Prog 1339 - 7 May 2003
Cover by Clint Langley

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by Jamie Brackell

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers.

GH: Clint Langley seems to be the artist of choice for Caballistics covers, and he turns in another this week. It's a little dark (as can be the case with his work) and I think would have benefited from eliminating the foggy background altogether for a much more arresting image. I have, however, been totally fascinated about how he managed to achieve that leather-like look to Verse's coat, which is very impressive indeed. Langley puts loads of touches like this into his work, and while I have had problems with it personally in the past, there's a lot to admire in it.

JB: Clint Langley’s computer generated art is usually dark, like in the latest Slaine tale, but here on this cover it is fairly clear and shows some good detail on the demon. I just wished that the demons in Caballistics inside the prog could look as scary as the one on the cover.

Hard Day's Night Part 1

Synopsis: Dredd responds to a "Judge down" call, finding that the kidnapping has taken place of Casey Schweiker, son of property tycoon Rudy Schweiker. Judge Callahan, a 30 year veteran who Dredd knew, and the bodyguard are both dead. Two perps wearing blur masks escaped. Cadet Judge Moreno, Callahan's rookie on final assessment, survived and says they were called to investigate a camera failure - thinking it was to cover up a criminal act. When they got to the scene, Callahan was shot and Moreno beaten - but he scratched the perp and got a DNA sample. Moreno wants to continue his exam, and Dredd takes him along.

They trace the DNA to Pablo Salazar, and track him to his girlfriend's apartment. On the way Dredd says Moreno's file shows use of excessive force, but Moreno says he was only modelling himself after Dredd. Getting to the apartment, Moreno bursts in after hearing a child crying, and they find Salazar dead, killed by his girlfriend who says he started hitting her. HQ says the Salazars have received a ransom demand - if it's not paid by midnight, the boy will be killed.

GH: I haven't really seen much of Patrick Goddard's work since most of it has appeared in the Megazine. Having only recently come in from the cold, and embraced the new look Megazine since issue 200, I've missed much of his work on the lawman there. And judging by this work, working together with Dylan Teague on inks, it looks like I've missed quite a lot. An immediately eye-catching image of the dead judge opens the episode, and I particularly like the way the badge is obscured, so you don't know if it's Dredd or not. Goddard also seems to be comfortable with the action set-pieces; the kidnapping, and indeed the kicking down of the apartment door are handled with ease. Together with clear inking by Teague, and masterful colouring by Blythe, especially on the flashback and on the rain-soaked streets, this is great Dredd artwork all round.

Robbie Morrison, meanwhile, turns in another well scripted Dredd tale. It seems like an everyday kidnapping/rookie in training hybrid of a story, but there's enough questions raised by the opener to make me look forward to next week's episode. There's been a fair amount of these cadet in training stories, so here's hoping Morrison can pull something out of the bag to make this one special.

JB: It’s time for another change in tone with a more serious story compared to last week’s tale. The story seems a standard cadet judge examination, which has been seen a few times before, and I am hoping that there is a twist to the tale somewhere along the line. It seems strange that the cadet was only beaten and not killed…but maybe I’m getting too suspicious.

The art is seems darker in this tale with heavy uses of dark blues and greys which suits the tone of this story. The first page shows a panel with a bleeding judge that looks like Dredd, which immediately grabbed my attention and made me read on. One small gripe about the art is the over emphasise of graffiti in some panels, which tends to make them look crowded.

Breaking Out - Part 3

Synopsis: Simmons and Chapter take the Mini, looking for the escapees. Chapter says that she and Verse aren't an item, and besides she "isn't really into the opposite-gender sexual relationship thing". Meanwhile, at a graveyard, Verse is asked by Brand if their names are real, and he replies "you'd be surprised...how much extra work a dumb gimmick like that brings in". Brand reveals that Ravne has been asking him whether Simmons has shows signs of paranormal activity, although Brand says she had shown nothing special. They find an open grave and realise the escapees are Necrophages - corpse eaters - middle order demons. Verse readies his crucifix and shotgun as the demon appears behind them.

Meanwhile, Chapter & Simmons have pulled over at the abattoir because Simmons had a "weird feeling". They go in and are attacked by the other demon, and Chapter starts shooting at it to no avail. She tells Simmons to get back to the car, but when she turns round to see her she stops. Simmons has been taken over by her "special new friend" (first seen in 1332), and looks like a fiery demon herself. "I think it's best if I handle this, don't you agree".

GH: As I keep saying, I'm continually surprised by how much I'm starting to like Caballistics. And I think it's due to set-ups like this week's - breaking up the group into two mismatched pairs, cleverly done to reveal a little more of the backstory of each of the characters. I wasn't expecting Simmons' inner demon to show its face so soon, either, but I'm sure Rennie has this all worked out in his masterplan.

Reardon continues to experiment with panel layouts, and is clearly growing as an artist. The longer he stays on Caballistics, the better he's clearly going to become. The graveyard scenes in particular are extremely moody, and the final panel showing Jenny's "special new friend" works well as a surprising reveal. It also has to be said that with the amount of gore in this series, I'm beginning to be rather glad that it's not in colour...

JB: It’s taken me a while but I am beginning to warm to this story. The characters of Chapter and Verse are fleshed out a bit more and the team appear to be bonding. The cliffhanger at the end makes me wonder what will happen now the secret of Jenny’s other self is revealed. This story arc seems to be addressing the questions that were raised a few storylines ago such as Kostabi’s secrets and Jenny’s demon half, which makes me wonder whether this is the last storyline for a while.

With the art on the cover upstaging the art inside, my opinions of this strip’s black and white look are not any better than last week. The art still looks sketchy and the shadows still seem quite thick.

Part 3

Synopsis: The two aliens, in their human form, carry Lara off to a car park - and their conversation indicates that they have been "sleeved" in human form - and that someone called Proteus has a jailbreak plan. They're watched by Rose and Carter (the 1st time we've seen these two) - as Rose prepares to gun down the "sleeves". Carter stops her, saying that killing them is the last option only.

Back at the car, they put Lara in the boot, and then realise that they've lost the keys. Lara has them, is awake, and beats the two sleeves unconscious (according to Carter, she was a combat surgeon before). She escapes in the car, telling her boyfriend Marcus that she's on her way to meet him, and that someone tried to kidnap her. She gets to his appartment, and sees Marcus is actually an alien himself, talking to the old lady on a vid phone. "Oh, you know me. I'm just full of surprises..."

GH: Aha - I saw that end coming a mile off (as smugly proven in last week's review). Not that that's a bad thing, of course. Edgington has been continually drip-feeding us with heaps of information to fill in the backstory of Interceptor, that there seems no way it's going to all be resolved in the 9 episodes (hopefully indicating a second series?). I'm not that sure about Lyra as a heroine, yet. She seems a little one dimensional so far - but then she really hasn't had anyone to bounce off of yet, since most of her dialogue has been expositional and to herself. That should change with next week's encounter.

The art's still bloody great. Pugh's art seems to have become much tighter (for lack of a better word) since I last saw it, with the clearer and more economical lines suiting the story well. It also helps that he draws a mean looking alien too. I should also mention Len O Grady's colouring this week, which is particularly effective in the last two pages at showing the city at dusk. Altogether, world class art is on show.

JB: More characters are introduced to the tale and we are beginning to see two sides fighting over the "Orrery", which Lyra has possession of. With the fact that the aliens can ‘sleeve’ themselves in human bodies, it makes it harder to trust whether characters are human or not as is shown with the reveal that Marcus Cross is in fact an alien. I like the ‘trust no-one’ attitude of this strip and hope there are plenty more surprises to come as the conspiracies are revealed.

Steve Pugh continues to draw good character designs, as they are instantly recognisable with their own styles making it easier to follow which characters are which. I am enjoying the futuristic look to this series and the variety of alien forms that we get to see, each looking individual and scary.

The Shadow Warriors - Part 4

Instead of firing on the Behemeks, the ABC's artillery starts firing on their own human ground troops. They think it's computer error, but Mek Quake believes it's Deus X Machina - the urban myth, about an "imaginary robot" that Martian conspiracy theorists like to blame when things go wrong - the "ghost in the machine". The Behemek gets closer as the warriors concentrate fire on one part of it's hull, eventually breaking through and destroying it.

They head back to base to find out what went wrong with the artillery battery, as Mek Quake continues his Deus X conspiracy theories. They meet up with their own tanks - which begin firing on them. The humans inside the tanks have lost control of them - "it's like there's a ghost in the machine!" - a phrase the Warriors hear. Could Mek Quake actually be right for once?

GH: Hmm - I was initially not sure about this Deus Ex Machina stuff (it seems a little too corny), it actually works quite well as Mek Quake's obsession with conspiracies comes to the fore. "Machina" is almost certainly one of the shadow warriors - but who is he matched against? Deadlock? A very nice joke about Mek Quake possible being right about something for the first time ever rounds off yet another highly readable ABC story. I still have no idea about what side they're fighting on - or what for, mind you...

Ezquerra continues to have fun with the warriors, with only Steelhorn perhaps being more suited to the style of Henry Flint (which, as his designer shouldn't be too surprising). He does draw a mean tank though, and depicts the carnage of a battlefield with aplomb.

JB: Some more exposition with the introduction of what may be the third shadow warrior: Deus X Machina. The pace of this tale seems to be slow and Mills is taking his time to introduce all seven Shadow Warriors but I am hoping that some action begins soon.

The art remains as good as before with Ezquerra drawing some good explosions in black and white. I’ve always found explosions to be more effective when drawn in black and white and Ezquerra continues to show this.

Pax Americana - Part 4

Tiger drops by parachute into Northern Alaska, with orders that this is a zero engagement mission. Stollen is in the base and has detected the stealth bomber - and orders the Damocles crew to stand by. They fire SAMs at Snow's bomber, using their own satellites to track them - but narrowly miss with the first missile.

Back on the ground, Tiger fires a rocket straight in to the missile launcher bunker - destroying it. Two survivors chase after him, splitting up as they do. Tiger hangs one of them, and stabs the other. Back in the sky, the missile has reacquired the bomber and it takes a hit, crash landing in the snow.

GH: Sorry - I'm still taking some time to warm up to this series. Perhaps it's that it seems a little too much like a video game to me (although this could well be the whole point) and as such, just not very deep? Or perhaps it's just that I still really don't like Tiger at all (but at least he doesn't say much this time)? This series does have clear potential - after all, there's nothing else like it in in comic - but it doesn't seem to be realised yet. With only 3 more episode left after this one, there's not much hope for character development this time around, but let's hope Diggle makes Tiger just a wee bit more sympathetic next time? Or at least explain why he's such an irritating git?

Once again, Clarke pulls off some wonderful visuals this week, and is ably assisted by Blythe in depicting the frozen wastes, and moody sky. Some of the previous issues I have with his work remain, but there's no denying that there's some astounding stuff on display here, with the exploding bunker and the crashing bomber particularly impressing.

JB: Tiger still seems to be willing to kill, as shown when he disobeys orders and kills several people while on a zero-engagement mission. I think that Diggle is trying too hard to make Tiger the opposite of Snow and has made him into killer without conscience. The two kills that Tiger makes in the snow could easily have been avoided if he had just captured them but he executes them instead. It makes Tiger seem as bad as the villain, which could be Diggle’s attempt at making a flawed hero or just bad characterisation. I’m not sure which yet.

The art still suffers from the same unnecessary embellishment as it has before. Although I think the panels featuring the aircraft and the missiles are done well. But for all its faults, I could not imagine anyone else drawing this strip.