An ingenious concept to protect Adolf Hitler, and a rather too close encounter…

This month’s batch of Future Shocks are both fun tales – Burping Hitler, based on the tale by Rob Williams and Simon Gurr, takes the “what would you do if you could go back and kill Hitler and thereby save millions?” regular question in time travel stories and gives it a very different twist. Terry Molloy’s Adolf is suitably maniacal in the early part of the tale (the image of Boss Baby with a Hitler moustache did come to mind), but twists for the second part of the story into something that feels unique in terms of portrayal of the Third Reich’s leader.

Beware The Men in Black is based on the story by David Perry and Jesus Redondo, which I’m guessing – despite being comparatively recent – will have needed some updating for current technology by writers Karl Minns and Nathaniel Tapley. It’s basically a two-hander for Lisa Bowerman and Desiree Burch with twist after twist on another familiar genre concept, the Men in Black. Who may be even scarier in this than you might first expect.

The cast of Burping Hitler all adopt suitable Germanic accents with Rufus Hound and Tony Way also guest starring. As we’ve come to expect with these Future Shocks, there’s terrific sound design and editing from Rick Blything and Pete Dennis, and Tapley gives both stories the breadth they need to work without ever slipping into being silly.

Verdict: Another enjoyable dish served for us by The Mighty Tharg. 9/10

Paul Simpson