2000AD 1395 - 23 June 2004
Cover by Steve Yeowell & Chris Blythe

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

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: An OK cover with Tyranny showing us her tail, and a nice fiery background from Blythe. But it looks a little uninventive for my liking, so I'm unable to get terribly excited about it.

WRL: This weeks Tyranny Rex cover seems more of a convention sketch that’s been coloured than a cover for the Galaxy's Greatest Comic. Take away the background effects and it really is nothing special.

Terror - Part 4

The judges watch the "specialist" channel...

Synopsis: The bomber tells Zondra that he didn’t set the bomb, and that although he was mixed up with Total War, he didn’t know that there was a bomb in the bag (although captions reveal to us that he did – and is using the lie to get closer to Zondra). Zondra tries to convince him to go to the judges, but he refuses. They spend time together, and get closer eventually ending up in bed together.

Unknown to Zondra, Dredd felt she was worth keeping tabs on and the judges are in fact watching her every move. Using spycams throughout Zondra’s apartment, they manage to identify the bomber as Sonny Castilenno, who has a record for anti-social behaviour. Dredd sees him as the chance to get inside Total War, and calls for the undercover division. Later, at Funster’s Freakfair, where Castilenno works, an undercover judge drugs him, and under the pretence of being taken to the ER, the judges get to work on him in their lab…

GH: After a few too many series where Dredd has proved to be somewhat less than infallible (the escape of Chopper and the ease at which he was led into a trap in Gulag to name two), it’s a welcome change to see his instincts paying off. The slow reveal that the judges have been watching Zondra all along makes for a clever, and surprising, switch halfway through the episode. And Dredd’s grim response to the news that she had no connection to Total War (“She’s got one now”) certainly seems in character with unforgiving Dredd that’s been missing for a while. As for MacNeil, he continues the excellent use of colour that was seen in Devlyn Waugh, with a green tinted effect to signify the fact that the judges are watching Zondra and Castilenno’s every move in the appartment and a red tinged hue that take over the scenes inside the judges’ domain.

This remains one of the best, and indeed well rounded, Dredd tales that we’ve seen from Wagner for a while yet – and has me genuinely looking forward to more.

WRL: You see the names Wagner & MacNeil on a Dredd credit box and you immediately expect something special. Wagner doesn’t disappoint with his script and MacNeil produces his best artwork for a long time. It's still not as good as he has produced in the past, but his art on stories like Song Of The Surfer is the benchmark that his Dredd work will always be judged against. I doubt whether he’ll ever hit that mark again, although his work on ‘Terror’ is the closest I think he’s come. Wagner once again shows that he is not only the primary Dredd scribe but he does what I think does better than any other writer and that’s do a story that makes the city and its citizens the star and place Dredd in the background. So far Dredd has made his presence felt in the story but this so far hasn’t been about Dredd. Yet you know that he’s always there, waiting to give you a one-second lobotomy with his daystick or save cube space with any one of six bullets.

Book 1 - Taking Liberties Part 9

Savage goes off on one...

Synopsis: The Freedom march takes place, and Savage and his men are part of it. The political climate is changing, with those in power beginning to take heed of the people. Elsewhere, the “guv” pulls out a gun and points it at Mr Head, telling everyone around him that Head is State Security Police. The crowd turns on Head and before he can defend himself, “guv” shoots him. Savage is impressed, and takes him under his wing, as the Guv identifies himself as Edward Chantry. They hear a rumbling sound and see tanks move in towards the protesters – but Savage and his men have a plan. They put the resistance flags on some of the tanks so that they don’t know friend from foe, and begin destroying one another. As Savage moves in to finish them off, Chantry realises that he’s Bill Savage…

GH: There’s another glimpse into Savage’s psychopathic tendencies in this issue with his fantasy about MPs coming to a nasty end in a fire field. It’s small touches like this that continue to make Savage a surprisingly good read. It would have been easy to make Savage a 2-dimensional hero, but the flawed leader we see here makes for much better reading. Will Mills carry this through to actually having Savage’s own people turn against him as he goes further off the rails – who knows, but it’s an avenue I’d like further series to explore. As this one draws to a close, we can see the seeds of further plotlines one being sown, with an “enemy within” storyline building up nicely if this follows the thread that Mills has set down so far.

There are some intriguing “elseworlds” politics on show here, with Mills setting up Shirley Brown as a saint, and Blair as a missed opportunity. It’s actually quite difficult to see where Mills’ own political sympathies lie here, since I would have expected Blair to be treated with a little less respect. As with much of the rest of the series, this means that there’s much less of Mills trademark preaching when discussing the political climate – a sign of much improved writing on Mills part.

Oh - and the ease at which the tanks were dispatched seems a little non-sensical - but it looked good, so I won't complain too much..

WRL: I'm really not into this. Fake swearing is ok but every other 'funting' word and it soon starts to grate. For fuck's sake just put in the real thing or come up with something better. This is one of those strips that will, in my opinion, read better when it's all finished and can be read in one chunk. As the logo says Book One it doesn’t inspire me as it seems as if the Mills droid only writes stuff over three books and I’ve not been overly impressed with anything of late.

The Comeback - Part 1

Novotny changes clothes...

Synopsis: The world slamboarding events are taking place, as a contestant speeds off the edge of a cliff on a snowboard, performs a number of acrobatics before slamming into the ground, destroying the body. But the art of cloning has been perfected, and bodies are treated as mere “bodysuits” into which the mind can be inserted – thus making the body disposable. Watching the event is Commander Novotny, who is meeting his contact, “executive servitor Ingrid Blue 9”. Novotny wants to re-suit, and Ingrid has a new body waiting for him. After confirming that he has "the artifact", he gives her a gun, and she blows his head off – and returns to the wombtank. There, is a newly re-suited Tyranny Rex, who takes the gun from Ingrid – “so who do I have to kill this time?”

GH: Smith has produced a couple of action-heavy, plot-light series of late, Devlin Waugh and Meatmonger, which have both proved to be enjoyable romps. However, he’s perhaps better known for his mind-bending sci-fi work, in the Grant Morrison mould, and this appears to be the ground we’re treading here. Already we have the intriguing idea of disposable bodies (which handily makes Tyranny’s return far easier) and there are a number of plot threads set up in this first episode. It’s not easy reading by any stretch, but a closer look does bring rewards and lets hope that some of this starts to make more sense with future episodes.

As for bringing Tyranny back? I can’t say I particularly missed her, and don’t really see this as another retro overhaul – more of a continuation. To be honest, I can’t remember anything about the last series, but judging by the nerve centre, this doesn’t look like it will be a problem. With the promise of some excellent Yeowell art (with some surprisingly effective colour work by Len O Grady) this could be a dark horse to keep us going until the next big re-launch.

WRL: Tyranny’s back, with part one of a John Smith script - so how the hell do you review it? It's going to be weeks before any of it makes sense and there’s no guarantee of even that. Steve Yeowell's interior art is so much better than we saw on this weeks cover and if John Smith's words take a few weeks to make any sense to us at least whilst we try to work it out we’ll have some wonderful art to help us on our way.

Part 9

Izzie spears AHAB...

Synopsis: The Koheynu is heading back into the fissure, dragging the ship with it. They start to release the harpoons to avoid being dragged in, much to AHAB’s anger, and Izzie fires another harpoon, which goes straight through AHAB into the Koheynu. Queequeg tells Izzie that he has to follow the Koheynu back through the fissure, believing heaven to be on the other side, and he needs Izzie’s help. AHAB has dragged himself back to the boat and brings it closer to the Koheynu. But Queequeg picks him up and holds onto the harpoon line. Izzie releases it as both Queequeg and AHAB are drawn into the fissure, and she collapses.

Later, back on the ship, Izzie refuses to be treated by the doctors. She tells them that she injected herself earlier with the untested serum, as it was the only way to get it past AHAB. Its effects remain a mystery for the moment, but as captain, she wants them to get the ship back to Earth as quickly as possible. She decides to stay away from the crew in case she is contagious, but as a last request, looking at the head of AHAB’s old body, she says “you could get that revolting thing out of my sight!”

GH: So AHAB comes to an end. As the only true original piece of the last “assault” (Low Life is based on Dredd’s world) the series has been much more of a success than many other pure sci-fi originals (Synnamon, for example). This is down to a combination of good plotting and script in the earlier episodes, ensuring that many 2000AD readers got hooked early on – not a bad feat for a writer fairly new to the comic. The reaction to Kitching’s work here should guarantee him further work in the comic for sure. Elson’s clean artwork has also contributed to the success of the piece too. There have been assertions that his art here is too similar to some of his other work, but to me that just means that a clearly recognisable style emerging. However, it would be wise to put him on something less overtly sci-fi next time to give him a chance to shine in other areas.

However – I leave this series on a lower note than I expected I would. There is a distinct feeling of everything being rushed over the past few episodes, and there are a number of plot threads that were not satisfyingly resolved. Queequeg’s religion was a distraction towards the end, and only seemed to exist to get AHAB to the Koheynu. Plus AHAB’s feelings of hatred towards the Koheynu were certainly worthy of much closer examination. From the episode where AHAB changed bodies, an air of confusion crept in, and this episode in particular seems to be all over the place. AHAB’s demise is particularly unsatisfying. Perhaps this is setting up the next series – but I found myself thinking “that’s it?? After all that?”, following the rather muted end to the title character. The artwork also had a confusing air to it this week, and this wasn’t helped by the fact that AHAB and Queequeg look a little too similar in some scenes.

So while it remains, on balance, a qualified success, the series either needed more time to breathe, or the editing down of certain sub plots. That said, I’m very much looking forward to seeing what Kitching comes up with next, as he has the hallmarks of a fine addition to the regular 2000AD writing crew, and anything that Elson does will be worth following.

WRL: Has it really been nine weeks since A.H.A.B started? It's not that I think its over too quickly, or even that it seems to be around for ages, it's just seems to have passed me by without having a great deal of an effect on me. I remember reading it, but as soon as I’ve put the prog down I have very little memory of it. The artwork has been fine, if at times very similar to other strip Richard Elson has done and Nigel Kitching’s told an enjoyable tale, that much I do remember. It's just that if you ask me names, places or what happened this week I’d have a hard time being able too recall specifics.

Paranoia - Part 9

Nixon ponders her next move.

Synopsis: Nixon runs through the Low Life, unsure what to do. 20 minutes earlier, she heard Farnsworth outline his plan for the Low Life. He wants to invest in homes, and in cleaning up the area with the mob’s money. He offered perps and the mob to invest in a big scheme – but then killed them all, taking their money, using that as his way of investment. He picked Nixon as a fall guy because she was erratic enough to be a possible perp, and her ability to fool a lie detector meant that she couldn’t prove her innocence. He says he won’t kill her, however, giving her 50,000 creds and the location of a vehicle that will smuggle her out of the city.

Nixon arrives at the vehicle, and the driver asks her if she wants “the same as the others” as she sees a number of other escapees inside. She suddenly decides to arrest the driver instead, and takes his phone, calling Farnsworth. She tells him that Link recorded everything and she’ll turn him in unless he meets her: “I have a proposition for you…”

GH: A few more plot points are sewn up this week - while Farnsworth continues his Bond Villain explanation of his fiendish plan – as we learn just what was going on when the mob boss jumped off the roof in episode 2. However, the reason for Farnsworth choosing Nixon – that she could fool a lie detector and thus couldn’t prove her innocence that way was actually very clever indeed – so top marks to Williams for dropping that in so casually earlier on in the series and devising such a good pay off this week. I'm not exactly sure she makes a good fall guy for such an elaborate scheme - but I'll let that go...

Nixon is becoming a more likable character as the noose tightens around her – and the fact that she seems so thoroughly screwed helps to make us us relish whatever revenge she’s got planned for next week.

As ever, Flint makes the streets of Mega City thrive like no one else can, creating a unique looking city, and populating it with the kind of freaks that we expect to see. And he does some bloody good rain effects too…

WRL: If it wasn’t for ‘Terror’ this would be the highlight of the Prog. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this from the moment it appeared. The story has entertained and the artwork just makes you want to lock Henry Flint in a lead lined cell so that if the yanks come looking for him they’ll never find him. Which other art droid could turn his hand to so many 2000AD stories and make them his own, familiar but somehow different. The only downside to the Flint droid working on Low Life or the ABC Warriors is that it keeps him off Dredd.