ABC Warriors

Pat Mills's ABC Warriors began in 2000 AD in 1979. The letters stand for atomic, bacterial, and chemical: these robots can fight in environments lethal to humans. Hammerstein and an unruly roster of war machines form the core team.

Their adventures range across wars and political orders, with different artists and eras changing the series' visual character. The robots' distinct temperaments keep them from functioning as interchangeable weapons.

The strip turns expendable hardware into a cast of recognizable personalities. Its satirical edge comes from watching machines carry out human violence while recognizing its absurdity.

The long run also shows how a weekly anthology can build a shared world over time. Characters and ideas spill into other Pat Mills stories without losing their own identity.

The ABC designation is a grimly practical engineering brief. Human armies have built soldiers who can survive the contamination their wars create.

That design raises a question the series keeps returning to: if a weapon develops judgment, who gets to decide when its mission ends?

The original and later artists give each warrior a silhouette suited to its personality. Their varied bodies turn a military unit into a visual argument against standardization.

Heavy machinery, damaged metal, and exaggerated faces make satire and combat occupy the same panels. The strip looks as unruly as its team behaves.