2000AD 1388 - 05 May 2004
Cover by Colin MacNeil

Synopsis and 1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd opinion by WR Logan

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: Despite breaking the "don't cover the logo" rule that I have about covers (come on, how hard can it be for artists to avoid it?) this is an excellent cover from Colin MacNeil, an artist who arguably made his name with Chopper. It's a striking and simple image that works particularly well on the news-stand. And top marks for whoever produced the DR & Quinch referencing strapline, which is inspired.

WRL: Colin MacNeil & Chopper - anyone who's ever seen Song Of The Surfer should have thought that this week's cover should have been so thrill powered that you'd find it hard to have the energy reserves left to even open the cover. So why then does it seem so wrong? If someone described it to me, you'd think wow, Chopper on his board, a kid in one hand and gunfire all around. The look of steely determination on his face that has come to signify the face of rebellion and anti authority in the big meg, for all those down trodden citizens who fleetingly think they can beat the system before the judges manage to beat all the fight out of them.

The cover somehow doesn't have the "X factor" that the pairing of Chopper and MacNeil should have. I just wish I could put my finger on it. Is it the fact that it's just over 15 years since MacNeil made the Skysurfer his own? It wouldn't be the first time that as an artist gets older, the amount of time and energy that goes into his work is dissipated. Real life becomes more of a lure than it would have when trying to make it in a cut throat business that initially expects more than any project is worth. Whatever the reason the cover that promised so much fails to deliver.

You only have to look at Colin MacNeil's other Chopper covers to see if you agree with my making it to made it theory about this weeks cover.

Love Hurts

In Mega City 1, love knows no boundaries...

Synopsis: Blind singer Kyly is looking for a new gimmick, and her manager Morry provides one: a marriage to a Klegg called Justin. But Kyly and Justin's fake marriage blossoms into a real romance, and they become an item. As they appear on a chat show, Justin is shown images of his father during the time of Cal. Justin says that his upbringing in an alien orphanage has wiped out any Klegg traits like the love of raw meat - despite being tempted by the studio host. But later that night, lying in bed with Kyly, Justin dreams of raw meat - only to wake up in the morning and discover that he's devoured Kyly. Morry calls in Judge Dredd, on a routine patrol, who immediately executes Justin, and arrests Morry for "stupidity."

GH: An OK Judge Dredd tale that unfortunately screams "filler." Unlike last week's one-off, this doesn't have the same bite. Maybe it's to do with hanging the whole process around "Justin & Kyly". As the real Justin & Kylie story is now so old, this story has lost any bite that it might once have had. Plus I'm almost certain that the "Frankie & Johnny" rewritten method has been used before. It's not necessarily a bad tale, just that it feels a little tired, and clearly runs out of steam towards the end. Arresting Morry for "stupidity" seems stupidity itself, and I can't help but feel there could have been a better punchline.

That said, the art for this week's tale helps to alleviated some of the disappointment arising from the story. David Roach, a veteran 2000AD artist from his previous work on Anderson, makes a welcome return here on full art chores, and is particularly up to the task of creating a sympathetic klegg. While his Judge Dredd isn't quite up to scratch and the last panel looks awkward, most of this tale looks great, and it would be certainly worth seeing more of Roach in the comic.

WRL: Alan Grant, Kleggs and a story that you suspect that was thought up whilst reading the colour supplement of the Sunday paper full of B list celebs doing stuff that many of us really couldn’t care less about. With Frankie & Johnny playing on the radio, city block names that have some link with the story, like the Peters & Lee block, what’s not to like.

David Roach’s artwork is complemented by Dylan Teague’s colours (but more of Dylan later) and the whole package of script, art, colours & letters are perfectly blended like Gareth Hunt and his three types of coffee beans.

Book 1 - Taking Liberties Part 2

Classic Savage

Synopsis: Jack & Noddy watch the Volgans on maneuvers from the roof of his house. Jack tells him how the Volgans came up with their name. He says their leader Marshal Vashkov grew up near the river Volga, obsessed with Stalin and the huge Stalin statue that overlooked the Volga. But when the statue was pulled down as Stalin grew out of favour, the town was renamed Volgograd and the shock of the events made Vashkov call his facist party the Volgans. Jack also muses about the time that Bill Savage came home to find his wife and kids murdered, and turned on the invading Volgans. Noddy goes, leaving the "good news" with Jack, which in fact contains some top secret information.

Elsewhere, Rusty is being beaten as the authorities try to find out whether or not Savage is really dead. Rusty doesn't break, so it seems that the Volgans may believe that Savage is gone after all...

GH: I am quite enjoying this - certainly far more than I thought I was going to - but there are some highly confusing parts to the tale. The "shock" that made Vashkov rename his party the Volgans is completely incomprehensible, and after re-reading the page a couple of times, I still don't understand what Mills was trying to say here. In addition to this, Jack refers to Bill as "before he was killed in that ambush." Now have I got this completely wrong, or wasn't the staged death of Bill merely hours or even minutes before this? The way it's referred to, it sounds like ancient history. So is that Savage admitting to Noddy that they all know about this, and are part of the conspiracy or what? All a but hard to grasp, to be honest. Maybe it'll all start to come together in following issues.

As for the accusations of Mills' homophobic tendencies that seem to be occurring over at the official site's boards, I didn't really see it last week (just a slightly laboured joke). But making the chief villain "have a private chat with Rusty later" after commenting on his "pretty face" left me wondering if there was a grain of truth here somewhere. Probably not - but I'll be looking out for this tendency now.

But despite, this, I think the story still shows promise, and I did like the potted alternate history of events. As for the art, Adlard continues to shine with his moody black & white artwork suiting the story perfectly.

WRL: In this age of the internet, anything even slightly critical of father of 2000AD gets people dancing around weird stones, sacrificing maidens and putting hexes upon you and your family for even daring to say you didn't enjoy it. So if you don't hear from me anytime soon then "The Knights of the Secret Order of Mills" have found me and I've been ritually slain in my local graveyard, because I didn’t enjoy the first episode and there’s nothing here in part two that changes my mind.

The most depressing part of Savage isn't the fact that this is part two but that is part two of book one, so it's going to be around for a while. The Father of Thrill Power he may be but I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Pat Mills scripted story. This is even though every time it's announced that he's working on something new, I hope that once again I'll enjoy it. As time goes by I just feel preached to more and more, get fed up with religious undertones and rape, whether it be in Sláine or as inferred in this weeks Savage, and don't feel like I'm reading a story that is written to entertain me.

"Taking Liberties", it certainly is.

Part 2

Cornelius takes over

Synopsis: The sole survivor of the wreck, a Diaxian, reveals himself to once have been Abraham Cornelius, captain of the Tartarus. He tells them how he valiantly tried to save his crew, but there was nothing he could do and he took over the body of the Diaxian whose memory had been wiped in an energy surge. In reality, Cornelius did everything he could to save himself, sacrificing his crew along the way and personally wiping the mind of the Diaxian so that he could transfer his mind over to its body. He says that he now refers to himself as AHAB, and that he wishes to claim the captain's remains (his previous body) and give him a "decent Christian burial". The crew think this is odd, but agree to the request.

3 days late, the science ship arrives at a dimensional fissure, as guided by AHAB, and they prepare to see a Koheynu...

GH: This week AHAB uses a method which has occasionally been used before in comics, but always works particularly well, in that the actual events unfolding ddon't match with the narration. Thus the reader knows far more than the crew and Kitching pulls off the difficult job of letting us know early on that AHAB is not to be trusted. In doing this, he raises the questions of just what AHAB wants to get out of the Koheynu, and what his attachment is to the body of his previous self. One way or another, it helps to immediately both set up the major storyline and highlight AHAB as the potential baddie of the piece. But is he misguided, or actually evil? Time will tell.

This episode helps to mark out AHAB as a series to watch over the coming weeks, with Kitching's engaging storyline backed up by the fine artwork of Elson, who is just as responsible for managing to pull off the dual tale of events in this week's episode.

WRL: There was plenty of guess work on the various forums dedicated to 2000AD about AHAB before it started. Moby Dick in space seemed to be what a lot of people thought this would be about. This is no great problem as I've not read the book or watched Gregory Peck in the film, so I wouldn’t know if it is or not.

I'm enjoying the story so far and the best sequence of events in this second episode was where Abraham Cornelius told us in his words what had happened twenty years previously to the Tartarus yet the artwork told a completely different story.

There's no doubt that Richard Elson can draw, his storytelling is fine. But his artwork on AHAB looks exactly like his previous work, especially "Atavar". There is such a similarity in look and feel in Richard's artwork that I wonder if maybe a different colourist may give a slightly different feel to it so distinguishing it more from what has appeared before. This is only a slight niggle and doesn't detract from the fact that I look forward to more, but then I've always been a sucker for 2000AD strips set in space.

Paranoia - Part 2

Farnsworth sports this years judicial fashions...

Synopsis: Judge Nixon meets up with her supervisor, Judge Farnsworth, treating him with disdain. He finds it troubling that Nixon breaks so many rules, like torturing Cooze or attacking a fellow judge, as well as sleeping with Cooze. He goes over her record, noting that her ability to fool a lie detector made her ideal for undercover Wally Squad duty, and she even had her arm surgically removed and refitted with a mechanical one to blend in. He's concerned that she's bees a Wally Squad judge for 11 years, and asks if she even remembers why she became a judge. But she does, as she flashes back to a memory of her mother being attacked while she was young. Now she says that something serious is about to go down in th Low Life, and they can't take her out. Farnsworth orders her to check in with "Dirty Frank" and find out more.

GH: So this will be the "exposition" episode then, after last week's action packed opener. This type of pacing works well, and we get a little more insight into Nixon's character before she goes back on the streets. Given that she could potentially become an unlikable character, it's important that we get some sympathy earlier on and the flashback scenes (I can only assume there will be more) will help to achieve this. The relationship between Nixon and her supervisor also looks intriguing and will hopefully be picked up on again later. Other than that, this still looks like a highly promising series, backed up by some stellar artwork from Henry Flint once again - I particularly liked the Farnsworth's glasses in the style of a cut-down judge's helmet for one.

WRL: I don’t think it' any great secret that I think Henry Flint is the best art droid that Tharg has built since Mike McMahon & Carlos Ezquerra. Every story that he illustrates may not be the best story that 2000 has ever sent to the thrill presses but the artwork is always guaranteed to be the highlight of any prog.

At the moment, the art is the star, as we are introduced to the characters and the world that Aimee Nixon lives in. But that in itself is no bad thing. How many times do we see a new thrill appear and before we know it, the story starts and ends at break neck speed due to limitations in how many episodes can be fitted between the event Progs. Low Life has me wanting to see more and by the time it finishes I hope it's for more reasons that just the artwork and that Judge Aimee Nixon’s story begins to enthrall me as much as the visuals.

(Gotta love Farnsworth’s Judge shades, the new must have Judicial accessory for any self respecting hard ass Judge)

The Big Meg - Part 2

Chopper shows off his new moves...

Synopsis: Chopper darts out of the building, under heavy fire. Someone in the crowd warns them he has a baby, as Dredd orders them to hold fire. But one sniper lets off a shot, hitting the child. It falls to the street as Chopper speeds off - but they discover that it's a robot doll. They try to close the gates, but Chopper escapes into the main arrivals hall, heading for the zoom with Judges in hot pursuit. He darts into the zoom tunnel, finally escaping from the judges by hiding in a space under one of the zooms. The judges finally realise that they've lost him, but Dredd wants to know why he's back - ordering for enquiries to be made.

Later, Chopper meets the woman from the crowd who warned the judges about the baby. They're both worried about someone - "whatever trouble she's in, we'll get her out of it".

GH: Ok - so it was a doll after all, and the only concern about last week's episode is pushed aside. My other concern, that Goddard would really have to pull out the stops this week in order to impress, was also well addressed with a fast moving chase through the terminus being easy to follow and full of nice touches, such as getting lost for a moment, and waving to the passengers in the passing zoom train. So I'm much more impressed with the return of Chopper after this action-packed issue, plus the promise of the reason he's actually back in the country after all this time. But do the judges go on a little overkill here? Well, we know Dredd doesn't like to lose, and he want to make an example of Chopper. However, the number of times he embarrasses them, you'd think he'd just let it go...

It's wonderful touch where Dredd elbows the unfortunate juve who has the temerity to come up to him from behind, though...

WRL: What a Prog this is turning out to be. If Low Life has the work of Tharg’s best Art Droid then Chopper has The Mighty One’s best art team working on it. Patrick Goddard & Dylan Teague are decent enough artists on their own, Patrick’s pencils are great and Dylan’s roughs would put many an artists finished work to shame (but Dylan wouldn’t argue with you if you questioned his speed). Both are more than competent artists and have worked either separately or with other artists within the pages of The Galaxies Greatest Comic, but put the pencil in Patrick’s hand and the brush and inkpot in Dylan’s and the result is simply inspired.

As for the story, so far it's been pretty simple: Chopper is the hero, he's the one everyone is rooting for, as we always have. In Un-American Graffiti we wanted him to be the ultimate scrawler and deface the statue of Judgement. We watched as he took on the Manfred Fox Tunnel as the Midnight Surfer and held our breath as he took the same tunnel backwards in Supersurf 7, before joining in with the cheers of “Chopper!” as Dredd once again took him back to the cubes. Adolescent rebellion seemed to be at an end but after nearly 3 years in the cubes and the coming of Supersurf 10 we once again had something to cheer for, even if he was beaten at the post. Supersurf 11 saw us not only cheering him on but staring in disbelief as he lay on his board, riddled with bullets and bone fragments of the surfers as his board came to a hover just before the finish line, with drops of blood hitting the floor.
Was that it? In this world where the Judges always win, where any attempt at rebellion is quickly stamped on, who would be our champion, who would we now cheer for so that from time to time we could believe that occasionally a free spirit may break free?

We’ve seen Chopper by Garth Ennis living in the Radback, in Supersurf 13 by Alan McKenzie but no one can make us cheer for him like John Wagner and finally he’s back in the hands of his creator. This is the writer who makes us want Dredd to lose here, which is an anomaly as usually Wagner is the writer who makes us want Dredd to win. In "The Big Meg" we take our sides; Chopper is without doubt the hero and Dredd is the bastard that will do whatever he can to break our spirit of rebellion. If you doubt that, then the point is hammered home as forcefully as Dredd elbowing the face of the young Juve innocently coming up from behind him.

For years Chopper has been in the wilderness, in the hands of writers who couldn’t get it right but now after 23 years to the month since his first appearance and our belief that you can never break a free spirit, the child of the wind has returned and again we cheer him on.