Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by Richmond Clements

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: A photo cover for a change this issue, but one heavily touched up so that it doesn't actually look too much like a photo at first glance, to its credit. Unlike the last attempt at a photo cover (over in the megazine with the same model) this one looks much better given the striking red tinge. I am aware that people have problems with photo covers - but I really don't mind this at all. It offers something different, and also gives a chance to really show off what else is inside the issue (even if that section on the left should really have been in black for clarity's sake). I do notice, however, that they couldn't get the model to sport what Red's wearing in the actual strip...

RC: Well now, this has caused an almighty stink, hasn't it? I'm not going to discuss the rights or wrongs of this sort of cover (though I may address it in the review of the strip), but to say weather it works as a cover or not.

Well, does it? No really, I would have to say. The image is just too, well, red. The photograph is all but completely obscured by the toning gone mad. I don't mind a photo cover, just as long as it is a good photo. This might be a good one, I can't tell through the red haze. The boxes down the side could be a good idea, if only they didn't suffer from the same printing-the-same-colour-as-the-background sickness that affects the Nerve Centre.

Gulag– Part 1

The Sov hunting party...

Synopsis: In the wasteland of Siberia, a man is caught in the snow by Sov judges, is brought down by a shot and then killed by their dogs. A Mega City 1 satellite reveals what the man was creating - a huge "99R" drawing. In a Mega City 1 briefing, Dredd says it must refer to "Code 99 Red - Judge in trouble" and that it must have been written by a war prisoner escaped from one of their gulags. The Sovs have said they've given back all the Apocalypse War prisoners - but there are rumours of other camps. Despite being a war veteran, Judge Votten, head of the defence forces refuses to start an operation to get the prisoners, as it's too reckless. Dredd says he'll take in street judges, telling the Chief Judge she can take his badge if he doesn't get to go. Hershey concludes the meeting, asking Dredd to stay. She agrees to the mission as long as he takes volunteers, and that they're on their own in this mission. She also warns him that he'll face the long walk if he tries to blackmail her again. "Find them and bring them home. That's an order"

GH: This is a good start to a proper multi part Dredd story from Rennie - something we've been after for some time. There was a worry that this week's Dredd would suffer after the high of "Brothers of the Blood" but right from Adlard's assured 3 page dialogue-free opener, this has all the hallmarks of a top Dredd thriller.

I use to think that it was Dredd who has a problem forgiving the Sovs after the Apocalypse War, but now I'm beginning to see that it's actually Rennie who has unresolved issues here. From his Megazine tale the Christmas before last (War Crimes in Megazine 201) to this month's chess finals, Rennie's Dredd seems highly preoccupied with the war in a way that Wagner's does not. This isn't a bad thing at all and gives Rennie something of his own to experiment with in his Dredd tales. However, I doubt Dredd's going to get any more forgiving as this series continues. I'm not sure about his "blackmailing" of the Chief Judge, but he does get sufficiently slapped down for it, so we shouldn't see that again.

As mentioned above, Adlard, following his under-rated art from The Satanist turns in another find Dredd job here. In particular, his heavily garbed Sov guards look significantly menacing, and the killing of the prisoner is effectively done. Given at how effectively he and, of course, Chris Blythe on particularly good form as colourist portray the icy wastes, we should be in for a treat once Dredd gets up there and starts causing trouble...

RC: This is looking good. A nice build up through the first three pages that feels almost like the pre-credits sequence to a movie. Adlard and Blythe provide some cracking action through the snow chase; the image of the big dogs being particularly striking.

The lack of dialogue in the first half of the strip is more than made up for in the second half, as the Chief Judge and her council debate the situation. Rennie provides good characterisation for each of the judges, and the art is well up to the challenge, with a series of interesting panels, that lift what could have been a couple of boring talking heads pages. There's a nice character moment with Dredd trying to throw his weight about, only to be slapped down by Hershey. A scene made all the sweeter when you think back to her first adventure, trailing behind Dredd on the Judge Child Quest. I can only hope that the story is allowed to grow over a number of weeks, without the usual hurried ending that seems to plague Dredd multi-part adventures.

And one more thing, according to Tharg in this weeks Nerve Centre, Rennie is a 'guest writer' on this week Dredd? If any writer, other than Wagner should be called a regular, surely it's Rennie?

Just Business - Part 3

Sinister and Dexter make their point...

Synopsis: Kal's car goes off the road and lands near the sewers. Sinister and Dexter order him to give it up as they face off against one another. They tell Kal that he has to kill the woman as they accepted the contract, and that he'll have to do it if he wants to become a gunshark. He has to leave his emotions aside when he's on the job, and just get it done. Sinister tells him that they can let her walk away, but if so Kal's apprenticeship as a gunshark is over too. Kal has no choice - and walks back to where Isobel is and kills her (or appears to - as the actual killing is out of shot). Back at Apellido's they have gained his trust and he tells them he'll put them on a retainer - although Apellido could possibly have an ulterior motive. Kal is upset, but still a gunshark.

GH: A better than expected end to a fairly decent Sinister Dexter story in hindsight. Apellido looks like he could be trouble (was that last comment of his supposed to be out of Dexter's earshot?) and the development of Kutter is coming along nicely - finally. Let's hope that we see a little more of Kutter from now on - as his sidelining since his promising introduction has been disappointing, since he's clearly the most intriguing character in the Sin/Dex mix - and could easily end up as a good guy or a bad guy (although I'm secretly hoping for the latter). Some good art from Clarke accompanies this episode, even though the talking heads face off could have been more dynamic.

There are, however, some minor niggles. Every week, the strap line says "they claim they only kill fellow members of the underworld". Now I understand that this statement is meant to be ambiguous, but this killing is more than a little cold blooded for the pair. And they don't seem at all surprised as Kutter's special gun - which he had kept from them up till now. And lastly, on the note of the gun, can we please drop the "skin it" comment every time he transforms his hand into the gun? It just seems un-necessary.

RC: Wonders will never cease. The script Abnett has pulled out for this episode is superb. There is more character building in this one episode than we have seen in the last few series of Sin/Dex. Having Finnigan describing just what it means to be a gun shark is a truly great scene, and having Kal kill Isobel just goes to show how good a writer Abnett really is, when he puts his mind to it. It's just a pity Sin/Dex can' t have a script of this quality every week.

As for the art, it too is wonderful. Andy Clarke has a good eye for detail, and a nice line in subtle facial expressions. He can draw cool guns too. Colourists never get enough credit, they've got a really difficult job (just you try doing it!), but always seem to be left in the shadow of the artist. So stand up and take a bow, Gary Caldwell.

All in all, Clarke and Caldwell are getting to the point where, when I think Sin/Dex, it's the version they do I think of, and not Simon Davis.

Realpolitik - Part 3

Arkhan prepares for war...

Synopsis: Rogue infiltrates Nordska Tapor, the head of Nort military operations on Nu Earth. He takes out the guards and heads into tunnels to meet their Nort contact. But as he gets to the meeting point, other Norts are there too. Rogue takes most of them out - but one gets a bead on him until the remaining nort officer kills him. She is the contact, and makes sure the other Norts are dead before moving on. She says that her husband and father were both victims of the War Marshall's purges which is why she is helping.

Back above the planet, Arkhan is interrogating a prisoner and has the full plans of the assassination plan - and all those in the plot. He plans to deal with it himself, however, rather than alert the War Marshall.

GH: I'm beginning to think that Arkhan's planning a little career move of his own, the way things are progressing. If he can get rid of the competition and the War Marshall - he'll be built up into a formidable opponent for Rogue. This series continues to prove that there's much life in Rogue Trooper yet - and that the character deserves a few more series so that we can play all this out rather than rushing to a conclusion. More top class artwork from PJ Holden this week too - with the only exception being his Rogue Trooper. He generally looks fine - but his helmet looks slightly odd in some scenes and could do with a looser interpretation. That said - his background art is astounding, especially the opening shot of Nordska.

RC: This is what Rogue should have been doing for all those years when he, well, wasn't. He is, after all, a soldier, and by all accounts a bloody good one. Why does it feel like a novelty to see him doing some actual soldiering, then? Here, we have some well played out action, as Rogue sneaks his way into the Nort base where he meets his contact and the dialogue between the two, and Rogue's hat gun and bag, is well written.

As for the art. I must declare a quite substantial interest right up front. And that is, the first page of this episode is one that I'm buying. This is Paul's best work to date. Looking back at his other work, it is hard to believe that the lightness of his Dredd work has come from the same artist who painted the gritty war story we have here. It has just occurred to me too, that the use of greyscale matches well with the ambiguity of the actions from the main characters in the story.

I'll be sorry to see this end, as it's the best Rogue strip by far, for at least a decade.

Part 6 - Last Episode

Baldur escapes - or thinks he does...

Synopsis: The Valkyries hold the Mega Men off until the frigate explodes - set on self destruct by Kara and Squeaks. Kara grabs Baldur and learns that the satellites transmit a signal to the Trez who trigger the satellites - but it won't work unless a Trez sends the signal. A mega man grabs Baldur, so the Valkyries have no choice but to back off. They grab the burnt out Grimhild and head back on the ship escaping to high orbit. There they release the satellites and use what's left of the dead Trez to convince them that the signal is genuine. They escape to hyper as the wormhole appears and Hel gets sucked away to the Trez for lunch. On the ship, Kara contacts the priestess to let her know that they've won. But the priestess says Baldur's death is the final precursor to Ragnarok - and to "beware the Odinist within"...

GH: So the much maligned Valkyries comes to an end. While the last couple of episodes have been a little below par - the whole series has been a fairly enjoyable ride, with some decent plotting from Moore and great artwork from 2000AD newcomer Lucas. The series seems to hint that there might be a sequel - but that doesn't seem likely if the 2000AD fanbase gets their way. Much of this is down to the rather foolish decision to hide much of the plot under some of the gratuitous amounts of flesh on display here.

It seems that many readers haven't been able to get around this rather unnecessary part of the series. And it's this "unnecessary" part of it that many people have that doesn't seem to have hit home with editorial - given this week's Nerve Centre which rather annoyed me. We're asked to compare the nudity on show here with the violence on show in some of the other storylines - but that's not the point! The violence in Sinister Dexter/Slaine et all is part of the storyline - here, the nudity is just a titillating add-on (plenty of girl on girl action for the teenage boys), which wouldn't have gone missed if removed. Tharg would like to think we're all prudes - but perhaps if we're going to have sex in 2000AD it could at least have relevance to the plot?

That all aside - I wouldn't mind seeing more of this but doubt that I ever will.

RC: After a rocky start, this strip grew on me, and I kind of enjoyed it. This seem to have fallen apart in this final episode, though. Perhaps I missed something, but how did they get the wormhole to open? Oh I just don't care.

My views on the art haven't changed since the last time I reviewed the strip. It's good work, but not a style that sits well in 2000AD.

The Empty Suns - Book 2 - Part 1

Johnny Alpha. Dead again.

Synopsis: (Continues from Prog 1368) Red appears to have been transported back to the Milton Keynes ghetto, where she meets a Johnny Alpha who does not recognise her as a friend. But he recognises her as a killer and starts shooting while Red realises that the Offspring got the scenario from her mind. She kills the representation of Alpha which returns her to the present as she and a puzzled Syte come to.

Red orders Manalogs to bring her data of the psi scan and continues her task of "pissing off" the Offspring. They attack Accord World Angstrom, destroying the Offspring's sentinels that were weeding out the weak mutant population. Red says she can sense the Offspring - and he's coming for them in person...

GH: The introduction to this episode doesn't do you much favours, given the 4 month gap since Red's last appearance - so check out the link above if you need a quick refresher as to how we got here. Alpha gets killed (again) which is sure to piss off more than a few people (even though it wasn't really him). Mind you, his death here is much better than going out to that stupid winged thing back in the day. This is fairly decent - even if we haven't actually progressed much since the last series. Red's still killing and the Offspring's still pissed off - although there is the promise of bigger things to come next issue.

The art is fairly good - and Harrison can draw a decent Johnny Alpha, but it can suffer from being a little too dark in places. There's a bit to much "squinting to see what's going on" for my liking and Harrison could do with brightening his colour palette. And is her improbable outfit even smaller this time around...?

RC: I wasn't a fan of the previous Durham series, but already, this is looking as if it'll be a lot better.

Durham's fight with Johnny, while ultimately pointless, and only there to provide a cliff hanger from the first book, is exiting and well choreographed.

But the art. Oh the art. It ranges wildly between the marvellous to the hurried, and sometimes is almost as murky as the bad old days of painted art that was various shades of brown.

I've got a couple more quibbles while I'm here. When where the Strontium Dogs employed to round up renegade mutants? Portrait of a Mutant clearly has Johnny being exiled from earth, never to return at the end of the mutant war, just after he has joined the SD agency. And while it could be argued that some mutants would hunt down other mutants for money, it is not
something Johnny Alpha, as a former leader of the Mutant Army, would be doing.

The second thing is Miss Red's clothing. My complaint about it has nothing to do with any feminist ideal, or any concern that it may offend the weak minded. No, it's just stupid. She's fighting for god's sake! Surely she should wear something that offers a wee bit more protection? And where does she keep her immac?

This would be as good a place as any to mention Tharg's comments about our reaction to the recent sex and nudity in the comic. He makes a lot of the fact that overt violence is seemingly alright, but sex is not. If Tharg really believed this, then the model on the cover would be dressed like Durham Red, and not in a pair of sensible trousers. After all, the average readership is in their thirties, Tharg, so if you think we can handle it, why not put it on the cover?