Cover: Steve Yeowell	2000AD Prog 1460 - 12 October 2005
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Walker) Sinister Dexter (Abnett / Davis) Leatherjack (Smith / Marshall) The Red Seas (Edginton / Yeowell) Synopsis by David Knight & Gavin Hanly 1st opinion by Susan Doyle 2nd opinion by Mike Nye Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

SD: The cover with its scurvy dogs, old world hats and clothing and the cheeky crossing of the fingers with a glint in his eye heralds the return of, as Tharg puts it, the swashbuckling ‘salty seamen’. This cover is a bit of fun with the double meanings of the titles and the frayed knot, not the punchiest of covers but definitely good fun.

MN: Jack's back, indeed! A great cover from Steve Yeowell this week, nicely composed with the scroll framing, but not obscuring, the logo. The cover simultaneously makes the established reader want to find out just what Jack's got himself into this time, while telling new readers pretty much everything they need to know about the character. I suppose it might confuse people that think of 2000AD as a sci-fi comic, but I reckon it's a winner.

Mandroid - part 8

Going over the edge...

Synopsis: Denzo Shultz’s robot goons use a briefcase packed with explosives to eliminate Tonio Blo, who arranged the murder of Tommy Rosson, son of ‘mandroid’ war veteran, Nate Slaughterhouse, after Nate reported Shultz’s protection racket to the judges. Shultz is taken to a sector house for questioning, but the judges are unable to get him to admit his guilt. Dredd decides to let Slaughterhouse know the bad news in person.

Meanwhile the judges are tracing Slaughterhouse’s path of vigilante justice, which has left the streets strewn with dead perps at the scene of a convenience store hold up and a drug deal. Forensic evidence at the scene suggests the mystery assailant was a robot of some kind.

Later, Slaughterhouse goes out to dispense more vigilante justice. When he returns to his apartment, Judge Dredd is already there waiting, holding Nate's coat, and wanting to have a private word with him, his gun already drawn...

SD: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the art work on this story has been excellent with a style of its own which reflects Mignola, just lovely.

The tension has been increasing since the start with a real sense of tragedy and Dredd showing uncharacteristic compassion for Slaughterhouse. The side by side play of the reports of vigilante activity and Dredd’s interrogation of Shultz show the continuing depth of this story and keep us all guessing. I reviewed the very first installment of this and am pleased to say that my appreciation of the script and art work has increased with each edition. Tharg letting us know that we have a few more installments has really got me thinking about how the story is going to pan out too. The last frame with Dredd holding slaughterhouse’s coat is going to stay with me for a good while.

Big thumbs up.

MN: Nate's campaign against the city's underworld continues, but it's surely coming to an end now. Dredd isn't going to let this slide, no matter how many flashes of humanity we've seen recently. Walker's art continues to be a thing of beauty, although I must say (and I'm probably setting myself up for a lynching here) I don't like his rendition of Dredd. Still, the whole story has got the tone of despair, hopelessness and helpless anger down perfectly, and continues to be the best thing in the book.

And Death shall have no dumb minions... (Part 2)

The boys on the job...

Synopsis: Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter meet Kal Cutter in an Indian Restaurant, where Kal is appalled to hear that Sinister and Dexter have started working for Don Apellido again after he put a contract out on Kal and Isobel. To Sinister and Dexter it’s just business as they have straightened things out with the Don, but to Kal it’s a personal matter. Kal storms out and calls a cab, which happens to be driven by the hitman known as Charon, who works for The Mover (see 1348). Charon tells Kal that The Mover is hiring gunmen for an action against an underworld rival, and offers to get Kal connected. Kal accepts the offer.

The following day, Sinister and Dexter are in Steel Town, East Downlode, carrying out a hit against the Steeltown Tsar’s operations. They work their way through his henchmen, keeping alert for Red Army surplus wardroids, which they have been warned the Tsar may have among his arsenal, and Don Apellido’s information is proved correct when a wardroid suddenly appears and attacks them.

SD: I like the poetic violence of this strip and the humour installed within it. I like it more, however, when there is a real story behind the excellent artwork, where you get more of an insight into who the characters are and their motivations. This doesn’t necessarily mean a long winded tale; concise can be good. The last installment however seemed disjointed and left me dissatisfied.

Thankfully there does seems to be some real potential with this story with the guys working for the new boss and the friction with Kal over the shark code. I’d quite like to see Ron's (the Motor head lookalike) character develop and find out more about the ‘Mover’. I’ll wait and see and if it fails to reach previous thrill levels I’ll just have to console myself with some amazing art work.

I love those skull eyes. Very Cool.

MN: Now, I don't share the pathological hate for Sin/Dex that some readers hold, but I was a bit under-whelmed with this week's offering. The art is lovely, as it always is when Simon Davis is waving his brushes, but the story isn't setting my pulse racing at the moment. Why did Kal come back to Downlode instead of living happily with his better half? Is he really that stupid? And if he is, why should we care when (and I do reckon it's when, not if) he buys it? Still, I like the possibilities of this Charon character, and hopefully he'll prove a worthy foil for our murderous duo.

Chapter 11

This never happened during the kids' TV show...

Synopsis: Leatherjack begins attacking the Spinsters, destroying all of them down on the planet and the Expurgato too - although we don't actually see how he manages this. He leaves utter destruction in his wake and has clearly been highly augmented by the book. He staggers through the snow and sees a large mansion appear in the wastes. The spinsters in orbit don't understand what it is - other than it appears to be some sort of craft. Mr Whipcord emerges, with his hare, Hartley. Hartley turns into his wereform and attacks Leatherjack, as some pigmies, bewigged and dressed in 18th century suits follow. As Mr Whipcord says: "Our young friend has a very long and tiring night ahead of him..."

SD: Things are starting to hot up in this strip, payback time for the Spinsters with Leatherjack playing wipeout in his Eco pod.

The expressions of the characters, the detail in the corpses strewn around Leatherjack and the image of the Rabbit bowling Leatherjack over were great. The art work really packs a punch with the use of blue and red. I particularly liked the red accents of intestines strewn on the battlefield and the evil red eye of the Were rabbit.

It doesn’t mean however that I’m completely sure of what is happening, at any given time and there have been a few times when I feel that someone is not letting me in on a secret and I really should know what it going on. All I can do is once this story has reached its conclusion is dig out all the back issues, sit down and read the whole thing again from start to finish. Hopefully that will help me to appreciate all the nuances of the story and perhaps identify some of the thinking behind its rather bizarre twist and turns.

MN: I want to like this strip, but I just can't. The art, while good, seems out of place with the storyline, and the plotting itself jumps around far too much. The real shame here is that the thing is bursting with good ideas, it's just that John Smith hasn't seen fit to really develop any of them enough for me to care about them. This strip may well benefit from re-reading in one sitting, but I suspect it would've been much improved by stricter editing. Smith is obviously bursting with ideas, but I just can't help but feel that he'd be better if he had someone standing behind him with a big stick, 'convincing' him to concentrate a little more on writing coherent narrative.

Underworld - Part 1

The islanders had a problem with physics..

Synopsis: In Cornwall, three miners are eating lunch when they hear a scratching at the wall. The wall collapses and inside they see a vicious axe-wielding cross between a man and a dinosaur...

On New Providence Island, Dancer and his crew are about to be hanged. They are being accused of bringing dark spirits to the island and accuse them of being a "bunch of Jonahs" and the island will be safer without them. Even Meryl can't help Billy for fear of being hanged herself. The hangman prepares to drop the trapdoor, when he's suddenly flattened by an explosion. More explosions rock the town and the town square empties fast. Appearing out of the smoke is Alexander Dancer, Jack's brother. He offers them royal pardons and money if they help him on a job - which Jack reluctantly agrees to.

On Alexander's ship, they head out from the island, while Billy is despondent at Meryl's lack of help. Alexander tells jack that their father is missing and they need to get to England in five days time - something which Jack says is impossible. But the hull of the ship opens and propellers appear - making the crossing time much quicker...

SD: Double edition to start the new story rolling from Red seas. I find the idea of our erstwhile heroes being hung for being Jonah’s, the double headed dog having a rope around his floating neck and the title of the judge and jury ‘the council of bastards’ all amusing. With the humour and the Dancer brothers on a rescue mission to save their dad, I’m sure that the story will progress.

The artwork is entertaining and is well drawn but the story doesn’t really grab me. This is probably because the mix of a power boat, dinosaur, family reunion and aborted public hanging make for a busy strip and I still can’t quiet understand the need to double up on this strip at the omission of a fifth story.

MN: Ok, so I'm a big fan of Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell's piratical romp. When I was a nipper I wanted to grow up to be a pirate. Now I'm 28, and when I grow up I want to be a pirate!

The first episode of the new book does pretty much what the others have done: throw Jack and his lads into an unpleasant situation that will hopefully lead to 10 to 12 weeks of fun, adventure and loveable-rougery. And Bluto as the executioner was brilliant. Carry on, Mr Edginton and Mr Yeowell. Hard to port and jigger the pokery etc. etc.