2000 AD комиксіндегі ABC Warriors жауынгерлері

Feature in the UK comic book series 2000 AD

ABC Warriors is a feature in the UK comic book series 2000 AD written by Pat Mills. It first appeared in program (issue) 119 in 1979 and continues to run as of 2018. 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. Since then, they have been illustrated primarily, though not exclusively, by Bryan Talbot, Simon Bisley, SMS, Kevin Walker, Henry Flint and Clint Langley. The A. B. C. Warriors 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, which Mills had described in several previous 2000 AD strips, including Invasion! and Ro Busters. 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.

One of the main characters, Hammerstein, was already known to 2000 AD readers through the story Ro Busters (originally started in the magazine Starlord). The story of the creation of robotic warriors to be used in the Volgan War had been introduced in the Ro Busters story "Hammerstein's War Memoirs." Hammerstein is the only ABC Warrior to appear on film, making a cameo appearance in the 1995 Judge Dredd movie. The initial run of stories from progs 119–128 follows Hammerstein towards the end of the Volgan War as he recruits six robots to join him for a special mission – to tame Mars, which had become a futuristic Wild West. In further adventures set much later in time, the warriors teamed up with Nemesis the Warlock in his fight against the Termight Empire to prevent a destabilized Black Hole bypass at the Earth's core from destroying the world. Many of these early stories pursue the theme of humans using robots to do jobs that they do not wish to do themselves (following the same theme as Ro Busters) and the cruel treatment of soldier robots by their human officers. The Warriors often find themselves at odds with humans who are exploiting the land and the beings that live on it – typical storylines see the Warriors identifying such evil and delivering poetic justice to the perpetrators. Later stories also explore ideas of "khaos" and the concept of programmed robots being able to discover their true identities. British comics artists who illustrated ABC Warriors include Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, Brendan McCarthy, Carlos Ezquerra, Dave Gibbons, Simon Bisley, Kev Walker, and Henry Flint.

The members of the Warriors have changed over the course of the stories they have been featured in. Here are the longest serving members:

Hammerstein has been the leader of the Warriors for most of the comic's run, although he has surrendered the position to Deadlock for a number of stories. He was the first successful war robot to be built, and this success was due to his being given both emotions and a conscience, which allowed him to distinguish between combatants and civilians. In the first run of ABC Warriors stories, he was recruited during the Volgan Wars by the mysterious Colonel Lash to lead the ABC Warriors on Lash's post war project. Overall humanoid in form, his right "hand" is the combat hammer that gives him his name. Depicted as noble, brave, and patriotic, he has always represented the compassionate "heart" of the team while remaining a formidable warrior.

Deadlock is a follower of the Khaos religion, and as such is frequently at odds with the order and duty obsessed Hammerstein, which eventually led him to betray and attempt to kill Hammerstein in the story The Black Hole. Deadlock's powers allow him to astrally project and reform his body if it is damaged or destroyed, and he holds the sword X Caliber, a weapon that allows him to drain the souls of the living to use as psychic "nourishment". He is able to call demons and the undead to his aid. For a time, Deadlock led the team in place of Hammerstein, the only other member ever to do so. When first shown, Deadlock was the Grand Wizard of the Knights Martial, a group of highly intelligent robots who had developed psychic and magical abilities and observed the war from the "Watch Tower" space station. They were given special authority to try and execute Volgan war criminals during the conflict, as well as war criminals from their own side. Deadlock occasionally led his Knights into active combat, such as to take down and reprogram the Volgan robot general Volkhan so he could no longer create robots outside of human control. The Watch Tower was brought to earth by Volgan artillery during the war, just before Hammerstein recruited Deadlock for the Mars mission. On his eventual return, Deadlock discovered that in his absence the Knights – no longer kept chaste and pure by isolation far above the earth's surface – had been tainted and turned to frivolous pursuits, ignoring the old values of meditation, purity, and discipline. A disgusted Deadlock turned his back on the order and went into isolation, meditating and studying ancient manuscripts in an attempt to reach the highest level of the astral plane, and join with his master Khaos. When he was ready, it was Nemesis himself who came for him, and they became one, as shown in Nemesis the Warlock Book Four: The Gothic Empire. Centuries passed with no word of his whereabouts, though at some point he established a Kollege of Khaos on the comet Tiamat. He finally reappeared in the bowels of Terra to assist older versions of his former comrades, sent back from the future Termight by Nemesis the Warlock, to save the planet from destruction – a mission depicted in the story The Black Hole. Although his motives were unclear at first, he assisted the Warriors in their battles with the Monad, a creature from the end of time, only to betray them when they finally reached their goal. It turned out he had been sent by his master Khaos to ensure the destruction of Termight so Khaos might spread throughout the galaxy. With the assistance of Blackblood and Mek Quake, Deadlock launched a fearsome attack on his comrades in a bid to stop them from repairing the damage done to the Time Wastes; he was forced to betray his master and save Termight so the Monad would not use the planet's destruction to turn Khaos into an evil force. Escaping the Time Wastes, Deadlock assumed leadership of The Warriors and led them to Nemesis' home planet, Gandarva, to settle a score. The repair of the Time Wastes had restored Order to the galaxy and thus Deadlock and Nemesis had both betrayed Khaos. The two of them fought literally to the death, only to be reborn, purged of their guilt. Deadlock then took the Warriors to the planet Hekate, inducting them (both willingly and forcibly) into the ways of Khaos; he led them in collecting the heads of seven symbols of order, which could be used in a ritual to spread Khaos throughout the galaxy. After succeeding, the other Warriors defied his command, demonstrating their status as true Khaos warriors. Following this, he returned to his Kollege with Ro Jaws, who understood the twisting tides of Khaos even better than he did. They worked to indoctrinate students into the ways of Khaos – often via the bar – while also hunting down teachers throughout the galaxy and flying back to the Kollege to be endlessly tortured. Ten years after the Hekate mission, he led the Warriors' reformation to combat the Terran weapon Hellbringer. Subsequently, they returned to Mars under the command of Hammerstein, where Deadlock was instrumental in bringing about an end to the war between the human colonists and the planetary consciousness, Medusa. Deadlock helped broker a peace and he stayed on to help the Warriors in the resulting Martian civil war. It was Deadlock who discovered that the Confederacy of Martian Industries was assembling the mercenary Shadow Warriors team to destroy the Warriors, who learned the identities of its members and whose khaos rituals turned the tide in the final battle against them.

Joe Pineapples is the closest thing Hammerstein has to a friend, being his longest serving comrade. Joe was built as an assassin, is a former member of the elite X Terminators (he was fired for an unspecified incident involving a human officer's wife), and is a sniper without equal. Joe has rebuilt himself many times to give himself new looks over the years, but one thing that has been consistent is his narcissism – the one thing he truly loves in the universe is himself. With an outward image of ice cold professionalism and a habit of seducing women, he has a secret fetish for wearing women's underwear. The first run of ABC Warriors stories showed Joe's talents taking him into Volgograd to assassinate Volgan general Volkhan, and afterwards assigning him to the Mars mission; he forcibly recruited General Blackblood by shooting the butcher through the heart, beginning a long standing feud between the two. After Mars, Pineapples wound up working as a police instructor in London and once had to neutralise a rampaging Hammerstein who thought he was still fighting the Volgan War. Joe's career with various police forces continued in some form for centuries, and by the time Earth had become Termight he was on the free robot planet of Mekka working as an undercover officer. At some point he developed a hatred of humans ("meatheads") and was eventually put on the black list for pursuing human criminals with too much zeal. Pineapples also began taking up transvestism, apparently jaded from rebuilding himself time and time again and wanting to experience something new. Blackblood was able to obtain photo negatives of this. At the request of Nemesis, the Warlock, Joe left the police to rejoin the ABC Warriors in the battle to defend the Gothic Empire. Following the battle against Termight, the Warriors followed Nemesis into the Time Wastes of Termight to find the Warlock's offspring Thoth and repair the damage Thoth was doing to time itself, and save the galaxy. When Deadlock tried to sabotage the mission, Blackblood and Joe fought each other. For Pineapples it was a chance to get the negatives back, and for Blackblood it was a chance to finally discover what Joe had been hiding in his chest locker for the entire journey. As it turned out, the mystery item was a human heart: Joe was carrying it in a desperate bid to feel, so he could enjoy killing again. After escaping to the planet Hekate, Pineapples helped collect the seven heads needed for the ritual that would spread Khaos through the galaxy, but suffered a breakdown as the 'Night of the Blood Moon' approached. Deadlock took it upon himself to perform an unnecessary operation on Joe, to give him a much more Khaotic outlook on life – and unlock his repressed desires for more exotic crossdressing. After Hekate, the Warriors went their separate ways, and Pineapples, sick of being on the dole for Khaos, signed up with the Terran Empire as a professional hit droid. As a result of his wealth and status, he was forced to join the Warriors when they banded together to take on the Terran supership Hellbringer. He joined the Warriors in returning to Mars to help increase the peace between Medusa, the planetary consciousness, and her human settlers. When civil war broke out in the aftermath and the mercenary Shadow Warriors were sent after them, Joe developed a severe rivalry with mercenary and highwayman Dog Tag, sparked when Joe foiled one of Dog Tag's heists, wiped out his gang and caused severe damage to him. Dog Tag got revenge when he shot Joe through the head, buried him and removed his trigger finger. Due to techniques learned from Deadlock, Joe survived the attack – having shut down his brain to near death levels – and was able to kill his rival.

Blackblood is a former Volgan war robot who was forcibly recruited into the Warriors. A master tactician and interrogator, his skills also extend to treachery and betrayal, two things at which he is highly adept. He dislikes Hammerstein intensely, but this is nothing compared to his hatred of Joe Pineapples – the robot responsible for his capture. His constant undermining of Hammerstein's leadership has led to many confrontations between the two, and a healthy disrespect that has spanned the centuries. He is currently a member of the Church of Judas, a religion for robots who have betrayed their masters and pray to Judas to take away the guilt. The 2011 Savage story Secret City would retcon that Blackblood was originally a whole series of Volgan robots, a counterpart to the Allied Hammersteins. The Blackblood Mark Ones came online in 2009 and were only crudely sentient; they were programmed to dismember and behead their enemies, to ensure Allied robots would be fully disabled (and without any reprogramming when they were sent against humans), and with no ability to distinguish friend from foe. Bill Savage discovered their field trials in the Midlands' Zone of Alienation. Decades later, the Volgan scientist Dr Zakaroff sought to create a robot warrior capable of treachery but initially failed to do so with Blackblood. In desperation, Zakaroff turned to the occult, and used a mixture of black magic and science to harness the betrayal of two lovers, whom he forced to torture each other. Blackblood went on to prove his newly discovered treachery by killing Zakaroff, having one of his eyes shot out in the process. He left the socket empty as a reminder of his greatest act of betrayal. During the Volgan War he led the Straw Dogs, experts in jungle warfare and terror tactics, and was rumoured to drink the oil of dead ABC Warriors. He was also responsible for trying to stop Joe Pineapples and Zippo after a failed hit on General Volkhan, causing the remote self destruction of hundreds of foreign robots in the attempt. He would also root out internal enemies, such as robot designers Mikhail and Marina Zhigunov; he viciously tortured one of their subordinates to uncover the truth, shot the Zhigunovs dead, and attempted to kill their daughter Lara before being temporarily deactivated by partisans. Later on, assisting Volklhan, he used Zhigunov's virus to infect Steelhorn and cause the Warrior to begin murdering civilians and allies. He also developed an obsession with discovering the secret enemy officer "General Public", due to a misunderstanding. Realising his skills in guerrilla warfare would be a valuable asset, Colonel Lash ordered Hammerstein to hunt down Blackblood and forcibly recruit him; Joe Pineapples took him down by shooting him through the heart, and his worst excesses were then removed by brain surgery. He was then sent on the Mars mission. After Mars, little is known of Blackblood's activities. He eventually turned up on the free robot planet of Mekka, where he plied a trade as a "business man" under the name Bunyon Snipe, selling addictive software to robots; he married an exotic dancer, Ruby Yum Yum Gluck, and still drank the oil of other robots. He also came into possession of certain negatives about Joe Pineapples at a party and was using them for blackmail purposes. He would eventually be forcibly recruited by Nemesis the Warlock into the newly reformed ABC Warriors, fighting against the Terminators before heading into the Time Wastes. He and the other Warriors went on to repair the damage done to the Time Wastes' Black Hole Control Room and save Terra from destruction. During the mission, Blackblood yet again proved that his treachery knew no bounds as he betrayed the Warriors to the Eternal Soldiers of Agartha, and then assisted Deadlock in a sabotage attempt to stop the Warriors from completing their task. It was during this foray into the Time Wastes that Blackblood lost his leg; he killed a road crew and took their road drill as a substitute. Following this, he and the rest of the Warriors briefly helped Deadlock attempt to spread Khaos throughout the galaxy; Blackblood loved this job due to the bloodshed involved, and the influence of Khaos on the Warriors allowed him to be more murderous and sadistic. Leaving the Warriors again after tiring of Deadlock's command (due to the Khaos influence), Blackblood set up an arms dealership and even took on a pet dog while torturing a trapped Hammerstein for five years (he happily sent photos of it to every other Warrior). When Hammerstein got free and reformed the Warriors again, Blackblood was forced to sign up under threat of death. He returned to Mars to help keep the peace between the human colonists and the planetary consciousness, Medusa – though he stated he had his own reasons for doing so, which were soon to become apparent. In the battle against the Shadow Warriors (whom he respected for their brutality), Blackblood faced off against the Rev, head of the Church of Judas, and killed him in a vicious battle. Most recently, he permanently alienated Mongrol after it was revealed that he tried to kill his beloved Lara during the war. Even this paled to nothing when he informed an institutionalised Mek Quake that the ABCs were permanently replacing him, leading to the embittered bulldozer engineering a jailbreak for the Volgan war criminal Volkhan, incarcerated at the same asylum. Blackblood defected from the team at a crucial point in their attempt to rescue Zippo in Marineris City, joining Volkhan's rebellion as his right hand man. Volkhan and Blackblood escaped and went into hiding after their attempt to destroy the ABC Warriors failed, but with his true colours now firmly revealed, it's a certainty that they are only biding their time until the next attempt.

The immensely strong Mongrol was originally the commander of an ABC paratrooper platoon, and the only survivor (save Zippo) of the disastrous drop into Volgan territory at Vilnius – so disastrous that it was nicknamed Zarnhem after Arnhem. Only his head remained undamaged and remained on the battlefield. A scavenger named Lara, the daughter of executed robot manufacturers, salvaged his head and built him a new body with other robot parts as an act of defiance against the Volgans. She was caught and executed, and Mongrol was tortured by electricity for information – this inadvertently activated his body, and he broke free of his captors. The torture and Lara's death reduced him to near animal like behaviour ("Mongrol smush! "), and he was regarded as a threat by both sides. He was recruited when Hammerstein earned his respect by beating him in hand to hand combat. Mongrol's belief that he would go to heaven and meet his beloved Lara once more became the driving force of the metal ape. After being told by Deadlock that only good robots go to heaven, he became determined to live a hero's life and see his beloved again. After the Mars mission, he found work with P. T. Bar Num's "Death Circus" on the free robot planet Mekka. He played the part of The Gawk, a giant metal monster that would be defeated by the heroic Spar Tekus in every show. He'd been playing that role for so long that he'd forgotten who he was. He was found by Nemesis the Warlock and brought back into the ranks of The ABC Warriors to help save the Gothic Empire from a Terminator invasion. He was then dispatched with the other Warriors into the Time Wastes of Termight to repair the damage done to it. During their journey, Blackblood broke the news to Mongrol that robots simply go to the smelter rather than heaven, so he would never see Lara again. As a result, Mongrol turned to his 'father' – a screwdriver. After saving Terra from destruction, Mongrol followed the others to the planet Hekate, to collect the seven heads needed for the ritual that would spread Khaos throughout the Terran Empire. Mongrol was stripped of his ability to speak, but he was given the quick reactions and speed of a naturally born beast as compensation. After completing their mission on Hekate, Mongrol left for the Temple of the Night Maras with Morrigun, and became nothing more than her mindless (and overly protective) pet. Both he and his "mistress" joined The ABC Warriors again to take on the Terran superweapon Hellbringer. On the return to Mars, Mongrol's body was destroyed, forcing him to relocate his positronic brain into his new body. This reactivated long dormant circuits, restoring his original intelligence (as well as a taste for cigars). He is still suffering from deep seated issues over Lara, and when her memory was mocked by the Shadow Warrior Warmonger, Mongrol ripped him to pieces. Following Blackblood's recounting of his Volgan War experiences and the revelation that he tried to kill Lara, Mongrol went berserk and stated that, at the end of that mission, either Blackblood leaves the Warriors, or he will. However, Blackblood had already set things up so Mek Quake would free Volkhan from Broadband Asylum, and he would go on to abandon the ABC Warriors mid battle and rejoin Volkhan's army, gleefully slaughtering civilians once more and trying to kill the ABC Warriors. He is currently at large, an enemy of the Warriors once more.

An elite droid built from indestructible alloys, Steelhorn was proclaimed a hero to the West and seen as one by Volgan civilians whom he liberated, even possessing a secret underground base. Due to his Vortex Hammer weapon, the Volgans viewed him as a war criminal, and so Volkhan and Blackblood infected him with a computer virus that caused him to start massacring civilians and fellow Warriors. Zippo eventually stopped Steelhorn and the virus was deleted, and the massacres were covered up by the military – but he was left traumatised and disillusioned by what he'd done. Steelhorn eventually ended the Volgan War by killing the Volgan Marshall. Following the war, he went to a demobilisation camp to be reprogrammed for civilian life, believing he would become a firefighter and save lives, only to find himself falling into a fusion furnace—which was now being used to kill the ABC Warriors now that victory had been won. With his dying breaths, Steelhorn cursed humans for their treachery. He survived the furnace, but his body was reduced to a bubbling mess. Consumed with hatred, the Mess slaughtered the human responsible before escaping. Hammerstein, realising it was actually Steelhorn, saved the Mess and had him poured into a vacuum flask that would be carried by Mongrol. The metal ape was the only one who could understand what the Mess was trying to say. The shambles would accompany the Mars mission. On Mars, the Warriors encountered a giant robot called George, one of the original Garganteks – giant robots who had originally helped terraform Mars for human colonisation. Because of his size, each of George's limbs was controlled by a separate brain, with a master brain supposedly in charge. The Mess ended up inside George, using its liquid state to connect George's brains and turn him into a fearsome fighting machine. When the Mars mission was complete, George and the Mess remained behind after the Mars mission was completed. Centuries later, continued terraforming awoke Medusa, the planetary consciousness, and caused her to try to wipe out humanity. She destroyed George for the crime of terraforming her and discovered the Mess as a result; finding it shared her hatred of humans, she rebuilt it into a new incarnation of Steelhorn. He now possessed certain psychic powers allowing him to control Martian wildlife. He became Medusa's voice, organising the attacks on the human settlements and personally leading the slaughter at Viking City, which saw almost the entire population massacred by a Martian born virus. The ABC Warriors fought the new Steelhorn and eventually struck a deal with him and Medusa, agreeing to peaceful coexistence if human President Cobb was transformed into a Martian. Steelhorn re joined the ranks of The ABC Warriors in place of the deceased Morrigun, in a bid to increase peace on Mars after Cobb's transformation sparked a civil war. While travelling with them to New Sidona to fend off Confederacy soldiers, Steelhorn was taken out by the rival Shadow Warriors, melted to a sludge once more. Due to occult activities by Deadlock, he was reborn again in a diamond form and brought about the ABC Warriors' victory. He has two horns, one of which when played incites wildlife to rebel. He has not said what the other will do, but it is to be played in the event of a Confederate victory and the consequences would presumably be devastating.

Mek Quake is a dim witted and sadistic former demolition droid. Serving mainly as comic relief, he was originally a member of the Ro Busters, used for internal discipline within the rescue squad (mainly by destroying troublemakers), and did not join the Warriors until their later phase. In the 2010 Savage Book VI: Crims story, Mek Quake makes a cameo appearance destroying compromised Hammersteins in 2009 (which makes him both the oldest warrior and the oldest AI robot). His original body was that of a very large bulldozer, as seen throughout the run of Ro Busters. When he reappeared in Book III of Nemesis the Warlock, fighting for the evil Termight empire, his (tiny) brain was now housed in a colossal siege robot with a head vaguely resembling a cat's. Despite his enormous destructive power, his stupidity ultimately ended up making the situation even worse for the Terminators. In Book IV of Nemesis, he returned to his original body; he later switched between this, and a vaguely humanoid body stolen from a defeated opponent, depending on the requirements of each mission. Despite initially fighting against them, Mek Quake was recruited to the Warriors by Nemesis, who realised that his insatiable appetite for mayhem and near indestructibility made him a useful asset – as well as the fact that his limited intelligence and considerable survival instinct meant he had no loyalties except to whichever side would give him the most opportunity to destroy things. For "Black Hole", Mek Quake's bulldozer body was redesigned as a heavily armed "killdozer", with a prehensile neck and a "face" with a permanent angry scowl. The killdozer body was blown up in 'The Clone Cowboys', leaving him in humanoid form. This the current version of Mek Quake has ranged in height from five to fifteen feet, depending on the artist, though he is generally depicted as the largest of the Warriors. What Mek Quake lacks in intelligence (which is a lot) he makes up for in cruelty and destructive force. However, he is also something of a coward, preferring softer targets that he can inflict more pain upon while chanting his catchphrase: "Big jobs!" He has no compunctions about massacring humans, as evidenced in The Third Element when he is annoyed about having missed most of a battle because of the time it took to remove all the "human gristle" clogging his caterpillar tracks. In his early stories he openly loathed Hammerstein and Ro Jaws (as a result of their time in Ro Busters), but later this hatred was toned down to a general dislike of everything and everybody except videos of chainsaw torture. Despite this Mek Quake is eager to show his intelligence and importance, and in Kronicles of Khaos he kept trying to join in at the end of Deadlock's statements so he could seem like he was already versed in Khaos. He continued to be part of the Warriors in their return to Mars as they tried to keep the peace during a civil war, developing an interest in conspiracy theories and rap music, but it was clear that his increasing mental instability was putting the rest of the team in danger. After the defeat of the Shadow Warriors, Mek Quake was checked into a robot asylum by the others. While Hammerstein seemed sad to see his former enemy depart, the others appeared more than eager to meet his replacement, Zippo. Mek Quake was assigned to clean the cell of former Volgan General Volkhan – but when Blackblood called up to gleefully tell him he was going to be replaced, an embittered Mek Quake freed Volkhan and his associates and helped kill the asylum staff. He then joined with Volkhan and Blackblood in an attempt to destroy the rest of the ABC Warriors, as well as Marineris City. When the rebellion failed and he was abandoned to his fate by Volkhan's troops, Mek Quake managed to escape destruction with Steelhorn's fusion hammer and unwittingly found himself a celebrity in the Union of Martian Free States for the destruction of the Marinus Red House. After promoting his book tour, Mek Quake has found employment as Howard Quartz's bodyguard, and was most recently responsible for murdering Tubal Caine's adopted son.

Ro Jaws was involved in a number of the ABCs adventures, acting largely as comic relief. A working class sewer droid with filthy habits and a love of refuse, he was originally a law abiding robot until he was thrown in jail for taking a sick homeless man into a Cabinet minister's house (believing the minister to be a friend). The abuses in robot prison, as well as mixing with criminal robots, caused Ro Jaws to develop a crude, disrespectful and anarchic attitude, gaining him an interest in robot rebellion. (He assisted robot resistance agents but was considered too silly looking) He was briefly owned by a rich family as a companion for their daughter Annabel; the two became great friends, and it is unknown how that ended. It is known from the first Ro Busters that he hit his master (unknown if this was Annabel's father), putting him in the hospital, and that is why he was thrown away. He first met Hammerstein when they were both "Second Hand Bargains" at a robot shop, and the two were bought by the Ro Busters disaster agency. The two clashed repeatedly due to their differing personalities but would develop a strong sense of friendship. In one incident, they went undercover to investigate murders on a space station, and Ro Jaws discovered it was the work of robots who were planning a rebellion; Ro Jaws found the uprising was being secretly directed by humans, and noted he'd have joined the uprising if it had been run by robots. Ro Jaws and Hammerstein were eventually forced to go on the run when they were nearly killed for the insurance money, and helped a number of robots escape Earth to the robot free world Saturn Six; they threw away the chance to make it to Saturn Six themselves by staying behind to cover the escape. They then went underground with new identity papers, singing together as they went off, they'd always be "walking along side by side". Many centuries in the future, Ro Jaws was working in a hotel in the Gothic Empire and ended up as a valet for Nemesis the Warlock. Ro Jaws swiftly became a trusted aide and was reunited with Hammerstein in the process, encouraging Nemesis to save his old friend from execution. His brief turn as an official ABC warrior occurred when Nemesis despatched the warriors into the Time Wastes to repair the damage done by his son Thoth; when Terri was inducted into the warriors early into the subsequent Black Hole mission, Ro Jaws cheerfully gave up this position, although he continued to be a hanger on for some time. He remained for the Hekate mission and quickly got to grips with Khaos. Following the mission, he left the team with Deadlock to work at the Kollege of Khaos; Deadlock considers Ro Jaws to understand the nature of Khaos even better than he does. Despite their polar opposite personalities, he regards Hammerstein as a good friend and has saved the soldier's life several times. In a flashback to the Ro Busters days, it was him who ensured a temporarily rampaging Hammerstein was taken down non lethally before Mek Quake reached and killed him; he worked to convince Nemesis to prevent his execution in The Gothic Empire; and in Khronicles of Khaos he asked Deadlock if he could turn Hammerstein into a more Khaotic person, believing it would be beneficial to him. However, in a contradictory moment in Hellbringer, Ro Jaws (like everyone else) was shown to have known Hammerstein was being tortured by Blackblood but had no interest in helping him. In 2010, he returned in The Volgan War Book 4, where it was revealed that he had been hiding out on Mars (as a public toilet cleaner) under the alias "U Fox" and helping Zippo in his resistance activities. As U Fox, he'd racked up a reputation as an outlaw graffiti artist. He assisted the Warriors against Volkhan and his armies, distracting Mek Quake with a series of "your mother" jokes and leading the bulldozer away from the larger battle. Afterwards, he remained in Marineris City. Ro Jaws also served as the "host" for a series of short one off strips, under the title Ro Jaws Robot Tales. In 2006, he was a central figure in a tribute poster to deceased letterer Tom Frame, sharing a drink with the robot representing Frame.

Up until Blackblood's defection in 2010, there had always been a "core five" in the ABC Warriors – Hammerstein, Joe, Deadlock, Blackblood. and Mongrol – that remained unchanged, except for the ten years or so when Nemesis the Warlock took the place of Deadlock. Various other characters have occupied the sixth and seventh positions as they became vacant. The two other original members were Steelhorn and Happy Shrapnel; they are also the only ex members to return, though both in radically different forms. Except for Ro Jaws and Mek Quake, every other former member was killed in action.

A crusty and cantankerous veteran with a malfunctioning voicebox that punctuated his sentences with buzzes, Happy was originally a "combat test dummy" made a little unhinged by the numerous battlefield tests he had been put through. He wielded Kolt 45s stolen from a dead Volgan general and wore clothing taken from dead humans – sometimes with parts of the corpses still in them. Killed "off camera" in a bar brawl soon after the end of the Warrior's original mission and buried by the others on Mars, it was his death that prompted the others to first go their separate ways. Decades later, he was also the reason that the team returned, when they received electronic signals telling them that he was still alive and that the evils they had rid Mars of were returning. The Warriors helped Happy rebuild himself, but he refused to rejoin them. Renaming himself "Tubal Caine", the former Happy reluctantly agreed to be the Warrior's armourer, refitting and repairing them after their many battles on Mars. He remained neutral until Blackblood defected to Volkhan's army, whereupon the other Warriors asked him once more to join them. Tubal revealed that in his time as a blacksmith, he adopted a child named Tom, who had fallen out with his Humpy brethren after choosing to ignore their outdated beliefs. Tubal was later approached by Howard Quartz with Mek Quake in tow, demanding that he terminate Volkhan. Refusing to serve Quartz, Quartz activated the ruined robots in Caine's scrapyard, causing them to attack. Despite sustaining severe injuries, Tubal fought off the machines, but was instead attacked by Mek Quake, who severed his head. Tom Caine opened fire on Mek Quake, but his weapon malfunctioned, leaving Mek Quake open to murder him. The shock of seeing his son murdered and suffering severe damage caused Tubal's system to crash, as Quartz had intended. When he re activated and re attached his head, Tubal was restored to default status, becoming Happy Shrapnel again, and no longer a pacifist. Hearing his story, the warriors joined Happy and helped him seek vengeance against Quartz.

Programed to act like an ancient samurai by a Japanese secret society, Hitaki was a comrade of Hammerstein and Mad Ronn in the Terminators. After being thwarted in a suicide mission against the Goth Queen by Nemesis, he was inducted into the newly reformed ABC Warriors. He was beheaded by the Monad at the end of the world; Mek Quake then crushed his body beyond repair before he could be fixed, killing him.

A bomb disposal robot during the Volgan Wars, he possessed highly sensitive electronic sensors. He was a Terminator alongside Hammerstein and Hitaki and was sent on the suicide mission against the Gothic Empire, then joined the new ABC Warriors. Ronn died while trying to defuse a Terminator bomb before it killed alien refugees.

One of the organic slaves (a "Terr 1") of the Mekaniks, the single minded robot guardians of the Black Hole and the Tomb of Emperor Zallin, she grew up believing herself to be a robot, albeit a low caste one due to being made of flesh. She has attempted to make her mind & body just like her masters, possessing incredible strength and the ability to absorb pain unflinchingly, and she believes in logic and recycling. When the Mekaniks murdered her infant son, she turned on them, believing this proved them illogical. She was made the seventh ABC Warrior by Deadlock and developed a strong romantic relationship with Hammerstein, whom she believed was the father of her child. The two of them planned to settle down and retire after the Black Hole mission, but she was killed during the battle against the Monad.

Originally a bar waitress on Hekate before she was drafted, she was an expert at the martial art Nekra Chi and wielded both Moon Flails and Pentangs – metal throwing stars powered by Khaos. As a field test, she personally retrieved one of the seven heads for the Khaos ritual. During the mission, she took Mongrol as a pet and left with him afterwards to study with the Khaos priestesses called the Night Maras. She rejoined the Warriors for the Hellbringer mission. She was killed on Mars while trying to save the native Trimorphs from a pogrom, being crushed beyond repair by a tank.

Zippo AKA Agent Orange is a flamethrower unit ("a Zippo") that formerly served in special forces against the Volgans and reported directly to Colonel Lash. His agenda during the war was enigmatic; sometimes it was to assist the ABC Warriors, whereas in the "Zarnhem" massacre (a battle deliberately lost by Western officers for propaganda purposes) it was to ensure there were no survivors. He has a habit of inscribing mottoes and messages on the weapons and cigarette lighters of his comrades. He has history with all of the surviving original ABC Warriors, and has inscribed messages on most of their weapons. After the war, he eventually ended up in Marineris City ("Mekana") on Mars. Friends of his were killed in anti robot riots. He ended up becoming an outlaw, mentored as a graffiti artist by the insane "tagger" Kroll; he left messages and occasionally took out police officers to eventually provoke an uprising. He was eventually captured by the G Men, a specialist police unit, while his mentor Kroll was killed. The ABC Warriors rescued him from execution and gave him Mek Quake's recently vacated place in the team.

As of 2014, the current ABC Warriors are Hammerstein, Deadlock, Joe Pineapples, Mongrol, Steelhorn, Zippo and Tubal Caine.

The Medusa Wars is an original novel written by Pat Mills and Alan Mitchell. Although there are questions about its "canonicity", it introduces a number of pieces of information by the series comic strip's creators, most of which have yet to be contradicted. The novel tells of the events leading up to the Warriors' return to Mars and retells the story of The Third Element strip. It introduces the troubled marriage of Senator Diaz and Juanita Perez, and we see the latter's relationship with Joe Pineapples develop. We are also witness to the disagreements between President Cobb and Senator Diaz, which lead to civil war. These elements are picked up in the following comic strip, The Shadow Warriors. By placing Roadkill after The Third Element, the novel contradicts the strip. In the comic, Morrigun appears in Roadkill and is killed in The Third Element. In the novel, she dies and then the events of Roadkill are said to have happened (without Morrigun's appearance). Mills has said of the novel: "Parts are dramatisations of the comic strip. Notably the Biohazard troopers because they originally had excellent funky black dialogue contributed by my black co writer on the novel, Alan Mitchell. This was altered at the time by 2000AD editorial without my knowledge and in an inappropriate and uncool way. It made my toes curl it was so wrong. So, I thought it was important to put it back the way it should be. I think the text version is much better. Although having said that, I'm sure some perverse fan is now going to say he preferred the comic version. In which case, my response would be I'm sure you enjoy McDonalds burgers, too."

(12 episodes, Clint Langley) This story fills in a lot of the missing backstory of the Warriors since their return to Mars revealing that their armourer Tubal is former teammate Happy Shrapnel, inadvertently resurrected from the grave hundreds of years after his death by Medusa, when she first woke. Seeing first hand the chaos being wrought by Medusa's plagues of zombies and martians, Happy sent a call out into the universe for the other Warriors, who felt compelled to fulfil their primary directive and return to the Red Planet to restore peace. Happy declined to join them on their return, instead renouncing warfare for the simpler life of a mechanic, and rejecting his 'slave name' in favour of Tubal Caine. After the Warriors' many subsequent battles, it was he who patched them up. In the time that followed his life as a mechanic, Tubal adopted a humpy son named Tom, who resembled a human unlike his humpy family. Tom was in the throes of being executed for heresy when tubal saved him, his crime being that Tom had proven that martian food and plant life was not toxic, but in fact increased a humans physical attributes, a belief that conflicted with Humpy traditions. Tubal was later approached by Howard Quartz with his new bodyguard, Mek Quake. Quartz explained that he wanted Tubal to terminate Volkhan. Refusing to work for Quartz, Quartz activated the scrap robots in his scrapyard which immediately attacked Tubal. Sustaining severe injuries, Tubal fended off the machines but came under attack from Mek Quake, who eventually succeeded in tearing off Tubal's head. In an attempt to save Tubal, Tom opened fire on Mek Quake, but his weapon jammed, allowing Mek Quake to murder him. The sustained damage and the shock of seeing his son murdered caused Tubal to suffer a system crash, which Quartz had intended. Upon re activation and re attaching his head, Tubal was restored to default status, becoming Happy Shrapnel again and no longer a pacifist. Seeing the crime Quartz committed, and receiving news that Quartz was supplying both factions in the martian civil war, the warriors agree that there never can truly be peace on mars as long as Quartz lives. With Happy Shrapnel part of the warriors, the team sets out to kill Quartz. in order to overcome their prime directive which prohibits this, Hammerstein suggests they find Ro Jaws, the only machine to ever show signs of being able to negate the prime directive.

Although no dates were specified at the time, the 2006–07 series The Volgan War explicitly places that conflict in 2082–84, with the invasion of Western Europe in 1999 (from Invasion!) as backstory and considered to be World War III in the ABC timeline. This retcons out the Judge Dredd strip Hammerstein, which placed the ABC Warriors in Dredd's universe and showed Hammerstein involved in 2071's Battle of Armageddon after the Volgan War and the Mars mission. After the Volgan War, the Warriors take part in the original Mars mission and subsequently disband. Hammerstein ends up back on Earth and ultimately joins Ro Busters. The adventures of the ABC Warriors in Nemesis Books 3 to 6 take place "thousands" of years later, with Earth having since become Termight, a quasi mediaeval future society where the knowledge for making robots belongs to the Lost Age of Science. All robots who have lived thus far have become antiquated relics, forced to salvage spare parts from fallen colleagues to survive. Book 6 sees them travel forward billions of years in time to the end of the earth, where they first encounter the Monad. When the Warriors part company with Nemesis in Book 6, they travel back in time (via the time tubes) to a period slightly prior to Termight – the Terran Empire, a much more technologically orientated society – for their remaining post Nemesis adventures. Several centuries have passed since their original mission on Mars by the time they return to the Red Planet for The Third Element arc and all subsequent stories. The Biol corporation is still a major player and Mars' civilisation is largely the same, though enough time has passed for some Martian races, such as the Humpies and Cyboons, to degenerate to a lower state of being. The ABC warriors' original Mars mission has passed into near legendary status, with most believing the warriors to be long since dead prior their return. A character in Return To Mars mentions having been taught about their adventures in school.