2000AD Prog 1425 - 9 February 2005
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / D'israeli) Second City Blues (Kek W/ Pleece) Slaine (Mills / Langley) Low Life (Williams / Coleby) Nikolai Dante ( Morrison / Burns) Synopsis by Gavin Hanly 1st Review by Martin Charlton 2nd Opinion by John Amans Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

MC: A game of two halves, really - an anaemic white/yellow at the top, and a turgid brown sludge at the bottom. Don't get me wrong, Clint Langley is a god of art/paint/rendering/whatever it is, but his choice of palette for the latest Slaine series has been somewhat uninspired, and this continues that trend.

That said, it's possibly my favourite of the Langley Slaine covers, and certainly draws the eye from a distance. Also, the logo remains unobscured, which is always nice.

JA: Another excellent Clint Langley cover. Slaine is pictured at his usual brooding, menacing best. The whole series has had a very “red” feel to it and this comes across in the cover. I’ve ceased to be surprised by the quality of Clint’s covers in recent times. Though not quite up there with the “wrap around” efforts it still amazingly detailed and vibrant.

Horror in Emergency Camp 4 - Part 1

Dredd dispenses "justice" to the pushers...

Synopsis: Emergency camps have been set up around Mega City 1 to take care of the refugees from the Total War bombs. An old couple are looking for their son, who lived in the destroyed Ezra Pound block. Dredd berates them for coming to the zone dressed as well as they are - telling them they're looking for trouble. Later on, another citizen tells them he has seen their son, and tells then he'll lead them to him.

Elsewhere in the camp, violence runs rampant, with people hanged and citizens dying from a disease caught from contaminated "treemeat". Dredd catches up with the dealers, as the results of the scan of the treemeat comes in - it's laced with a Nosferatu chemical.

MC: Don't know about you at home, but I'm almost enjoying the post Total War stories as much as Total War. Call me crazy, but that almost seems like a prologue of sorts now. All we need is a Total War influenced story in the Meg, and it'll be complete. The first thing that struck me this week was the first sentence - 'two million had died in the Total War outrage'. My mind immediately leapt to the huge
numbers of casualties during the Apocalypse War & Necropolis, and comparatively Total War now seems little more than a skirmish. Wagner's decision to limit this number is strange, but in typical fashion he seems to be leaving the door open for the following months to cause the real damage.

There are also a number of other unsettling touches in this story that (at least to me) seem to echo the horror stories circulated in the media after the Asian tsunami, with people searching blindly for lost loved ones and the real horror of the situation coming from those who prey on human weakness (see panel 3 of page two). That said this is still a great Dredd story, with all the typical flair demonstrated by the current Wagner renaissance, managing to show the duplicitous nature of Dredd, and to vindicate this by showing the complexity of Dredd’s world.

Art wise, it's always great to have D'Isreali onboard with any story, and he manages to capture the feel of the carnage of MegaCity 1, whilst reminding me of the lower decks of the Leviathan in the process via his pseudo-Victorian stylings.

JA: I was really happy to see that the post Total War story line has been drawn out a little more. Some mega epics were neatly sewn up with normality resumed very quickly, how quickly was Inferno forgotten? Not TW, thank goodness.

Not only is this a good story but it is accompanied by some atmospheric artwork by D’israeli. He has brought a grim, “Leviathanesque” (a brilliant series, I must add) mood and feel to the story. The three frame section at the top of the second page conveys the situation perfectly. It’s the kind of snappy, brilliantly précised work that matches words and pictures perfectly to convey to the reader what is going on in a short time.

The first half of the story sets the scene well and then the second half kicks into a more usual pattern. After some shooting we’re given a taste (no pun intended) of where this is going. I can’t wait for next week.

Quite simply, bloody excellent!

Part 7

Donna gets on the wrong side of the Wolves.

Synopsis: The Second City Blues are up against the Wolves in their first major match. The Wolves are vicious, using hormones and implants, and quickly score after scratching Donna. But the SCBs quickly regain the upper hand and equalise. This starts a riot as the Wolves' supporters invader the pitch. This halts the game and the Wolves forfeit. After their first taste of success, the boys head down tot he local strip joint. They talk about Danny fancying Shaila when Minger realises their table has a Holo-porn projector. They call up a program, and begin watching - only to suddenly realise that the hologram is of Shaila...

MC: A strange one, this story. It continues, seemingly without any sense of purpose
(which in a way ominously suggests an ongoing story, rather than just a standalone tale), but occasionally showing moments of real promise. This seems to work against the story though, as it ends up more disappointing than actually offensive, which would make my life easier as I could just skip this. The tenuous nature in which the story is being dragged out (from the sudden joining of the major leagues to the
default victory this week) also gives the tale an amateurish feel, with characters I don't care about, and a revelation at the end of this week's tale that instead of being shocking merely induced a groan.

Art wise, Warren Pleece took a while to get going, but his work has really improved during the course of this story, with my only complaint now being the lack of background detail leaving a somewhat rushed feel.

JA: The general consensus about this story in the last couple of weeks has not been good. Does anyone like it?

Well, though it’s not quite up there with the real pieces of “dung” that have littered 2000AD (Space Girls, etc etc) it’s quite close! I don’t think its crap; I just think the basic premise is “flimsy”. The Slambording sport is not a bad idea, but having our “heroes” resembling a bunch of kids with some kind of half man/horse thing is lost on me. All of the opposing teams are caricatures that seem to get worse by the week.

It’s just that the basic story idea is badly executed. The dialogue isn’t bad, and there are some neat ideas (the holo-porn projector) but it’s a jumble lacking that base that new stories need to make their mark. It doesn’t have amazing artwork or that “X” factor that really grabs you.

Good try, but no coconut.

The Books of Invasions - Tara - Part 7

...which we really don't want to happen.

Synopsis: In Tara, the humans make their last stand protecting the Star Stone.

Back in the Otherworld, Slaine confronts the goddess. She taunts Slaine, but he's wise enough not to respond. Slaine takes her abuse with grace, but lets the goddess know that no one could ever replace Niamh in his heart. This seems to satisfy the goddess, and they kiss - Slaine has won the wild hunt.

The goddess agrees to let Slaine use the otherworld as a safe haven, so he returns to Tara. But the city has already fallen.

MC: That's it then, another 50 or so pages which leave us where? not really any further than we were at this point last year. This episode does actually have some nice dialogue between Slaine & the goddess, but I can't help feeling that with the story being called Tara, it wouldn't have hurt to spend more than a page or so there, and more time away from Slaine. Dredd tales always excel when they deal more with his world than with the man himself. Maybe Mills should have incorporated this into his work on Slaine.

There's also, as stated on various message boards the temptation to let this slide as Mills' form of therapy, or to lean back and think of the glossy European reprints, but as far as I'm concerned this is just 50 pages wasted already this year, with as many again in the summer, from the sound of it. One last thing, how many of David Bishop’s points over in the meg about writers applied to Mills? It seemed to me as though he had a real bone to pick with Mills.

Art Wise, Langley continues to impress with every superlative already having being used, but he deserves a better story than this to showcase his abilities.

JA: I’m a Slaine fan ok! Though I’ve enjoyed this arc of Slaine’s saga it has been a little frustrating. I don’t think anyone can fault the artwork, Clint Langley has produced some of his best work this series. It seems to get better every episode. I have been rather let down though as Mr Mills has descended into one of his maze-like plots where you wonder what is going on half the time and what is the point to it. Couldn’t the goddess stuff, spread over about 3 episodes, have been cut down a little? It did seem to ramble on a little and at the end of it Slaine crawls out of the cauldron to a burning Tara (great double page!) Its all over a little too quickly.

I’ll miss this story next week just for the artwork alone. However, I really think the next installment has to be a real stunner. The artwork is starting to carry this story now. An excellent plot and story needs to back up the stunning art.

Come back soon though.

Rock and a hard place - Part 1

Frank rebuffs Thora's advances...

Synopsis: Rock group "Your 19th Rectal Prolapse" are performing at a club when their pyrotechnics are tampered with, blowing up the entire club. This is the sixth band taking part in the Battle of the Bands to be killed, leaving only The Cursed Turf and Kill KIll Kill Kill, the latter being main suspects as they're so terrible.

Thora has brought in Dirty Frank to pose as long thought dead rock great Nick "Two Gerbils" Rasputin, and he meets the band in an attempt to infiltrate their ranks. The band almost believe him, believing his "Dirty Frank" references to be the result of years of substance abuse, but want him to play one of his old hits before they'll accept him as the real thing...

MC: Are you listening Pat Mills? Take Rob Williams as an example of somebody who listens to the fans. The outcry for Dirty Frank to get his own series obviously made its way to Williams, so this story is especially sweet to find sitting in the pages of the prog.

There is a somewhat shocking start to this tale though - the lack of the Flint Droid draws disappointment at first, leaving Coleby with everything to prove. Luckily he almost pulls it off, with his trademark wrinkly faces fitting the downtrodden nature of the story's main protagonists helped by Williams verve for this story. Williams includes some of his trademark black humour strangely absent from Asylum last year, with some classic lines ('Dirty Frank wants to take the long walk' being my personal pick of the litter) and the overall bizarreness of the premise covering up for a somewhat clichéd storyline.

Great stuff.

JA: Low Life makes a welcome return as it has to be one of the better MC-1 spin offs in the last couple of years. Any story that has a band called “Rectal Prolapse” in it has to be good, even though they get blown up: how rock’n’roll is that?

Though the story is a little light, we might have seen this kind of thing before under different guises, it’s carried off so well that you don’t care one bit. With a snappy script and appropriate art from Simon Coleby, it was a joy to read. Plus, Dirty Frank is back. Providing some light relief from this weeks grimness in Judge Dredd I was well impressed.

I wonder what “Klegg Meat Harvest” sounds like?

Agent of Destruction - Part 7

Dante gets into a frying pan/fire situation...

Synopsis: Dante looks into the history of the "weapon" and discovers that it's a creature that fell to Earth millions of years ago, at the time of the dinosaurs. It feeds upon the DNA of its victims, and uses them to shapeshift. However, a meteor strike caused a nuclear winter and sent the creature into hibernation. The Caspian complex was an oil refinery set up in the early 21st century, but was later used as a military outpost for the Tsar. When exploiting the oil beneath, they released the creature - but managed to control it with a stasis field.

The Kraken tells them he had an agreement with the Tsar that came to an end - and he attacked the outpost to show his contempt for the Tsar. Then the creature bursts in and attacks. Lauren narrowly escapes when Dante throws the Kraken into the creature - but instead of feeding on him, the creature feeds into the Kraken - and they become as one...

MC: Last Time I reviewed a prog I voted Dante the story of the week. I somehow doubt that will be happening this week, with a story that has floundered dreadfully since episode 2. We now find ourselves in a sort of Dante meets The Thing tale, with some random Dante continuity thrown in to keep the fanboys on their toes.

John Burns adds some lovely renditions of the prehistoric eras, but overall seems quite bored by the whole thing, with the story lacking the traditional Burns life, looking more like one of his Dredd works than Dante quality material. A real shame with this one. Dante seems to be treading water, with Morrison thinking that it is enough for him to merely be in the prog. He needs to remember that Dante has more to prove than that after such a lengthy absence.

JA: I’ve been a little disappointed and underwelmed by this latest run of my favourite Russian rouge. It's not that it’s bad, its just a little plodding and lacking that certain magic ingredient. Dante’s adventures have either been slightly whimsical humorous efforts with a dash of “slap & tickle” thrown in or grim dark brooding affairs that have (I believe) have been some of the finest moments in 2000AD history over the last 8 years or so.

This is really neither. Perhaps this where Dante is found lacking. He ha no side kick or foil to work off like other characters. Lauren is ok, but she’s the usual piece “tits & ass” that pops up every so often.

Though this isn’t total dross, it’s not really up to the high standard that we have come to expect. Sure the art is as lovely, but this is a little empty and unengaging. Maybe it’s going to surprise me next week!