Belardinelli then drew the second series of "Flesh", in which the time-travelling meat-farmers moved into the prehistoric oceans, in 1978–79. He also drew "The Angry Planet", a sci-fi serial set on colonised Mars, written by Alan Hebden, for "Tornado" in 1979, and then took over "Blackhawk", Gerry Finley-Day's strip about a Nubian slave who became a Roman centurion, when "Tornado" merged into "2000 AD" later in the year. The strip was given a sci-fi twist by new writers Alan Grant and Kelvin Gosnell, with the hero being abducted by aliens and forced to fight in a galactic arena. Grant believes the strip's popularity was down to Belardinelli's art.