claudius.
• Judge Logan has appeared in a number of stories including the epic "Origins" and is named after W.R. Logan who started Class of '79.
• Kenny Who? is based on artist Cam Kennedy and his storylines (drawn by Kennedy) dealt with issues he encountered in the American comic industry. In the last Who? strip, robot versions of writer Alan Grant and his wife appear in the strip.
• The creator droids have appeared in several Tharg strips, intended to be specific creators (the comic pretends the real-life creators are robots).