2000AD Prog 1434 - 13 April 2005
	Judge Dredd (Rennie / Cook) Sinister Dexter (Abnett/ Yeowell/ O Grady) American Gothic (Edginton / Collins) The VCs (Abnett / Williams) Nikolai Dante (Morrison/ Burns) Synopsis by Gavin Hanly Review by Iain Nixon 2nd Opinion by Gavin Hanly Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

IN: Nice line work and colouring for the most part -though I do have a bit of a problem the rhino being so green. But my final judgement of this cover isn’t very objective, such is my loathing for the sentient animals in Dante (I’ll save that rant for the message board) Without the rhino I could see it working, but with it, just Uggh!

GH: A fine cover by Cliff Robinson (colouring his own work, it appears) who seems to come into his own when steering away from stock Dredd poses. This is a clean and eye catching Dante image with everything from the suggestive flaring of Dante's kilt to the worried expression making this one a success.

Descent - Part 3

The Shadow King prepares to feast...

Synopsis: The second tac team enters the Ezra Pound hole. Guthrie takes a team out on foot after Dredd and his team. Up ahead, Dredd and Karyn find another dead citizen while Karyn senses a troggie nearby - whom she says is too terrified to tell them anything. But Dredd doesn't buy this and shoots a heatseeker, wounding it. Karyn probes the wounded Troggie and gets a vision of the Shadow King, who has been building up a powerbase in the undercity with its children to serve it. It's set up base in St Patrick's Cathedral. They head out, leaving another tracker for the following team.

At the Cathedral, the Shadow King prepares to feast on the first of the citizens brought before it. It kills a mother and is about to eat her child when Dredd and co drive in, guns blazing...

IN: Gorgeous, just gorgeous, especially in the dark underground. That lighting - just wow! Boo’s art didn’t have quite the same impact when I read Asylum II, I guess it helps to have a decent script. Having said that, I normally would put more attention towards reading the script, but the art just so good. I was kind of worried that given the recent Dredd with a vampiric monster (Horror in Emergency Camp 4) it was going to be a basic retread of the same story , but this vampire monster is more of an evil overlord - like the traditional vampire of old - , not a sneaky predator, it seems). But if the story does go arse over tit, there’s always that gorgeous art to look forward too.

GH: Clearly, the best thing about this latest series of Judge Dredd has been Boo Cook's artwork. Transplanting his latest style (last seen in Asylum 2) to the world of Dredd has worked a treat, and he's turned in some truly outstanding pages here. Most impressive is the overall feel of darkness and oppression that Cook manages to give the Undercity. Many artists seem to give this area of Mega City 1 some undefined lighting - so much that it occasionally doesn't give the impression that everything is taking place deep below the ground. However, Cook manages to shroud everything in darkness, with the odd light sources having clear illuminating effects on the surroundings. It's a particularly eerie effect, as everything from torchlight to gunfire throws the surroundings into relief.

It's also a testament to the printing techniques that all of this seems so clear in this week's issue. Despite every page being so dark, the printing quality is excellent and you never have to squint to see what's going on. All this combined with some excellent designs - particularly on the judge's ponchos and helmets makes for a Dredd tale where you find yourself poring over the details.

As for the story itself - it's clearly one that could have done with a little recap for the non-Megazine readers out there. Otherwise, it may not be particularly innovative, but it moves along at a fair old pace and provides a fun opener for this issue.

Life's a Beach - Part 2

He has to ask?

Synopsis: Sinister and Dexter are stuck in The Beach, a Traffic Island in Downlode.

Sinister tries to call for rescue, but discovers that they can't get a signal, while Barnes hooks up their Edsel to his pick-up truck. He takes them to their shanty town where he introduces them to the rest of the stranded folk. As they are shown round, the horn sounds to alert them all that the Snackers, degenerate mutants from near "the Ramp", are on a "Snack Attack" - as they hunt humans for food. They capture one of the stranded, but Sinister and Dexter fight them off, saving him. Sinister asks about the ramp, but is told it's in Snacker territory - but they're going for it anyway.

IN: Well, it’s promising to be a better story than the last longish SinDex but, then again, that’s not that’s not saying much is it? Also, why mutants? Do there have to be mutants in every 2000AD universe now? Granted they make sense in the Dreddverse and obviously the Strontverse, but it just seems like sloppy short hand here, something to make the bad guys identifiable. But the thing is, they don’t look that mutanty at all really. Okay, Yeowell might be going for a ‘realism’ thing but really, if you’re used to Stront and Dredd mutants, you want them to stick out a wee bit. That’s the whole point surely?

GH: Ok - so the premise seems very similar to the idea behind Devil's Island in Dredd (i.e. the prison in the middle of the highway) but elaborated on somewhat. At least Abnett is making some effort to examine all the possible escape routes (such as the mobile phone) and eliminate them - forcing the boys to come up with an inventive escape solution. But it's been a fun diversion so far and I could almost see them stretching this one out easily for a few more issues, but for the fact that we do seem to be hurtling to the conclusion rather speedily.

Yeowell once again proves himself to be an excellent choice of artist for Sinister Dexter, but after reading the latest Devlin Waugh trade, I can't help think that Tharg should give him something meatier to illustrate soon.

Chapter 3

Hey, that rhymes!

Synopsis: LaChance plunges his head into a bowl of water to refresh himself. He says that after his unfortunate throwing up, he feels cleaner than he has in ages.

The stranger tells him that Yagga created the potion and that the children with her are orphans - "their parents murdered by your kind. Men". LaChance retorts that the stranger was pretty handy with the killing himself. The Stranger introduces himself as Duke Phillipe Louis De Augustine, and he asks LaChance to start treating he and his kind with more respect.

He explains that their kind has always been treated as the villain by man, who fear anything they don't understand. They have gone through years of torment and oppression and lived their lives in fear - trying to hide. They treat America as a refuge , yet they need a guide to show them through - and they ask LaChance to be that guide.

Elsewhere, in Chicago, a team of men disembarks a train to the news of the Duke's killings. The leader speaks: "he's here!"

IN: Great stuff, and may I draw your attention to the third and fourth page? A history of prejudice summed up in two and a half pages, with some great, great, images. Ther are indeed great images throughout, it has to be said, the close up of the elf‘s eyes being another good un. This is amazing exposition which, along with the last panel of the last page, promises far more than just monster stories that just happen set it the West. It’s not often monsters werewolves and other monsters are the good guys , especially not in straight fiction.

GH: This is fast becoming one of the best stories running at the moment. Edginton's mixing of old world legend with the new world is an intriguing one, as well as one which turns the bad guys into misunderstood good guys. OK - the second part has been played out a few times before, but mixing this with the quest for freedom in America works surprisingly well.

The intended confusion of the early episodes is washed away as we now understand the scope and basic intentions of the strip, and even the connection with LaChance seems natural. So far, this has been improving each subsequent week, and the arrival of a real threat to the refugees should see the tale move up another gear.

Mike Collins, meanwhile, produces some of his best work to date, and seems a perfect artists to illustrate the western setting.

Part 3 - AWOL

Ryx's hand/eye co-ordination left a little to be desired...

Synopsis: Ryx is trying to buy a ticket off- planet to hunt down Veto. Smith appears from the shadows and Ryx attacks him - but in vain. He warn Ryx that he'll be facing 20 years in jail if he deserts, but Ryx says he needs to go after Veto, as he has a lead that Veto was spotted on Neptune. Smith tells him that he has higher clearance, and Veto's not on Neptune. He says that sooner or later, Veto will show his face and they'll hunt him down together.

He goes on to say he needs Ryx's help for the real reason they were sent to Kennedy. An unusually large amount of the discovered facsimile humans came through Fort Kennedy and they need to smoke out whoever's responsible for them. He tells Ryx that he needs to hurt himself if he's going to help...

IN: There’s been some complaint over on the main site that Tharg should include longer recaps for series that have been away for awhile. In response it was said that if a story is written properly, a recap like that shouldn’t be necessary and The VCs was used as an example. As a newbie who hasn’t read any VCs before this series, I have to agree as I have no problem following what’s going on. If anything, this episode probably didn’t need as much exposition as it had plot wise, but it did help character wise. For what is basically a talking heads episode it is entertainingly helped by some really good art (in particular with the body language, showing how Ryx and Smith are feeling - quite effective in places, like when Smith putting a comforting arm on Ryx’s shoulder - pretend Smith’s arm isn’t there and see how his words read differently-good example of a picture telling a thousand words.)

Nice Cameo of The comic book guy in the background of the last panel too.

GH: So far, this series has been a vast improvement on the two that have preceded it, with Anthony Williams computer colouring in particular showing increased maturity and restraint.

The basic training aspect alone is fun, but when backed up with the promise of covert activity behind the scenes, there's a feeling that everything finally has a purpose. Frankly I'm very glad to be away from the "lots of humans and geeks shooting at each other" action of previous series, and the chance to build up some plot threads is welcome. In addition, Abnett is building up Ryx's hatred for Veto well, and after this issue, we'll really be looking forward to a showdown in future episodes.

Most importantly, this has got me wondering what's going to happen next, and I'm actually quite interested in finding out. If Abnett keeps the plot moving like this for the entire series, we could be in for a good run here. And all this in what effectively comprises of two characters having a conversation - very good work indeed.

Primal Screams - Part 2

True comic book antics...

Synopsis: Two rhinos head straight to Dante and Lauren, but she blinds the first with her feather boa and they crash through the window. They still have no way out though, so they dive through the window too. Mr King sends out the crocs to recover the bodies.

We discover that in the 25th century, animal rights activists gave certain animals human intelligence to help promote their survival. The animals soon defeated their hunters and took over the African continent. The houses of Kong, Nima and Tantor were granted dynastic status by Vladimir who then played them off against each other. Now the dynasties are fighting over what to do next and Nima order his Lion chief of Guards to bring back Dante.

Dante and Lauren have survived the fall but he suddenly gets an arrow in the sporran, and a gang of gorillas in armour attack..

IN: One thing is really spoiling this for me: the highly improbable humanoid sentient animals (in the exposition it mentions the gift of intelligence given to the animals, but it fails to mention the gift of say, opposable thumbs, which I would have thought would be worthy of note too, quite frankly. I actually went off on a tangent elsewhere on why I didn’t buy the humanoid animals, but this isn’t really the place (ask on the message board if you’re really interested).

Well there’s not much to the plot of this episode, Dante and Kolya escape the human rhinos by leap from the casino into the falls and the head of Carnivore dynasty (don’t mention the bloody tigers) decides it’s a good idea to get bounty to gain wealth and favour from the Tsar) and at the end Dante and Kolya are attacked by axe and cross bow wielding gorillas (I know the animal dynasties are supposed to be primitive, but the gorilla who duelled Dante way-back-when had a decent gun). When someone whinges so much about niggles little things it’s a sign that they didn’t enjoy the story. To me the realism that Burns goes for just increases the ridiculousness of the sentient animals in my eyes, I had much less of a problem when they were introduced, in a more cartoony story, drawn by the more cartoony Simon Fraser

GH: So the odd man/beasts are at least explained this week. While I do like the effort that Robbie Morrison makes to ensure that the Dante backstory is built upon in this way, the whole man-beast thing does seem a little contrived, and more like they were created for this storyline in particular.

This is still something of a preference from the pirate stuff, as it would seem that the readers were getting as fed up of life on the ocean waves as Lauren was. It's still a fun read (as the memory of Lauren's sheer stupidity at getting them in this mess last week recedes) and anything that ends with Dante getting a crossbow in the sporran is worth a look. But I can't be the only reader that wants the overall plot to move forward somewhat, am I?