Prog 1362 - 15 October 2003
Cover by Andy Clarke & Chris Blythe

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by Leigh Shepherd

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: The first thing that comes to mind about the cover is that it's made of that nice and shiny material again. While this may seem to some as being extremely superficial, it does make the comic seem more substantial. As for the artwork, it's decent enough, but effectively just Tharg and some pretty unknown characters. Durham Red may be slightly more popular but to me she's never been a big hitter. Is this the best sort of cover for a relaunch issue - and with no sign of Dredd? as mentioned in this month's Comics International, Rebellion seems almost scared of shouting "this is the comic with Judge Dredd in it!!!" which in relaunch issues seems more than a little odd.

LS: What have they done to Tharg? Not sure that trying to make the monkey faced Tharg look like the "real" Editor is particularly flattering or successful here. It's not a bad cover, and it sums up the content - competent but samey, dull and not a little cliched.

The In Club

Dredd is first on the scene of the crash

Synopsis: Itchy and his gang are speeding towards the In Club - Mega City's hottest new place. Dredd catches him speeding, so they gun their engines, sliding through traffic, killing a juve, Ricky, while trying to escape from Dredd. Itchy is shot in the head and crashes the car. Staggering out of the crash, he and his almost fatally wounded friend leave the women in the car and head for the club, as Dredd arrives on the crash scene. They get to the club, as the Med Judges are on the scene of the crash, pronouncing dead one of the women, April May. But back at the club, April May comes to join Itchy & his friend - as they are finally let into the club. Back at the crash - Itchy is pronounced dead. In the club, they meet up with Ricky, as the demons of hell run amok - "the one club you would be seen dead in."

GH: Wagner's back up for a one-off Dredd tale, and a very strange one it is too. More than a little incomprehensible if you try to examine the whole thing a little too closely, but it's a pleasingly odd diversion for Wagner, whose one-offs have been lacking of late. It's not a classic, but it does hammer home the point that you can get away with the weirdest stories in Judge Dredd from time to time. Of bigger importance, is that this makes the 1st art for Dean Ormston in the comic for quite some time. I'll have to drag out some old issues for reference, but his art does appear to have undergone a major style change - while still retaining an unmistakable Ormston feel in the design of the city and the citizens. The only possible complaint it that his Dredd looks a little too generic when compared with the rest of his work. However, it's great to see Ormston back in the comic, so lets get him on a series of his own to let him shine.

LS: It’s difficult to review the story on offer here, because whatever its potential merits, the art undermines it at every turn. Ormston appears to have put brush to canvas without much thought to design or composition, which results in unclear storytelling while simultaneously pulling the rug from under the twist ending. The colours are nice enough, but there’s nothing underpinning it - the anatomy, design and sense of place are all missing something to varying degrees. I found it pretty difficult to follow the story when the scenes and people in the Hellish Club look identical to the scenes and people in the Mega City.

It’s always good to see something different, and this twisty supernatural "shocker" could have worked well with just a little more thought by the artist. Perhaps someone with a more grounded style might have been able to show the distinction between Hell and MC1, and not blown the twist!

Part 1

Saben Dru doesn't last long...

Synopsis: New inmates arrive on Lazarus, the prison planet. They are Saben Dru: an anti capitalist, Zykurk: sexual predator, Archer: forger and habitual liar, Vadimir Victor: serial killer and Jude: habitual escapee. The governor Rosa Karn greets the prisoners giving them all contact lenses that bond to their eyeballs and act as cameras for the guards. Vadimir panics at this and is taken away. Saben protests that she is a political prisoner, so the governor immediately kills her. The rest are transported to the main compundand introduced to the robotic Dreadnought."My word is law. Welcome to hell!"

GH: I'm not quite sure why a pen name is necessary here - especially when a quick perusal of the 2000AD site reveals the writer to be David Bishop (ex editor and feature writer for the megazine). I'm sure Bishop has his reasons, but I can't work out what they might be.

It's a little too early to know what to think of this series apart from being very annoyed by the extremely grating use of the work "vucking" on the 1st page. Look - either say the word or create a truly unique swearword or perhaps, gasp, leave it out altogether? Just don't use this lazy half-arsed version. That irritant aside, there are a few pleasant running around but, so far, it pales in comparison to the classic Harry 20 currently running in the Megazine which managed to convey a far better sense of dread from its 1st issue. Still - early days, so let's see how this one progresses.

Showing much more improvement is Boo Cook's artwork which continues to evolve and which also shows a great unique look, especially evident in the design of the governor. Cook's artwork will make this one worth sticking with over the next few weeks, so it remains for Bishop to do just as well on the writing chores.

LS: I'd leave it to Gavin to draw the obvious comparisons with Harry Twenty if it wasn't so integral to explaining why this fails on so many levels. While you could argue both trade in the same clichés (evil Warden, sadistic Guards, "No Escape", "Welcome to Hell" etc…), Harry Twenty is much more "high concept". You’ve got the fact it’s a satellite compared with the standard bricks n' Mortar set-up here. You've got the trademark punning names with the numbers, and some sense of the society that has put Harry behind bars. By comparison, DMW just seems like a ragbag of old ideas, without any sense that this is occurring anywhere but "standard Sci-Fi setting number 3 - Lots of Aliens as thinly disguised human stereotypes".

Boo Cook is another artist whose colours are great, but his underlying anatomy and designs are a bit of a letdown. It’s not particularly bad, it just looks unpolished and not quite up to professional standard - Like the story, it seems to reach for the cliché bag rather than try anything original.

Facing Mecha - Part 1

An introduction to Synnamon

Synopsis: An agent of the Chinasian Alliance is trying to escape with a small spherical "singularity generator" stolen from governor Morpuloso - but as he reaches the planet's perimeter it is immediately transported back to the Morpuloso, and the ship is destroyed. Morpuloso is entertaining a woman from the "Nottingham Dominion" and is raging about the External Security Directorate as a sudden shock knocks him out cold. The woman calls for her ship and escapes.

Morpuloso gets his ship ready and chases after her when she breaks through the security perimeter. He catches up with the ship, boards and demands the return of the singularity generator. She says she doesn't have it and takes out his guards, retrieving the generator from Morpuloso himself - whom she had hidden it on and who had taken it through the perimeter himself. She reveals herself as Synnamon, an agent of the ESD, and uses the generator to throw Morpuloso into a black hole. She relaxes later, talking to her ship, when she gets a call from Earth's Antarctic Base: "We're under attack!"

GH: The creators of the ultimately disappointing Bison return to create what is clearly hoped will be a long running character (judging from the subtitle for this adventure). This may end up being something of a risk by the Editorial team, as Bison was clearly lacking something - and to put the exact same team back in place is showing great faith - let's hope it's not misplaced.

"Strong" lead female characters haven't been one of 2000AD's successes to be honest, with Halo Jones and perhaps Durham Red being the only ones with any particular staying power. Many others have simply failed to hit home with the readers (something that could be explained by the lack of female writers) which suggests that Synnamon has got a lot to overcome. As with many new 2000AD series, you find out more reading the intro synopsis that you do reading the actual story (something which needs addressing) as the actual strip itself is a tad confusing, trying to introduce a few too may ideas in a short space. Much is to be gained from a slow start, rather than an exposition fuelled one, and lots of this stuff about Cromwell et al only confuses at such an early stage. Overall, story and art are Ok, if not outstanding. Like Dead Man Walking, I need a few more of these before I can pass judgement.

LS: As someone who found Bison to be a real low point of last year's progs, it was hard to look forward to the same creative teams latest effort. Surprisingly, I thought it was a big improvement as an opening episode over Bison, even though it shared a similar cliché overload. That said, despite the improvement, it’s still more on a par with Rose O’Rion than Halo Jones. The hiding of the Singularity Generator was a neat enough touch, and helped to soften the feeling that I'd seen all this before.

The art is a bit strange - I'm not sure if I like it or not. It does the job, but Synnamon is decidedly unsexy, with a figure that looks more like Robert Plant than Angelina Jolie (though it does look a bit like that gangly lass Thurman - perhaps it would have been better to move away from such an obvious Avengers influence - especially given the quality of that film!). Design isn’t too much of an issue here, but it is a little stilted when it comes to the action scenes.

The Empty Suns - Book 1 - Part 1

The attack begins

Synopsis: A huge ship descends on a long dead planet. On board is Godolkin and Haema who are revived from cold berth. Another passenger is not as lucky, and perishes as they try to revive him. They use a mutant, Homer, to catch a scent and race over the planet - which is Earth. Homer says it stinks in the direction they're headed - but they carry on. Godolkin says his bond with Durham Red was broken - and he only survived because Haema got him off planet, as Homer finds something. A group of "alien" warriors surround them, and Goldokin announces that he as part of the patriarch and they are looking for "the one whose name is writ in blood!" The aliens attack, but they don't get past the security drones. Goldokin over-rides Haema and gets the drones to stop - telling them they want Durham Red, as they have her Gene Scent. One of the "Aliens" removes it's mask, disengaging it's partial cloaking field and revealing itself to be human: "I am Durham Red".

But elsewhere on the planet, at the old detention block that once held the offspring, something else lies, feeding off it's own flesh, insane at causing the extinction of the human race. "She was Durham Red. but not any more..."

GH: Durham Red has never been one of my favourites, I'll admit that from the start. As soon as she went into the far flung future, my interest fell away as quickly as my ability to keep up with the storyline. It's been two years since the last Durham Red strip and god, could this do with a one page catch up for all of us, introducing characters and getting us up to speed. The caption at the front of the comic is OK - but who reads that before they read the strip?

That aside, this isn't anywhere near as turgid as I remember it from last time. Perhaps it's that I have to pay extra attention now that I have to produce the synopsis every week, but I'm enjoying this more than I thought I would. Much of this has to be down to Harrison's art. Previously I've found his painted artwork to be a little muddy and unclear, but the mixture of inking and painting here works much better that I seem to remember his previous efforts being. This style of artwork shows him as being a far better artist than I had given him credit for, and was a pleasant surprise when I picked up this week's issue. In fact, it's some of the best science fiction artwork I've seen in the comic for a while now. Given the fact that 2000AD artists seem to keep getting nicked to work on Star Wars Tales, I wouldn't be surprised if Harrison gave it a go, seeing as his art seems ideal.

LS: Another difficult story to approach objectively, given my card-carrying, original-Stront-loving credentials. From reading a little about how this whole "future Durham" story came about, it appears Red was just bolted onto Abnett's Grand Space Opera story, rather than this being a story that arises out of the character. Why, for instance, is Red a Saint? What did she do in her 'past life' to warrant such a position? In the original run, she is portrayed as an outcast from both Norm and mutant society, and she doesn’t do anything to merit her central role in future History. Perhaps with an original character this tale might not have been strangled by the ties of it's own past. It's almost as if the creators have thought "no-one really cares for or remembers this old character, so we have a clean slate to work from". Unfortunately, the new stories do the original Red tales a disservice.

Even taking the story on its own merits, there's little here that gripped me, and the "Earth" dialogue is the sort of thing that made you wince when you read it in a Future Shock back in 1977, let alone 2003.

Visually though, this is the most accomplished, with the computery elements either toned down or better blended than Harrison’s previous efforts. I particularly liked the warp suit effect. At least, if nothing else, Durham Red will provide something nice to look at over the coming weeks.