Episode V : “No cure for Kansyr, part two”
First print date: June 28 1978
Prog appearance: Starlord issue 7
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Carlos Ezquerra
Total episodes: 2
As Johnny and Wulf face each other, Alpha reasons that the only way his partner would attack him would be if he, too, saw an alien, and so he must see Johnny as one. Now he realises that Kansyr must be close by, using the very machine that led to Sniffer Martinez's death, the Halugin. He entreats Wulf to look in the mirror, where the giant viking can see his own reflection, and that of his partner. Kansyr obviously can't control, or forgot to, the images in the mirror and each can see the other as he really is. Foiled in his attempts to have the two Strontium Dogs kill each other, Kansyr uses a heat beam to set fire to the bar. Trapped, Johnny uses a Time Bomb to move them three seconds forward into the future, by which time the asteroid has moved on, but not enough to leave them choking on vacuum, just out into the street.
Here they encounter Kansyr, and go for their weapons, only to find it is yet another image created by the Halugin. Then from out of nowhere a shot takes Wulf down! Next dozens of images surround Alpha, and he does not know which one is the real Kansyr. The criminal is having fun now: he has downed Alpha's partner and now he intends to confuse him until the S/D agent runs out of ammunition, or tires, and Kansyr can pick him off easily. But Kansyr grows impatient, and shoots Alpha, who falls. Standing over him, the alien leers down at him, telling him he wants him to see the man he boned (ooer!) before he dies. Johnny puts his blaster to his head, telling Kansyr he won't give him the pleasure of killing him, but in fact Johnny has set the adjustable range finder in his gun to pass through his head and have the beam explode inside Kansyr as he stands over him. The criminal is dead, and he probably never even realised he had been tricked at the last.
Wulf has of course not been killed, just wounded, and Johnny patches him up as they prepare to leave the asteroid, seven years of hurt and anger assuaged, the job done, revenge accomplished.
Quotes
Johnny: “There he is! Seven years ago he killed my best friend, and I boned his hand. We'll split the reward, but this is my fight, Wulf.”
Wulf: “No, Johnny. Where you go, I go.”
Tools of the Trade
Not strictly a tool, but it's interesting and informative that the blaster can be set to different depths, so that its beam can pass through something and hit something further along. This allows Johnny to fool Kansyr into thinking he is committing suicide when he puts the gun to his own head, when in fact he is lining the alien up for a kill shot.
Aliens!
Lazians
Kansyr is from the planet Laz, and so although the phrase is not used we can assume his species is Lazian. Either way, they're basically humanoid but much taller than a human, with a small bulbous head, powerful arms and legs and a face that reminds me of Spiderman's mask; kind of webbed pattern all over it and all that is visible are the eyes, slanted at an angle, wide and rimmed in black.
Fundian Slime Drippler
Wulf sees Johnny “change into” this form under the effects of the Halugin. The alien is like a huge worm, with a twisting, coiled body, its head ending in a flower-like opening out of which what may be an eye peeks. It seems to have two arms, but unlike humanoids they end in short, clawed hands with three fingers on each.
Preying Zorg
On the flipside, this is what Johnny sees when he looks at Wulf. The Praying Zorg stands certainly as tall as the viking bounty hunter, and possibly taller, with an armoured carapace, two spindly but long arms and two spindly legs. Its head is like that of a grasshopper, with powerful mandibles in which rows of sharp teeth can be seen, and very large black eyes like those of a fly.
Personal Darkness
Here we learn some more of Johnny's past, and see that Wulf was not always his partner. On the contrary, they have been working together for less than seven years, as we're told that prior to this Johnny had another partner, Sniffer Martinez, who fell to the treachery of Kansyr. In this story, Alpha proves that though he usually does his best to play by the book, he is not above a little personal revenge. He again bemoans the social status of mutants when he snarls “They didn't think killing a Strontium Dog was such a crime” and it's clear that he thinks little of the entire world of Metastis, which is known to be an unofficial refuge for the scum of the galaxy, and if he could get away with destroying the entire asteroid, he probably would do it.