Prog 1370 - 10 December 2003
Cover by Laurence Campbell & Chris Blythe

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by John Amans

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: A fairly decent, 60s tinged cover to finish up Synnamon. This image alone shows that the series has promise, but inside it just doesn't manage to deliver. But more of that later...

JA: A Synnamon trying to be sexy with bum showing and gun in hand. Well it might work for some people, but it doesn't work for me! I quite like the green background, but that's about it. The advert on the back cover for 2000AD extreme with PJ Maybe was much better!

Meatmonger - Part 6

Dredd rips into a meatmonger

Synopsis: Dredd faces off with Lundstrom who's been taken over by a parasite, but Lundstrom is resisting the parasite's clutches. His insanity is making him immune, and lets him tap into the telepathic parasites' hive mind. Gas floods the corridor and Speers succumbs while Lundstrom and Dredd escape to a lower level. Dredd reaches the holding pens and orders all the citizens to the teleport pads. Dredd takes out more meatmongers, while Lundstrom's connection with the parasites gives him the information he needs to switch off the strobes, letting Dredd guide everyone to the telepads. Back on Earth, the ship is now visible, and the Judges prepare a pre-emptive strike. But on the ship, Lundstrom has reversed the coordinates to Eurocit and they all teleport out. The ship crashes to Earth while Dredd and the citizens begin the log walk back to civilisation. Lundstrom has grown attached to his parasite, but Dredd kills it to avoid any more trouble.

GH: Unfortunately, this series has ultimately turned out to be something of a disappointment. It started so well with the mysterious disappearances from all over the globe promising a decent mystery. However, once on the ship it became a "run around in the corridors" story, with very little else going on. While entertaining for a while, this approach has ultimately been unsatisfying. There are several issues that I have with this week's episode in particular. Firstly there's the "sitting around twiddling their thumbs" scenes with the Chief Judge back in Mega City 1. These scenes don't add anything whatsoever to the story other than to break up the monotony of what's happening on the ship. In addition to this, it's as if only the Mega City One judges are doing anything to attack the ship, with no acknowledgement of involvement of any other parts of Earth, all of which were affected by the disappearance.

There are other minor issues, like the fact that thousands of people were kidnapped, but only a small handful appear to have made it back to Earth. Hardly a successful mission. But the one thing that irritated me the most was the killing of the parasite at the end. Lundstrom being patched into the parasite's hive mind was a great idea, and could have sowed the seeds for a follow up story later. But the most interesting development was thrown away at the end, to be forgotten by all future Dredd writers. As mentioned in previous reviews, there's still a feeling that when Wagner doesn't write Dredd, it doesn't seem to add to continuity at all. In many of the lighthearted shorter pieces this doesn't matter, but after a longer series like this one, with no lasting consequences, you begin to wonder why you bothered. Smith's a highly talented writer, and I can't help feel he should have been encouraged to write something with more longer lasting effects.

As for the art, Siku should be applauded for trying something new with Dredd. He draws an extremely dynamic Dredd, with some welcome tweaks to his costume. His depiction of Dredd's chin, which seems to annoy so many readers, doesn't bother me at all and I like the exaggerated nature of it - at least it makes Dredd stick out from the other judges. However, the problem with Siku's art is that it's just so uneven. He seems to be falling into the trap of many comic artists - i.e. draw your favourite scenes well, and then just roughly sketch in all the other stuff at the end. So Dredd attacking the meatmonger looks great, but the teleportation scenes, and the "crowds" escaping the ship are appalling, and look barely finished. Maybe Siku simply didn't have enough time, but in his next assignment he needs to be much more consistent.

JA: I have been rather ambivalent to the furore over Siku's artwork. Yes it's sloppy, scratchy and is nowhere near the standard of his previous work. However, we've all known his style of artwork for a number of years. The only thing that has saved "Meatmonger" has been the story. Judge Dredd has had a really poor six months and amongst some of the recent dross that has passed itself off as JD, this has been OK. It's been nice to see the Starborn parasites and Kleggs again, even though they have been drawn below standard.

Would this story have been drawn better by another artist? Who cares! I've enjoyed the story, it's been quite entertaining and it was all wrapped up as we suspected when we were reading this two weeks ago. But, can we now have some decent Judge Dredd stories?

The Eternal Life of Emperor Ygg

Dyscola takes the bait

Synopsis: Emperor Ygg yearns for eternal life. His court sorcerer tells him that only Tordilax the demon can grant this in Inidium. Inidium was attacked by a giant demonic worm, but was tethered to the land by a short lived hero. The worm pulled Inidium away from the shore before finally dying. It's putrid decaying odour caused a plague that killed all the people, until demons took over the place, one of whom was Tordilax. They lure Tordilax' wife, the moth demon Dyscola and hold her captive. Ygg goes across the bridge to Inidium to bargain with Tordilax for her release. His wish is granted and he is given eternal life, so he orders Dyscola released. But as soon as she is free, Tordilax cuts off Ygg's arms and legs, and takes him to his "music room". There he is cemented in the walls, unable to die, and where his hunger and festering wounds will drive him insane as he lives forever, screaming in agony...

GH: A significant improvement on last week's tales of Telguuth, mainly as it appears to have something of a point to it. It's still quite meandering, however, and the section about the hero slaying the beast almost seems to be part of another tale strapped into this one. Part of me thinks this could easily have been a three page story without really losing anything important. But it has a particularly clever and gruesome ending to it which makes the whole thing almost worthwhile.

The real star in this strip is newcomer Dave Kendall. I've never seen his work before, so I don't know how established he is, but this is a very impressive first appearance. Fully painted art is something of a rarity in 2000AD these days, so this may have helped him to make more of an impact, but there's some very good work on display here. Everything looks highly accomplished and comparable to some of the best painters in 2000AD, with his depiction of the monsters and doomed hero Okon being of particular note. Like Haward, he meshes well with Moore, elevating a perhaps humdrum script. Certainly an artist to watch.

JA: The first piece of "prog padding". Whereas Future Shocks have some scope and leeway, TOT has rather painted itself into a corner. We now have a stream of almost the same stories being retold. Emperor Ygg's little ditty is no exception. It's the "dodgy demon deal" plot part 121. What was nice though was Dave Kendall's art. It has a Slaine-esque quality about it. Nice and expressive and capturing the mood. It was a pity you could see the plot coming miles off! TOT ran out of life, originality and excitement ages ago. Either pull the plug or have a go at reviving the poor thing. Just don't leave it to just lie there!

Facing Mecha - Part 9

Can Syn escape?

Synopsis: Kassad is connected to Synnamon through Ascheta and begins to download the intelligence network - but something goes wrong.

Before the download is complete he tries to break contact but it's too late as his invasion fleet crashes. Ascheta, now back to it's old self starts attacking Kassad with a feedback. Synnamon's organic AI found a way to mutate Macaulay's viral inhibitor into an effective defence which has now spread through Kassad's system through the connection with Ascheta.

She boots the remaining Kassad construct to destruction and walks out...

GH: One of 2000AD's test cases for the Autumn Offensive comes to an end, and it can't be considered a success. The variety of ideas behind Synnamon sound much better in theory than they are actually executed in the series itself. All along there's been a feeling of confusion, and this is heightened by this week's episode where Kassad is destroyed. But because we know so little about Synnamon and Ascheta, it's quite difficult to work out how it happened. There are no big revelations this week, just that Macaulay's virus seemed to work somehow when combined with Synnamon. But because we don't know how Synnamon herself actually works, this just doesn't seem to make sense. And what are those ships that crash this week? Are they an invasion force? It just isn't clear enough.

As mentioned in previous reviews, the series seems to depend on a greater knowledge of Synnamon and her universe that the writing team has simply not provided us with. Far more backstory was needed before we could understand this ending and empathise with the characters. Clayton and Dows need to be reminded that the readers don't know their character as well as they do, and we need some hand holding along the way. This is the sort of thing that frankly should be highlighted by Editorial. Was there no one who read the script in its entirety who could ask the writers to fill in the many blanks? The best episode of this strip by far was the one which offered some background into the Kassad/Macaulay feud. Far more of that sort of thing was needed.

The art, however, has improved as the the series has progressed, with Campbell, Townsend and Caldwell creating some epic scenes towards the end. Unfortunately, as the main characters seem so cold, these scenes lose a lot of their impact when you don't care what happens to any of them.

There's promise in the Synnamon character, but the writers need to back off on the grand universe crossing epics and introduce us properly to their main characters before going any further.

JA: Straight to the point, I've hated this story from the first episode. It's lacked everything. The plot is regurgitated from a number of other less entertaining tales; all of this Mecha mumbo jumbo is really original, not! The art has been OK, but uninspiring and the central character has failed to enthral me in any way at all and I won't start on about the silly floating computer. I even didn't bother to read the previous episode as I was so bored with the story. I did read it eventually to help me understand the last, and very predictable, end episode. I just hope it's condemned to the "don't come back" file in Tharg's editorial filing cabinet.

Autocrats Anonymous

Prang wrestles with his inner demons

Synopsis: Prang the pitiless is attempting the Autocrats Anonymous group's 6 step recovery plan. Once a member of the peace-loving planet Amorca, Prang decided to take over the planet. Hooked on galactic domination, he started to take over the universe but eventually realised he needed help - the first step. The second step, voiding conquest for one day, was more difficult as Permonia begged to surrender to Prang as the only hope of survival from a currency virus. The 3rd stage, to crush the urge to conquer, took place a he refused the surrender, repelling Permonia's forces. But the government resigned anyway and declared him leader, so he sent in his forces to declare their independence (stage 4 - "using every weapon in your arsenal to keep despotism at bay"). But later in the day troops staged a coup, and Rexor the Ruthless took over with a totalitarian regime, making Prang's rule look utopian in comparison, so he was set up as a saint - "to whose rule they could only yearn" (achieving stage five - "find a higher truth and become a divine inspiration for freedom in just one day). Only one sage remains - to seek out other with the same problem and help them. So he introduces Rexor the Ruthless to the group...

GH: A highly impressive and entertaining Future Shock this week, remembering to put in the vital ingredient of humour throughout the episode rather than relying on an ironic/clever/unexpected ending. Indeed, the "shock" ending to this strip is perhaps the weakest element and feels forced on by the constraints of the Future Shock format. The rest of the strip is wonderful, and the 6 step format works very well in assisting the development of the tale. This is a great improvement from Bark's first Future Shock (which itself was fairly impressive back in issue 1359) and he looks like being a talent that 2000AD should try and develop.

As for the art, it certainly helps to get a seasoned 2000AD artist in on a Future Shock, and this makes the whole enterprise seem much less like the filler material that Future Shocks can often amount to. PJ Holden has been an ever impressive artist throughout 2003, and one who we certainly need to see more of (his upcoming Rogue Trooper should be worth the wait).

JA: The second piece of "prog padding". Last weeks Future Shock was quite entertaining and this weeks offering was also a slice of whimsical fun. It takes a novel premise and with some adequate art by PJ Holden and a witty script by Jaspre Bark, it does its self limiting job. Where TOT has no scope or flexibility, Future Shocks is a useful tool to blood in new writers and artists. Where you have to pad out a prog like this particular one, it serves its purpose. At least the script was snappy and It finished with a twist and filled a "hole" in this weeks edition roster.

Part 9

Morgan bows out...

Synopsis: Jude fights back Holden, cutting his legs off with his chainsaw, and then cutting him in two, while the citadel crashes to Earth. Jude and Morgan enter the citadel to find Karn wounded and dying, but the countdown is set and nothing can stop the detonation. MOrgan jams the ejection tube and tells her if they seal the door, the virus will only go off in that room. They try to move the door shut, but it won't move so Morgan has no choice but to seal the door from the inside. The virus is released, and morgan is destroyed.

The prison is shut down and the surviving prisoners are shipped elsewhere, leaving the zombies, including Jude, on Lazarus with an uncertain future...

GH: The second of the big new stories for the Autumn offensive, this has also left much to be desired. It does have its merits, though, the greatest of these being Boo Cook's artwork. Cook is becoming an ever more accomplished artist with each appearance, and uses computer effects to greatly enhance his work without obscuring his draftsmanship. Cook is an "artist in search of a great series" and needs something decent to help him get the acclaim he deserves. This isn't it however, and neither was Asylum. It's time to pair him up with a high profile writer and give him a better shot at the big time.

But good as the art is and even though this has occasionally been a series that has moved along at a decent pace, there's just so much that has gone wrong with it. Plot holes abound throughout and as a previous reviewer mentioned this has a real feeling of been made up as the writer went along. Elements like Morgan's fear of becoming a zombie were discarded far too readily. Surely his "tragic" end in this issue should have been just what he wanted? So why doesn't the script reflect this? As for Jude, there was no foreshadowing about her being an undercover operative, and her casual acceptance of the fact that she likes killing people now seems completely bizarre. Just what is this character supposed to be, because it seems that Bishop has no idea either? As for the last page attempt at wrapping everything up neatly, and suggesting that Jude's future is "terrifying" - we simply don't care by that point.

There are good ideas in Dead Man Walking, but none of them have been fleshed out. Like Synnamon, this should have undergone some major revising at the editorial stage, as there are a number of ways in which plot holes could have been filled and the whole thing made a little more palatable. As it is, Bishop has provided another duff tale to add to the 2000AD canon. Keep him on the non-fiction stuff by all means, where he works well, but think twice before giving him another job as high profile as this one.

JA: This story has rather grown on me I must admit. Though not a classic, it at least makes me want to read it. My only gripe has been that it rather finished itself last edition. A double finish up episode last week would have been better as this episode merely ties up the loose ends with a predictable series of events. You know Jude is going to nail Karn; it's if she can stop the viral bomb. The governor gets it, poor Morgan cops it and the zombies get to keep the planet. What was nice though was the build up in the last couple of episodes. The artwork has been uncomplicated and has complimented the ambience of the tale. Though not stunning, this has exceeded my doubts of the first episode.