Dan Dare to celebrate their 20th anniversary, "2000 AD" published two issues with additional free comics, the first a reprint of the first issue of "2000 AD", which starred Dan Dare. The second free comic was a speculative issue called "3000 AD" which contained strips partially based on the first issue of "2000 AD". One strip was entitled "The Return of Dan Dare", which also featured the return of the Mekon. In 1982 "Eagle" was re-launched, with "Dan Dare" again its flagship strip. The new character was the great-great-great-grandson of the original hero—the only surviving character from the original strip being the
Revolver (comics) of graphic styles and contributors ranging from a surreal inside-the-mind-of Jimi Hendrix storyline ("Purple Days"), a psychedelic superhero in the form of Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy's "Rogan Gosh", distorted caricatures in "Pinhead Nation", plus "Happenstance and Kismet", Paul Honeyford's "Fighting Figurines", student-house antics in "Dire Streets", as well as the resurrection of Dan Dare, this time in a story called simply "Dare". In "Dare", writer Grant Morrison gave a new interpretation to the original "Eagle" character in a political story setting Dan Dare against a thinly veiled caricature of the Thatcher government. "Revolver" attempted to take advantage of the