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 format with a more realistic style, written by Gerry Finley-Day and Jack Adrian (Chris Lowder) and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Dare was now launched on a deep space mission, much in the style of "" but with technology designs very much influenced by "Star Wars". In a series of episodic adventures, Dare encountered various threats, including an extended multi-episode adventure uniting slave races in opposition to the "Star Slayers" – the oppressive race controlling that region. The overall mission had a surprisingly downbeat ending, leaving a space-suited Dare the only survivor, adrift in space on wreckage. The strip was rested