Prog 1327 - 12 February 2003
Cover by Anthony Williams

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

GH: Anthony Williams' first VC cover is a striking affair. Clean, well posed, and with a good tagline. Smith does look a little young, but apart from that, pretty good. It does, however, make the cardinal sin of obscuring the logo, and as I've said before, that's a pet hate of mine. Also - isn't it about time we got a Dante cover?

WRL: Easily the best cover that Anthony Williams has ever produced for 2000AD but if you look at Anthony’s profile page over at 2000AD online you’ll see that that in itself isn’t the greatest compliment. Saying that though, this is a good cover and one where the artwork, layout and cover blurb all work together to make it stand out from the crowd.

Dredd vs Aliens: Incubus - Part 7
Synopsis: Dredd kicks the writhing alien off the roof before its acid burns through the train. It plummets hundreds of stories eventually exploding on the road, creating an enormous acid-fused crater.

Back at the Grand Hall, they study the facehugger on Brubaker, and confirm that it's creating a new Alien - but they can't do anything about it without killing Brubaker. Judge Giant briefs a taskforce, including Dredd and Sanchez. The body in the warehouse belonged to a neighbour that had annoyed Godber with loud "Skash" music. They also link Godber with Jeramiah (see episode 1). Jeramiah they track back to Frank Ryam - AKA Futsie - another member of the "anti-judge brigade". The judges have to find Futsie.

Futsie, meanwhile is in the undercity, and meets up with some troggs - who are to take him to see Mr Bones - "And I can tell you he is not going to be happy!" (Note. Bones was last seen in Prog 1316)

GH: Well I mentioned last week that I was ready for some more intrigue, and Diggle and Wagner are starting to deliver. A few weeks ago, there was another review of 2000AD which asserted that the Aliens had been given too much prominence over Dredd in the story, something I disagreed with. And this week's episode backs that up. We all knew that Mr Bones would make a comeback after the werewolf affair - but who knew it would be in this massive crossover?

This highlights a good aspect of the Dredd crossovers (especially the Batman ones) - that Wagner makes an effort to draw them into the continuity of the character, and not just as one off events, never to be remembered, or indeed have any lasting effect. This just raises the bar even higher for other inter-company crossovers.

As ever, Flint delivers an amazing set piece, as well as some great pacing on the more expository scenes. I look forward to seeing more of his undercity next week, as what we've seen so far look great. And as for the plummeting alien - absolutely amazing.

WRL: Last week I said "Henry Flint once again shows that not only is he "the" Dredd artist of the modern age, but take away Tom Frames excellent lettering and his storytelling is flawless.” Well, in this weeks Dredd/Aliens episode we get two full pages with only one speech bubble and it just confirms my opinion that Henry Flint is the best storyteller since Mike McMahon - high praise but completely justified.
Considering that the first page is the end of the fight started in last weeks Prog, followed by two pages with next to no speech balloons or captions this episode fits in a lot of story in the last three pages. We finally get to see that there’s more to this story than just Dredd and the Alien facing of against each other, and already you find it hard to believe that this won’t be in the running for best Dredd/2000AD story come the end of the year.

Enlightenment
Synopsis: Kawl smokes some pot in the park while conjuring a pagan deity for Bec. Bec wants to know "The Truth" - the meaning of life, so she can become rich. The deity tells her of a pagan sorceress who builds an ark to fly to the stars. But the ark blew up. Bec doesn't get it and leaves. Kawl throws away his joint which sets fire to the grass.

GH: Well, I was dreading this. I found Bec and Cawl to be the greatest piece of excrement last time I was unfortunate to witness their adventures, and I was somewhat wary of their return. But yes, it's still a big piece of crap.

I've been catching up on Thrill Power Overload, the story of 2000AD, in the Megazine which said that in the past, 2000AD had a policy to print everything that was commissioned, regardless of whether or not it turned out to be good. But I thought those days were gone? What other reason could there be for this seeing print? It seems destined to rest in the same burial pit as The Space Girls and Babe Race 2000 before it. I mean - look at this week's story - nothing of any interest or humour occurs!!

Perhaps this is my payback for berating my co-reviewer over his strong reaction to Sinister Dexter? I hereby vow never to do it again! Now before I go - I should remind you all that I liked Spurrier's work on The Scrap - so I know he can do much better than this. But that makes me even more vehement in my condemnation of this garbage. Oh, the art's OK - but suffers terribly due to the story surrounding it...

I've got 3 weeks left of this. And I have to summarise the bloody thing too. Bah...

WRL: Thank god that there’s no Sin/Dex in this weeks prog! So what am I going to do with all that piss and vinegar that I usually spew in each review? Well it isn’t going to be here. Don’t ask me why, but Spurrier and Roberts' work on Bec & Kawl has managed to bring a smile to my face with their previous stories and continue to do so with their return. Si Spurrier seems to have cut down on the media references and although I may never put Bec And Kawl on my top 10 list, they don’t get on my wick as other stories do. The light relief that they bring is a welcome change of pace.
Artists are always putting in little visual jokes into their artwork and Steve Roberts has managed to squeeze one into to panel 3 on page 1. It’s better that many I can remember from recent times. It fits the story and doesn’t seem to be there just to relieve an artist bored to tears at 3am in the morning and trying to find a reason to keep going.

Look on the Bright Side
Synopsis: The VCs are after Geeks on CSP845, an asteroid orbiting the sun, with 5 minutes night and 5 minutes daytime of extreme light and heat - during which they can do nothing but "duck and cover". They find their target, a shielded Geek lander, but they're spotted, and it's too heavily armoured to take out from their vantage point. Smith "does the math" and as the next "day" arrives, and both he and the Geeks are effectively blind, he fires his jetpack and flies over the ship - dropping his high explosive once he's directly over. He lands heavily - but OK - on the other side of the now destroyed ship.

GH: This marks Anthony Williams' first foray into real VC action. And it's pretty good - especially with his computer effects. Real effort is put in for these showy special effects, which demonstrate the blazing day well. It's true to say that his work will suffer in comparison to Henry Flint, who made such a huge impact in the last series, but Williams could prove himself to be a worthy successor.

The story is OK - but the one-off nature of it is somewhat uninvolving. The same can be said for Abnett's one-off Sinister Dexter stories. It's OK, but he produces much better work when it's part of an ongoing narrative. I do hope we're going to see a little more character development in further issues, and not just a run of one-offs.

The Statue Garden
Synopsis: Two men met in a bar. The younger one want to know more about a mysterious sculptor who produces mesmerising work. The older one tells about how he tried to find her, and after hitting numerous dead ends decided the best way was through her "statue garden" where she produced her work. Finding the location, he and his assembled team found the garden and started to take a statue - when they hear a hissing sound. hey drop the statue, knocking the narrator into a pool, as they see who is following them - a medusa! Both men turn to stone ---- and the narrator escapes, merely glancing back to see. In the bar, he reveals his eyes, previously hidden behind dark glasses, and both have turned to stone.

GH: Another "future shock with a different name" but it's not bad. The end is kind of signposted when you see the statues on page two, but the medusa aspect still comes as a surprise. And at least the surprise ending actually comes on the last page. I'd just like to see a little more humour in these future shocks - as seen in the classic Alan Moore ones.

Dom Reardon produces very good "Sean Phillips" style artwork here. It's much better than his recent work in Caballistics inc - showing that his strengths lie in small scale stories rather than big set pieces. Let's hope Gordon Rennie starts drawing on these strengths in the next Caballistics series.

Hell and High Water - Part 7
Synopsis: A young thief tries to steal an armed woman's bag of coins, but is caught and thrown to the ground. It's Dante's mother, who then throws him the bag of coins anyway. Marguerite is with her, who chastises her for letting the boy off so easily. She tells Captain Dante that people think she's getting soft, and Dante replies that maybe it's time to quit. Then, they are alerted to an unescorted skimmer leaving Pacifica, so Dante and her crew go out to grab it. They board the ship, which seems abandoned. Ready for a trap, they burst into the bridge, finding Nikolai Dante there with a bottle of champagne.

"Nikolai..."
"Mama."

GH: The opening of this reminds up very much of the first episode, and it's only on page two where we are sure that it's not another flashback. It's a testament to John Burns art that he can pick off such a trick like this. His older versions of Captain Dante and Marguerite are also great, looking like accurately aged versions of their previous selves. But it's the final page of the relaxed Dante pouring champagne where Burns really shows off. It depicts the Russian Rogue in true laid back splendour.

As for the story, we're finally getting to see the point of the first episode, and the focus that this story is to play on Dante's relationship with his mother. Will there be a reconciliation of sorts? One thing's for sure, this series takes so many unexpected turns, that it's difficult to tell. Morrison revealed in the Megazine that Nikolai Dante's story was initially only going to start with the fall of the Romanovs - so there must be a lot to tell yet...

WRL: Once again, Dante is the last story in the prog and again you are guaranteed to close the prog on a high. The opening page is deliberately deceiving, making you think it's another flashback to Dante's youth, but no, we are reintroduced to Katarina Dante and Marguerite in a very similar setting to that first episode back in Prog 2003. In previous reviews I’ve gone on about John Burns’ artwork and the fact that Dante should be at the back of the prog, but maybe haven’t mentioned the fact that Robbie Morrison continues to produce work that provides that high as you turn the prog's final page. If this was being printed at any other time, except for when Dredd/Aliens was opening the Prog, it would have probably scored at least one hit as the best story appearing in 2000. And the last panel is Dante at its best.