Cover: Boo Cook	2000AD Prog 1454 - 31 August 2005
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Walker) Savage (Mills / Adlard) Leatherjack (Smith / Marshall) Breathing Space (Williams / Campbell/ Townsend/ Doherty) Robo Hunter (Grant / Gibson) Synopsis by Gavin Hanly 1st opinion by Gavin Hanly Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: Dear oh dear. Boo Cook is normally a highly reliable artist, and is currently doing a great job over at the Megazine this month. But an involuntary "oh, dear god!" escaped me when I took this one out of the subscription envelope.

It has the appearance of being drawn in minutes, the figure of Stogie is camouflaged by the robot hand he's standing on, and the rather pointless window background is entirely superfluous and overbearingly dominates the scene. Plus the fun quote from inside the issue,"Die screameeng, beetch", is emasculated by taking out the word "beetch." Even the fake cigarette packet design can't save this one.

I could go on, but let's just draw a line under it and hope for a return to form with Cook's next cover...

Mandroid - part 2

Nate has trouble fitting in...

Synopsis: Nate has come to Mega City one with all his new mech armaments in place - which are to be removed once the veteran's board approves the cost. Nate, Kitty and Tommy move into the run down Dean Gaffney block - whereupon Tommy is knocked down by a surfer and propositioned by a drug dealer before they even get to the apartment.

Later, Kitty brings down a gun toting futsie and calls the judges. Dredd arrives on the scene, and, despite her breaking the law by bringing the perp down, decides to let it slide. Nate and Kitty get a visit from Miss Charming O Fletcher who arrives with a welcome cake. she seems friendly, but it soon seems clear that she's part of a block crime syndicate, offering an extortionate "protection". They see her to the door - and all the time, Nate is getting more and more disillusioned with city life.

The next day Kitty doesn't come home from her job interview - she appears to have disappeared afterwards. Then someone pours flammable liquid under the front door and sets it alight...

GH: The initial response to the announcement of Mandroid some months ago was that this series would just be another big-ass robot/android getting ready for Dredd to kick its arse. However, after only two episodes, it's clear we're getting something different. Wagner is at his best when concentrating on the citizens of Mega City One and the totalitarian nature of the city - as seen in his previous tale "Caught in the Act". It's when he lets loose at the more mundane and desperate aspects of Mega City life that he seems to come alive, seen here in the setting up of Nate's short fuse of Nate and also the black humour in the family's predicament. Small touches like "A lot of people call Dean Gaffney the ugly face of city housing" are pure genius and the wait for Nate to go futsie is proving to be a highly enjoyable one. There's some interesting characterisation for Dredd too, as the older he gets the more he sees the wisdom in not arresting everyone for the smallest crimes.

As for Kev Walker, it's an extreme pleasure to see his work back in 2000AD. Since he moved over to this new style, which owes something of a debt to Mignola, his work has been far better than the painted style which always left me a little cold. Here, he manages to bring home the family's predicament by depicting the city block as a throroughly run down affair, reminiscent of the UK's worst housing projects. The dark palette he uses throughout helps to emphasise the doom and gloom - at least until Nate inevitable lets loose in future issues.

With no sign of a duff Dredd story since the start of Rennie's Blood trails, there's clearly still life in the lawman yet.

Book 2 - Out of Order - Part 5

Savage lives up to his reputation...

Synopsis: At New Scotland Yard, Jaksic suggests that a forced deportation of several hundred refugees should bring Savage out of the woodwork before the president's arrival. She begins torturing a prisoner and taking photos...

Elsewhere, Cassie discovers Noddy hiding Vashkov's itinerary - and begins to despair of the way Savage's life is heading. At that moment, Savage is escaping from the army, who are riddling his car with bullets. He drives into the flame field where the Volgs won't follow and where he and Jan jump out of the car and escape before it blows. He returns Jan to Tom, who finally admits that Jack is right about the way he's fighting Volgs and wants to fight too. But Jack tells him that he can help by letting him get to Vashkov. Tom tells him the only way he'll get close is by growing a beard and taking Tom's place as a journalist...

GH: A recent interview with Robbie Morrison in the Megazine brought up the point that he too was irritated by the script rewriting that seemed to take place in 2000AD's past. This has always been a complaint of Mills for the same era, although at the time many, including myself, thought this was the grumpy complaints of a writer long past his best. Yet it seems that Mills may have had a point. He really is only in danger of scraping the barrel with Slaine, whereas this, ABC Warriors and Black Siddha over in the Megazine have seen him rejuvenated as a writer.

Indeed, Mills seems to be using this strip in particular as an opportunity to throw a satirical sideswipe at today's governments, both British and American - with the photo taking in this issue being a parallel with the reports from Abu Ghraib. However, unlike some of his tales in the past, Mills has managed to avoid the heavy handedness he can occasionally bring to his writing. By treating Savage as something of a psychopath, the line between the "bad" and "good" guys is much more unclear. While we're certainly supposed to be supporting Savage, Mills never lets us forget that he's something of a bastard too. In addition to this, the action sequences, expertly rendered by Adlard, are peppered throughout with enough frequency to relieve some of Mills' rhetoric.

Perhaps the only criticism is that Tom Savage's about-face in the way he deals with the Volgs was a little too quick and it would have been good to see more of the situation from his side before Jen's run-in. But despite that, this is the most out and out fun and least self conscious of Mills' work in some time.

Chapter 3

Leatherjack goes back to kindergarten...

Synopsis: Mr Whipcord, who has been "dead for more years than you've been alive" and his pet hare, Hartley, are contacted by Lord Qwish with details on the contract on Leatherjack.

Leatherjack himself is still stuck in the middle of an icy nowhere. His mind starts to unravel the programming from Lord Qwish and he starts to remember more about his life - potentially including how to read. On Shibboleth, the Spinsters prepare to destroy the core of the planet as the Dowager is announced to be on her way. The hive, meanwhile, panics and starts breeding soldiers as they withdraw to the Arkhive - taking as many books as they can.

Elsewhere, the stolen book appears to be getting into Leatherjack's mind as he sees images of a hanged man and a dead dog - and starts to go crazy...

GH: Something of an intermediate episode is in place here. It's clearly a groundwork laying exercise, with the fragments of Leatherjack's mind appearing, the announcement of the Dowager's arrival, the hive's preparations and of course Mr Whipcord and his children's TV inspired friend. All of this set up is, however, far less impenetrable than much of Smith's past work. While this difficult to grasp aspect of Smith's writing is one I keep bringing up, it's rather inevitable as I still treat his work with a degree of trepidation - similar to the way I approach Grant Morrison's non-superhero work. How long before I don't have a clue what is going on? But for a while now, since his writing for 2000AD picked up speed again, Smith has shown much more restraint in his storytelling and it's paid off well.

There's a much smoother meshing between the convoluted backstory and the odd bit of action to keep things moving that has made this a highly enjoyable read. He still has the tendency to do the odd irritating double-paged spread (which becomes particularly irritating when your reading habit is to read the issue a page at a time with the cover folded over) but aside from that, this is one of the more original space faring stories to hit the comic in some time.

Marshall, too, turns in a job which has some inventive panel layout without it ever detracting from the ease of reading the comic (double-paged spread aside). His style has also become far less fussy and more fluid than his work on, say, Firekind, and he's clearly an artist we should see more of.

Part 4

Duritz shows off his wares...

Synopsis: Duritz arrives just in time and (literally) disarms the attacking war droid. He had it guarding his home as he believes Rinken is after him next - but he then adds judges to the robots' friend list. He leads them past a row of the robots, culminating in the Fem-mutilator 23. He also suggests that Rinken's wife had life insurance which saved his business when she died.

Next they go to visit Ellesmere. He and his wife are running their 9% of the Luna air business as a way to keep people employed. His homely wife asks King to keep her husband safe.

Later, King is waiting by his laptop, obsessing over his affair with Judge Luge back when he was in Mega City 1. He gets another email from his mystery source "The Earth murderer's struck again. And you know who it is." Indeed, while Rinken and Cameron are seen leaving Luna 1, Duritz lies dead at his house surrounded by his puzzled war droids.

GH: Breathing Space continues along a more traditional detective route than we're used to seeing Judges on, with the parading of suspects being a staple of any Sunday evening TV whodunnit. Supplanted to the world of the judges, it works surprisingly well.

Part of this is due to Williams' mining of the previously underused Luna colony and his adaptation of it into a city that is even seedier than Mega City 1. The use of air as the biggest commodity in the colony is particularly effective, being a concept that a reader can immediately grasp and helps Williams in his job of introducing the biggest industrialists on the colony. While I certainly have a top suspect for the murder after this issue, I'm sure I could easily be wrong and the fact that I am becoming intrigued by the murderer's identity is a good sign that Williams is pulling the strings well. This tale also shows that there's plenty of room for more stories set in Dredd's timeline - and Williams in particular is proving to be particularly adept at this.

The change in artists after the first two episodes has not been at all jarring - mainly thanks to retaining Doherty as colourist. Although Campbell and Dows depiction of King at his computer is also similar enough in tone to that of the opening episode to help the continuity aspect. Indeed, they are turning in a job that is streets ahead of their work on Synnamon - with the last panel being particularly effective.

Stim! - Part 5

Stogie gets riled...

Synopsis: Samantha is attacked by the Robosaur. She fights back but is caught by the robot, which flings her into a corner, disarming her. She asks Hoagie to help her, but the curator makes the Robosaur bite Hoagie in two.

The curator says he needed the money to restore his beloved old computer, Comrade Lennon. He also says that man is intrinsically evil and robots need to take over as the next step in evolution. Samantha tells the curator he's stoned if he thinks Stogie and his fellow pusher are able to rule. Stogie is incensed by this and shoots at her - but his tiny gun has no effect. Instead, the other pusher offers stogie Samantha's dropped gun. Stogie hesitates, but finally shoots her. Samantha is left on the floor, apparently dead, with only a legless Hoagie left behind with her.

GH: Robo-hunter has been going from strength to strength - and with an issue full of convoluted thrillers, it fits in perfectly as a bit of fluff at the end. But things are improving generally in the series.

Finally Grant has managed to find a way of making the best use of Hoagie and Stogie - mainly by sending them off on their own mission. They actually work quite well together when not playing second fiddle to Slade all the time, and thus their return to her in this week's episode is all the more effective. As for that ending? Well, while we don't expect for a minute for that shot to be fatal, it's still surprisingly shocking ending. It actually brings back a much needed viciousness to Stogie, and indeed brings back some brutality to the strip that was missing.

As for the art - bloody hell! There was much criticism of Gibson in the last series for turning in something of a half hearted job. Things improved in the Christmas issue, but the work he's producing here shows one of 2000AD's top artists very much back on form. Whether it's the opening panel of Samantha being attacked by the Robosaur or the last panel of her being left for dead - this just looks so much better than anything he's done for ages. He's also managed to settle on a characterisation for Samantha that is much less prone to changing mid strip, which certainly helps. Here's hoping for more of this level of quality in the weeks to come.