2000AD 1406 - 8 September 2004
Cover by Ian Gibson

Synopsis and 1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by Paul White

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: A fairly mediocre cover by Ian Gibson to herald the return of Robo Hunter. While it's competently drawn, there's something about the image that doesn't particularly grab me, and it only serves to showcase the characters, which doesn't necessarily make for a bold cover design.

PW: My feeling towards this cover (and the artwork of Ian Gibson in general) are mixed, and the overall impression - after much deliberation - is not good. The pastel colouring Gibson uses of late really turns me off, and it all feels too... well... girly. Yes, I know it's a female-driven series (there are Gibsontm boobs on display after all), and no-one does babes like Gibson does. It's just that it doesn't look very 2thou-ish to me. Also, and to try and pre-emt Gavin's pet hates, there's a whole lot of nothing going on in the right and bottom borders yet the logo still manages to be slightly obscured.

Bob Zombie - Scouse of 20,000 horrors

Dredd vs a hard northener...

Synopsis: Dredd is hunting down a mutant that has crawled out of the Merseyside swamp and made its way to MC1, with a taste for human flesh. As a mist descends on the city, a group of juves gets lost on their way to a party and one of them, Biv, heads off to ask for directions. He finds the mutant who immediately puts a meat cleaver in his head, all the time uttering catchphrases. Biv's friends ago to see what happened to them, and they too get attacked by the mutant, only to be saved by Dredd, who appears on the scene and beats the mutant unconscious.

GH: Alan Grant, despite his success on Anderson and Middenface over in the Megazine, hasn't had much luck on Dredd recently and this issue doesn't look like bucking that trend. To say this is a "slight" story would be a vast over-statement, as we are left with a standard Dredd vs Mutant story overlaid with some bizarre quotes and north of the border slang. There's extraordinarily little to this tale, and a second reading and close analysis for the synopsis above didn't do it any favours.

Despite this, the strip is worthy of attention due to the artwork of Shaun Thomas. Paired with Grant on the equally puzzling Apocalypse Soon, and also on show on a recent Terror Tale, this is the first time Thomas has really stretched himself , in my opinion. His work seems to marry the style of Bisley with Simon Harrison to produce some particularly arresting imagery, that seems instantly suited to the world of Dredd. From this showing alone, Thomas deserves plenty more outings in 200AD, and should be pencilled in for a Dredd multi-parter immediately.

PW: Awful. Really, really awful. I'll start by declaring that i am a native of Liverpool, but even if this was 'humourously' mocking the Georgies, Cockneys or Jocks, I'd still think it was piss-poor. Sean Thomas' art looks ok in places, but on the whole fails to inspire me in any way (I wonder if Alan Grant champions Thomas and managed to get him the gig here as some kind of compensation for the justified abuse "Apocalypse Soon" received in the Meg?). This all feels very 1990's - especially the muddied sub-Bisley art - and I hate to say it, but it's probably the worst Dredd I've read in years. Awful.

Creepshow - Part 6

A moment to rest...

Synopsis: Running from the demon Drako, the Caballistics reach a dead end. But demon Jenny rips a hole through the celluloid wall and the group fall into another scene – this time in a graveyard. Chapter sees a mansion and realises they are in “The House at Worlds End”. As they head for the gates, zombies crawl out of the graves. Reaching the gates, they meet Ness, who had found himself in an update of Dr Calgari – but his stay in the “army and the nuthouse” made it easy for him to break the illusion. Chapter reveals that in “The House at Worlds End” 5 investigators tell of their last cases before realising that the house is the gate to hell – and they have to exorcise Satan – but fail. Outside, a large group of monsters has gathered…

GH: Caballistics remains a highly entertaining read, but I'm beginning to wish the overall story would move on with a little more pace. This latest tale has involved very little apart from some admittedly fun pastiches and a long chase. I can't help but feel the last two episodes could easily have been cut down to one and made the overall tale more enjoyable. As it stands, it is starting to feel more than a little padded out, and there's an overall sense of wanting Rennie to get back to telling the story behind the scenes that we're all interested in. That said, it remains an enjoyable and well illustrated read. Just get to the point, Rennie.

PW: I'm a big fan of Caballistics Inc, but this recent storyline hasn't really done it for me so far. Maybe I find it hard to concentrate and read the small print captions that give detail and back-story? Perhaps after the detailed and intriguing (not to mention satisfying) character-forming that has brought the group to it's current position, a romp such as this filled with references to things I know nothing about leaves me slightly disappointed? This all might sound unfair, but I know for a fact I'll enjoy this more when read in one go and get a handle on all the references. Still, it's no crime to look at Dom Reardon's pretty pictures and go "cool..."

The Furzt Case - Part 1

Stiv gets wrapped up in things...

Synopsis: Samantha, Hoagy, Stogie and Sam’s head return to her apartment, which was wrecked from the encounter with her attackers. Sam says that they need to get his body back. Samantha refuses, but Sam offer her 50,000 creds – so she takes the job. They head to the weekly body parts convention, looking for clues. There, they meet Stiv Aggro, an old friend of Sam, to whom Samantha gives Sam so she can work alone. She eventually gets a lead, by the name of Nippon Furzt – unaware that Sam is in trouble. Stiv is attacked by three girls who drag him out, tossing Sam into a juicer.

GH: The last time Robo Hunter appeared in her new guise, it seemed that there was much fan celebration at the return of the character, and indeed produced by the original creators. But something about the last tale left me cold, and so far this doesn't look like warming me up anytime soon.The art is good without being particularly outstanding, and the writing unfortunately feels flat. Reading Robo Hunter in its heyday used to be a joy, but this just feels terribly tired - and it all seems like a terrible mistake was made in reviving the character. That said, my love of the character and respect for the creators leaves me hoping that things will improve in the weeks to come.

PW: I still don't understand why this was brought back and, try as I might to get into it, it leaves me cold. I don't care for Samantha Slade (not even in that way), and I've had my fill of Sam Slade resurrections. Not even Stogie and Hoagy's 'comic' turns can persuade me that this is an old-thrill-return too far. Anyway, lucky for us that Samantha was easily swayed by 50 thousand creds and that Sam should run into old friend Stiv Aggro. Oh, and that Stiv should then be kidnapped by some more Gibson babes... Sorry, but I don't think I'll be actively following this one.

Part 1

The troops make an unwelcome discovery

Synopsis: (Continued from the first series) Sergeant Adam Buchanan muses about life in the army while on his way to Liberty Island, off the coast of Sydney. Since the holding station, Asylum, went down his superiors have no idea what caused the crash, thinking that the Church may have been behind it. He is sent in with a small team to find out what happened. Once there, they find a number of dead human bodies and finally come across some aliens, including Spore who gasses them unconscious. When Buchanan wakes, he had been brought before Holt.

GH: It's been almost two years since the last Asylum, so perhaps a bigger catch up was needed to introduce this second showing (and one preferably not in "Nerve Centre eye-shredding blue-on-blue" as in this issue... *sigh*). Anyway if you need a quick recap, click on the link above. If you do so, you'll also see that in the original Asylum series, things started out well before ending rather ho-humly. However Williams has evolved as a writer since then, and there are higher hopes for this series, which already appears to be taking a darker tone than we might have expected from the final scenes of the first outing. It's a little too early to tell where the story is heading, so more on that next week.

As for the art, this marks a considerable change in direction for Cook, who embraces fully painted art. The effect is rather mixed. Certain scenes, like the first page and the flashback to Buchanan's briefing look impressive, yet the appearance of the aliens seems less so. Furthermore, the designs that have been carried over from the previous series, notably Holt and his companions don't seem to mesh too well with this new style. Still, as with the writing, this is early days and another episode at least is needed to make a better judgement.

PW: A surprising return for a story what didn't seem to be liked among the on-line community (although we account for a very small percent of the overall readership), but the previews of Boo Cook's art had me looking forward to this very much.

It's a solid-enough start, with enough of a differing approach to book one to leave me intrigued as to where this will go. It seems that a lot has happened in the 3 days and 17 hours since the holding station crashed and there's a "Lord of the Flies" feel to the last page as I can't quite work out if Holt is going to go loopy or not... Also, is Buchanan a goodie or a baddie? Or maybe a baddie who becomes a goodie? In any case, I'm sure there's some political overtones and 'real-world' scenarios to come and I'm happy with this opening episode.

Traitor to his Kind - Part 1

Alpha pays a visit to his mother's grave..

Synopsis: Alpha visits the overgrown grave of his mother. She suffered radiation poisoning while pregnant, so her husband and the doctor advised her to terminate – but she refused, and the doctor died in suspicious circumstances.

Alpha, who is with Sternhammer, is surrounded by police but has been given permission to be on planet by the First Lord. They go to Upminster and meet Aubrey Negus, First Lord of the Military. He tells them that King Clarkie the 2nd was abducted on a nature trail by the Mutant Underground and the First Lord asks Alpha to help retrieve him. There is fear that a strong assault could provoke open rebellion, and this would give extremists the opportunity to wipe out the mutants. The First Lord says that he is moving towards a more understanding way of dealing with Mutants, slowly offering them more rights. So it’s up to Alpha to avoid a rebellion in which 1000's of mutants could be killed.

GH: Although the fans have enjoyed the lighter Strontium Dog tales of late, the return to more serious territory has been greeted with much anticipation. Things start off well this week, with moody rain drenched artwork from Ezquerra and the promise of more information about Alpha's origins. However, this episode, being effectively a set up for what is to come, is not without its faults. We jump a little too quickly into talking head scenes, when a more bombastic opening might have made the latter exposition easier to swallow. As it is, Wagner seems to take 3 pages to say what he probably could have in one, and this episode feels very padded indeed. The last page could have been done away with completely, and the story would not have suffered. In addition, the reason for the doctor's demise in the early scenes is not clear - did Alpha's mother kill him? Perhaps we will learn more later, but for the moment it simply adds confusion.

However first episodes are always tricky, and despite my concerns, this shows some clear promise.

PW: Johnny and the overtly-heterosexual Wolf return in a long-awaitied epic that's even had John Wagner excited. There's some nice recapping over Johnny's past giving us a suitably dark opening - lightening and all - although i'm not sure what significance as yet there is in the doctor's untimely and co-incidental death when giving Mrs Kreelman his considered and no-way biased opinion. There's a lot of dialogue and scene-setting packed into 6 pages, and I hope this is because we're going to get straight into the action and not because we're getting all crammed into 8 episodes or (grud forbid) a Mills-esque "End Of Book One".

With Johnny once dead and some fudging over whether his later adventures are 'canon' (and his later/previous ones myth and legend), I feel that this is the chance for us to see if this is the 'real' history of Johnny Alpha and set the record straight once and for all. One small quibble though - the art looks a bit loose to me and not up to Carlos' usual high standards, and am I missing something with the red eyes..?