A Ship Called Sudden Death

"Both craft blasted into space!"

Writer: Steve Parkhouse

Format: Comic Strip

Released: June 1982

Printed in: DWM Summer Special 1982

Featuring: Freefall Warriors

Synopsis

Destroying a visiting craft to the Custom Craft show and Drag Race in a burn out, Shaman Kahn, Ace Flier, challenges Big Cat to a race against his spacecraft, Sudden Death. Kahn lost most of his face in a previous race with Big Cat, whom he blames for his injuries, can he get revenge?

Verdict

A Ship Called Sudden Death was a good little story to continue my way through the Black Sun Rising graphic novel collection of backup tale comic strips from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine! This is another from the 1982 Summer Special and compliments The Fabulous Idiot quite nicely in this time actually having the Freefall Warriors appear as the main characters! I didn't get on too well with the previous comic adventure in this collection because I didn't think that Dr. Ivan Asimoff was too great of a main character, but with this special edition of DWM seemingly focusing on The Free-Fall Warriors in terms of its comic strip, it makes sense to actually have them lead an adventure. That was the case here and I thought it was a pretty strong outing across the four pages! I think the artwork was really impressive and just the whole design of the Freefall Warriors is really strong. It's an impressive and striking look which is of course what you want and they lived up to that appearance and reputation really well here. I thought the idea behind a space race was fun and it was essentially a rally taken amongst the stars. Shaman Khan and Big Cat clearly had history that was not exactly friendly and considering the loser of the previous space race lost half of their face, could you really blame them for having strong feelings? I liked the tension and attention that accompanied the race and the visuals of dashing past different moons certainly appeared strong. I thought it was good fun to follow the race and considering there were only four pages, it actually felt pretty extensive. I think the format of the panels in mostly being long strips across the page to get more content was cleverly done and a fine way to maximise the potential of just four pages of story and art. There was a lot going on with the Freefall Warriors and Big Cat seemed to be a formidable opponent. I wonder how deep their conflict lay. Did things get physical? Or was it simply a case of boasting about their respective ships. I thought naming a ship as Sudden Death as the story title depicts was great and a really strong name. It definitely eclipsed Tigerfire as far as names were concerned but when it came to the actual race itself, that fire breathed into victory in a way that seemed unconventional and not entirely expected. I thought Khan boasting as it appeared that Big Cat descended into the beautifully named atmosphere of Persephone was good stuff, but his confidence showed me that things were not going to end in his favour. Khan getting caught in the asteroid belt was a decent twist and I loved the illustrations there. Black and white artwork can sometimes have limitations but given the darkness of space, it works brilliantly there. This didn't feel limited which is a huge compliment. I really enjoyed how the gravitational pull of Persephone's atmosphere actually slingshotted Big Cat to the finish line and it felt like a strong finish to a pretty good race. Overall, a fun little comic strip adventure!  

Rating: 7/10