2000AD Prog 1430 - 16 March 2005
	Judge Dredd (Rennie / Gibson) Second City Blues (Kek W/ Pleece) Tiger Sun Dragon Moon (Parkhouse) Sinister Dexter (Abnett / Pingriff/ Caldwell) Nikolai Dante ( Morrison / Burns) Synopsis by David Knight Review by John Amans 2nd Opinion by Paul White Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

JA: I’ve always enjoyed Greg Staples work and this cover, though the colours are a little bland, is not without its merits. It has a nice feel for action and you get a real sense of Sinister and Dexter hurtling towards you, all guns blazing. It is simple and effective. Sometimes excessive detail can be wasted on a cover.

PW: A nice enough effort but doesn't really do it for me... Unlike the interest gained when a different artist provides a new take on Dredd, Sin/Dex don't provide enough interest at the best of times. This is just a nice enough image of characters not worth caring about.

Missing in Action - Part 2

"Sovs" revealed ...

Synopsis: Ritchie Jay, a veteran of the Apocalypse War, has been kidnapped by a criminal gang he wrongly believed to be Soviet agents.

Judges are already tailing one of Jay’s neighbours, Howard Nyman, whose behaviour aroused Jay’s suspicion in the first place. From a voiceprint analysis of a vid-phone conversation, Tek division are able to positively identify Nyman’s contact, nick-named ‘Shreck’, as Max Schrieber, a criminal wanted for producing torture films and magazines. Judges searching Ritchie Jay’s apartment find his journal of observations concerning his neighbour’s movements.

Jay’s captors find out nothing concerning what he knew about their vi-zine trade, and decide to record his death for a torture vid. Nyman arrives at the vid studio Schrieber uses as cover for his illegal activities, unaware that a heavy judge force is massing nearby.

JA: Gordon Rennie has come up with a real gem with this story. Ok, Gibson’s art is not that detailed, but it does not lack quality. It has that lovely “light” feel that is easy on the eye and makes the story come to life. Where this really works is the fact that the story is so damn riveting. Judge Dredd plays the detective and our victim also has some really effective scenes and we’re given a few more spoonfuls of back- ground to keep it moving. Though the kidnappers seem to be Vi-Ziners, you have a feeling the next episode is going to be the best yet and not without a surprise.

Sheer quality!

PW: I'm enjoying this a lot. It feels quite "old school" to me, and Gibson's art appears to have improved a lot from some of his recent efforts in the prog (and i'm sure it was Rennie who had a swipe at him on the messageboards re lack of backgrounds).

There's still some sloppy panels (pg3 pnl3 for example), but it looks more like old
Gibson than usual, and that's a good thing too. I like the fact that it's pretty much Dredd-action free, but the interest is maintained in Dredd piecing the crime together, bit by bit, and the merest hint of humanity in that Dredd is almost doing this as a favour to Gary Ouziek and the bar regulars... Rennie is proving to be a great regular Dredd writer and can, should Wagner decided to call it a day, feel sure of himself in taking Dredd on and on.

Part 12

The Oboch destroy one of their own...

Synopsis: During the Blues vs. Buccaneers match, Brian MacReady’s gangster dad arrives to save his son, fighting his way through rival fans on his way. Shaila takes advantage of the confusion caused by an alien ship landing in the arena and scores a goal. The umpire then orders the match abandoned. Mourn Salter, the Blues’ crooked manager, tries to make a getaway before the alien Oboch enforcers catch him. He has been broadcasting full sensory recordings of the Blues’ slamball matches to Oboch space in defiance of their law. The alien censors are intent upon executing all individuals involved in making the recordings, including the slamball players.

The Blues fly into the team HQ, where Shaila takes out Salter and his henchman with a thrown slamball, and Danny disarms the henchman with a kick. The Oboch enforcers burst in through the wall and execute Salter’s Oboch partner in crime. Salter’s henchman regains his shotgun, but is decapitated by a flying mantrap drone. The Oboch declare that the Blues, their coach and the manager will be next to die.

JA: This surely must go down as the most improved story of the year. Utter duffers like Valkryies started of crap and stayed crap. Whereas, SCB started off average and improved very quickly. Rather than concentrating on the “future sports” element it has started to develop some characters with an improving story to back it up. I didn’t skip this; I read it and was actually bothered with what was happening. Though the art is functional the script has improved beyond all measure. The censors are quite creepy and suitably violent. Believe it or not I can’t wait to see how this finishes.

PW: Amidst the initial messageboard hysteria over how "crap" this story was, I found myself enjoying it in a Beano-kind-of-way, and my opinion hasn't really changed. There's been more twists and turns than there's been hackneyed plot devices or dialogue. The art is gorgeous and makes me wonder why Warren Pleece hasn't had a 2thou gig before (his "True Faith" in Crisis was outstanding, but I'm sure I mentioned that last time).

I'm still not sure how it will end, although I'm pretty sure that the team will survive in order to win again another day, and there's enough unresolved or intriguing plot strands to make me wonder and *gasp* care for the characters... not everything in the prog can be high-brow, and not everything can be drawn by Jock/Irving/Flint etc.

This entertains... job done.

Part 5

Possessed...

Synopsis: On the floating world of Ukiyo, The Emperor’s sister Kiri finds herself awake but unable to move, three days after an attack by ninjas. Sukonami is sleepwalking, under the control of the supernatural warrior Kabal who has used traces of Suko’s blood, hair and clothes to work sympathetic magic using the body of another woman as a conduit for his will.

In her trance, Sukonami takes a knife with which to strike at the Emperor, but his sister, who is able to leave her body to observe Suko’s movements, returns to her own body in time to shout a warning to her brother. Under Kabal’s control, Suko kills two Imperial bodyguards, runs into the garden and retrieves a sword from a fish pond, and activates the nanotech body armour stored in her wristband. She kills several more guards before the alarm is raised.

JA: This is a strange story, this one. It seems to lack some of the continuity that other Dredd-world stories have had. I find it strange that this supposed Hondo City emperor, who has never been mentioned before, is guarded by guys who have seemed to have stepped out of the 13th century. It has dashes of futuristic technology thrown it but it seems to be neither here nor there. Not a Hondo City judge in uniform to be seen

This week’s episode is quite good, the art looks lovely but it seems to lack a real gripping narrative. All of the characters are a little anonymous. Kabal is pretty neat, but woefully underused. It sometimes comes across as a little too clever and self indulgent. The fact that Steve Parkhouse is a one man band on this strip could be the answer.

Good, but not outstanding.

PW: I was excited when i heard of a new (or not so new, according to his recent interview here) Steve Parkhouse series and the first double-splash with killer robots stomping some ancient Oriental world got my juices flowing. I've been a bit disappointed since then, that the action has been at a very individual level. This week reads more Kill Bill than anything else and this has become my latest "must read
in one go" project. If it's any consolation, the previous stories that I treated in this manner (most notably From Grace), I've thought were bloody marvelous. Time will tell.

Latte Animals - part 2

Who could they possibly be referring to?..

Synopsis: Hired hit-men Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter have come to the Barstucks coffee chain’s Downlode divisional headquarters to warn them against putting independents like Perk-U-Later out of business. Faced with an armed reception committee, they have blasted their way up every floor of the building to the divisional manager’s office. The head of Barstucks’ operations in Downlode offers them a hefty bribe to back down. However, Sinister and Dexter know his hired guns, and their favourite coffee places: all of which have been ruined by competition from Barstucks. The divisional head’s gunsharks desert one by one, leaving him alone with Sinister and Dexter, who persuade him that Barstucks doesn’t want to dominate the coffee bar trade in Downlode after all.

JA: I actually quite like these Sinister Dexter filler stories. The art seems quite basic, but is nice and colourful and has a very gory touch to it, blood and brains splattered all over the place. What you see is what you get with S&D. Lets be honest, you’re not going to get deep and meaningful Citizen Kane-esque tale and change the world dialogue here.

S&D, like Dredd, seems to parody of lot of our modern day culture and I’ve quite enjoyed this tale as it’s been quite quirky and amusing. Not being a fan of the coffee “corporate whore” parodied in this tale I found the ending quite refreshing, no pun intended. The characters work best when they don’t get too serious. 2000AD needs some light relief alongside any serious strips.

PW: I believe that there's a big download event on the horizon that going to rock-the-foundations and be life-changing for all concerned, etc, blah. I don't really care, but it looks like the boys have come back in a simple 2 episode extended pun to remind us that they're still around.

As it happens, I find this mildly entertaining (although i don't like the art) and it's throwaway stuff that (for me) doesn't get re-read, but it *does* get read the once and thus, I don't hate it. I would love to see this format being introduced for other characters/series, where the disappear for a bit (and are effectively off-roster) but come back for 2-4 episode stories and disappear again. Anyway, it's just better
than your average Future Shock. that's all.

How could you believe me when I said I love you when you know I've been a liar all my life... - Part 3

Dante begins to regret his choice of room-mate...

Synopsis: Nikolai Dante briefs the King of Britannia on how he learned of the plot to kidnap the Tsar’s daughter. Lulu Romanov had attacked the yacht belonging to the media magnate Lord Beaverbrock. Lord Beaverbrock was a member of Lulu’s decadent secret society, the cadre Infernale, and had been supplying her with details of Jena’s royal visit to Lulu. Lulu sabotaged the yacht in the hope of destroying clues that she would go after Jena Makarov.

Dante’s band has gone to ground in a luxurious hotel, where Lauren is holding Jena at gunpoint. While Nikolai converses with King Henry, Jena and Lauren fight in an adjoining room. They both turn on Dante when he intervenes. Suddenly, a unit of the Rippers, Britannia government agents, attacks the hotel suite, apparently intent upon kidnapping Jena, but only succeeds in taking Lauren. The Rippers are genetically modified to have enhanced tracking abilities and to bear a physical resemblance to folk devils in the mould of Jack the Ripper.

JA: This story has shown a vast improvement on the last Dante tale which seemed to meander and not really go anywhere. John Burn’s art is as good as ever and the location lends itself to his art more than the last story. This tale helps from the fact that Dante’s half sister is back as well as Jena. It has some stronger supporting characters to beef up the plot. The fact that it is still maintaining my attention is enough to make me optimistic about the coming weeks.

My only worry here is with the bigger picture. There seems to be a lot of story threads blowing around in the wind. I'd like for a couple of them to be tied up and Dante get down to taking on Vlad. I'd hate to see this story end up like Rogue Trooper. It spends years going nowhere and by the time you get to some kind of conclusion, you don’t give a toss because you have lost interest!

PW: I hated the last series (boring) and was concerned that there was a second one running straight away, but the complete change of emphasis coupled with some fantastic Burns art (especially on the females) makes this something i've started to look forward to...

Dante needs some comic capers in between all the other shit in his life (if only to occupy his mind while he works out ways to rescue those two kids). This week it's turned a wee bit more serious (although any story with some cliched , cockernee dialogue can't ever be taken too seriously) but the tits we can't see here hold more interest than those we can see in TSDM. A return to form of sorts, I'll have to say.