Eagle (British comics) of a planned television series, persuaded IPC's comic arm Fleetway to relaunch "Eagle" in 1982, as a weekly comic edited by Dave Hunt. The original Dan Dare was no longer a feature of the comic, his eponymous great-great grandson taking on the mantle of space explorer instead. Drawn by Gerry Embleton, and later Ian Kennedy, and set 200 years after the original story, the first story-arc featured the return of Dan Dare's earliest nemesis, The Mekon. IPC were unable to recreate the popularity of the original strip, and in 1989 the original Dan Dare returned to the comic, in a
Dan Dare inside of the comic, in black and white, and was drawn by Keith Watson. Over the remaining years the strip varied in format and quality, eventually returning to the front page in colour, until it ended in 1967 with Dan retiring to become Space Fleet controller. Strips from the 1950s were reprinted until 1969, when "Eagle" merged with "Lion". For a while the reprints continued in black and white in "Lion". In 1977, Dan Dare appeared again in the first issue of "2000 AD" (26 February 1977). The first instalment, scripted by Ken Armstrong and Pat Mills, had the character