Most Over-rated

James Mackay: Sorry to say it, but my nomination is for Droid Life. Too many repeats of the same formula (Future Shock – with crap ending! Well-loved 2000AD classic – with bad pun!) have reduced the laugh hit-rate to maybe one every six showings. Since I’m easily pleased, that puts it on a par with Garfield. Though not Garfield the Movie. Nothing is as bad as Garfield the Movie. Except Garfield II. Man, but that sucked. What were we talking about again?

Adam Crabtree: Stickleback; Sorry to be a kill-joy, but this was a slippery beast for me. I went in expecting a bit of a kooky adventure thriller, and for a time it seemed to be in supply. Unfortunately, it struggled thereafter to find a consistent tone and approach, culminating in a blunt, unsatisfyingly callous finale. Thankfully, the second series promises greater clarity of vision (and D’Israeli’s unique work deserves no less).

Gavin Hanly: For this one, I'm going to have to pick the ABC Warriors. It's not that the strip is particularly bad, it's just that it's been saddled with a rather pedestrian script which is raised several levels by some incredible Langley art. It started so well with Hammersten's story, but the need to show how all the characters fought during the Volgan War meant that the structure of the piece, i.e. flashbacks a go-go, got in the way of entertaining storytelling (see also - later episodes of "Lost"). Hopefully things will improve now the plodding back-story is out of the way and we can get on with some proper robot skirmishes.

Charles Ellis: Mandroid: Instrument Of War Part 12. Quite unsatisfying and not building on the promise of last issue’s great cliffhanger. I expected more than THAT for Slaughterhouse’s send-off.

Robert Cornell: I don’t like using the word “over rated.” It’s a bit like saying,“everyone’s stupid except me.” Having said that, I just don’t get "Bob Byrne’s Twisted Tales", although many people obviously derive genuine pleasure from them.

I’ll get my coat…

Alex Frith: Savage: Double Yellow. Savage is a great concept and generally well-handled, but there were just too many plot nonsenses for me to be comfortable with the otherwise real-world feel to the strip, particularly in this latest outing.

Daniel Payne: Clint Langley's popularity with some 2000AD readers, and its editor, is inexplicable. His figures have all the life of static cardboard cutouts, and his computer rendering looks jarringly out of place, as do the digitised human faces. He pays little attention to story telling, instead presenting every strip as a succession of baroque illustrations linked only by the accompanying dialogue, or by repeating near-identical panels several times. The resulting work is a headache to read; though not everyone agrees, apparently.

Pete McCosh: Savage. The revitalised Invasion started off very well but has quickly descended into tiresome preaching interspersed with polemics, weapons fetishism, conspiracy theories and – very occasionally – nonsensical plotlines.

There are a lot of interesting things that could be done with the setting and maybe Mr Mills will try doing some of them next time out, but this instalment was almost as bad as Samantha Slade: Robo-Hunter.

WR Logan: He may be the father of Thrill Power but except for Savage (and even that’s not at the top of my thrill list) the so-called return-to-form of Pat Mills.

Steven Denton: Defoe. 10 parts of wordy fights that go nowhere and become progressively duller to read.  

Martin Charlton: Pat Mills. Defoe was seemingly not suited to 6 pages, Greysuit was interminably dull, The Volgan Wars had lovely art and a patchy storyline, and Blood of Satanus 3 was just insulting. And yet people continue to say he has much to offer. I give up, I really do.