2000AD 1377 - 18 February 2004
Cover by Frazer Irving

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by WR Logan

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: A wonderful cover by Frazer Irving this week, providing a fitting introduction to Valkyries. It's almost perfect, being extremely eye catching and wonderfully designed. But why only almost? Well that's because it breaks the number one rule of obscuring the cover logo, so you don't really know what you're buying. Regular readers know my feelings about this, so I'll say no more...

WRL: Frazer Irving manages to get four Croatian beauties and some fat bloke to stand still long enough to help create this week’s cover that seems to be bursting off the page. 2000AD's enfant terrible usually puts his talents to work giving small children nightmares working on 2000AD's more dark side but with this cover he gives an image that will invade the thoughts of fathers of those same children.

Master of Fear - Part 3

Dredd comes apart at the seams...

Synopsis: Judges Shakta and Molino cross a bridge in the undercity but then discover it's wired to blow. They're stuck.

Elsewhere, Dredd is under the full force of he Crystal Skull's psychic fear assault, but decides to give the Skull a taste of his own medicine. He starts to tell him of the atrocities East Meg One committed in the Apocalypse war, raising the Skull's fear level, which is amplified by his cane. He kicks the cane out of his hand as the images flood both Dredd and the Skull's mind. Then the Skull's head explodes, ending the images. Dredd pries himself loose and walks past Molino and Shakta. Too weary to help, he says he'll send someone back for them. As far as the Skull goes, he tells them "Creep proved the old adage...the only thing to fear is fear itself."

GH: Unfortunately, this week's episode doesn't live up to last week's promise. After believing the writer was trying to "atone" for the Apocalypse War, it seems quite the other way around as Dredd justifies his actions by saying that the other side was worse. I still think there's some potential for the character that could arise from a deeper examination of the war - reflecting the way that society today examines wartime actions with a fine toothcomb. Given the continuing tales in the press of WMDs, lying ministers and more, this sort of thing seems ripe for the kind of satire that seems at home in Dredd's world. Maybe next time.

In the meantime, this isn't a bad story, it's just a little too run of the mill. There's some decent artwork from Burns to back up the strip, but other than the impressive image of Dredd being sliced in two (above) he simply doesn't have enough to really show off. So in all, an OK strip, but we're in need of a truly outstanding Dredd multiparter - and soon.

WRL: Was there any other way for this Dredd adventure to end? I like John Burns’ artwork but there are too many similarities in look and story with another Dredd strip "Art of Geomancy" (Prog 762 – 765 & reprinted in Top Dog) which was also written by Alan Grant. They both had Dredd tied up and at the mercy of that week's villain, both with a touching back story that in some way could be attributed to Dredd. It's not that this weeks Dredd tale was bad, but the similarities due to the pairing of Grant & Burns detracted from the story. A perfectly acceptable 3 episode filler that entertained and had great visuals, now the palette is cleansed lets bring on Wagner & Carlos for "Blood Brothers".

Twilight of the Idols - Part 8

The starmap revealed

Synopsis: Now they have all the pieces of the map, they join them together. But the map appears useless, as it has no recognisable landmarks. But Dancer sees an answer to the problem. They dim the lights, and Dancer puts a torch to the bottom of the map. The room is illuminated by a star map - although the stars are not where they should be. The Djinn recognises them, though, as they were 10,000 years ago "when I was last my own man". Aladdin orders him to be quiet, and they realise the map marks the orbit of Laputa. Dancer says it may take time to find the island - but Aladdin has no time. He orders Alhazared in a foreign language, and the crew find themselves and the ship instantly transported to the North Pole. As they look up - they see the island of Laputa suspended above.

GH: Once again, another fantastic episode. As some of the other reviewers may attest to, it's very hard to review something week in week out when it is this consistently entertaining. Once again Edginton provides a smart, funny script, drip feeding the idea that there's more to Aladdin than meets the eye. Once again, Yeowell shows off with some great scenes, including the revelation of the map and the sudden appearance of Laputa. It's a compliment to Yeowell that you never have any trouble at all working out what's going on in his strips, something that quite a few artists could learn from. Another great episode, long may it continue.

Part 1

Grimhild lets off some steam...

Synopsis: Earth is one of six worlds that make up The Ring, celebrating a millennium of women's Neo Norse rule, led by Queen Hildegard. Other planets include those inhabited by "alien scum" or "odinist men".

On Earth, a priestess attempts to tell the future before passing out at a bar - warning of the return of Odin. However, no one pays any real attention to anything but the spectacle. Getting steadily drunk with her friend Gudrun, Kara Signysdorrir wonders if Ragnarok is coming, but Gudrun ignores it. Rebuffing Gudrun's advances, Kara heads hack home to her Erotikon. At home, her robot slave Thor lets her in and she plugs herself in. But before she can really get started, the Thorborg switches it off and ignores his override codes. She runs, noticing that the real Thor has been destroyed until she is finally cornered and taken off planet in a spacecraft.

Another ship registers that Kara, a noble lady has gone off planet. Captain Hjordis Hjordisdottir, telempath Lily Lee Li, Grimhild Skuldsdottir and Squixx Pelador an alien from Mork's Star head off after her. Back with Thor, Kara is taken to an asteroid conversion home, and introduced to an old man (she's never seen one before) called Egil Ragnarsson. He finishes operating on a dead alien as the Thorborg places her on the table. Egil implants a Nano Tech filament along her spine, combined with a personality download - Egil is now inside Kara's head.

The other ship finally reaches the asteroid while Egil tells Kara that the only way he can help to prevent Ragnarok is by working through her. Suddenly Grimhild bursts in, pumped up on berserker drugs. She destroys the Thorborg and then rips apart Egil's old body. Egil secretly introduces Kara to the rest of the team and tells her to use them. As a noblewoman, she takes command of the ship and they are to start with working out who the dead alien is. But then she starts going into a trance...

GH: This one has been such a long time coming that I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to appear (maybe Parkhouse's Tiger Sun/Dragon Moon will not be far behind?). From the early preview images, I have to admit being a little worried, but from seeing the amount of space that Tharg had alloted to the strip this week, it seemed clear that there could be more to this than meets the eye.

And indeed there was. This is easily the best thing Moore's done for the comic in many a moon. With only one episode it's streets ahead of work like Jonni Future or Tales of Telguuth, while still retaining his love of scantily clad women. Initially, while browsing through, this last point made me worry that there wouldn't be a great deal of depth to this strip - but on closer inspection this worry seems unfounded.

Indeed, there's been recent debates on the role of women in 2000AD, welcomly highlighted in this week's Nerve Centre. However, Tharg doesn't quite get the point. The reason we all got a bit fed up with the last Autumn assault was that the female creations were far too one dimensional - and with regards to Dead Man Walking, the lead character could have been a man and it wouldn't have affected the strip one iota. Here the characters are written in a way that actually makes them talk and act like women, and thus makes it all much more worthwhile. It's not necessarily about post feminism, empowerment and all that rubbish - at the end of the day, this is just better written than all the Autumn Assault strips rolled up into one.

Anyway, rant over. this is great fun, and Moore deftly makes sure that he introduces us to all the main characters, as well as the world they inhabit, with ease - getting us into the actual story damned quickly. It may be early days yet, but I'm certainly looking forward to more of this.

As for Lucas' art - it's truly wonderful. At moments looking influenced by both Alan Davis and Steve Pugh, it's a shame that he hasn't appeared in the comic before now - but hopefullly he'll be around for a while yet.

WRL: When Gavin asks me to do a review I usually just work my way through the Prog and write down my thoughts but on this occasion I left this story to last to try and get some sort of coherent opinion on it.

A double length opening episode so there's not exactly a lot to go on. The art & colouring are decent enough and there's not exactly enough story yet to start singing its praises or running it into the ground - so why do I have a problem with it? Is it the excessive amount of breasts on show? I doubt it. I love breasts and you can never see enough, but enough of my personal tastes. Is it the Stim-Bed and the Eritikon Program 6.9 or the Slippy Chute cream? Again I doubt it. Its just that although we know that the majority of 2000’s readership are in their 20’s & 30’s their must be a younger readership out there and I feel that this strip if it continues in the way its started will only get referenced because of its titillation (pun intended) and semi-naked women and not for the usual reasons the story or art.

I'll reserve judgement until we've seen more, I just hope Tharg commissioned this for the story and not for any cheap publicity in the same way the "Space Girls" generated.

Part 8 - Last Chances

VCs aplenty

Synopsis: Ryx and Lin Fu wake up together and get ready to move out. Elsewhere Jupe and Keege are infiltrating the Geek observation position, taking out all the Geeks that get in their way.

Back on the ship, the two crews are ready and head out to retrieve a com device - or failing that a ship. Meanwhile, Keege and Jupe have found Smith and release him. They are seriously outnumbered and get ready to fight their way out...

GH: And after Valkyries, we get the VCs. Where one female character only seems to exist to sleep with a male character. And be the butt of some appalling dialogue. 8 episodes in and so little has happened. It's such a shame to end the prog on such a sub-standard strip, and also a shame that Williams' improvement in the art department has been met with a corresponding dive in Abnett's writing skills.

WRL: Since Henry Flint did book one, we were spoilt with the revamp of the V.C.s and Steve Smith's continuing story set 50 years since the original. I can't say that I've ever been a fan of Anthony Williams' work and his art on the V.C.s does nothing to change my mind. Some panels don't look too bad, the crew in their suits, even the geeks, it’s when Anthony has to do the human figure that it all goes pear shaped for me. This latest artwork is better than what we saw on book two but it’s far from what I’d have liked to have seen on this future war story.