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Bill Savage

Bill Savage
Real name
William Alfred Savage
Current alias
Bill Savage
Aliases
Ulrich Wilder
Alignment
Affiliation
The monarchy
Relatives
Jack Savage (brother, deceased); Tom Savage (brother, deceased); unnamed niece; Cassie Savage (sister); Noddie (brother-in-law); Sheena Savage (wife, deceased); unnamed daughter (deceased); Kelvin Savage (son, deceased)
Universe
Base of operations
Wherever there are Volgans

Characteristics
Gender
Hair
Status
Citizenship
Marital status
Occupation
Freedom fighter
Origin
Origin
Normal human birth
Place of birth
First appearance
Last appearance

2000 AD prog 2010 (published Dec 2016)

History[]

Bill Savage was a lorry driver from East London, who lived in an alternate universe in which Britain was flooded in 1990 when a nuclear accident caused melting of the polar ice cap (see Disaster 1990!). Savage (aided by Professor Steve Bamber) helped in a small way to restore order, but in 1999 the country was invaded by the Volgans, his world's version of the USSR. On March 31st 1999, Savage's wife and children were killed by a Volgan driving a tank (see Invasion!).

Savage launched a one-man war on the Volgans which led to him being recruited into the resistance by Lt. Peter Silk. Savage became a leader of the resistance and continued the fight after Silk was murdered, eventually having plastic surgery to hide his identity by adopting that of his late brother, Jack, who had supposedly died when the Volgans nuked Birmingham (though in fact, Jack was eventually revealed to have been a Volgan collaborator). During the Volgan occupation Savage kept up the morale of the British public by actions such as singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' live on national television, writing graffiti on Hadrian's wall, and blowing up Nelson's column so that it landed on a group of Volgan tanks.

Bill's other brother, Tom, initially a collaborator, was also murdered after seeking revenge on Volgans who raped his daughter, and Bill's brother-in-law Noddie suffered brain damage at the Volgans' hands. Consequently, Bill has over time become battle-hardened to the point of sociopathy.

When Britain was liberated from the Volgans Jack revealed to Bill that he was still alive, and claimed that Bill had only survived for so long because he, Jack, had been pulling strings for him while he worked for the Volgans. He then committed suicide by jumping in front of one of Howard Quartz's drones, dying in Bill's arms as he asked him to look after his Volgan family.

After his friend Rusty O'Dell was elected Britain's first post-Volgan Prime Minister, Bill left to aid the anti-Volgan resistance in the rest of Europe.

Powers and abilities[]

Abilities

Lorry driving; always knowing exactly where he is in London even if blindfolded; being a very strong swimmer.

Strength level

Peak human male.

Weaknesses

Anger management issues.

Paraphernalia[]

Equipment

Binoculars; smartphone.

Transportation

Has been known to use a road-laying machine, various boats, an amphibious Army vehicle nicknamed "the Duck", a coal lorry and a Ford van.

Weapons

Shotgun (apparently waterproof); rocket launcher; grenades; grenade launcher; plasma knife; laser lightning gun; pulse gun; plasma gun; spade.

Notes[]

  • Bill Savage first appeared in Invasion! from 2000 AD progs 1-51, and then starred in its prequel, Disaster 1990 in progs 119-139 before returning again in Savage, which picked up where Invasion! left off, in progs 1387-1396. The saga has so far continued in 2000 AD progs 1450-1459, 1526-1535, 1577-1586, 1632-1641, 1685-1699, 1740-1749, 2013 (Christmas issue), 1813-1823 and 2015 (another Christmas issue).
  • Savage's war with the Volgans ties in with two other long-running 2000 AD strips, Ro-Busters and ABC Warriors (and ABC Warriors is also set in the same universe as Nemesis the Warlock, depressingly implying that no matter how hard Bill Savage fights, Torquemada is inevitably going to end up in charge).

Trivia[]

  • Another version of Bill Savage appeared in the Armoured Gideon story The Collector in 2000 AD progs 889-899 and was revealed to be a ghost, Savage having died when his shotgun went off while he was cleaning it in a Volgan ammo store. This was presumably an alternate universe version of Savage.
  • Bill Savage featured in a one-page humour strip in the 2000 AD 40th Anniversary Special which was written by Matt Smith and drawn by Rufus Dayglo.

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