2000AD Prog 1431 - 23 March 2005
	Judge Dredd (Rennie / Gibson) Second City Blues (Kek W/ Pleece) Tiger Sun Dragon Moon (Parkhouse) Sinister Dexter (Abnett / McCrea / Caldwell) Nikolai Dante ( Morrison / Burns) Synopsis by Gavin Hanly Review by James Mackay 2nd Opinion by Nathan Milner Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

JM: In keeping with the rather marvellously retro feel of the whole Second City Blues concept, Jason Brashill here comes up with a classic team pose. Good colour balance and facial expressions, even on the horse, make this a really rather pretty picture. I do have a slight argument with the decision to show them half-arsedly bursting out of the page towards the reader. As no doubt our esteemed editor has already picked up, this obscures part of the logo. Normally I quite enjoy a bit of logo desecration, but when it's done to as little purpose as this I begin to see the other point of view. Wouldn't this cover have been a lot better if the burst were a real BURST - dramatically highlighted and with more of a sense of kinetic energy about it?

NM: I’m not too keen on this cover, but I don’t really know why. The art style Jas uses is top-notch as usual and it is quite a striking image - but I don’t like it. Maybe it’s because the ‘burst’ effect around the circle is pointlessly white-on-white, except for where it covers up the 2000AD logo, or (more likely) it’s because I just don’t like orange.

Missing in Action - Part 3

Dredd's luck runs out...

Synopsis: The judges announce their presence and Schreck kills Nyman for leading them to him. He orders his henchmen to dispose of Ritchie, but Ritchie is already starting his escape bid by ripping the chair he's tied to from the floor. The judges pick up Ritchie's life signs and blow the front door off, killing off a henchmen in the process. Dredd storms the building, but Schreck gets off a lucky shot, sending Dredd to the floor. Schreck is about to kill Dredd when Ritchie, still attached to the chair, rushes at Schreck, sending him sprawling to the floor. The H Wagons take their shot and vapourise Schreck.

Dredd orders the med crew to take care of Ritchie despite the fact that he's a kook - acknowledging Ritchie as the reason they were able to bust the Vid Zine operation.

Three weeks later, Ritchie is back at planet Gary, where they now keep a seat free at all times, in case Dredd wants to stop by. "He ain't such a bad guy when you get to know him."

JM: I find myself in these review always tempted to abuse Gordon Rennie. He's a naturally gifted writer who seems set to inherit the throne of principal Dredd script droid - the lucky git. But when he produces an absolute gem such as this, I wouldn't really have legs to stand on.

It's strange to think, given the focus of many an early Dredd tale, that writing the character as a straightforward hero is now vanishingly rare. Sure, it must be great for the script droids to have this ambiguous character, this fascist, and to play with the "Who's the real bad guy?" thing. But isn't it nice to have a script come along every once in a while that reminds us that Joe's a policeman, and as such must at least occasionally be unambiguously one of the good guys? Also, its great to see another reminder of Joe as just a human being, what with getting shot in the shoulder and saved by a badly wounded old man. Rennie's clearly set up the inhabitants of Planet Gary as an inexhaustible supply of these little vignettes to show the other side of the Galaxy's Hardest Cop - a masterstroke that simply proves his deftness of touch.

Gibson, on the other hand, is a bit of a disappointment, yet again. There just isn't a feeling of effort in his art any more - understandable when he's drawing the weak Samantha Slade strips, less so when he's on a top-notch Dredd script like this one. Compare and contrast with what he was able to produce on the forgettable "Almighty Dredd" strip a few years back, never mind the Sex Olympics or Halo Jones, and you'll see what I mean.

NM: This has been a great story. The artwork is marvellous, the villains’ dialogue on the opening page this episode is very funny, and Ritchie comes through to save the day. He’s the real hero of the piece and I’m glad because I started to really care about the guy.

Dredd makes a mistake! “Forty-seven years on the streets. More citations than he can remember… …but one lucky shot is all it takes.” Well, I think Dredd’s mistake was actually in the panel before – when he tells the other judges to cover him and goes in alone. Dredd’s had too many years of doing it all himself, but if there’d been another judge in there with him then Schreck wouldn’t have stood a chance.

I like the ‘cheesy’ ending too: it reminds us that Dredd is a goodie. Too often does Dredd get this ‘we love him because he’s a bastard’ press, but really we love him because he gets the baddies and saves the day, just like a hero should do.

Part 13 (final episode)

The Oboch starts to feel...

Synopsis: The Oboch are about to kill Minger but his dad, Macready, bursts in to save the day. His men start beating the Oboch back as the coach tells them to disrupt the suits which they use to restrict their senses. Shaila rips the leader's one open, and the Oboch is overwhelmed by his senses, ordering the Oboch to retreat, taking Salter with them. They prepare to set off the "Meson bomb" from orbit, which will destroy the planet. The coach suddenly remembers that the ball, now covered in blood, is about to go berserk. He throws it to Donna, who deflects it into the retreating Oboch ship. Inside, the ball goes mad, ripping through the Oboch before latching onto Salter's face. The ship's control systems are disrupted and it crashes back down into the city, exploding in a ball of flame.

The blues were awarded the match as they were the last to leave the arena before play was abandoned and will be playing "off-world" next season. Minger's dad says that he's going to be their manager...

JM: What an utterly bizarre experience reading this strip has been. I'll be honest at the start and say that I've never read and enjoyed a sports strip, except Billy the Fish and the gentle parodies like DEATHSPERE produced for Solar Wind. Mean Arena, Roy of the Rovers: you can keep 'em. But Second City Blues isn't really a sports strip: nor is it a proper science fiction strip. It's been more like reading a magical realist novel crossed with a Brummie soap opera: so, you've got your hard life choices, your star crossed lovers, your gangster dad, your squid-headed alien and your spaceship full of beings out to destroy Love. (Ok, so technically it's "all emotion" they want to destroy, but we all know what that's a code for!)

Far, far too many elements to fit into a short tale, and it's to 2000AD editor Matt Smith's great credit that he took a chance and commissioned a 13-part series in a defunct genre, with a creative team barely tested within the pages of the comic.

So has it worked? Well... kinda. I've become slowly addicted, entirely against my will, to a story that I know is full of cliché and unresolved plot threads. It's like Neighbours - there's no good reason to like it, but vast sections of the population do. And I have to admit that, despite my better judgement, I'd like to see it return for a second series.

NM: Now this is real cheese. It’s got Father-Son reconciliation, it’s got a washed-up retired old man regaining his former glory, and it’s got plucky young kids saving the day with a healthy dose of meddling. What’s not to love? The design of the baddies is brilliant, quite fearsome indeed. Best of all: it ends on a joke.

These needs to be serialised as a Saturday morning cartoon immediately.

Part 6

Mizo gets into a tight spot...

Synopsis: A guard comes to warn Lieutenant Konda about Sukonami, but is immediately killed. The possessed Suko demands to know - "where is it". A sword battle starts until Mizo arrives, wielding Tiger Sun, the thing that the Kabal-controlled Suko is looking for. Mizo orders Konda to take Judge Kai and the children to the escape pod, while he holds Suko back. More ninjas arrive, and the battle moves to the rooftops. Mizo transforms the statues of tigers into reality, and they tear through the attacking ninjas. But as they disappear, a phantom Dragon stands ready to attack him...

JM: This, on the other hand, is unmitigated pish. Probably for big fans of chop-socky there are all sorts of thing to admire, but I'm not among that crowd and all I see is an artist capable of creating wonderful imagery but with no sense of how to tie a story down to the 2000AD format. The fight is endless without really being entertaining, and to be honest readers like myself would probably have got more from reading the storyboard for Hero, sans script. Silent panels can be a wonderful thing - but in situations where people are naturally silent, not in a melee where you would normally expect character to make at least some noise, even if its to say "ouch, that really HURT, you know!" I have no idea who anybody is, and what's particularly unusual for me is that I don't care. Bring on Valkyries II, please - at least I'll know some names.

NM: Fantastic! Still not entirely sure about what’s happening – but whatever it is, it’s happening in a very exciting way. Big sword fights a-go-go this episode, and as blades Tiger Sun and Dragon Moon finally clash we see why these two swords are so special – calling forth spectral Tigers and a Dragon.

Still not clear on why this is set in Dredd continuity, but there’s no reference to that this week. It doesn’t need to be set in Dredd’s world, it’s a strong enough story on it’s own – and I feel the references to Judges and Mega-City One detract from the atmosphere that has been built here.

Vircade

Extreme Golf

Synopsis: Jake Snake's Vircade is the place citizens of Downlode go to escape from the reality of their everyday lives. It's a virtual reality parlour where everyone plays games ranging from all-action set pieces to golf games with firearms. There are hack n' slash games, godzilla simulations and extreme driving simulators.

Everyone is playing truly extreme versions of videogames - except for Finnigan Sinister, who has spent 8 hours playing Pong, waiting for Jake Snake - his target - to arrive. He performs the hit and hits the streets to get back to his dead end job...

JM: Broadly speaking, there are three parts to a script droid's job. There's plotting, there's characterisation, and there's narrative voice. 2000AD is normally stuffed full of writers who can do the first two of these brilliantly. Witness the taut, relentless logic of a long John Wagner tale, defying probability to knot all its multiple threads together in a single, final episode. Witness the genius of Pat Mills when he births a new character, whether Nemesis the Warlock or shootah-wielding Bill Savage.

But very few of the Galaxy's Greatest really seem to pay much attention to the third - the words that go into those funny little boxes. John Smith, of course, and recently Simon Spurrier, have shown how much a lush wordscape can contribute to a strip - indeed, The Simping Detective has proved the point by making the words easily equal to Frazer Irving's genius art.

What's all this got to do with Sinister Dexter? Well, here we have a typical Sin/Dex one-off. The art, by John McCrea, is brilliant (love the Middenface on page1!). Yet the plot is... well, it's just an extended series of 2-panel jokes, with the same punchline in each, isn't it? And not a particularly new or profound punchline, either. But with Dan Abnett's sleazy, instantly recognisable narrative voice, playing delightedly with words and actually serving to do more than just push the plot along, this rises much, much higher than, say, a one-off Dredd normally does.

NM: Note: Middenface McNulty and Elvis are in the first panel. Presumably put there to up the ‘recognisablecharactersometre’ because Dexter is missing and Sinister doesn’t turn up until the last page.

In the meanwhile, we’re barraged with four pages of demonstrations that regular people enjoy violent fantasy games. No shit, Sherlock. After I finish writing this review I was planning on playing some GTA: San Andreas. Is it worth getting me into this story: “Nathan spends all day in the office doing accounts and talking to friends on the internet. In the evening he likes drive-by shootings, cappin’ hos and beating up dealers.”

It doesn’t help that I don’t like John McCrea’s artwork, although it’s better here then it usually is. Maybe because it’s better than the script? I usually stick up for Sinister Dexter, but this one sucked donkeys.

How could you believe me when I said I love you when you know I've been a liar all my life... - Part 4

The king to the rescue...

Synopsis: Dante prepares for the meet at Big Ben with Lulu to retrieve Lauren. Jena warns him that Lulu wants nothing more than to kill Dante, but he goes in anyway. Lulu has blamed Dante for the betrayal of the Romanov family despite his claims of innocence.

They find Lulu, with Lauren being held aloft by Lulu's monsters. The king storms in through the clock face in a taxi, but this only makes Lulu release Lauren. She starts to fall to her death, but Jena leaps to her aid, knocking her onto the stairs. Dante fires at Lulu, but only nicks her shoulder as a warning shot. He tells her that he didn't betray her, and that he could have killed her if he wanted to, putting his gun away. Lulu finally accepts his word, warning him that if he has lied, there will be hell to pay. She walks away.

Jena decides to let Dante go too, as Lauren and he take off in the taxi. Lauren says she still doesn't know if Dante was trying to kidnap or rescue Jena. He kisses her - "What do you think?"

JM: Ho hum, knockabout fun. While it's good to see that Lulu will survive, and might even be available to team up with Nikolai again, it'd still be hard to argue that this trip has returned to anything like the high spots before the end of the Tsar Wars. Mad King Henry and two sets of boobs do not a classic make.

Despite that rather negative sentiment, I still think the best part of this strip was the words "returning in prog 1433". Dante needs this good long run of stories to re-establish himself, and there's every sign of a slowly recovering return to form.

NM: Dante’s adventures are back on form. We’ve got romance, smut, action, insults and comedy. Art-wise, John Burns has nailed Nikolai’s character but I don’t much like his Jena. He’s given all the women huge busts – fair enough – but in doing so half the time he’s increased the rest of their proportions, making Jena look like she’s been coping without Dante by digging into the cake & chocolate ice cream. So she keeps alternating between panels between podgy & slim. If only she was one or the other, rather then fluctuating. I’m probably being overcritical because I’m still missing Simon Fraser on the series.