Synopsis by David Knight
Review by Iain Nixon
2nd opinion by Gavin Hanly

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

IN: I have to say, it’s very disappointing - Johnny mourning his mum was drawn far better in the first episode. I guess it’s also meant to suggest that all the mutants that died or were hurt during the mission are haunting him. Trying to have two ideas on the front page doesn’t work, it makes it messed up. I’m reading it as he’s far more concerned over his dead mum that “turning traitor” which clearly isn’t the case when you read the story. The cover would have been a lot better if it just concentrated on the ghosts, and had Alpha reacting to them, which would make it clear what the theme of this week’s episode is. And Alpha’s suit is too bright.

GH: Cliff Robinson provides another Strontium Dog cover, oddly meaning that Ezquerra wasn't given the opportunity to produce one this time around. Robinson manages to ape the style of Ezquerra with the characters in the background, although the picture of Alpha himself looks rather stiff. It's not necessarily a bad cover, but it does feel somewhat "by the numbers" with the standing over the grave scene appearing a little clichéd. Having said that, the job of a cover isn't to be subtle, so in many respects it does its main job of highlighting the last episode of the latest Stront tale inside.

Total War - Part 8

The judges close in...

Synopsis: The terrorist group Total War relays another message to the judges, giving them a noon deadline to withdraw from Mega-City One. The Chief Judge gives orders for Citizens’ Defense units to take over policing duties, whilst authorising undercover judges to assist with Dredd’s continuing investigation. Public disorder is widespread. A third nuclear device is discovered, and judges remove it outside the city. Judge Dredd’s niece Vienna consults him about authorising Nimrod’s termination, but Dredd’s only counsel is emotional detachment and denial of responsibility for the degenerating Fargo clone.

The investigation into the terrorist chain of command leads to a gym in an exclusive apartment block frequently visited by vid-star and covert democracy activist Benson Keeler, but the search for his contact, codenamed Jericho, draws a blank. Then a citizen named P.G. Ruskin, possibly Jericho himself, spontaneously turns up at Sector House 30, with information for Judge Dredd.

IN: It's not quite as good as last week’s, but then it doesn’t have that attention- grabbing first page with Hershey announcing that the Judges will step down or Nimrod, for that matter. It’s a fairly middling episode in my opinion where, apart from the last page, nothing new is really happening. The justice department is basically carrying out the ruse set up last episode and Dredd reiterates his view of Nimrod. I’m sure, however, that it’ll read much better when reading all the episodes in one go. I really liked the part with the mob lynching a guy with Bummer written on his clothes “…After apparently being mistaken for a bomber, prompting renewed calls to tackle the sector’s serious literacy problem.”

GH: Things slow down a tad this week in the confusion over just what the judges are to do next. That said, there's time for us to concentrate on the relationship between Dredd and Vienna, which is looking more frayed than usual and it's still not certain as to what her decision regarding Nimrod will be. Other moments worthy of mention are the citizen wetting himself as the bomb is removed, and more so the response of the judge: "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. Felt my own sphincter getting a little twitchy there..." Class.

At least it seems that the judges are getting closer to their goals, and the threat of more devices going off is reduced with the successful removal of one. Still the most exciting thing in the issue.

Part 4

Carl loses his grip...

Synopsis: Kilquo is overcome with remorse for throwing Carl Wolfe out of a window, thinking she has killed him. Kolquak comforts her, and tells her of General Stunal’s plans to invade Earth, and how his agents have subverted their mission objectives by integrating into Earth society. Kilquo and Kolquak must return to Kakkak both to avert Stunal’s plans and to prevent British Military Intelligence’s ambitions for them becoming a reality. Carl has heard everything, clinging to bed linen that went out the window with him, and ultimately survives his fall to the ground.

In Paris, a Kakkian agent of MI5 carries out an assassination followed by her own suicide.

Carl, still naked and drunk again, telephones the authorities to tell them everything he knows, and very shortly their agents arrive to arrest him.

IN: “Me and an army of millions …All waiting for the signal to invade!… And it’s going to be sooner rather than later” Hurry up then!

I’m just not buying the characters (especially Carl ) - maybe it’s the awkward juxtaposition of the comic and the serious? And in some places Carl is drawn so ropey /cartoony it isn’t funny - so I’d rather have some action.

Yeah, a Kakkian assassinated someone, and killed herself as another agent commented on how he hates the smell of dead aliens, but all I could think was "meh". It’s hinted that the British Empire plans might be (part of) the alien invasion:“We were to infiltrate Terran epicenters of political and economic power” Until the alien invasion happens, I’m not real interested. I’ve been following it due to the promise of action, just hope it is going to be sooner rather than later.

GH: Faces continues to tread the fine line between farce and seriousness with Carl providing most of the former. While I'm not entirely sure if this is balancing out completely, it is proving to be entertaining, giving the reader something to concentrate on during what is essentially an expository first part to this episode. This is a nice touch, and lets us get over a potential hump to the storyline quite smoothly. Perhaps it's the more shocking elements of the storyline that don't sit as well, as with the assassination and suicide that follows. That said, those two wordless pages show masterful art,pacing and plotting by Higgins and Newell, that it's hard to be too bothered. In all, this is still proving to be an intriguing tale.

Tooth & Claw - part 5

Lobster gets ready to torture...

Synopsis: Lobster Random uses bad album reviews encoded as musical notes on the alphabetised stave to draw trance rawk messiah Billiam Kergan out of his introspective psionic dimension and heads for the planet Nixx. Random reflects on the war he fought for control of a dimensional wormhole in the planet’s vicinity, through which scientists hoped to open up a new frontier for resources exploitation. The war had all been for nothing, because the interior of the wormhole proved impossible to probe.

The ship belonging to Professor Cadmium Redd’s widow sounds an alarm, having detected two Hungermissiles streaking towards it from the surface of the planet. Lobster Random urgently needs Kergan’s help to retrieve the deactivation codes from his subconscious.

IN: Wow! Great way to start this episode, with some clichéd jokes about lawyers , writers and pop musicians. Granted it’s all leading up to/part of the plot device for Random to get the info out of the musician, if only the jokes weren’t so tired. And a load of exposition too, oh joy! Also, is it me or does Lobster Random being upset by death seem a bit out of character, even if they were his brothers ?

Kudos to Critchlow for making it so clear though.

GH: There's an excellent start to this week's episode as Random describes various inventive methods of torture (does the writer one refer to one of Spurrier's pet hates?) while the "bad review" method of retrieving Kergan also seems spot on (including the actual reviews if you strain your eyes enough).

As for the rest of the episode, there are a number of Spurrier's clever word usage ("the semi-robotic heiress I've been clanging") although the reflection as to what actually happened on Nixx seems somewhat unclear. Critchlow is still on top form, and I love little touched like the two semi-identical scenes with the aliens/humans both looking at the wormhole, as well as the designs of the hungermissiles.

Off-Ramp

Another gunshark sees his opportunity

Synopsis: Gunsharks Sinister & Dexter are stuck in evening traffic. An accountant stuck further up the queue for the off-ramp gets out of his car to investigate the hold up. A motorcycle courier carrying donor organs collides with the car door and draws a handgun, imagining that someone is trying to steal the organs from his pannier. A petty crook, ‘Weedy’ McReedy, sees the gun and panics, imagining the courier is a hit-man attempting to collect on the contract taken out on him by fellow gangsters. A chain of events is put in motion that leads to fighting between the occupants of other vehicles, and several exchanges of gunfire, resulting in mass carnage. By the time Sinister & Dexter reach the off-ramp, emergency crews are effecting a clean-up operation. Finally, McReedy begs a lift off Sinister & Dexter, two gunsharks who stand to gain by carrying out the hit on him.

IN: I don’t believe this: a funny Sin Dex that is actually funny! I didn’t know you could do farce so well in strip form and the cartoony style suits it down to a tee. Even the little dialogue between Sin and Dex (who don’t feature heavily, maybe that’s part of it’s strength) is great: “After all you thought the Vagina Monologues was a ventriloquist show.”

Hell, it’s so good I can even forgive Fin speaking Oirish . It’s a great little story “So it is.”

GH: Quite often on the messageboards, and indeed on this website, there is much bemoaning that we've seen a little too much of these gunsharks in 2000AD. But occasionally, along comes a stand-out episode like this one that makes you forgive everything. In many ways, this uses a standard set up - one small incident sets off a chain of ever more explosive events while our heroes remain unaware of the chaos. However, Abnett handles this with considerable aplomb as the situation slowly gets worse, and even though you can see the pay off coming a mile away, it's still satisfying when it arrives.

However, at least as responsible, or even more so, for this episode's success is the art of Jack Lawrence. His art makes the kind of splash here by a newcomer that we've only seen from Inaki Miranda & Eva de la Cruz recently. It's incredibly accomplished, with an animated look and feel that suits the characters down to the ground. Character design, and colours are simply wonderful, with touches like the tiny "Whiskar compact" and even something as simple as the way all the cars in the jam are well differentiated being notable. An extremely impressive debut of an artist I hope we see much more of soon.

Traitor to his Kind - Part 10

Billy loses faith in Alpha...

Synopsis: Johnny Alpha’s mission is accomplished, but whilst the norm papers celebrate the rescue of King Clarkie, the mutant press denounces Alpha as a traitor. Billy Glum accuses Johnny of selling out, and tells him that Walton Fuzz died under torture without talking. The mutant school Alpha paid for is daubed with graffiti.

Lord Negus informs Johnny that there is evidence to support his claim that the police obstructed his mission and attempted to murder him and Wulf, but there is nothing to prove they were acting on Nelson Culliver’s orders. Proof that Culliver and the Home Secretary had an informer in the Mutant Liberation Army and could have prevented the King’s abduction cannot be made public, because the scandal would damage the government just when it is making advances in mutant-norm relations. Instead, the Home Secretary and Culliver are allowed to resign quietly, and a 100 million credit aid package is promised to the mutant ghettos. Johnny refuses Negus’s offer of payment on the grounds that he has already been branded a traitor and doesn’t want to feel any more like one.

Johnny climbs over Nelson Culliver’s garden wall intent on killing his half-brother in revenge for the mutants he massacred, but decides he cannot go through with the killing for the sake of Culliver’s children. He leaves the children with a message for their father, and Culliver emerges from the house to see Johnny’s hover car take to the sky. Johnny Alpha reburies his mother’s remains off-world.

IN: This story started on a high, and it ends on a high. I was a bit worried that it might be tailing off in the last few episodes, but this has proved that I needn’t have worried. The newspaper headlines are a great way to introduce exposition/backstory, far better than some writing in a little white box. Actually there’s one small white box of exposition, but I think that can be forgiven. There are so many great lines in this one: “My thirty pieces of silver… no thanks”. Clichéd maybe, but used in exactly the right way.

There's also the reaction of the mutants, the reaction of Alpha and the political response: it’s all so real and believable. The last section with Alpha talking to Nelson’s kids is a bit soap opera, but it’s short and played well.

Without doubt Traitor to his kind is a modern classic.

GH: So ultimately, this proves to be an enjoyable series, if not quite meeting expectations, as mentioned in last week's review. It sets up a new status quo for Alpha where he is no longer the hero for all the mutants. This is a welcome change for the character, as his almost deified position was beginning to grate a little. Being a little more tarnished will help the character develop further in upcoming series and as such, the series has covered some important ground.

Of course, this ending would have had far more impact if the series wasn't called "Traitor to his Kind" making the developments in this episode seem a little anti-climactic. If only they'd called it something more ambiguous, the story would have had much more impact with these closing scenes.

Another set-up for the future is, of course, the existence of Nelson Culliver. Again, this lays the groundwork for future series and Alpha's decision to let him live is possibly the best scene in this episode.

So in all, a good series, but one that feels more like a prequel to something bigger coming down the line. I just don't feel that it's the "second coming" of Johnny Alpha that others has intimated.