Wednesday. A week since episode 2. Many comic strips employ an ‘elastic’ timeline, or have a timeline that in times of crisis is rebooted. Some just pick a general period and don’t really commit to a timeline at all. A few others attempt to tell the story in ‘real time’, most notably Judge Dredd, which takes place 122 years in the future; a year passes there, and a year passes here.

Currently at #1 in the UK: Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now – Starship. The previous week, it was #3. In this universe, the previous week’s #3 was Zenith’s ‘Heaven Can’t Wait’. Does that mean ‘Heaven Can’t Wait’ at #1 now? Probably not. Zenith might well be celebrating a bit harder if it was, but as we’ll see next week, he’s keeping busy.

Jean-Paul Gautier released his first collection in 1976. At this point, he is is 35 years old and Madonna is wearing his works to her film premières.

This is perhaps the earliest direct assertion that Ruby has not aged as gracefully as she’d like. Her line to the press is very much the rueful, mature adult; but she misses her youth, she misses her powers, she misses being the centre of attention. And while she still manages to make a living from the notoriously fickle world of fashion, it is as from a level of remove. As a magazine editor, she collates observations and opinions for public consumption, rather than participates in it directly.

And this is perhaps the key to understanding Ruby’s outlook. She can’t put the past behind her. She’s tried, but she’s never felt able to do so.

Masterman, or rather, the same dark god who occupied Masterman, and was thus the source of the experiments that gave rise to superhumans in the UK, is very much the past, following her at his own pace, to catch up soon.

Streatham is a district of south London, located mostly in the Borough of Lambeth. At one point Streatham was one of the busiest areas for shopping, but that went through a decline in the seventies and eighties.

Though Streatham is in decline Ruby lives relatively well. The property prices, at least, are reasonable for someone with her income.

Paramol is the brand name of a dual-action painkiller; also known as Co-dydramol, its active ingredients are paracetamol and dihydrocodeine tartrate. The latter is a synthetic opioid and can be addictive.

Ruby refers to Our World, the first live multinational, multisatellite television production, broadcast Sunday 25 June 1967. The Beatles’ segment is the best-remembered part, and this was the first performance of the song. The audience included the Rolling Stones, Keith Moon, Marianne Faithfull, Eric Clapton, and Graham Nash. The broadcast occurred at the height of the Vietnam War, so it’s hardly surprising that Cloud 9 would also be in attendance.

Not long after, the song was also used in the battle scene in ‘Fall Out’, the finale to The Prisoner.

Ruby is reading Destiny by Sally Beauman (1944-2016). Destiny was her first novel published under her own name, after writing nine novels as Vanessa James from 1982-1986 for Mills & Boon. The novel was published in 1987, and was an international bestseller. Beauman is a year or so older than Ruby Fox.

We’ve gone from Ruby feeling haunted by her past to her head feeling like a haunted house, to realising mid-description that her flat is haunted.

Masterman broke the door down with a single blow. A fairly modest superhuman feat, but we have to start somewhere.

Any truly distinctive character should be recognisable from a silhouette. We can see the boots, the jodhpurs, the flattop; and even if the swastika and lightning bolt are not exactly a silhouette, they are picked out against his black T-shirt. You wouldn’t mistake Masterman for anyone else.

Haunted indeed!

Masterman continues to put the frighteners on, interfering with the book-end, treating the flat as if he owns it – and why not? As far as he’s concerned he does. Along with the planet on which it happens to be built.

Above the bookshelves is a print advertising a David Bailey exhibition at the Tate Gallery. The woman pictured in front of a pylon is Ruby Fox, in her 20s, in costume as Voltage.

He’s not just talking about superpowers, of course. He’s reducing Ruby to a victim, powerless even in her own home. Someone who exists solely at the gift of her attacker.

Quite what good Ruby thought the phone would do, I don’t know. Well, there may have been a chance that the intruder was just some steroid-crazed Masterman fanboy. Neo-Nazis aren’t exactly known for their originality, after all.

And it turns out Masterman has eye beams, or optic blasts, call them what you will. We don’t see him use them in 1945 against Maximan. They could be a new development. Although the real power comes from the dark god in the driver’s seat, eyes that could withstand being used to direct and focus such energy would be a pretty impressive scientific feat in themselves.

Masterman’s offer to Ruby is not much of a lifeline, but then this is all about heightening the terror, exerting power, reducing a woman to whatever use to which Maximan may see fit to put her. Eugenics programmes and superhumanity do tend to go hand in hand, especially with Nazi-themed supervillains.

Offhand, I’m not sure if this is the first time the idea of using people as “breeding stock” has been seen in 2000 AD, but it’s certainly one of the first times. Editorial was very keen on the comic having its own answer to Marvelman or Watchmen, so Morrison had fewer constraints on their writing in terms of what themes to which they could allude, even if they stopped short of depicting them.

Ruby is lying, and not very convincingly. After all, Dr Beat and White Heat begat Zenith.

Masterman’s dubious offer of keeping Ruby alive as ‘breeding stock’ was just his way of toying with her. Seeing just what a person might accept if it’ll keep them alive for a few months longer.

Note the narrowness of the following panels. We’re following the action split-second by split-second, for what Ruby fears might be the last moments of her life. We can see the fear in her eyes as she considers any option, however desperate.

Ruby thought she’d lost her powers years ago. But with her adrenaline levels spiking, and an extremely painful death a few seconds away, she’ll try anything.

Mains electricity in the UK uses a three-pin BS 1363 type G plug, with the vertical earthing pin at the top. Three wires: earth, live, and neutral. Domestic voltage is 230V; current 13 amperes.

Not much happening in that wall outlet. But then it’s empty and switched off.

The UK domestric electricity supply in 1987 provided an alternating current at a nominal voltage of 240V at a frequency of 50Hz (It’s more like 230V now). But the real limit on the electrical discharge Ruby creates here is the flat’s 32A circuit breaker. 240V × 32A = 7,680W. 7.68kW of power per jolt.

It takes just 50-100 mA to induce ventricular fibrillation. Depending on the body’s resistance, the amount of current that would get through is still lethal. In addition, alternating current induces tetanic contraction, causing all the skeletal muscles to spasm. And that’s before we consider the amount of thermal energy emitted as the electricity passes through the target’s body.

If Masterman were human, he could expect catastrophic organ failure as his heart and lungs were paralysed, and he would be cooked all the way through.

… I’m afraid he can.

Ozone (O₃) is created when electrical discharge breaks up oxygen (O₂) molecules into single oxygen atoms. These atoms then collide and bond with the remaining O₂ molecules to form ozone.

There was no age restriction when purchasing 2000 AD. And, frankly, it’s a wonder Masterman’s language is that mild! Gendered insults, specifically following that earlier ‘breeding stock’ crack already indicate that he views her as little more than an animal. But this was 1987; IPC had just sold its comics division to Robert Maxwell, and times were changing a little bit. Tharg (as Steve MacManus, and then Richard Burton) were eager to publish Tharg’s answer to Watchmen, Marvelman, and The Dark Knight Returns, and accordingly, Morrison was able to get away with being a bit edgier.

Though a superhuman, Ruby Fox was never actually a superhero. Arguably, only Maximan was, and he was far outclassed in terms of power. Unused to an actual fight (after all, who could superhumans fight during the Task Force UK days?), Ruby hesitated, and in her disbelief gave Masterman time to recover. We could probably add a healing factor to his list of powers too, without fear of contradiction.

Ruby is still thinking in broadly human terms, sentimental about the damage done to her home, the harm done to her fish. It doesn’t stop her from doing what she must to survive.

I’d hate to be the traffic warden who tries to give Masterman a ticket for illegal parking.

Her stomach, and every other part of her into the bargain. In her panic Ruby must have performed some pretty drastic aerobatics.

Flight was also part of the standard superhuman package.

The migraine was somehow tied into the return of Ruby’s powers, then. The stress of Masterman’s pursuit forced activity in long-dormant parts of her; which she pushed farther by attempting to use her powers, which put an end to the ill effects that had been dogging her.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), better known as William Turner, was well known for his expressive colours and imaginitive landscapes. His work The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up (1838) was especially beloved. The Turner Prize is given in his name.

There’s something symbolic here. Ruby Fox’s human years are going up in flames, and her superhuman self rises from the ashes. Interestingly, the things being burnt in the panel aren’t just artifacts from Ruby’s past. They’re symbols of superhumanity too: a woman holding up a globe like a gender-swapped version of Atlas; and a Bailey print of her former superhuman identity of Voltage. Images of superhumanity, made by humans. Any human ideas of superhumanity are also going to burn up eventually.

Concerning the Help! album: the plan was for the Beatles to hold their arms out to spell the word HELP in semaphore. Finding the look unsatisfying from a graphical perspective, they tried other poses. We can tell from the Beatles’ arm positions spelling out NUJV, that this is the UK Parlophone release.

It is possible that the unidentified third record, covered partly by the copy of Help! is The Beatles, also known as The White Album because it bore no artwork or text save the band’s name embossed on the cover.

As we will see later on, Lux from Cloud 9 is a dead ringer for Jim Morrison. Jim Morrison is not the only famous person in Zenith’s universe to have a prominent doppelganger.

It’d be a very short book if he hadn’t.

I guess Masterman isn’t a music lover. But then, who knows what the Many-Angled Ones consider music?