2000AD Prog 1440 - 25 May 2005
	Judge Dredd (Rennie / Richardson) The VCs (Abnett / Williams) Slaine (Mills/Langley) Bec & Kawl (Spurrier/ Roberts) American Gothic (Edginton / Collins) Synopsis by David Knight Review by John Amans 2nd Opinion by Nathan Milner Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

JA: A functional cover by Mark Harrison, with a demented Major Smith letting rip. It has very green look to it though, a splash of red might have helped though to give it some more effect. I liked the claws coming in though with the shards of glass spraying about.

NM: Mark Harrison has done a fantastic job here - really captured V.C. Smith's character. I even like the way the tenticles are wriggling over the 2000AD logo, when I usually complain about that sort of thing.

Blood Trails - Part 1

Vienna was on hard times...

Synopsis: Judges Dredd and Giant raid an apartment and make arrests for narcotics possession and dealing. The perps are also in possession of terrorist sympathy publications. The tri-d is on, and Dredd catches a glimpse of his niece in a downmarket sitcom. After a day’s filming on the show, Vienna passes up a friend’s invitation to a trendy club and opts instead to drink on her own in a bar. She rejects the advances of a good looking man who tries to chat her up, and he backs off. He has approached her on four separate occasions, each time using face-change technology to alter his appearance, but to no avail. He reports his failure to his superiors who gave him the task of getting close to her.

The undercover agent’s apparently Soviet handlers discuss their next move, which is to bring in Pasha, a ruthless assassin currently in a mission in Hong Tong.

JA: After the rather excellent, if not predictable, Dredd story last week, Gordon Rennie has served up something slightly grittier this week. Usually anything with Vienna in it has a tad more seriousness to it. This is one of those “get our bearings” episodes as Rennie sets the scene and prepares us for the more substantial events that will follow in the next couple of weeks.

Though the art is unspectacular, I think its one of those stories where it doesn’t quite matter as its going to be the story that is most important not how it looks. We have figures draped in darkness, a hint of Sov involvement perhaps, kick ass assassins and plots aplenty.

Great stuff! Can’t wait for next week.

NM: A really solid six pages - from the 'mundane' MC1 wacky-cits, wacky shows & crimeswoops of the opening to the to the character-driven Vienna midsection (and what a fine mid-section she has too!) to the sinister plot & violence at the end... Is that a Sov helmet we can see? And a man in a chair - surely this must be Gordon Rennie's Kazan's clone invalid from 'Gulag' seeking his revenge on Dredd via Vienna?

I'm not so sure that Joe's niece is going to survive this tale.

Part 9 - Fight or Flight

Smith's diplomacy in action

Synopsis: With his troopers immobilised by the Polity, Smith manages to break free and fire on the aliens, killing one outright. The rest retreat back to their ship and take off. Trooper Sheldon pauses to examine the creature’s remains. No human has ever glimpsed an alien of the Polity before. They could come from any one of several different alien species belonging to the same federation.

Major Smith hypothesises that the Polity are at a disadvantage in close combat because they out of their depth in situations that call for physical violence. Back in space, the V.C.s encounter a gigantic Polity spacecraft.

JA: As a fan of the original VCs I was rather concerned that the revamped current run would terminally ruin the reputation of a once great story (As in the case of the final Bad Company story a couple of years ago.) After a slow start I have really started to warm to this series. Ok, it doesn’t have enough Geeks in it, but I like the way Dan Abnett has built the story up and not rushed anything. Though this has basically turned into a slow conspiracy investigation, with a few twists and turns it, it has its merits.

Anthony Williams’ art is not spectacular, but the story carries it rather than any fancy gimmicks. Plus Abnett has done a good job on the character of Major Smith. I think I’d be as whacked out, downright violent and as pissed off as he is if I'd gone through what he has. I’m glad I’m not a Polity!

Visually solidly unspectacular, but also absorbing and entertaining at the same time!

NM: Fairly entertaining, although I feel it's coasting a bit. Lots of "intrigue" but I just don't really care about their situation that much. Had this book been run earlier, and the previous books slimmed down & merged together then I might be more into this, as it is it's "just okay".

A shame really, when the first Abnett V.C.'s book was so outstanding.

Odacon - Part 5

Sethor's unpleasant end...

Synopsis: Slaine and Gael have gone beneath the surface of the loch, where they encounter the Fomorian queen, being serviced by Odacon; while up on dry land, Fais flirts with the druid Amergin.

Slaine observes that Fomorian mating is so antagonistic, the male and female demon might destroy each other and save him the trouble. He decides to attack the female in the throat to avoid releasing any Fomrian young into the loch. The former druid Sethor stands guard nearby, anchored by an umbilicus. Slaine severs the cord, depriving Sethor of oxygen. Slaine heads for the female’s throat, while Sethor warns his master of the danger. Odacon is Sethor’s only chance of avoiding drowning, and Odacon must unite with Sethor symbiotically to fight Slaine.

The Fomorian queen attempts to swallow Slaine, and refuses to believe he can harm her, but Slaine wounds the creature grievously. The wounded female heads to the surface of the lake, where Fais and Slaine’s men burn her with flame lances. Down below, Odacon moves in to attack Slaine, but Slaine whirls round and slices off Sethor’s legs, making him useless to Odacon. Odacon bites off Sethor’s head and spits it at Slaine, knocking Slaine unconscious. Odacon envelops Slaine, who is to become Odacon’s new host or ‘golamh’.

JA: The general consensus from other reviewers in the last couple of weeks is that this run of Slaine is a lot better than previous efforts. To be honest I have always enjoyed Slaine’s current story arc, and also Clint Langley’s art.

This never ceases to amaze me and this week’s episode, set mainly underwater, is no exception. Artwork aside, it is a basic “hack fest” with a little bit of Pat Mills’ “superior monster who treats humans as inferior beings, but then gets wasted” routine. A bit predictable, I know, but entertaining all the same and this week's ending has left a good cliff-hanger. I liked the way Sethor was made “redundant” and Slaine is Odacon’s new Golamh! I just hope that there isn’t some gimmicky Slaine get-out next week that ruins all of the good work this week.

On a dull technical issue, I think the panel layout this week is some of the best I’ve ever seen in 200AD. The section where Slaine confronts the Famorian female was fantastic and really bought the whole story to life!

NM: Still keeping the quality of this book high but, as with The V.C.'s, the increase in quality is coming too late in the grand scheme of things. Having said that, it's bloody great! There's some good ideas in here, some good jokes, and some great artwork - that sluggy-spidery-eely thing is wonderful/gross.

The final page is really exciting though, and now I can't wait to see what happens next. (Here's hoping that it won't be "With One Bound Our Hero Breaks Free!")

Attack of the Cones - Part 4

Kawl's dreams come true...

Synopsis: On board the alien cone vessel, Bec and Kawl are menaced by a monstrous mutant clone of Bec, which she overcomes by paying one of its many heads a compliment and causing all of them to fight out of jealousy. The ship begins to fail, as smoke from Kawl’s spliff discarded into a replicator grille overpowers the crew. The guards also become incapable of functioning normally.

Back on Earth, a resistance force led by Frenchman Pierre Ramonez is surrounded by invading cone aliens, but at 2am an army of drunken students emerges from the clubs and keeps the invaders at bay.

Kawl bludgeons the Great cone with the prone body of General Skragg before throwing up into the Great cone’s eyes. The Great Cone topples onto his ship’s cone activator, nullifying his armies of cone warriors on Earth, and the survivors on board the ship proclaim the Great Cone’s killer their new leader. But there can only be one leader, and since Bec and Kawl both brought about the Great Cone’s demise, who takes his place must be decided according which of them possesses ‘the mightiest cone’. Bec makes a grab for glory and takes her top off.

Bec and Kawl are sent back to Earth in a jettisoned cone capsule. Bec and Kawl had argued over whose ‘cones’ were bigger, but the aliens rejected both of them for the revolting fleshiness of their cones. Pierre ponders what the grey aliens had to gain from helping the Earth repel the cone invasion force, but if he took a closer look at the street lamps all around him he might be able to guess.

JA: I have a general rule with Bec & Kawl: If the first episode doesn’t do anything for me then I won’t like the rest! Suffice to say, I didn’t like the first episode and haven’t read the rest.

It’s not the art, it’s I’ve never been a big fan of these “funny/witty” style of story in 2000AD. Big Dave had its moments, less said about the Balls Brothers the better. Though Bec & Kawl isn’t quite in that league, it just not my cup of tea.

Maybe I’ll go back and read the current series in one go and reassess my judgement.

NM: The first two pages seem to be slightly out of sync printwise - everything looks a little fuzzy. Maybe that's because of Kawl's spliff getting caught in the Replicator & the printers got high.

B&K always seems to be a "loath it or love it" strip, and I'm coming down heartily on the "love it" side. Defeating the Beccy/clone/beast - brilliant, defeating the Cone horde - predicable, but great nonetheless, the 'cones' competition - mastermind!

Steve Roberts' artwork is, as always, superb.

Chapter 9

LaChance strikes ...

Synopsis: Zaroff’s hunters are lured by a decoy set up by Will LaChance, who ambushes them with two bags of soil crawling with fire ants. He finishes off the hunters with his rifle.

Duke Philippe and his cousin Zaroff fight amid the remains of a wagon while the captive monsters look on. Zaroff has the upper hand and gloats over Philippe, supposing whatever Philippe’s back-up to have been killed by his posse of hunters. Zaroff plans to infiltrate human society and pass for human, using his supernatural abilities to gain advantage over them. He attempts to skewer his cousin with a broken wheel axel, but Philippe is stronger, and punches a fist through Zaroff’s chest, tearing out his heart. Will finds Philippe trapped beneath his dead relation’s body.

They bury the dead, and the wagon train continues on to its destination.

JA: I’m glad this story finished this week, not because I thought it was bad. It was just reaching a point where it was starting to drift and become predictable. The first three episodes were excellent, then it started to sag in the middle badly and I somewhat found the scratchy, black and white art by Mike Collins, quite annoying. It seemed a little rushed and lacked some detail. When the action was set at night, it worked, but during the day it lacked something. This hasn’t been bad, but the early promise rather fizzled out. The premise was good and I liked the characters but some of the plot descended into wild west clichés.

A good effort, but not the success it could have been.

NM: So the saga comes to a close... After finishing Bec & Kawl I put the prog down and I re-read all the previous episodes of American Gothic to do the whole thing in one go. This episode is pretty much full on action - two climatic fights to the death. Mike Collins artwork for the series has been wonderful - and reading it in one go you can see how it adapts to the different situations: when Will's sober & clear headed the line work is solid and crisp - when he's drunk, scared or panicked the lines get scratchier, rougher. The story has built itself a very real background setting, mixing the western & horror elements very smoothly.