Finn (comics)

For the Marvel Comics character, see Fin (comics).

Finn was a pagan warlock anti-hero of a comic strip written by Pat Mills. He first appeared in British fortnightly anthology comic Crisis in 1989, and later moved to 2000 AD when Crisis was cancelled in 1991. In Crisis he started as a supporting character called Paul in the strip Third World War, before becoming prominent. In 2000 AD he starred in his own eponymous series.

In Third World War it was established that Paul was once a soldier in the British Army stationed in Northern Ireland, but he deserted to become an eco-terrorist fighting to save the planet from multi-national corporations, using the alias "Finn." Third World War started as a relatively down-to-earth story set in 2000, with very little in the way of fantasy or science fiction but that changed as Finn became prominent. In his own strip in 2000 AD it emerged that the leaders of the corporations were in fact powerful aliens, called "Newts." In this strip Finn was a Cornish mini-cab driver by day, and a white witch fighting the aliens by night. He used military equipment alongside magical items such as the Hand of Glory.

After three full-length series, the character was suspended due to concerns that he was too similar to Mills' Sláine strip, despite many fans' requests for a cross-over story. It has not been revived since.

Though on a recent interview in Everything Comes Back To 2000AD (a fan podcast of both 2000AD and Judge Dredd The Megazine), Mills has gone on to say that Finn was "forcibly cancelled" due to giving Slaine too much unfair competition, which could have been used to better Slaine instead.

Bibliography

He has appeared first as a supporting character in the series Third World War in the comics magazine Crisis then in the eponymous strip in 2000 AD:

References