2000AD 1399 - 30 June 2004
Cover by Steve Yeowell

Synopsis and 1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd opinion by Rob Seery

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: A pretty good cover by Steve Yeowell, acting as a good ad for the tale inside. I can't help feel that Terror should have got a few more covers than it did, though...

RS: So I left my prog on a coffee table today and a student friend walked in and said "Dude (he never bothered to learn my name) they made Aliens the comic?"

Now stoned/drunk as this student friend was, he had a point: there's traces of Aliens (Which is great given the recent release of Judge Dredd: Incubus) as Ripley/Tyranny watches the probe/egg hatch. Now if it was just that I would be impressed, as Steve Yeowell is a great artist and a credit to the prog but there's one niggling factor that drags the whole cover down.

Holy Continuity Batman! What the heck happened to the probe? Inside it's got to be pulled by some space yaks and suddenly its very small (or Tyranny's gone giganto) on the cover! My Verdict? Great art but its the continuity that drags it down, there's got to be a partition wall between the artists and writers or something.

Terror - Part 8

Mostyn reaches the end...

Synopsis: More judges arrive at the scene of Zondra’s murder, as Sonny returns to the freakfair. There, he receives a call from Mostyn, who he tells that he wants out of Total War and he doesn’t want to die for it. Mostyn and another Total War member decide to move on Sonny, with Dredd not far behind. Mostyn finds Sonny at the freakfair and they take him into the Tunnel of Terror. Sonny finds out that they have killed Zondra and gets mad, fighting back against his attackers. As one of them is spooked by the spiders on the ride, Sony takes his chance and knocks him out. He gouges Mostyn’s eye out in rage as Dredd shoots the other hit man. Sonny kills Mostyn by sticking his head in one of the ride’s monsters. Refusing to drop Mostyn’s discarded gun, Sonny is then shot dead by Dredd, soon to join Zondra in Resyk.

Meanwhile the judges have discovered that Mostyn took confession regularly, and they suspect the priest of being Total War. They repeat the procedure they used on Sonny, taking him in for full surveillance implants, as the investigation continues…

GH: A fairly low key end to what has been a fantastic series by Wagner and MacNeil - easily meeting the levels of quality set by the classic "America" many years ago.

It seems that this is the nearest that Wagner has got to the true voice of Dredd's world in quite some time, moving away from some of the more "adventure" styled tales of recent years. While the talk of clones and Dredd's extended "family" has made for entertaining reading, there had been a marked decrease in heavy-hitting Dredd stories - certainly in the two years that 2000AD Review has been going for. Variety in Dredd is important - as mentioned in a previous review, Dredd couldn't sustain this level of doom and gloom for too long - but there has clearly been a desire from the fans to get back to highlighting the essential fascism of Mega City 1, and this series has been a welcome step in the right direction.

It's been said that Wagner has particularly enjoyed himself on Terror and this shines through in the quality of the writing on show here. Great care has been taken to the overall arc, and the rush to conclusion that has plagued some of Wagner's more recent multi parters isn't apparent. After Zondra's nasty demise last week, Sonny's end is almost anti-climactic, but this suits the no-win situation he had put himself in and also shows Wagner avoiding the obvious "let me explain myself" speech to Dredd. At the end of he day, he's only a bit player in a larger scale operation, as witnessed by the operation on the priest at the end. Even this scene, which hints at the sequel, works well to end the series as just a small step in the Judge's fight against Total War, and indeed in Total War's crusade against the judges.

Finally, the even handed approach that Wagner has used here, not particularly vilifying either side, is welcome in this post 9/11 age, where a less experienced writer would have jumped at the chance to have Dredd bust a few terrorists' head. This doesn't try to give any answers, but just sets down the beliefs of the two sides.

As for the art, I've long been a fan of MacNeil's artwork, and it was a pleasure to see him back in the Megazine for the recent Devlin Waugh tale. As one of the few painters working for the comic, his work here clearly shows the benefits from sticking to this style. He's produced some highly impressive work throughout the run, from the early scenes of devastation through to Zondra's horrific execution last week. That, combined with the colour coding that made the whole strip look particularly unique, has helped him to produce a consistently excellent Dredd tale that is crying out for a collection. Indeed, given the new DC deal and the tendency towards larger collections, can we expect a collection of this and its sequel in the not to distant future?

RS: So after 2 months we finally get the payoff for this fantastic little Dredd story that just seems to fall in to place like a jigsaw in a cavalcade of bloody violence, all beautifully illustrated by Colin Macnell (props to him, he's caught the gothy dark nature of terrorism and violence with his dark colours).

Reading Terror reminded me of the Dredd story Full Metal Jacket (many moons ago in Prog 578) a story which dragged on a good few weeks, had a minor twist in the tail ending and fizzled out of my memory until years later when I read this story. Like Full Metal Jacket, what Terror gave us was too many new concepts (Until now I didn't even know there was a city in Antarctica, let alone they had a worldbowl team), too many characters we didn't care about (Total War needed building up, have a couple of one-off stories to make them sound tough and legit for the new readers) but unlike Full Metal Jacket, somehow we see a turn around in this last part that makes the story great.

I half expected to read the poor old Sonny to surrender only to get a harsh sentence from Dredd but it was not to be as our anti hero dies in blaze of bullets.

But of course I'm clutching or bad points here; in essence we had a great story with a stab at current pop culture (the cameras in the eyes reminiscent of "Big Brother" which dominates the news at the moment…. Heck give me Zondra and Sonny over Michelle and Stuart anyday) and I certainly hope this recent spell of good Dredd stories continues in the uber issue next week of Prog 1400.

Scare Tactics - Part 3

Moses rises from the dead..

Synopsis: Sinister, Dexter and Vijay open fire against all the zombies and Croak, who keeps chanting “get to the other side”. They then realise that turning tail and running would be a better decision, and run for it, passing by Holy Moses, another of their victims on the way out. Dexter decides that the place is too dangerous and before they leave, he destroys the house.

Elsewhere, in a parallel universe Downlode, a strike team led by another John Croak reports to Holy Moses that their attempt to infiltrate another dimension has failed. They only managed to materialise partially before the gate was completely shot. But they will try again, “and then you can step through into a brand new Downlode, ripe for the taking.”

GH: This last episode in the story clearly throws the rest of the series into relief. There’s a temptation to think that Abnett has pulled off a fast one – a Sinister Dexter themed Future Shock if you will. However, like many a Future Shock, it has more than its fair share of problems.

At first glance the idea that the zombies were partial representations of the strike team seems clever – but a closer look at the first page of this episode tells a different story. They’re zombies, for god’s sake! They’ve got long nails, they’re drooling and staggering! What else could they be? And the idea of a parallel Downlode raises fears for the way Sin/Dex may be going. I want to see more of Vijay’s introduction into the world of the gunsharks, not an introduction of an overused science fiction cliché.

Abnett may be able turn this around, but I can’t help feel that far better series in 2000AD haven’t been given as many chances or airtime as this one…

RS: Much like Dredd this week we see the writers pull the story together in to one neat package. Of course, what I couldn't get was why the rest of the spooky stuff happen? Why did Sinister and Dexter see their skeletons in a mirror last issue? Why were they seeing zombies? Ok I'll buy it's the henchmen seen in the final panels but why were they all dead and bony….What am I in the Downlode freaking Twilight zone here?

Another niggling point for me was the use of Kal Cutter, whom to date has been a real sleeper character in the series, since his little "I wont kill the babe" spell he's been somewhat a boring addition to the team.

Bad points aside I was happy however to see a development, the return of Holy Moses and Croak not to mention, the reference of Senor Apellido makes me smile, Why? I hear you ask…well if you remember back to the last few major Sinister Dexter stories (the most proficient being Eurocrash) your know that when anything major happens in Downlode we get a kick butt story to go with it. Looks like Downlode's going to war again, and I for one can't wait.

The Comeback - Part 5

The egg hatches...

Synopsis: One of the killers, Verlette, starts panicking saying he can feel something coming. They jump, but Tyranny is caught as tentacles erupt from the probe – sending her flying and breaking her leg in the process. One of the killers now has her at her mercy, but Verlette is still going mad. Tyranny can feel something in her mind and wonders why they didn’t give her a body that could cope. The killer worries about what the probe will unleash after it kills them, but Tyranny tells her that she has an antimatter cap in her teeth for that purpose. Something seems to appear from the probe - “The warpspawn droves are ready to swarm” - and the probe starts to “call home”. Tyranny activates the antimatter cap. The probe is blasted into space intact, where Indrid is waiting for it. They capture it and out it in an isolation chamber from which it cannot transmit. They start preparing for Tyranny’s next mission - “into Lokkh/ikoshi space…into the heart of the warzone”

GH: Another series comes to an end, and I find myself looking forward to the next appearance of Tyranny Rex far more than I expected. She was one of those characters that never really clicked with me before, but the back to basics approach here has worked wonders, along with Yeowell’s art being ideally suited to the story.

With no particular ties to any continuity, this allows Smith to stretch his writing muscles with some inventive sci fi drama. Smith has also known when to back off from the more impenetrable aspects of his writing, and mix in a decent amount of action to break up the amount of exposition that his ideas clearly require. But this has, in all, proven to be an entertaining and worthwhile read. The character of Indrid bears further exploration, and the next mission planned for Tyranny sounds intriguing, especially when mixed with fact that she’s been kept in the dark to a degree.

A welcome return for Tyranny, then, and one that deserves to continue.

RS: When Rex last came around I was a younger man off his head with sugar (and I have the molars to prove it) so I was a newcomer to this character and her sexy- lizardy adventures and this was supposed to be the big payoff part of the story.

I can sum this one up in three words: What the heck?

She finds the probe all those people died looking for, apparently its stolen by a pigmy and some other woman, it's really important but now it's woken up "killing" everybody in a massive explosion. Boom! The end you think? Could Tyranny be dead as soon as she's back? Oh wait….she's still alive….apparently death doesn't mean anything in the world of Miss T.Rex.

Immortality… it's a sore spot for me has always been if a character can't be killed… why should we care?

Part of the thrill of a Dredd or a Sinister Dexter is that maybe, just maybe this will be the one where they get maimed, killed or blown to pieces but in a story where the lead can simply be "reborn"… look at the suspense on my face… oh wait, you can't.

Little Miss Immortality aside, the only item of interest in this little dinosaur tail has been the probe and even that reeks of the Devlin Waugh "Herod" (from the Chasing Herod arch in progs 1149 to 1157) character making that weird pigmy Verlette say all kinds of weird stuff. Then the probe bursts… ooh it's a giant alien thing… big surprise

The saving grace is the artwork. Yeowell pulls off a great job drawing this story but seriously… how many people pick up a comic and say "well at least the art's ok"

Maybe it's because the character's new to me or maybe it's because the story seems like one I've seen a million times. Regardless, the return of Tyranny Rex gets a total thumbs down. Perhaps it's better to create new stars and tales (A.H.A.B being the best example) than to revamp old ones.

Sorrow Hill

Exorcists these days have to give the crowd what it wants......

Synopsis: The Sutton house on the hill has been witness to many unfortunate suicides, deaths and more until the bombs fell in 1941 and the house burned down. However, the house has now been sold to a new owner, fascinated by ghosts and surprised that the house seems fairly well kept after being bombed out. He sees plenty of ghosts, but is unable to record them on film. So he realises that the only way to make it pay is to sell the story to the highest bidder and make a Hollywood film. He calls in an exorcist to help provide the perfect ending, who begins the exorcism in the attic. Then the new owner suddenly realises that the house isn’t just haunted, but the house itself is performing the haunting as it no longer exists. He tries to stop the exorcism, but it’s too late as the house, the priest and him are banished to limbo…

GH: This is a Terror Tale which makes a wee bit more sense on a second reading, and actually proves to be more enjoyable than I had first thought. It could still do with some healthy editing (one of the crimes Future Shock/Terror Tales writers make is to explain just a little too much) but has a decent enough ending, if albeit one that is not terribly shocking. The star of the piece is Shaun Thomas’s art, which works much better here than as previously paired with Alan Grant in the impenetrable Apocalypse Soon in the Megazine. Thomas shows diverse influences, ranging from Bisley to Ormston, and could be a name to watch.

RS: Running off the heels of last weeks Robinson Crusoe-esq thrill Red Moon last week, the Mighty One delivers another twist in a tale thrill.

Sorrow Hill delivers as much as a Terror Tale can, the characters hold you long enough to make you care about this sinister house and it history; add this to a well executed ending and that makes it worthy of second read.

Of course it lead me asking one big question: What's the deal with haunted houses these last few weeks?

Counting the ad on the back of Prog 1398 for The Haunting of Hill House, and the one filling Sinister Dexter, this is the third haunted house I've seen in two weeks! Man I wonder why Ghostbusters went out of business with all these spooks around.

Gribbles with ghosts aside this week was a fantastic one-offer and a treat for those with a ghostly passion for the super natural. I'd better send my fan mail to the Mighty One, see if we can get this Al Ewing guy writing some more stories.

Heavy Duty - Part 3

Chico takes a dive...

Synopsis: Nixon runs from the security guard desperately trying to get to the lift. She barely makes it in time and manages to escape without being identified. Later, she meets with Thora, and tells her that the investigation is getting nowhere and that she has to let her out of Lo Cal, “sadists, but I don’t think they’re criminals” as she can’t take any more of it. Later, she meets with Chico who knows that she’s a judge and that she must have come to arrest her. Chico tells her that Green was suicidal and they had planned to commit suicide together, but she couldn’t follow. At that moment, one of the instructors comes to give them more abuse. Nixon breaks his arm, but Chico has already made a break for it and dives out the window.

5 weeks later, Nixon is back in her own body, and undercover as a slabwalker. She manages to arrest Tyrone Appleby on a solicitation charge, finally getting her won back for the misery he caused his customers, even driving an undercover judge to kill himself…

GH: We reach a fairly satisfying end to this mini Low Life tale this week, up to a point. The idea that the self esteem of anyone staying at Lo Cal was so eroded that they were driven to suicide is a far better conclusion than I would have expected. However, I can’t help but feel the downbeat conclusion to the investigation should have been carried through to the end. The last look of Chico as she fell from the tower would have been a fine ending. The arrest of Appleby seemed a little too “tacked on”, similar to a re-shot Hollywood ending. Despite this, Low Life has been a great success overall, and should come back to the comic before too long.

RS: Nixon's kicking butt and taking names! Undoubtedly, Low life has really caught my eyes these few last weeks. And this final episode is a fantastic example of why Nixon has got to make a return ASAP.

Although I was hoping for Appleby to be some kind of sadist evil guy, I'm not disappointed with this one. The whole tale unfolds into a neat little story of what happens when Fatties get pushed too far (all we need is some kind of Simp block war and my life is complete).

The artwork, a fantastic grungy punk style that Flint lays down, is a great addition to the series and if Low Life continues, Flint must stay its artist.

Even with all that flab I have a soft spot for Nixon. If I didn't live in fear of angry comic fans beating my door down with flaming torches I'd call her the new Anderson, in the sense we have a strong character who, when she's not flabbed up, is kind of sexy (in a punk rocker kinda way) and sassy mouth to anybody who crosses her. Even though the series is over, mark my words, this isn't the last we've seen of the Low Life.