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
Eagle (British comics) then "Eagle"s owners, the comic suffered a drastic fall in quality. The centre spreads were replaced with the historically inaccurate Last of The Saxon Kings, and letters of complaint poured in to the comic. Within months the comic's circulation fell to 150,000, and continued to drop. By 1966 it was in decline. IPC continued production until the comic's last issue, on 26 April 1969. Just short of its 1,000th edition, the comic was merged with its rival, IPC's "Lion". A modified Dan Dare was briefly featured in IPC Media's "2000 AD" (1977–1979). The public reaction to this, along with news