Bill Savage - Savage

Savage

The story of Bill Savage's fight against the Volgans continued on in 2004 when 2000 AD published Savage: Taking Liberties; it took place in 2004, turning the strip into an alternate present story rather than alternate future. Savage was depicted as a far grimmer and generally sociopathic character than before; at one point, he slaughters a restaurant full of civilians simply for eating in the same place that Volgans and collaborators do.

It was revealed Bill Savage had returned to Britain to continue in the resistance after discovering the Americans had made a deal with the Volgans; outside of some background support from a CIA contact, they would not help Britain. While in America, he decided to cover up his identity by having plastic surgery to look like his late brother Jack to avoid being captured by the Volgans. He moved in with his sister Cassie and took a job at the gas company as a cover (allowing him to trigger gas explosions against Volgan patrols). A dying resistance member was made to resemble Bill and died during a suicide bombing, in order to make it seem Bill was dead while also leaving no way to properly identify the body. so his body couldn't be determined not to be Bill's. Bill's other brother Tom was aware of the switch but kept silent.

Under the guise of Jack, Savage and his allies in the Free European Army were almost successful enough to force the Volgans out in Book 1. He was subsequently captured by the secret police and later escaped, but this set off a chain of events that would inevitably lead to his cover being lost and him, Cassie and Noddy being forced to go underground in Book 3. When Volgan Marshall Vashkov was due to make a visit to Britain, Savage infiltrated the safehouse where he was staying by disguising himself as his brother Tom, who had a press pass for the building and who wanted to get back at the Volgans for the rape of his daughter. Savage was successful in killing Vashkov, though it does not appear to have done any real damage to the Volgan regime.

In the third book Bill is seeking personal vengeance against State Security agents who murdered Tom Savage after discovering he had secretly written stories that would be embarrassing for the regime. Savage and his sister Cassie killed all three of the agents responsible, only for it to be discovered that Savage's former-MI6 resistance contact had been behind it and was secretly a collaborator.