Cover: Simon Davis	2000AD Prog 1467 - 30 November 2005
	Judge Dredd (Morrison / Elson) The Red Seas (Edginton / Yeowell) Leatherjack (Smith / Marshall) Sinister Dexter (Abnett / Davis) Synopsis by David Knight 1st opinion by Stephen Watson 2nd opinion by Andrew Howe Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

SW: Simon Davis’ cover featuring a solo Ramone Dexter is pretty striking with its bold use of colour against a white background, but it really doesn’t do it for me. It doesn’t yell out ‘excitement’ as it’s really just an enlarged panel or even a detail of a panel.

Looking through the archive I see the ubiquitous duo Sinister Dexter have graced 58 covers and this is one of the less inspiring entries. Look at Prog 1105’s homage to ‘Scarface’ to get a great example of how a static image with few colours can be a real stand out. As for the tagline ‘Wanted by the DCPD’ I’m sure most readers
naturally assumed that a gun shark would always be on the wanted list!

AH: Now this is a surprise. If someone had told me that Sin/Dex would be gracing this week's cover, I’d have laid money on a shot of Finnegan and Billi fending off Apellido's goons. Instead we get a static portrait of Ray against a white background, and while it isn't going to sell progs to the casual buyer I'd suggest that Davis deserves credit for trying something a little different (though given the dramatic events in this week’s episode, perhaps he should have saved the experimentation for another prog - a shot of Finnigan and Billi on their last legs would have certainly set the pulse to racing).

Is simplicity an underrated virtue? The jury’s still out, but a few more covers like this and I could be convinced.

Nobody

Dredd saves a bullet...

Synopsis: A man whose wife lies brain-dead on a life support machine after being caught in the crossfire of a gang dispute goes on a revenge-killing spree, gunning down the 5 gang members responsible. As far as the gang had been concerned, the bystanders caught in the crossfire had been “nobody”.

After carrying out the revenge killings without getting himself killed in the process, but nevertheless badly wounded, the husband goes to see his wife at the Groening Memorial Hospital to end her suffering with a bullet. Judge Dredd is already there waiting for him. The woman’s wealthy parents are keeping her body alive against her husband’s wishes, and have resorted to a legal challenge to prevent her machines being switched off. The husband kisses his wife goodbye, and slumps over her body, apparently failing to disconnect her life support before he dies, and Judge Dredd illegally steps in to pull the wires out of the machine on his behalf.

SW: Dredd’s being enjoying a great run recently and this episode is no exception. The team of Robbie Morrison and Richard Elson (ably assisted by Tom Frame of course!) cook up an intriguing mystery cum moral dilemma which lives long in the mind afterward. The set up is pretty basic with a gunman shooting holes through the underworld, with Dredd and the team hot on his trail. The payoff is something of a surprise with the gun man being the fiancée of a gangland victim, but the final twist is a doozy with Dredd seemingly practicing some euthanasia.

There has been plenty of debate of whether this action was in keeping with Dredd’s established character or whether it was the sometimes sentimental Morrison droid overdoing Dredd’s caring side. I side with the writer here. Dredd has a history of random acts of niceness with ‘Wounded knee’ and ‘A Question of Judgement’ being two memorably exceptions to the stoney face rule. Frankly if he was nothing but an officious bastard the story potential of the character would be dramatically lessened.

Dredd’s motivation isn’t clear, but to my mind he’s thinking ‘What’s the point of keeping her alive?’ and, given Black Bag is still on his rounds, euthanasia is certainly not illegal. Of course Dredd has broken the strict letter of the law, but he has always been the reed that bends occasionally rather than the brittly snappy kind!

A word also for Richard Elson’s excellent art. For one more often seen in the fantasy domains he clearly shows he can render the dark streets of Mega City. His cleft chinned Dredd is a bit too much Travolta for me but his colours and action sequences are fantastic.

AH: I’m normally given to praise any episode that paints Joe in a positive light, and there’s certainly much to like in this week’s one-off tale. I’m always up for a story about a workaday warrior ventilating scum, and though the dialogue occasionally borders on the melodramatic it’s probably intentional (the internal monologue appears to be a defence mechanism - romanticising his plight is the only way this average citizen can avoid being overcome by the horror of the situation).

You could argue that the colourful artwork is at odds with the subject matter, but after a few months of Mandroid I’m ready for something from the bright end of the paintbox. Elson continues to raise himself in my estimation, combining his favourite facial expression (anything requiring gritted teeth) with an obvious affinity for gunplay that he had precious little opportunity to exhibit in Atavar.

So far, so good. However, there’s still the penultimate panel to consider, and it’s here I have to sound the only negative note. My problem is this – I don’t believe Dredd would have pulled the plug on the life support (and that’s definitely Dredd’s glove yanking out the wires).

Consider the following two stories in which Dredd mixes a little fair with the tough: Bury My Knee at Wounded Heart saw Dredd take pity on a bereaved eldster, while in War Games he took the time to tell a comatose mother she had it right all along. The important thing to note is that in both instances the recipients of his largesse had made it their mission to do the very thing Dredd took it upon himself to action – saving a wife from Resyk and proving a son’s innocence.

In Nobody, however, the protagonist’s primary motive is revenge. His mission in life was to waste the thugs who murdered his wife, and turning off the life support was obviously a secondary concern. If the entire story had revolved around his quest to allow his wife a dignified departure, I’d credit Dredd’s decision to bend the rules. Alternatively, if he’d told the guy he understood why he felt the need to take out the trash (prior to putting him away for life, of course), I’d buy it without a second thought. However, since the central injustice has already been laid to rest Dredd’s decision to commit murder is taking things a little too far.

Heck, I still enjoyed it, but as Dredd isn’t renowned for cutting people slack the circumstances have to stand up to scrutiny. Unless, of course, Dredd really is in danger of becoming a good man (or at least a closet supporter of vigilantes) – based on the events of the last twelve months, it may not be that farfetched after all.

Underworld - Part 8

Bird problems...

Synopsis: Pirate Captain Jack Dancer and a crew of 6 including his half-brother Alexander and the two-headed dog Erebus, sail a flying ship through wind-filled tunnels beneath the Earth’s surface in search of Jack and Alexander’s father. They follow a map showing the tunnels as concentric rings with the Earth’s core at the centre. A giant statue resembling the Elder God Dagon stands as a marker to indicate a right-hand branching tunnel up ahead.

Dancer steers the ship into the new tunnel, and almost immediately he and his men are attacked by Pteradon men armed with spears. Billy ‘the Bull’ shoots down one attacking the captain directly, while Erebus leaps at another and goes overboard with it, managing to clamber back up the side of the ship afterwards. The Pteradon men follow the ship at a distance, and where the side-tunnel opens up into another, a gargantuan flying beast lies directly in the ship’s path.

SW: Although I have been enjoying the run of the always readable ‘The Red Seas’
I do feel this particular arc has taken some time to get out of first gear. The proceeding episodes have been full of back story and build up, but it was only last week that the actual mission began. I’m not too bothered as I enjoy the dialogue and I’m sure the detailed set up will bode well for future episodes, it’s just I do have a sense of ‘Get on with it’ at the back of my mind.

This episode redresses the balance somewhat with the journey progressing apace with plenty of action along the way. Whether the story developed enough to justify a massive 10 pages is another matter! The bottom line is that it is enjoyable, but not too substantial. There were plenty of laughs along the way with some snappy dialogue for good measure. Steve Yeowell’s art does look somewhat rushed in some places with certain panels needing close scrutiny to establish what is going on, but even half cocked Yeowell is still a marvellous thing.

I did feel the final panel, with the crew expressing great surprise “aw shite” was very similar to last week’s ending and looking back over the ten pages you could be forgiven for asking what has developed in the plot? My words here do seem quite critical but I did enjoy the overall package and of course that’s what counts. I just hope for an action packed finale to justify my faith!

AH: Confession time. I gave up on The Red Seas during its initial run, and was forced to read the entire series in one go to write this review. My reason for ignoring the strip was a simple one – most of my positive reviews feature phrases along the lines of “hard-hitting”, “grittily atmospheric” and “thought-provoking commentary on the human condition”. When I’m forced to reach for something like “light-hearted romp”, it’s a sure bet I’m about to damn with faint praise.

Until Underworld hit the shelves, that’s exactly what I would have done. There’s little doubt The Red Seas deserves an extended run, if for no other reason than because Edginton and Yeowell are putting a great deal of effort into crafting an alternate history of the eighteenth century while simultaneously providing a respite from the weekly’s status as a halfway house for anti-heroes. However, until now the strip has always seemed somewhat slight, heavy on the wonder but light on lasting impact. A pleasant ride to be sure, but not something I’m likely to think about after I’ve turned the final page.

With Underworld, Edginton threw out the rulebook and spent the first four episodes building his characters. It wasn’t strictly necessary that we meet Jim’s mother, witness the reconciliation of Jack and his brother or watch a two-headed dog play cards with Isaac Newton, but it’s these very scenes that provided me with something I previously lacked – an investment in the major players. Loveable roguery will only get you so far, and the time taken to script something a little deeper means I’ve developed an interest in the continued existence of each and every one of them.

The current prog features another of the extended sensory assaults that have become the series’ stock-in-trade, with Yeowell obviously relishing the opportunity to cut loose on half-page panels (the depiction of the descent on pages 2-3 creates an admirable sense of scale). However, it’s here the strip runs into its final hurdle, which is that I don’t believe for a second that the protagonists are in any real danger.

To date you can count the number of major characters who’ve bitten the big one on zero fingers, and that robs the proceedings of anything resembling dramatic tension. The minute one of the boys sails into the sunset all bets will be off, and that’ll be the moment I become a true believer. Until then we’re left with a thoroughly enjoyable (all together now) light-hearted romp that’s only beginning to tap its true potential, and as praise goes it’s anything but faint.

Chapter 18

Speiss falls apart...

Synopsis: On the island of Java, battle rages between the Librarian insects of Shibboleth and the military forces of the Khmer Noir. The swarm synthesises a neurotoxin from its venom and releases it as a gas lethal to mammals, turning the tide of the battle decisively in the Librarians’ favour.

Meanwhile, Leatherjack fights his way through the press of Khmer Noir soldiers to reach his sworn enemy, Lord Qwish, who turned him into a mind-controlled assassin. Qwish’s henchman, Speiss, suffering the effects of the gas, pleads to be let into Qwish’s protective sphere, but Qwish cannot let him in, nor do anything to help him, and watches unsympathetically as Speiss’s head explodes. Khmer Noir soldiers’ heads are exploding all over the battlefield.

Leatherjack confronts Qwish, and breaks through his energy field. Leatherjack hurls Qwish and his control console at the wall of the sphere, rendering him helpless. The Queen of the Librarians lays her eggs in Qwish’s body before she dies, ensuring the survival of the insect colony. The ArkHive throws up a new energy grid to protect the planet from attack, and the Librarians begin building a new library to take the place of the lost library planet Shibboleth.

SW: Well after more than four months Leatherjack finally concludes, and I can’t
say I’ll miss it. It certainly had it’s moments but I don’t think the story was there to justify such a commitment from the comic and, of course, the readership.

I must confess to being a fan of the more conventional thrill and this frankly had me lost for long portions of the run. Some of the flashback episodes were excellent and highly accessible to we in the readership not attuned to the out there world of John Smith.

The concluding episode contained in this prog was fine, with a battle, a showdown and an enigmatic conclusion. The scene is set for more instalments, and I just hope they are of a less king sized variety!

Paul Marshall’s art and Chris Blythe’s colours are excellent and I certainly doff my hat to the achievement of maintaining their standards throughout. This continuity is always welcome and of course a boon to the secondary graphic novel market. I’m sure it’ll play well, read in a single sitting by European intellectual types who will read a lot into the subtext, but personally I don’t like working so hard for my thrills!

AH: Whenever someone raises the question of length, the editorial team responds that shorter stories mean a punchier narrative and absence of filler. However, that's like saying Moby Dick would have been improved if Melville had shaved off a few hundred pages - a tale requires exactly as much space as it needs to make it memorable, and it's an unfortunate fact that it's difficult to make your mark in eight episodes or less (though I understand that writers usually set the page count without outside interference - I'm making a point, not laying blame).

Leatherjack was the longest self-contained strip in recent memory, and the epic saga we've enjoyed over the last eighteen weeks would have been nothing more than a mildly interesting diversion at half the length (the same could be said of the recently departed Mandroid). I’m not suggesting that every story needs to be a marathon effort (From Grace was a fine piece of work at a third the length), but Leatherjack proved that the weekly will still welcome an extended page count if the writer needs the extra room to move.

So what's the verdict now that it's all said and done? You could argue that the plot wasn’t overly complex when stripped of Smith's electric prose, and that some of the dialogue would have been better suited to a dime-store novel (“Die in pieces!”). You could argue that character development was limited, and that sympathetic souls were in short supply. You could argue that even eighteen episodes weren’t enough to explore Smith’s incredibly detailed universe. All of this is true, but you don't strap yourself into a parachute to admire the scenery on the way down. The rush is the thing, and Leatherjack is a thrill ride for the thinking man. It's packed to the gills with twisted concepts, arresting images, A-grade graduates from the school of villainy, and a hero who wrote the book on personal demons, washed down with the kind of lovingly crafted prose you only get when the writer is invested in his creation.

And that's why it's easy to ignore the story's flaws. Smith and Marshall obviously believed in what they were doing, and crafted the antithesis of back-of-the-envelope filler to prove it (reading it in one sitting reveals the effort that went into creating a coherent whole). This is what I expect from anyone who draws a wage from an artistic pursuit, and since their commitment is evident on every page of this long and involving journey I have no hesitation in proclaiming it a major success.

Highlights? The flashback to Leatherjack's past stands out as a truly wrenching experience, Whipcord joining forces with his quarry was both unexpected and appreciated, and the Empire of Spinsters getting what was coming to them had me cheering from afar. The final episode wraps things up in a satisfying fashion, and the demise of Qwish is a case study in the way to take an arch-villain down (it's a pity Shultz from Mandroid couldn't join the club).

Smith and Marshall are probably due for a holiday after this monumental effort, but I do have one request - I suspect Hartley is still alive, so perhaps it's time to give him his own series. Leatherjack was cool, but homicidal mutated rabbits are in a class all their own.

And Death shall have no dumb minions... (Part 9)

Sinister takes a hit...

Synopsis: After Billi Octavo made the monumentally bad move of trying to murder Senor Appellido (the clone of the gang boss who got her older sister involved with the underworld of Downlode city), Finnigan Sinister leads her to the stairs, but their exit is blocked by Appellido’s bodyguards. Sinister leads the way downstairs past the corpses of Appellido’s men, himself wounded in the exchange of gunfire. On the ground floor he bursts into the foyer with his gun blazing. He leaves two more guards dead before being shot by Appellido’s henchman, Gorgi, who he shoots dead in an exchange of fire.

Billi is also wounded by Gorgi, and Sinister carries her outside to his car. Sinister tries to contact Ray on his mobile phone, but Ramone Dexter is busy talking to his girlfriend, police officer Tracy Weld, who is leading a police chase after him following Dexter’s shooting of a cop. Tracy tells him to stop, but he refuses on the grounds that his partner being in trouble takes precedence over his own trouble with the police. Then Dexter finds the road ahead cut off by a police roadblock.

SW: I’ve long been a voice against the near omnipresent Sin/Dex (58 covers!), but feel I am starting to get interested just as things seem to be falling apart. And I think that’s the appeal. I’ve always thought it a lazy strip with pretty much the same sequence of events being played out in each adventure. Noting they had 58 covers I was at a loss to remember more than half a dozen memorable outings - even the one I remembered with JFK was actually a Vector 13!

What has happened in ‘Dumb Minions’ (God I hate puns!) is that the whole carefully maintained world has been systematically dismantled in a scant nine episodes. There have been the occasional crises for the less than dynamic duo before - Demi Octavio buying it for one - but in the past the reset button has always been pushed and it’s pretty much business as usual.
This time around with a cop being killed and a gang boss beaten up there seems no realistic prospect that the status quo will be maintained ,and it is this that has caught my interest.

I don’t know if this strip will be their finale, but if not at least there will be changes. This prog’s episode was excellent with the guys having their separate but equally devastating encounters with cops and sharks alike. Simon Davis art does always look a bit sketchy to me but it really suits the frenetic pace of this story with it’s ‘end of days’ feel.

I’m genuinely looking forward to next week’s episode and I can’t remember when I last thought that about Sinister Dexter. But if it turns out to be all a dream I’m taking the kind words back!

AH: During my last two reviews I mentioned a few things Abnett needs to do if he wants to save this strip from the scrapheap. He needs to develop a strong supporting cast, jettison the notion that the protagonists are effectively invulnerable, inject a dose of morality into the proceedings (or at least make our heroes reap what they sow), and realise that nobody's interested in reading a long-running story where nothing ever changes. I'd given up hope that any of this would eventuate, but it ain't necessarily so. Over nine episodes of "... No Dumb Minions" Abnett has scripted an appearance by practically every major supporting character that's still drawing breath, doled out a dose of grievous bodily harm to Finnigan, offered up a selfless act (rescuing Billi) and a fall from grace (Ramone vs the law), and laid the groundwork for the first major shake-up of the strip in as long as I can remember.

So does this mean you can pull up a chair to my first positive Sin/Dex review? Actually, it does, but there's a qualification. We've witnessed some comparatively momentous events over the last few progs, and the elegiac atmosphere raises the story to the dramatic heights usually reserved for the likes of Dredd (juxtaposing “I trust you, Finny” with a shot of Billi lying in a pool of blood is light years away from the cheerful carnage we’ve come to expect). However, there's no point scripting a turning point if you're not going to make it stick. I don't expect next week's prog to conclude with a shot of the gunsharks lying on a slab at the morgue (though that'd be nice), but nor will I pleased to discover that none of this actually means anything. You know what I'm talking about - Finnigan and Billi patched up, Ray escaping on a technicality and Kal back in the fold, setting us up for nothing more than a long-running battle with Apellido. I can feel my pulse quickening at the thought, but then terror will do that to you.

On the other hand, if Abnett comes through with the goods then we could be looking at a welcome and entirely unexpected resurgence. Evil times, dark deeds, friendships forged and broken, moral codes torn asunder, and a heroic exit at the last - it'd be enough to dispel the ennui that's settled in over the years, and raise this strip to the heights it's promised but only occasionally delivered. On the strength of the last few progs I’m ready to be surprised, and I can only hope it’s of the pleasant variety.