2000AD 1373 - 21 January 2004
Cover by Steve Yeowell

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

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: This cover looks much better on closer inspection that when I first took it out of the envelope. Decent panel layout by Yeowell together with a good "coming out of the sun" effect.

LS: Not a bad cover, though the glossiness of the computer colour combined with the glossiness of Yeowell's inks perhaps give the whole image an overly slick sheen.

Cincinnati - Part 3

The judges roll out...

Synopsis: Shingler remembers why he left the city after attacking the Chief Judge - "I hit her point blank". The Rad Rats find him, taking him prisoner, but the Surf Monkeys aren't far behind - with the Crazy 20 in their wake. This doesn't go un-noticed by the judges who move out in much greater force than before. As the three gangs fight over Shingler, Dredd races his lawmaster in-between and grabs the perp, covered by the judges, who force the gangs back. They take off, destroying the credits they left behind by remote. Back on the ship, we learn that all Shingler did was throw a tin of paint at the Chief Judge, but Dredd says it's what the crime stands for that counts: "In this case, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done!"

GH: After my concerns that this strip was going to end too early, I have to eat my words, as Wagner wraps it all up with considerable ease. The "twist" at the end comes completely out of left field, but Dredd's reaction seems perfectly in character. And is Wagner satirising the current US government's approach to foreign policy here - or does he condone it? Hard to say, to be honest, as Dredd strips often teeter along a fine line between parody and fascism. All in all a great strip where Critchlow really gets to show off drawing a battalion of judges. A great start to the Dredd year - let's hope this continues.

LS: A solid story from Wagner, with some complimentary art attached to it. Certainly, Critchlow's art seems to improve with every job, especially since he switched from his previous murky and muddy painted style to computer and line work. There's still a bit of uniformity about the new style that makes everything look like it's carved out of stone, be it a Lawmaster or (perhaps more appropriately) Dredd's chin - indeed, there are two portraits of Dredd on the last page that I was particularly impressed with, though overall, I think a bit more variation in the style might help the various components stand out more.

On the story front, the addition of another Cursed Earth location is always welcome, and Cincinnati is unusual in taking a more "Mad Max" approach than the usual rag bag of muties we normally see. The twist was nice enough, though perhaps a little too obvious to carry over three weeks. I got the sense that this is the type of story that would have worked better in one of the old annuals, where there wasn't such a build up (and consequent "let-down").

Twilight of the Idols - Part 4

Dancer practises his Shakespeare...

Synopsis: The crew fight off the harpies, but are surrounded and dive into a nearby crypt. They blow the entrance to slow down the harpies and darkness descends - before the room suddenly brightens. There's a disembodied floating glowing skull hovering above a well. Outside, Sarita's ship comes under fire, and is forced to leave.

Dancer confronts the Skull, Phineas the Seer, who denies knowledge of the map. But Dancer grabs the skull, shakes it and reveals the piece they are looking for. He discards the skull, throwing it down the well, just as the harpies break through. Their only escape is to jump down the well too. They escape to the sea - but the ship is nowhere in sight...

GH: Another romp with Dancer and his crew which makes for fun, if very brief, reading. As usual, Edginton throws in a good deal of humour that rips into how these quests usually go, with Dancer's cutting to the chase working very well. He's still managing to make huge improvements to Dancer's character, whose dullness was a major flaw of the first series. Meanwhile, Sarita's motives still remain unclear, but Alhazared is starting to look more sinister than he has before. Will Edginton make an Arab the bad guy in these turbulent times, or is there much more than meets the eye here?

LS: This continues to improve on its previous outing (and that in itself wasn't that shabby). Perhaps it's because the piratical bar has been raised by Pirates of the Caribbean that Edginton has felt the need to add more fun and Ray Harryhausen style antics to this second series. In particular, Dancer's meeting with Phineas the Seer features some great dialogue. The Harryhausen elements to the strip are certainly welcome, adding a bit of mystery with Sarita and Alhazared's motives still uncertain and adding a more fantastical feel to the whole proceedings.

Where Critchlow's art is all stone, Yeowell's silky style renders everything in an exceptionally fluid fashion. While this misses the opportunity for some grimy, salty sea-dog imagery, for some reason, it seems to work a little better on this mythical tale.

My one real request for this story would be to get in a cast of more unusual "2000AD" style crew mates for Dancer - as it is, they are all a bit anonymous.

Part 4 - Hide & Seek

Smith sees VCs...

Synopsis: The VCs head towards the automated mining station, looking for a transmitter, hunted by the Geeks. Only Kali knows that Diderot is an android, whose face is now bandaged. Jupe has given Smith up for dead, but Keege isn't so sure...

Elsewhere on the planet, Another Keege is leading Smith back to the crash site to look for the data log, but Smith starts seeing his dead colleagues. Smith starts screaming, and the Geeks close in on them...

GH: I write this review with the benefit of reading next week's episode, where things have improved somewhat. This episode makes the future revelations fairly obvious, with the incessant looking for the data log, but at least the intrigue makes up for the terminally dull scenes with the rest of the VCs, who spend 3 pages basically going from A to B. Williams' art, meanwhile, continues to be much better than the last series where the computer seemed to get away from him for a bit. Here the colouring enhances the art, rather than overwhelming it, and he works well illustrating the desolate scenes.

The most frustrating example of this is Keege, who should have been a really interesting team member, but personality wise, could be swapped with any of the other crew without much difficulty - Just by having two of him doesn't double his personality any! This whole confusion over what is real, or how it came to pass that there are duplicate crew members will need a very 'clever' explanation, though I suspect we are more likely to get 'convoluted and unlikely' (certainly a feature of latter part of the original Finley Day run, but perhaps not the best part to emulate).

The Books of Invasion 3 - Scota Part 4

The Great Golamh

Synopsis: Slaine and Scota head for the ship with the Great Golamh to retrieve the fire staffs. They attack the beast, which argues that they owe everything to them as they taught them science and more. The Golamh remains indestructible, so they head for the fire staffs. Scota teaches Slaine the words of power, and after an embarrassed silence, they attack the golamh forcing him to flee into the sea. They head below to look for the demons' resting places, but the caskets are empty. It was a ruse - The Formorians are all heading into battle...

GH: The Great Golamh makes for an impressively evil villain, yet Langley's convoluted art works against him here. It's only when we read "Burn his Warriors off him" that I realised that this demon was made of many warriors. This is sometimes the shortcoming of Langley's art. There's an immense amount of details in his computer renderings, but just occasionally there comes a point when simpler draftsmanship would do the job better. As for Mills' Science Vs Nature debate, I can't help siding with the Formorians, no matter how evil they might seem...and the silence between Sline and Scota was rather poorly handled.

LS: We've had stone art, we've had water art, and now we have Fire art - lots and lots of photoshopped fire! The art is definitely intricate stuff, and in its favour, Slaine actually looks like Slaine (unlike the pretty boy Bisley versions we've seen all too often in the last decade). However, the unusual combination of too much detail and not enough clarity can make this a trial to read, despite creating some impressive individual panels. The Giant Golamh in particular is disappointingly difficult to decipher and that reduces the impact that the creature could have had. On the other hand, the final panel is effective, but overall the art too often veers towards the annoying, despite itself.

Elsewhere, the writing is a frustrating mix of the worst and best Mills has to offer, with yet more David Icke style rantings about the secret rulers of the world boring us for two pages, yet a nice line about the Golamhs "collection" being destroyed showing Mills can still add a humourously twisted perspective to his work.

Like a Virgin - Part 4

Samantha proves her Robo Hunting mettle

Synopsis: Rich uses his biggest robot star, Vin Daloo, in an action scene that is to end with the Robo Hunters' death. As the finish nears, Stogie heads off to find help, while Rich argues with his creations over the dialogue. Stogie returns with a robo rat that chews through Slade's rope. Using her concealed army pistol, she takes out the Vin robot, and uses the missiles to destroy the others and stop Rich. The police arrive later to take Rich away. Slade Senior tells her there was a reward for their actions and he knows how to collect - Samantha thinks there might be something for her in this robohunting business after all...

GH: After four episodes, this hasn't worked terribly well for me, in a similar way that the last Grant/Gibson Robohunter tales (with the older Slade) were missing something too. However, there's a part of me that would like to see these clearly talented creators take another stab at Robo Hunter - But hopefully ironing out some of the kinks in this tale.

Firstly, Gibson could do with overhauling the character model for Slade. Based on, it seems, Pink (as pointed out on the forum), she looks terribly unattractive in some scenes - not something you'd expect from a Gibson lead character. There's obviously an attempt to make her look a little like Slade too, but it just looks odd. Secondly, we'll need a story with a little more meat on it next time around, and not just some frankly tired hollywood satire. Grant is clearly better than this, and a more convoluted tale would be appreciated. And if you're going to keep Slade Senior around for more, please give him a little more to do and say, as he seems like a fifth wheel for much of this.

I'm loathe to see the back of this so soon - but when it makes its return, I hope there are a few changes.

The whole setting up of Samantha as heir apparent to Sam's role worked fine, but the mystery they get involved in just didn't make any sense at all - where did Hoagie find the key to the lost luggage with Slade's head in if Rodonna had stolen it? The whole body parts scam falls apart on even the slightest examination, and it was the cleverly constructed plots (and the ridiculous but perfectly logical way things spiralled out of control for Slade) that made the originals classics. If this had run to 6 to 8 parts, with Slade's predicament being more integral to the plot, I feel this might have been a lot more successful.