*Welcome to your future!
You are about to be beamed through time to the year 2000 A.D. and beyond!
2000 A.D.: A future - thrilling, amazing, frightening - wilder than your wildest imaginings!
2000 A.D.: A future - YOU will be living in!
A future - with…
Harlem Heroes: Sportsmen of the future - they play the most dangerous game in the world - Aeroball!
Flesh: Man fights prehistoric monster in a ferocious struggle for food!
Invasion!: Britain, the day after tomorrow, and a man called Savage takes on the invaders who destroyed his home, his family, his country!
M.A.C.H.1: He has the strength of fifty men, MACH 1 is not so much a secret agent - more a secret weapon!
Dan Dare: A hero from the dawn of space exploration - Dare suffered terrible injuries in a desperate attempt to save the first Orbital Power Station. Unable to rebuild his shattered body, surgeons put Dare into suspended animation until the 22nd century. With the superior knowledge of that age, Dan Dare is now brought back to life…a man with a new body, a new face and a whole new Universe to master!*Source: Inside front cover
As with all debut issues published by IPC, 2000 A.D. "Programme 1" came with a free gift. The "Space Spinner" (a flying plastic disk) that was taped to the front cover of the 350,000 copies that were sold, was an unpopular free giveaway with the editorial team as they felt it was too young for their target audience. Editor Pat Mills fought against its inclusion but the IPC Promotions Manager Peter Lewis was not going to be persuaded otherwise.
Although Judge Dredd doesn’t make his first appearance until issue #2 of 2000 A.D., we are given a glimpse of him on the editorial page. There’s a panel that takes up approximately 1/3 of the page that reads "Next week, meet…Judge Dredd. He is the law! And you’d better believe it!". Most of the panel is taken up with a head on picture of Judge Dredd on his "Lawmaster" motorcycle with bike cannons blazing.
Invasion – The Resistance: Part 1
On Friday 1st January 1999 the "Volgan Republic of Asia" invades and occupies Britain in "The Eight Hour War". The British Prime Minister, Lady Shirley Brown, is sentenced to death by Marshal Vashkov, the Volgan leader, and executed on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The British citizens are now under the strict rule of the Volgan army. London lorry driver Bill Savage has his truck seized and has to make his weary way home only to find that it has been destroyed during the fighting with his family inside. The only thing of any use that Savage finds in the rubble of his home is his old shotgun. For Bill Savage the war against the Volgans has only just begun…!
Flesh – Flesh Book I: Episode 1
It’s the 23rd century and man is having to survive on synthetic foods as most of the Earths resources have been used up. However, with the discovery of time travel, man is now able to travel back to the age of the dinosaurs and hunt them for their flesh. Earl Reagan works for the Trans-Time Corporation and leads a team of Rangers in driving huge herds of plant eating dinosaurs back to the Trans-Time Base to be beamed back to the hungry masses of the 23rd century. After setting up camp during one such operation, a ranger keeping watch on the perimeter is killed by a primitive crocodile. The smell of his blood sends a group of nearby Tyrannosaurs into a frenzy and they attack the camp causing the herded dinosaurs to stampede. Quick thinking from both Earl Reagan and his newest ranger, Joe Brontowski, saves most of the herd but twenty rangers are killed in the melee - it’s all in a days work for these hard men of the new wild west!
Dan Dare – Dan Dare: Part 1
While Dan Dare transports the ageing space freighter "Sirius" to the space museum on Earth’s moon, an alien force reaches out from the red spot of Jupiter and takes hold of the ship. Dare gives the order for all crew to abandon ship but he is the only one to escape as the Sirius is ripped apart and the rest of the crew are dragged towards Jupiter and an unknown fate. Back on the lunar surface, in Lunaciti, Dan Dare faces the Solar Fleet Controller who blames Dare for the loss of the Sirius and her crew and confines him to his quarters pending court martial. Dan Dare is determined to discover the truth behind what happened to his crew and stows away on the cruiser "Odyssey" in the hopes of travelling back to Jupiter to investigate the mystery of the alien force he encountered.
M.A.C.H.1 - Vulcan: Part 1
British secret agent, John Probe, has been subjected to six months of experimental computerised acupuncture known as "compu-puncture" to increase his strength to that of fifty men. Tests show the experiment to be a succuss so the final phase is implemented whereby computer circuits are implanted into Probe’s skull which feed directly to his brain. The operation goes well and John Probe has now become M.A.C.H. 1 (Man Activated by Compu-puncture Hyperpower). Before being able to test his abilities, armed terrorist attack an R.A.F Base and Probe is sent in to deal with them. His abilities far exceed his expectations and he is able to eliminate the threat in a matter of moments. However, it soon becomes apparent that the terrorist attack was just a diversion which has enabled another group to hi-jack a Vulcan Bomber loaded with nerve gas now bound for London…
Harlem Heroes – Harlem Heroes: Episode 1
The year is 2050 and the game of Aeroball has swept the world. It’s a combination of Basketball, Football, Kung-Fu and Boxing and the players move around the playing area using back mounted jet packs. The Harlem Heroes are playing the Greek City Gladiators in the preliminary round of the World Aeroball Championship. Because they don’t wear body armour like all of the other Aeroball teams, the Harlem Heroes are highly agile and run rings around the Greek City Gladiators securing them a place in the first round of the world champs. After the match the Heroes are travelling in their hover-powered road-liner when the hover units fail and they’re involved in a horrendous accident. Only four of the team survive the crash and the injuries of one team member ‘Louis Mayer’ are so bad that he only survives as a brain in a jar connected to a speech synthesiser. The other surviving members of the team, John "Giant" Clay, Slim and Hairy, are ready to give up on the championships but Louis Mayer convinces them that they should continue with their goal to win the World Aeroball Championship.