The New Dream

The New Dream is the first and only issue of After the Incal. It was based on an idea Jodorowsky had about a metallic plague affecting the whole universe. Since After the Incal is an unfinished project, the issue ends with a cliffhanger that wouldn't be resolved until the publication of Final Incal, a retelling of the same story. It was published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 2000 and colored by Studio Beltran.

Plot
John wakes up from a dream where he was falling down Suicide Alley into the Great Acid Lake. He remembers that in the dream someone gave him a mission, but he doesn't remember the details, so he takes Barbax to try to reactivate his memory. An eye spy sees this and reports it to central. Upon learning about John's awakening the Supra-divinoid orders that at the first sign of remembrance John should be disintegrated. After taking the drugs, John starts to vaguely recollect how his memory was erased by the Technos, and remembering Luz and Kolbo-5’s death (as seen in the last two issue of Before the Incal).

When the eye spy sees John remembering it starts shooting at him, but Deepo barfs on it and they successfully escape. John runs through the streets when suddenly a Techno Combat Robot appears, but he manages to dodge it. He also starts seeing how people in the streets are being affected by a mysterious virus. The cybo-cops keep looking for DiFool, so he hides in the sewers. Since the sewers are so big, Supra-divinoid suggests using tantrin gas to make John came out, even though it could affect other levels.

Meanwhile, Diavaloo is reporting about the cloning of the Prezident into a new body (a metallic robot), when suddenly the mysterious virus (now revealed to be a biophage 13X virus) starts to spread among the crowd, targeting all organic matter. John runs into the crowd and wonders what’s happening, when he sees one of the infected persons melt and a tiny metallic spider comes out of the corpse. The cybo-cops surround John, but just when the Supra-divinoid is about to order his execution the connection is lost and the cybo-cops are unable to move and their PK-56 guns won’t work either. Suddenly, a small blonde girls appears, who’s apparently the one blocking the Techno signal.

The blonde girl tells John to come with her, which he does, although he thinks he must be dreaming. The girl shape-shift into a robot, and they fly to the surface, where they can see a black golem at the top the Floating Palace. The shape shifter explains to John that the golem is the Benthacodon, a being that poses a threat to all living things, and who’s responsible for the biophage virus. According to her DiFool is a valuable asset, because he has learned the meaning of love and could defeat the Benthacodon. DiFool and the shape-shifting robot use quartz speed to get away from City Shaft.

Meanwhile, the Benthacodon takes control of the Prezident's new cloned body, eliminating the Prezident’s consciousness, which allows him to function independent of the Techno system. In the City, the virus quickly spreads inside the dome. Small metallic spiders keep coming out of the corpses, which the Benthacodon orders the cybo-cops to collect. While John gets away from City Shaft he sees war convoys and robot warships on the teflo-concrete surface heading to the city. In the meantime, the Technopope informs the Supra-divinoid that the Benthacodon is now his master. The Bethacodon, in his new metallic robot body, enters the ultra-armored temple, and tells to the Supra-divinoid that his metal body is better than the neurons of the Supra-divinoid. The aristos have also betrayed the Supra-divinoid, and have cloned themselves into a metallic body, which angers the Technopope, since he’s the one who provides the aristos with halos. The Bethacodon-prezident infects the Technopope with the virus. As a result, the Technopope melts and only his essence remain: a consciousless mineral residue, which the Bethacodon-prezident throws at the Supra-divinoid massive brain, destroying it.

The Bethacodon-prezident forces all the citizens to resign their bio-names and to clone themselves into a metallic form, by going into a proto-mineral cloner. Meanwhile, The shape-shifting robot tells John that a war between the Bethacodon’s robot army and the supra-electronic scarabs is going on right now in the planet, and he must cross enemy lines. John enters the battlefield, but he’s devoured by a supra-electronic scarab. However, DiFool isn’t actually dead, inside the scarab he encounters Elohim, the white meca-mutant (who’s fighting against the black meca-mutant, Bethacodon). Elohim explains to John that the Bethacodon has released the virus throughout the entire cosmos, threatening life everywhere in the universe, and that he’s the key that will solve the problem.

Meanwhile Deepo is brought before the Bethacodon-prezident, who gives Deepo the ability to talk, however, Deepo doesn’t know where John is. To win the war, the Bethacodon-prezident has prepared a tantalic probe that retains its full ultra-nuclear charge and is ready to launch on autopilot, but he needs a target. He taps into Deepo’s subconscious to get the information, but his brainwave is going in circles. The Bethacodon-prezident concludes that DiFool is directly under them, in the antipode. John, guided by Elohim, has actually reached the Mother Tree, the gigantic womb producing the scarabs, which he enters through the techno-vagina entrance. Inside the Mother Tree he finds the Master of Dream, Kolbo-5. John thought he was dead, but he explains that he’s from another dimension and that there are many realities. John starts to slowly remember the past, and with the power of his mind, materializes the sacred book of the Incal in the table. Upon touching it, he has a vision of Luz and fully remembers what happened. Kolbo-5 (who like the shape-shifting robot is actually an extension of Elohim) senses the tantalic probe approaching. John has a now clear mission: he must find Luz again, and with the power of their love they will become the universal antidote. John is launched from the Mother Tree as the Tantatic probe destroys it. John promises to find Luz even if he must go to the ends of the cosmos. Deepo’s future is unknown.