Out Now! Rogue AI takes control in Smash! #2 – can The Spider escape?

The King of Crooks latest heist has gone badly wrong!

He has been trapped in Maxwell Tower by the caretaker computer programme running the building and Robot Archie is closing in on capturing the arch-criminal. Forced to face his fears on the nightmare inducing-thirteenth floor and evade the team-up of two AI programmes, this could be the master thief's last stand. This eighties-set thriller is brought to you by Paul Grist (Jack Staff) and Jimmy Broxton (Goldtiger).

From two very different 1960s secret agents – Jane Bond and The Steel Claw – to mechanical menaces Robot Archie and the murderous AI Max from The Thirteenth Floor, and villainous anti-hero The Spider and supernatural avenger Cursitor Doom, this is a series a whole century in the making.

This brand new mini-series unleashes the power of some of the last century’s greatest comic book characters. Having been inspired by them to create his acclaimed self-published series Jack Staff, Grist now realises his vision with the original versions of these legendary characters.

In Victorian London, when the legendary elastic-limbed escapologist Janus Stark traps a demon in a stone idol, hoping to seal away the malevolent monster for all time – yet he has just created a prize too alluring for criminal masterminds to resist!

Sixty years later, terrifying high-tech thief The Spider organises a heist for his Crime Syndicate to the steal the statuette. But heroes from across the ages unite to confound the king of crime, and prevent him from unleashing the demon hidden inside. Can they succeed and keep the evil of the stone idol contained?

Issue #2 of Smash! is out now! Please beware sinister robots offering you any alternative comics. Available in all good comics stores, or direct from the 2000 AD Webshop here!