2000AD 1378 - 25 February 2004
Cover by Mark Harrison

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

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: This cover doesn't work for me, I have to say. Mainly because I'm squinting at it to see what's going on. Never a good sign...

LS: A cover that looks better on the website than in print, which renders it a little too murky. Not bad though, and makes me wonder what the strip might have looked like rendered in Mark Harrison's black and white style from the old White Dwarf strip he used to do.

Brothers of the Blood – part one

Dolmen awaits assessment...

Synopsis: A cadet judge lies in bed, wary of what the other cadets think of him. He finally gets up and puts on his uniform. He's Cadet Dolmen, a clone of Dredd and goes for a meeting with the principal. As he sits down, Judge Roco, another Dredd clone, but a full judge, goes in to talk to the principal ahead of him. Rico is told that Dolmen is on a downward trajectory, with falling grades and a tendency to fight other cadets. Rico sympathises, saying that as a cadet he just wanted to fit in, but the association with Dredd was too much for everyone else. Rico had met with Dolmen at an earlier training session while he was also a cadet and had kept an eye on him since. Now Dolmen has requested to leave the academy.

The principal has no choice but to grant his wish – but before he does, he orders Dolmen to spend time on the streets with Rico. As they head out, Dolmen tells Rico that all he wants is his own life. Rico replies that that’s fine except for one big thing – he won’t be a judge…

GH: Comparing this with a fairly similar tale of Clones and what they have to live up to in the Megazine at the moment, this story comes out way on top. This is the kind of Strip we should really see a lot more of in Dredd. That is, it’s the kind of character piece that was done so well in The Pit. Dredd is often seen as an action strip, and it can work very well as such, but the truly classic moments in recent years have been ones which have really made some effort with the characterisation. Good as Rennie is, he hasn’t managed to achieve this in the way that Wagner can. With only one episode, Wagner’s given us the best story since the death of Orlok, and this doesn’t even feature Dredd! We get a true feeling of life in the Academy, and more importantly life as a descendant of Dredd. The growing Dredd family has many parallels with what’s being attempted in Batman (a disparate group that are all united by a distant father figure) and it’s be great to see more of this in the future. In the meantime, this will do fine.

As for Ezquerra’s art – it’s as fantastic as ever, and cements him once again as the best Dredd artist. Wagner usually saves him for the really special Dredd tales – so there are high hopes for this one.

LS: Another Bloodlines story, with an interesting twist - A Dredd clone who doesn't want to fill Dredd's (tight) boots. Running this at the same time as the Young Giant reprint over in the meg is odd timing though. At the very least, you might overdose on surly Cadets and at worst you might think Wagner is merely recycling yet another past story. That would be shame though, as despite the obvious similarities, there are some nice touches in this weeks installment. I particularly like the insights into the loneliness of Cadet life for the clones, especially those already destined for great things from the moment they were 'born' - unlike Dredd, who had the original Rico to see him through the course, both Dolman and the new Rico have had to do it alone, and the way Rico looks out for his "brother" is a great character touch that will hopefully see Rico develop into something much more distinct than just "Dredd Mark II".

Ezquerra puts in a creditable enough art job, despite not having much of interest to draw in this weeks episode. Hopefully there will be more for him to get his teeth into next week.

Part 2

A Mega Warrior attacks

Synopsis: Kara and her new crew head for Ymir’s World, as she exerts her authority over the crew. But Ymir’s world is gone,. They access the astronimica surveillance satellites to find out what happened. While this is in progress, Grimhild and Kara check out the dead alien – the arm in its belly came from Ymir’s world, and they find a communication device in it’s skull. She gets a call from Gundrun who is with a Priestess. She tells Kara that Ragnarok is coming, and to beware of a one eyed man – clearly referring to Egil. Going back to the bridge, the data shows a wormhole destroying the planet. Grimhild calls it Jormungandr, the World destroying serpent – the first sign of Ragnarok. Running the tape back before the wormhole, they see a ship flying off and trace it to Bifrost, a lawless planet.

As they land on Biforst they are attacked by a group of men who take Lily, but as they go in pursuit, a huge createure appears, easily swatting aside Grimhild. As the others fire on it, it turns tail and runs, leaving the others to finally track down lily. As Grimily and Lily, clearly lovers, get reacquainted, Kara asks Lily if she picked up anything from the men. They said it was a trap to test the monster, and there’s a meeting od Odinist Agitators at a club called Munin’s. Going back to the ship to change into something more revealing so they blend in. They flirt with men in the bar, while Lily searches their minds, whish leads them to a blockhouse. They break in, and discover the meeting. Listening in, a group of men are showing images of the Valkyries versus the “Mega Warrior” – whose only problem is a lack of intelligence. But before they hear any more, they are discovered….

GH: The past episode of this has come in for some attack from the regular readers based on its sexual content. While this is certainly cut down on in this issue, it’s still not exactly something I’d aim at kids. But the argument of sexual content in 2000AD can be confined to the message boards for the moment – as it is I still enjoy this strip. The double sized instalments it’s been given over the past couple of weeks have helped to firmly establish the story and the characters. The plot is also moving along at a healthy speed, with questions being raised by a number of things in this week’s episode from the bizarre Mega Warrior (I did like the “We’re still trying to find it” comment) and the destruction of Ymir’s World. The art backs up this fast moving plot as Lucas’ art continues to be excellent throughout. In all, a highly entertaining read, much in the same was as Interceptor was last year. But then many people didn’t like that either…

LS: Well here's a story destined to divide opinion - Barbarella with Nordic Space Lesbians. It's fairly graphic for 2000AD (which admittedly means "not very"), and while it's little that we havent seen in Dante, this strip seems to be happy to trade on 'saucy' as its main attraction. With Dante, sauce was always a large side order, but being offset by a stronger narrative and over arching "grand plot" probably make it seem more naturally at home in the Galaxy's Greatest. As it stands, Valkyries doesn't seem to have any pretensions towards being anything more than a lighthearted, titillating romp, and probably has to negotiate two possible pitfalls - does it succeed, and is it "2000AD material"?

Weighing against the strip is the proliferation of "ballsy, sexy" female lead characters we've seen of late, and the double helpings. In it's favour, the strip has quite nice artwork and a sense that Moore is having fun updating the Viking mythologys into the futuristic setting (though not as much fun as he's having perving over his heroines various predicaments). While I don't think it's been a good move to run double lengths of a strip open to accusations of sexism, smut or triviality (I get the sense this might have been scheduling problems more than design?), so far it's been more entertaining and original than the previous Girl Power offensive tales. That said, toning down the nudity probably wouldn't have harmed the strip any, and might have deflected some of the criticism regarding it's suitability in what was once a kids comic.

Twilight of the Idols - Part 9

The treasures of Laputa

Synopsis: Sarita and her men launch a surprise attack, and board the ship, but Aladdin uses a wish to go to Laputa. Left with Dancer’s crew, she tells them that Aladdin id evil, and that he’s gone to Laputa to retrieve items of myth from Laputa, stored there so that they could not be used for “foul purpose” and as a descendant of Sinbad, it has been Sarita’s duty to protect the island. She also reveals herself as a cousin of Dancer, as only descendants of Sinbad can use the map. Aladdin was a thief and murderer, who found the “ring of fire” with the Djinn and wished for an infinity of wishes – wishes which gradually poisoned his mind. Dancer’s crew remind him that he saw the island once before, and Sarita says it would not have shown itself without a purpose – so there might still be hope. Using a magic carpet, they all head to Laputa, discovering a huge city on the top of the Island.

GH: Eclipsed only by Dredd this week, The Red Seas is still one of the best reasons to be reading 2000AD this week. A fast moving plot, with plenty of tongue in cheek revisionist references to myths and legends, accompanied by art that couldn’t be more suitable to the storyline. Perhaps my only complaint is that if Aladdin really is the evil one here, it hasn’t been very well hidden up until now. Ideally I’d like another twist or two before the end, so let’s see what Edginton can come up with.

Part 9 - Iced

VCs aplenty

Synopsis: Diderot checks out he mining station which seems to be free of Geeks, but they all think they must be hiding out there. They all head in, and discover a large cargo ship, but no Geeks. This is their fall back, so they still head out to the com array. But as they do, they are ambushed by Geeks. Veto holds them off while Kail and the VCs head for the array. Meanwhile, Smith, Keege and Jupe fight off the Geeks at their end. Jupe says he’ll hold off the Geeks while Keege and Smith head for the ship. Jupe tells Smith that he’s mortally wounded, and is only kept going with Combat Stims and Morphine. After saying goodbye, Keege and Smith head for the ship.

GH: There has been a vocal contingent, myself included in them, asking for longer stories in 2000AD. However, the current VCs series backs up the old saying, “be careful what you wish for”. A little bit more happens here, and the sacrifice of Jupe is well handled, but as ever there is a great feeling that we could have gotten to this position in 5 episodes or less. Honestly, given the scarcity of plot in this week’s episode, there’s not much more that I can add to that…

LS: Sadly, this really is a chore to even begin to think about reviewing. While there's nothing inherently wrong with the strip that some stronger characterisation couldn't sort, I'm left with the feeling I'm just watching a computer game fight between a squad of generated nasties and some wise-cracking heroes with a few set phases they repeat every now and then in place of a personality. There seems to be nothing of the character or mood of the original in either the story or art, and I'm left wandering why theres a hole at the back of my prog where the final story should be.