Prog 1317 - 13 November 2002
Cover by Steve Yeowell & Chris Blythe

Synopsis and 1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd opinion by W.R. Logan

GH: We certainly get an "in-your-face" cover from Steve Yeowell this week. Quite nice, but that dog's a lot bigger on the cover than he is in the story...

WRL: The Galaxy's Greatest Comic has given us some of the most eye-catching and stunning covers ever to grace any comic, but alas not this week. Muddy brown colouring and an image that doesn't inspire me to jump straight to Red Seas, in fact I doubt that it would be much of an attention grabber if I'd seen it on my local Thrill Merchants shelves.

Reprisal
Synopsis: The leader of an MC1 genetic infantry division, Kreig, is giving evidence to a judicial committee (headed by Dredd) regarding a recent attack on the New Kremlin, in reprisal for the recent Sin City affair. During the attach, many civilians are killed. They find the laboratories that created the virus, and capture chemists and the direktorat, torturing them to get them to confess to the creation of the virus - which they do.

On the return flight, with their prisoners in tow, Krieg alleges that the captives all committed suicide by jumping overboard. In reality, the GIs killed them all. Dredd doesn't believe Kreig's story, but can't do anything about it. Instead he assigns his division to Methanos 12 - "the worst hellpit this city can provide". Krieg doesn't seem too bothered...

GH: A massive improvement on recent Dredd tales, as we get closer and closer to a potentially new Mega Epic. The juxtaposition of the trial and the actual events - especially the "suicide" works very well, and the GIs are put across as very nasty pieces of work indeed. I get the feeling we haven't heard the last of these, as they could become a decent pack of villains. Dredd is portrayed well here too, as he agrees with the GIs, but not with their methods.

Paul Marshall provides some great Dredd art, and once again proves to be quite at home on this series. It'd be nice to see more of his work in the comic.

WRL: Paul Marshall seems to be the Droid of choice for depicting the Judges' genetic infantry forces and he turns in a reasonably good job. Can't work out whether it's his art or Chris Blythe's colouring but the artwork looks too clean and not as gritty as a battle scene would be depicted by other great war artists such as Ezquerra or Kennedy.

Dredd seems tied by Judicial procedure and unable to sentence Kreig and his forces as he would want, but even Dredd's solution seems to lack any real justice as Kreig looks pleased at the sentence. I look forward to seeing Kreig and his forces at some future date and Dredd being able to dispense the Justice that they deserve.

A nice one off story that keeps what happened in Sin City at the forefront of readers minds awaiting the trial of Orlok.

Under the Banner of King Death - Part 5
Synopsis: Captain Dancer visits a shaman to try and find the whereabouts of Isabella. The shaman summons the dead, but they refuse to help. He then takes Dancer's hand, handing, and apparently stinging, him with a scorpion. Dancer immediately appears in the land of the dead, confronted by a large two headed dog "Erebus, gatekeeper of the bridge of sighs". Dancer tries to get the dog to assist him, but is refused, after which Dancer stings him with the scorpion.

He then appears back with the shaman, with the dog. The shaman beheads the dog, and says the heads will work as a spirit compass to track down isabella. The shaman reveals himself as Isabella's father.

GH: As suspected, Dancer is on the trail of Isabella, but not in the way I imagined. Edgington is heavily playing up the magic element of this series, much more than I expected. It works well, though, and explains why a pirate story is quite at home in 2000AD. Again Yeowell provides some sterling black and white art (and his art does look better in B&W than it does on the colour cover).

Part 5
Synopsis: The death squads continue, as Holt is forced to watch. Belly telepathically becomes aware of his son's death and swears vengeance. Ashcroft removes Holt's eye, as Belly attacks. Megan releases Holt, swearing that she didn't know what was really happening, and that she was threatened. Holt pushes her aside, but is himself pushed into the 36,000 KM "tether tube that connects the station with the alien island"...

GH: I feared that this story might have been moving towards a premature finish, but with Holt's plummet to Earth, it looks like the scope is about to be widened. Good to see the aliens striking back, but I didn't know what to make of Megan's about-turn. It seems a little unconvincing after her easy betrayal of Holt last week. The art is still great - but a little confused in places. Holt and Belly were killing away, but I wasn't actually sure who their victims were, or if they were any of the main characters. I assume they aren't but it is quite hard to tell...

Warts 'n All
Synopsis: The English Civil War. Apparently the people favoured the Royalists, and were about to win. However Cromwell was really in league with the devil, and signs a deal to help him win the war. As Cromwell was responsible for the historical documents, it was never revealed that the devil gave him a bunch of tanks to win the war...

GH: OK - this is the first Past Imperfect I've more or less warmed too. The story isn't up to much, to be frank, but the rhyming script, and a very funny pay-off help do raise the bar a little. It is, of course, greatly helped by the presence of David Roach on art. It's been a while since we've seen his work in 2000AD, and his art here puts all the previous PA artists to shame. He works especially well in B&W, so if 2000AD inisists on having 2 B&W episodes every week, why not get Roach back on board for a longer storyline?

The Off-Lode Experience - Part 5
Synopsis: S&D arrive on the planet "Nice" to look for recent sightings of Lux's ship. Apparently Lux is after galactic peace, which he hopes to achieve by exterminating all "perpetrators o' violence". An alien, "Earwig", sees them and panics, running to his boss Bingo Wings to alert him. Bingo fled Downlode, and thinks SD are now after him. McCandless gets a lead on Lux's ship as a brick comes through the window - arranging a mysterious meet up at the "mud pits". As S&D get there, a grenade is chucked at them, and Bingo and his gang attack...

GH: Still as good as ever, with Abnett's humour helping things to chug along nicely. I'm running out of superlatives for this strip. I usually enjoy SD, but this series is way more fun than anything that's preceded it. It's probably the combination of a wider supporting cast and the opportunity for varied locales that helps, but hopefully this story's got a while to run yet. And Davis' art is as good as ever, in what is shaping up to be his best work.