It may have been written in the 21st Century but strange Encounter is mored in the Cold War days of the 1950s - 1954 to be precise: the action takes place in America and involves Kansas, Colorado, the Hoover dam and Los Alamos in a far-fetched tale involving terrorism by time travellers.

What happened was that we gotr all gung-ho with atom bombs and such, bombed the stuffing out of the world, and basically destroyed the earth for centuries to come and causing future man to look rather like an alien, all green-skinned and deformed. Future man, understandably pissed off, developed time travel and has returned from the future to stop us developing these weapons of mass destruction.

They do this by infiltrating moles into high positions, wearing life-like body coverings so they pass for normal, and recruiting the services of Colonel Orlik and former world despot Basam Dambu. They seem to think that by putting the megalomaniac tyrant in power they will obviate the threat of nuclear holocaust. Go figure.

Beautifully drawn but weakly plotted with too many words, not enough action and no humour, ie same old. same old. Don't get me wrong, I will continue to buy the Blake and Mortimer series: despite all the negative things I have to say I do actually quite enjoy them... ( )