2000AD 1409 - 29 September 2004
Cover by Ian Gibson

Synopsis by David Knight
1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by Hugh Platt

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: Ian Gibson provides another cover for the revamped Robo Hunter series, but unfortunately it has much the same effect as the series itself - i.e. it leaves me rather cold. Now, Gibson is a fine illustrator, possibly one of 2000AD's best, but much like his last Robo-Hunter cover this looks more like a group portrait than an action-packed cover. It's lacking a necessary movement or dynamism and seems a little flat - something I never thought I'd say about a Gibson piece.

HP: After the last Robo-Hunter cover, a rather lacklustre effort on prog 1406, this is a step in the right direction for the kind of Gibson cover we deserve. A few minor niggles still remain though, such as robo-zilla’s head being grossly out of scale with the rest of the characters. Samantha’s legs must either a) be mutantly long, b) be freakishly flexible, or c) be detachable, if they are to fit the pose her waist seems to suggest she’s in. And the lizard appears to be wearing lipstick.

Total War - Part 2

Dredd takes cover...

Synopsis: As the deadline approaches for the judges to submit to the demands of the pro-democracy terrorists Total War, rival sports teams the Midtown Fleas and the Grasshoppers are in the closing minutes of a game at the Boingbowl. Judge Dredd’s niece Vienna receives a call from Justice Department regarding Nimrod, a Justice Department secret weapon in terminal decline, and her close relative by cloning.

At 22:58 hours, a recorded message from Total War informs the judges that the first nuclear device will detonate at the Boingbowl in two minutes’ time. As the Grasshoppers take the lead in the game, the bomb detonates, destroying the Boingbowl and many surrounding buildings. Dredd orders emergency squads and robots only into the vicinity of the explosion. Mega-City One’s news media are finally at liberty to break the story now it has proved accurate.

GH: After thinking Terror was going to be the high point of Judge Dredd this year - it looks like I'm going to be easily proven wrong. While the two tales are very differnet in structure and mood, each offering a different take on the character and the city, there's something about this one that brings the excitement back to Dredd in a way we haven't seen since Dredd/Aliens. Wagner is back on one of his "let's destroy half the city" rampages with renewed relish and it's a wonder Mega City 1 isn't a ghost town by now...

But perhaps the best element of this episode is the pacing. From the very outset, we're playing a waiting game as the deadline gets closer to the imminent destruction. Wagner ups the tension with extraordinary effect, even managing to keep a couple of sub plots rolling as we shift to and from the scenes at the Boingbowl. The vid slug revealing the information at the last minute was a stroke of genius that hammers home the uncompromising natrue of the terrorists. This is extremely tight storytelling from Wagner and I don't think I've seen anyone else play to the strengths of a 6 page tale in this way.

This is coupled with some more astounding work from Flint and Blythe, who keep things moving along in a way that's better than pretty much any comic I've read recently - on either side of the pond. From the double paged spread/collage revealing the huge explosion from Dredd's point of view to the shot of Dredd sheltering from the force of the explosion, this is of extreme high quality.

And we're only on episode 2!

HP: First off – that double-page splash. If you weren’t taken aback by Flint’s work this week then something is seriously wrong with your optic nerves. I could re-iterate the same gushing (and thoroughly deserving) praise others have poured on Flint for his work on Dredd, but instead I’m going to put a special word out for Chris Blythe. From the contrast of Flint’s thermonuclear inferno with night-time Mega-City, to the ethereal glow of the television on the terrified cits, this is nothing short of stunning. They’re a peerless pairing at the moment.

The use of the Boing-Bowl reminds us that the sublime and the ridiculous are just as much part of Dredd’s world as violence and horror, and indeed, often stand shoulder to shoulder with them. It would have been all too easy to use an aeroball game, but instead Wagner’s let his imagination give birth to something new and equally mental.

With clocks littering every page in the countdown to Ground Zero, Wagner builds the tension with a subtlety that would be lost by a lesser writer. A perfect example of “show, don’t tell”, it was an effective and intelligent way of building the tension to the multi-megaton payoff.

Couple all this with slipping in of the AGF contacting Vienna, and we’ve got a deepening of the Total War story in more than just the bombing. The Nimrod situation now looks set to become a major new chapter in the tale of the Family Dredd. Only two weeks in and it’s already blisteringly hot.

Alice's Adventures in Whitechapel

Abberline meets Alice...

Synopsis: In London, 1888, Inspector Frederick Abberline is called to the scene of a fourth gruesome Jack the Ripper killing. The victim’s name is Catherine Eddowes. A Whitechapel prostitute comes forward as a witness. When she claims to have met Abberline before at a society luncheon organised by the Reverend Arthur Dodgson, better known as author Lewis Carroll, Abberline recognizes her as Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice In Wonderland. Alice tells how Dodgson’s fantasy creations drove her mad and demanded the murders of five prostitutes to open a doorway for them to enter the real world, and alleges that Jack The Ripper is really Dodgson doing their bidding. This turns out to be a lie, and Alice has been committing the murders herself. Having revealed this information, she attacks Abberline with a knife, and he turns the blade on her. As Alice becomes the fifth dead prostitute and completes the quota, Lewis Carroll’s monsters cross over into the real world. Abberline believes he has been turned mad, as the Queen of Hearts orders his execution, and her guard of playing cards forces his neck down onto a chopping block.

GH: Future shocks/Terror Tales/Past Imperfects - they're all pretty hard to pull off. In many cases, they're seen as ways to showcase new writers - in this case the writing of Stu Taylor. His story is OK - but it highlights the inherent problem of showcasing writers in this fashion. Because there is a need to fit their story into a particular mode - in this case Jack the Ripper meets Alice in Wonderland - much of the tale is spent justifying this, often with much exposition and the writer proving that he's done his research.

Now this tale is competently written, but I don't feel that it's anything more than writing by numbers. There must be a better way to test out new writers rather than force such a constrained medium on them. By all means, let writers or artists start with one-offs, but perhaps it's time to stop putting them all under this "tales of the unexpected" banner and just ask them to create something new? You never know, we might get a few decent new characters out of the process...

HP: So, a Jack The Ripper conspiracy theory and this time with added character-bleed from Victorian contemporaries? A bit like some unholy crossover between From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, only without the wit or flair.

There was too much confused logic and unclear art for me. At first I was left unsure how Abberline killed Alice, as the moment where Abberline wrests the knife from his psychotic attacker is woefully unclear. Also, I am lost as to why the Jabberwocky appears in the mirror when Abberline is not looking as he shaves. Granted, the mirror is a doorway to the alternative dimension, but why is it appearing in Abberline’s mirror? And why does Alice, after revealing the Demons need the “souls of five fallen women” attempt to kill Abberline?

A missed opportunity, and a shame really, as I generally enjoy Past Imperfects and Terror Tales much more than the often lazy sci-fi of the Future Shocks, and it’s been an absolute age since the last Past Imperfect.

The Furzt Case - Part 4

Robo-Godzilla vs the robot police...

Synopsis: Samantha, Sam, Hoagy and Stogie are snatched from their police cell by a giant, green robot lizard sent by millionaire criminal Nippon Furzt. With the heroes imprisoned in its grip, the monster tramples through a police cordon and takes to the sky. Urged on by her granddad Sam, Samantha Slade climbs up into the head of the creature to sabotage its computer brain. Inside the head, she finds the monster robot lizard is being controlled by a man-sized purple robot lizard. With one kick she knocks the robot lizard pilot into the control console, and the giant lizard plummets out of the sky over the ocean.

GH: Oh dear - it's just not going to get better any time soon is it? This week's episode comprises of so little that it's hard to know where to start. Once again, Samantha seems to muddle through, along with some frankly appalling help from her grandfather - wasn't he supposed to be some genius Robo Hunter? Get into the brain and switch off the computer? Can't we come up with a slightly more complicated idea than that? And as for Hoagy's "it just reminds me" joke - it just emphasises how far this series has fallen. Even some great art from Gibson (who's interior art is much improved on this week's cover) can't hide the fact that this just isn't going anywhere...

HP: I’ve got a confession to make – I was never a fan of the old Robo-Hunter. Even reading collections of so-called “classic” Grant/Gibson Sam Slade, I was left cold. These new stories have done nothing to change my opinion. I find it a sad fact that I can say a strip with a talking cigar, a head in a jar and a giant robo-zilla just doesn’t seem crazy enough for the supposed pedigree it has.

Amongst the death and destruction of the rest of the prog, I’m glad Robo-Hunter is there, if only to provide a change in atmosphere. Sadly it doesn’t measure up to its heavyweight contemporaries, on account of it being so lacking. For a comedy strip, Robo-Hunter is running painfully short on laughs.

I know I should review this on it’s own merits (or lack of them) but even the art left me unimpressed. There’s no sense of the insane future that the Robo-Hunter of old was set in – just panel after panel of soulless white background. While nowhere near the faxed-in performance Gibson put in for The Snozzbournes, there’s an overall flaccid feel to the whole thing.

And as for the Robo-Lizard pilot…felled by a single kick? By the slight figure of Samantha Slade? What kind of two-bit hench-robot are evil villains hiring these days?

Part 4

Holt lets loose

Synopsis: On the island, Nayr summons Meg to a bay where a group of wounded and starving aliens have set out to sea in a landing craft toward waiting warships to seek assistance. Over in Sydney, Holt is manacled in an interrogation room, being questioned by Buchanan, who quickly resorts to violence. Holt is driven to using his powers, breaking his manacles, and hurls Buchanan to the wall with a blast of energy. This was Buchanan’s plan: to force Holt to reveal his powers. Buchanan takes Holt to meet his superior, who needs his skills as an alien hunter to stop the murderous rampage of Run and Spore. The General promises to deliver food and medical supplies to the aliens’ island in return. Back at the island, the warships warn the aliens’ raft to turn back before opening fire and capsizing it while Meg looks on in horror.

GH: This is all getting slightly confused - especially the character of Buchanan. His constant manipulating of Holt seems odd when we really don't know what his own agenda is. After this issue, we're left still unsure of whether we can trust him or indeed any of the humans. Perhaps this is Williams' aim for the series - to keep us on an uneven footing until later on when everyone's intentions become clearer. I certainly hope so, because Asylum is a somewhat all over the place at the moment and it could do with settling down into a more traditional plotline. Perhaps utilising Holt's skills as an Alien Hunter may help this series to find the direction it's been lacking up until now. The art's still top notch, though.

HP: Along with last week, it’s finally beginning to pick up speed. There’s a real sense of no-good-guys developing, with Run and Spore off to decimate Sydney, the humans blowing the Alien refugees to smithereens, and Holt and Buchanan revealed as having more than a few secrets.

Whether Meg and Skunk do anything other than run around and look concerned for the rest of the series is up for debate. At the moment they seem stuck on the island, a loose end in what is otherwise a taut-looking story.

Boo Cook’s artwork is still flawless. In fact, I almost suspect myself of overlooking some of Asylum’s more obvious faults simply because it’s just so easy on the eye. One minor complaint – there’s a curious white space at the top of page 1 containing the credit card. Was it initially planned as a space for the series title? Even amongst Boo Cook’s sumptuous paints, it manages to draw your eye totally unnecessarily.

Traitor to his Kind - Part 4

Alpha loses his temper...

Synopsis: On their way to St. Albans on the trail of King Clarkie’s kidnappers, Johnny and Wulf are pulled over by a police aircar. The bounty hunters are searched and disarmed, and the police destroy Johnny’s weapons permits. The police force Johnny and Wulf to dig their own graves out of sight of the road, apparently on the orders of their superiors. Alpha takes off one of his boots, claiming there’s something in it, which turns out to be a smoke bomb. Under cover of a smoke cloud, Johnny and Wulf escape, and the police give chase, but they are no match for a Strontium Dog and a Viking’s stranglehold. The police sergeant surrenders, but Johnny kneecaps him anyway. The sergeant implicates Chief Superintendent Nelson Culliver in the plot against Alpha, before Johnny shoots his other knee. After Johnny and Wulf retrieve their weapons and resume their journey, Johnny reveals to Wulf that Culliver’s grudge against him is personal: Culliver is actually Alpha’s brother.

GH: Up until now, things have gone relatively easy for Alpha and Sternhammer. Sure, they've gone up against some unfriendly mutants and less than helpful officials, but this is the first time that Wagner has really let the face of oppression rear it's ugly head in Strontium Dog. Being forced to dig their own graves with what seemed, at first, very little chance of escape brings back some of the brutality that they used to go up against and make a strong contrast to the more entertaining tales we've had recently.

Now, don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed those stories - especially last year's tax collector storyline - but as with Dredd, it's good to see Wagner balancing out those more upbeat tales with darker storylines such as this. It's also managed to bring out the rarely seen darker side of Alpha. We know he can be a brutal killer when he needs to be but this is something that the strip rarely touches on as strongly as this, especially with his torture of the Kreeler. As for the revelation of a brother? I'm not too sure. It seems like a cheap trick - but Wagner's been known to make much of potentially trite storylines such as Brother against Brother, so let's see what he pulls off next week...

HP: Just like Total War seems to be developing into Joe and The Family Dredd, Wagner’s also seems intent on making Traitor To His Kind a family affair for Johnny Alpha. In retrospect Nelson Culliver’s revelation as Johnny’s (half-?) brother is hardly a surprise, with that face, that name, and a predisposition to anti-mutantism. But the revelation itself a suitably retro-esque cliffhanger to this week’s installment.

This week, the extent of what Johnny and Wulf are up against was rammed home. Going up against the Mutant Underground and factions within the human authorities has the S/D’s as more outsiders than ever. Mix-in some heft violence and Traitor To His Kind is shaping up to be everything it always promised to be.

“You think that’s going to save you? You Kreeler scum”. A more excitable writer would have loaded that with an exclamation mark, but Wagner and Ezquerra have Alpha hard-boiled and merciless. A Good Man In A Bad Galaxy? Don’t count on it. There’s a genuine sense of a man with a mission, and is more than prepared for a bit of casual knee-capping, if that’s what it takes.

And despite Wagner’s attempts to paint Wulf as an über-masculine heterosexual, the Police seem to agree with Gordon Rennie gay-love conspiracy theory: “The buggers got loose!”