Prog 1360 - 01 October 2003
Cover by D'israeli

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by Paul White

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: Finally - Leviathan gets a cover image. One of the best stories in 2003, and 10 episodes in length - and it only gets on the cover at the very end. It's a shame that more wasn't done to push this innovative series, but as least it should be a prime contender for a Showcase reprint. Excellent cover that makes the reader rush to Leviathan to find out how things are going to end...

PW: At last a Leviathan cover, and about bloody time too. It's a striking image without being too clever and the stark blood-red finish is sure to make this stand out at the newsagents. The logo is noticeably smaller too and looks better for it - non-intrusive, yet still retaining that 2000ad-brand feel.

See Zammy Run - Part 1

Synopsis: Zammy Zocco, Nino Raspler's Chief enforcer and enhanced with bionics and more gets into a car with his gangster friends. They pull their guns and everyone starts firing at Zammy. Later, Judges get to the car and find everyone dead, but no Zammy except for a blood trail that gives them Zammy's DNA. Nino hears about this, and doesn't understand why Zammy's turned on him. Meanwhile, Zammy has come to see his friend Franco, staggering and covered in blood. Franco gets a call from Nino, who upon hearing that Zammy is there tells them to kill him. They try, but Zammy takes them all out. Zammy picks up the phone and says he's coming for Nino - while Nino's girlfriend looks like she knows more than she's letting on. Dredd is hot on the trail of Zammy as the judges find the devastation at Franco's, while an even more wounded Zammy trudges on towards Nino.

GH: Rennie continues his enjoyable run on Dredd with another fun story of an unstoppable hitman. Enjoyable hokum, which is raised up a level by the artwork of Miranda. Miranda seems highly suited to the 2000AD universe, and Dredd in particular, with an impressive ability to mix action and charicatures. This is his first work in 2000AD, and it's a rare thing to get your debut on the Judge himself, but Miranda proves himself more than up to the task. His art has a very similar style to that of Ed McGuinness over on Batman/Superman, which is high praise from me. The introduction of a big new name in 2000AD? Time will tell...

PW: A very different look and feel to Dredd this week with very striking art by Inaki Miranda. With John Wagner taking a well-deserved break from writing chores, Gordon Rennie seems to have won the race to become permanent Dredd backup writer and, in my limited experience of his Dredd scripts (having only been 'back' for just over a year'), is doing a damn fine job. The story doesn't seem particularly original and its setting in Dredd-world seems to be tenuous at best, but the pace is spot-on and with 6 pages action-packed pages promising an enjoyable romp ahead I'm not complaining.

I'm not too keen on the gratuitous babe shots, but other than that the art complements the story and sports superb colouring (by someone who *isn't* Chris Blythe). Nothing to grumble about here and even Dredd's virtual absence helps things along nicely.

Junk Bond - Part 5

Synopsis: Shinzen announces his marriage to the guests, and as Carrie comes forward to congratulate them, he brings forward Sinster and Dexter, telling the crowd who they really are, and that he is now Yakuza. He prepares to kill Carrie, as Sinister tells him to scan them again, and the gene scan shows that they are Syn-Human replicas, and that his challenge is breaking the code. Carrie sets Polly loose, and all hell breaks loose, as gunfire rains and Sin/Dex retrieve their guns. The underbosses are choosing sides, as Dexter grabs Wendy. But Sinister is looking for Carrie...

GH: Again, I can find very little to say about Sinister Dexter except that it's fun, but you forget about it soon afterwards. Like the 2000AD version of McDonalds. It's certainly not bad, but I feel mildly guilty for enjoying it. Decent art from Davis, though his Polly does look a little odd. I'll try to comment more fully come the conclusion next week.

PW: The equivalent of Paul Scholes being picked for England. Has clearly produced the goods in the past, still has plenty of fans, but selected in the desperate hope of finally coming right - instead each game/prog that goes by sees a decrease in quality until one can only surmise that lurid pictures of the manager/editor are sitting in a locked drawer somewhere.

I don't dislike SinDex, and I'm not too fussed if it's here due to reader demand because an anthology is never likely to please everyone - it's just forcing me to take ambivalence to new heights / depths. I read it once, enjoy the art, wince at a 'gag', and never go back. Sorry.

Part 10 - Final double-sized part

Synopsis: Lament isn't dead yet, so Ashbless prepares to finish him off. But as he nears Lament, he sees that the detective has ripped off the amulet that gives him his power - and Lament shatters it. A bright explosion ensues, and suddenly Ashbless is in the middle of hell - unprotected and in front of Hastur. The Stokers surround him, attack, and make him one of them.

Back in the Leviathan, the heavens open, and the spirits of all the dead fly up to the light. Mary, Lament's dead wife, visits him for one last time, and gives him the lifeforce he needs to survive "live and love again". He comes to, woken by Sky, and feels better than ever, with no wounds. The passengers are all rushing to the deck - so they follow to see what's going on.

At a dock in New York city, two fishermen hear something approaching. The Leviathan has finally arrived in New York after 20 years at sea. The huge ship runs around, it's mammoth weight crushing everything in it's path, only coming to a halt when it has cut a huge chunk out of Manhattan. The Leviathan has finally reached land, as Lament says he'll stand by Sky in the new world - "Our journey may be over, but the adventure's just beginning."

GH: Leviathan reaches its final destination, and what a journey it's been. In its 10 issue run it's managed to become possibly the best story in 2000AD in 2003. Much of the reason for this can be due to the originality of the strip. There has been very little to compare this to in 2000AD's history, and this can be seen as a good part of the reason for its great success.

But the true star of Leviathan has been D'israeli's artwork. The story was great and more of that later, but the artwork was absolutely stunning from start to finish. D'israeli as really impressed here, and the care and attention to detail that seems to have gone into this has been evident on every page. His design has been impeccable, with touches like the dark hallways and rooms of 1st class, a wonderfully emotive cast, and the Stokers all worthy of being singled out. But it's the design of the Leviathan itself where he really excelled. As one of the key characters of the strip, the Leviathan had to be displayed in the right light to make the story effective, and D'israeli has managed to portray the vastness of the vessel right from the beginning. But none of this could prepare me for the landing at New York, which makes for a stunning finale - the three pages of destruction as the ship ploughs into the city, taking a huge chunk out of it, were well worth the wait. Plus he even gets the chance to include Bert and Ernie as the fishermen (as well as his trademark use of the word "fishpaste").

But clearly the artwork wouldn't have had such an impact without the story to back it up. Edginton has written three stories since finally coming aboard 2000D (this, Red Seas and Interceptor), and all have shown a great degree of originality (even Interceptor - which wasn't as well received by some). This makes him a very valuable writer for 2000AD, which is in need of some new blood to go alongside the characters that are dragged from the vaults. He's also been allowed to do some fairly long (for 2000AD) stories - 10 episode strips aren't that common these days. As a result, Leviathan hasn't felt as rushed or quickly curtailed as some other strips, and it's been able to unfold at a natural pace, something which has set it aside from its contemporaries. More would have been better - but this will do. Edginton has created a fine cast of characters here, especially in the main hero and villain, making Ashbless' defeat worthwhile, but strangely tragic at the same time. The only odd note here has been the very end, with an upbeat feeling that seems rather forced. But this doesn't spoil what has been a very satisfying strip

So in all, this has been a masterful series, which will no doubt see a deserved collected reprint soon. It's a shame we won't get a sequel, but let's hope Tharg has chained D'israeli and Edginton down to produce another masterpiece like this for next year.

PW: Although notionally only meant to review this prog's installment, I'm lucky enough to be reviewing the climax of an enthralling and enjoyable adventure meaning that I can look back on the series as a whole and share my thoughts.

Leviathan for me has been the stand-out series of the year with sublime D'israeli art raising the standard for other art-droids to reach by being simultaneously both simplistic and complex, and quite imply a joy to behold. The story, while not being completely original, has been different enough and with some novel ideas to sustain interest and leave us impatient with anticipation for the next prog to arrive.

However. After all this, Leviathan still could and should have been so much more. I'm going to give Ian Edginton to benefit of the doubt, and blame this on the current dictate that new stories must cross Offensives / Assaults and be wrapped up in 10/11 episodes. The pace of the first 7 episodes lead to the reader being drawn into the world the passengers/prisoners of the Leviathan inhabited, and there was promise of more weird and wonderful things being unveiled with the vastness of the vessel being the backdrop. The last 2 progs have seen the story being wrapped up with unseemly haste with a conclusion that leaves no room for maneuver in commissioning a second series, and that's a real shame. Leviathan would have been far better suited as a 2000AD backed 4 issue mini-series.

Despite my griping, i'm going to miss it dreadfully and hope and pray for more D'isreali art in the very near future. As i should be reviewing this weeks episode, i have to say that I loved the last 4 pages now that we have something of scale to compare the Leviathan with. Good stuff.

Part 4

Synopsis: The Shee are continuing their warlike crusade against the "wingless humans". At the age of 38, they capture a blind woman wandering in the marshes. A shee brings her before the council, now led by Kaith, claiming the kill. But the girl feels Kaith's wing and face and calls them angels. Much to his tribe's disgust - he lets her live. The woman comes to live with Kaith, and he feels himself mellowing, and retreating from the monster he's become. But the Shee are concerned. A tribesman comes before Kaith and accuses him of getting soft, telling him to choose between them and the blind woman. He rises to the challenge, and kills the tribesman in combat. He returns back to the blind woman, holding her to him, preparing to stab her in the back - "He's thirty-eight. Far to late to be saved..."

GH: In contrast to the leisurely pace of Leviathan, From Grace seems to be rushing towards a conclusion. I believe it's finishing in the next issue (someone feel free to let me know if I'm wrong) and this seems a shame as it really hasn't had the time to get going. There's been a lot of promise here, but I can't help but feel that Kaith's decent into evil would have had far more impact if the early issues had been dragged out a little, so we'd learned a more about him before his fall, and perhaps had a smidgen more sympathy for him? In addition, the early promise of trekking backwards and forwards in time hasn't lived up to the first part.

It's a good read all the same, and the ending does have the capacity to shock, while Irving's colour coded art is as unique as ever. Good, but not as great as it should be.

PW: From Grace makes me feel like I'm back at school again. I feel as though I should love this (all the 'cool' lads say I should) and try in vain to join in as I'm too scared to tell the truth that I don't 'get-it'. But I don't.

Frazer Irving's artwork is good without scaling the heights currently seen in the Megazine with Judge Death, and Simon Spurrier bravely tries something different as he progresses (at an impressive pace it must be said) as a 'regular' 2000AD scribe. Kaith is obviously a very nasty person, and each week he shows it more and more as he plumbs to greater depths of depravity, but even this weeks brief interlude showing his kinder side (albeit briefly) doesn't make me care enough about the character and the situation he's in.

Spurrier has been quite vocal in the face of some criticism on the 2000ad messageboard, and i think i'm on his side as he justifies bravely experimenting with the narrative to deliver a different kind of story than we're used to in 2000AD. It's just not my thing I'm afraid, and I really wanted it to be when it was first previewed. I look forward to reading it in one go once it's finished.