2000AD Prog 1468 - 7 December 2005
	Judge Dredd (Morrison / Elson) The Red Seas (Edginton / Yeowell) Sinister Dexter (Abnett / Davis) Synopsis by Gavin Hanly Review by Paul White 2nd opinion by Alex Frith Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover: Steve Yeowell

PW: Not bad, but not really that good either. Steve Yeowell for me always turns in sterling work, but i found this cover plain and lacklustre. It may have been muted green, but it didn't do anything for me really.

Global Psycho

Dredd's favourite move...

Synopsis: Dredd and another judge burst intoi an apartment and shoot a serial killer. Upon closer inspection, they see that he was logged into something called Global Psycho, a private network for killers that Dredd had only heard rumours about until now.

The latest entry tells how a killer had come into town to see if he could get away with murder under the noses of the Mega City One judges. Having killed several people already during the day, a citizen found one of the bodies before the killer had fully escaped. On the scene, Dredd spotted the killer and told him to stop. When he started to run, Dredd shot him, but the killer was protected by body armour. Throwing a grenade into a crowd of citizens for distraction, the killer headed into a fetish shop towards the changing rooms. Dredd followed, pushing past a woman who told him which cubicle the killer is in. He burst in and shot what he thought was the killer - but realised it was a store dummy wearing a mask with the face of the killer - that the real killer clearly took off. Dredd fails to find the woman who pointed him into the cubicle and realises that she was the real killer.

Back at the apartment, he sends her a message via the blog, realising that her type can't resist a challenge - "Come back any time punk. I'll be waiting for you."

PW: Well I'll start by wading right in on an undisputed 2000AD great. The first thing that struck me was the scratchy and (to my eye at least) lazy artwork on display here courtesy of Ian Gibson. I'm happy to indulge an artist when the story is presented with a heavy emphasis on the stylised, but many of the panels appear to be rushed with some outrageous jaw-lines and little or no detail. Not a big fan of the colouring either. Sorry.

Now that's out of the way, on to the story. I wholeheartedly applaud Gordon Rennie's attempts at setting up a richer or more continuity-led Dredd, and the introduction of a new- possibly recurring - villain and organisation is a pretty good idea. However, like the artwork that accompanied it, it was limp and lacked excitement. It was just the wrong side of okay, and it wasn't one of Gordon's best - but that's okay, because the rest of his Dredd stuff has been fantastic, and he's forgiven this once, while he strides miles ahead of any other contenders for the title of 'heir' to dredd's throne.

Average at best.

AF: I’ve always had a soft spot for the Hunters' Club storyline that Dredd has visited a couple of times, and here’s welcome retread with a slight plot adjustment. I’m not convinced that a murder website could really exist in totalitarian Mega City 1 (if China can control their internet today, surely the Judges would be able to in the future?), but it’s a fun enough premise. Dredd needs to be outsmarted by a villain every now and then just to keep his hackles up. Similarly, it’s refreshing to meet a foe who doesn’t seem to have grand schemes for money-making, but rather enjoys an eccentric hobby.

With this sort of tongue-in-cheek concept, Gibson is the ideal artist, and I’m always happy to see him in my progs. Good to see him experimenting a bit, too, with the muted flashback colours. Harmless fun, with the promise of a mini-epic somewhere in the near future.

Underworld - Part 9

Going from bad to worse...

Synopsis: The monster gets closer, and hooks itself onto the escaping ship. Billy starts shooting at it and catches a whiff of something - Alex realises that the creature is using methane gas to keep itself afloat. Billy keeps firing and suddenly, part of the monster explodes and the rest catches fire. They manage to steer the ship into a small junction and the creature gets stuck and then completely explodes. Racing the torrent of fire, they manage to get the ship out of the tunnel and into a huge underground world. They don't have much time to enjoy the scenary before they come crashing down into the jungle.

Slowly, they pick themselves up, but it's looking like Tommy is badly injured - and Alex doesn't know if he can save him. Suddenly, they hear a large noise and a huge dinosaur appears into the clearing surrounded by many lizard men resembling the ones that tried to kill Dancer earlier. Riding the large dinosaur is Jack and Alex's father, who berates them for arriving late. The two sons immedietely fall back into obiedient son mode...

Meanwhile, elsewhere in this strange world, there is a large palace. Inside a lizard man brings back a report about the crashing ship to Isabella - Jack Dancer's once girlfriend. She is now "Empress Isabella - she who must be obeyed" (To be continued next year in The Hollow Land)

PW: Is it really episode 9, double-length episodes and all? Loads of stuff going on - pirates, monsters, sibling-rivalry, thrills and spills and underwater worlds (i wonder if Ka-Zar will make an appearence in the Underworld/Savage Land?).

You know, for a while I wasn't sure which way I was going to fall on this. Red Seas has never been a favourite of mine, although I do recognise that it's something that is "very" 2000AD in that you're not very likely to see anything like it anywhere else. But this 9-part first chapter, and the fact that it feels more like a "regular" each week I read it, put's me firmly in the "I like very very much category". I sometimes think "romp" is an over-used word when describing something like this, but it describes precisely the action on display, and the roller-coster adventure playing out. The central characters - Jack Dancer and the rest of the crew - are becoming more well-rounded by the week, and the supporting cast comfortably grows to add something different each time. The fact that Steve Yeowell is single-handedly responsible for art-chores makes it all the better!

Red Seas often reads like it could have existed in 2000AD during the "glory years" a long long time ago, and that's very much a compliment. You may be able to tell that I'm liking this a hell of a lot (and especially the 2nd last page with the dino boxing gloves), and while I'm happy to wait a wee while until the next chapter, I hope it's not too long. Top Stuff.

AF: So, we get a chase scene with some witty banter; a crash scene with some witty banter, and then some King Kong style bad craziness to end this magnificent romp. I’m loving Yeowell’s expressions, but until the last two pages I felt the art was a little rushed this time around. Yes, we get a sense of grand scale to the tunnel of wind, but we also get a big blob chasing a little blob with lots of tiny dots for texture. The Red Seas works well in black and white, but I’d have liked some colour for these bigger panels.

Anyway, enough griping. It’s a shame that there’s no sense of resolution to this opening foray, but at least we know that when the next sequence begins, there will be mounted dinosaurs in action. Edginton has a real knack for picking out my favourite fantasy clichés and exploiting them with gusto.

And Death shall have no dumb minions... (Part 10)

Dexter's last stand?

Synopsis: Dexter is surrounded by Police and is forced out of his car. Tracy Weld approaches, holds her gun on him and warns him that he has to give up. Dexter tells her he has to help Sinister, but Weld says that he's way past helping him now. She says she has to bring him in even if his shooting the cop was self defence, and if she doesn't then the other police will shoot him. He refuses, and Weld shoots him. Dexter slumps to the floor by his car and looks really very dead indeed.

Later, the ambulence men arrive to take Dexter away, and the watching Charon muses: "One down".

Elsewhere, Sinister is heading out of the city with Billi who is either asleep or also now dead.

Also elsewhere, in a South Central warehouse, Kal Cutter is about to be introduced to the Mover. He has handed over the data sick from Mal Folio. He doesn't know what's on it, but he also doesn't tell Miss Deeds if he has made a back up copy. He is finally introduced to the Mover - who turns out to be Moses Tanenbam - or more likely the version from another dimension (see prog 1399). To be continued later in 2006...

PW: Oooh. where to start? I've never liked Sin/Dex (there, I've said it) and so approached another tale featuring the tiresome duo with the usual trepidation verging on the outright bored. However, there been a popular consensus building acknowledging that something interesting could be about to happen in Downlode. So I've been taking an interest in this storyline, and hoping that something will make me look through my (recently bought) 1000+ progs for back stories of Sin/Dex that i've never read before, scrambling for back-story that will fill in the gaps and build a better and more thorough understanding to what is actually happening.

And you know what, it actually has done that. The strapline "where dead means dead" is often and usually misleadingly overused, so i'm glad it didn't make an appearence here. However, there is a certain level of ambiguity as to Ramone's fate, and it obviously isn't "the end" for good, because the scene is now set for a welcome change in direction where stories may actually become plot-led rather than pun-driven and I actually start to care about the characters.

As ever with Sin/Dex, I've been focussing on the story (or usual lack-thereof), but it's always a pleasure to see Simon Davis' work in the prog, and this week is no exception. To be honest, I don't really care what happens next, because my interest has finally been piqued, and I've already been browsing the excellent database on the official site to look for some decent jumping-on points. If it all goes back to normal, then fine - the editor and writer will have missed a golden opportunity to keep the strip entertaining and relevant to the readership, and it will die a painful and lingering death as readers switch off in there droves. If things are different, then I may stick around to see what happens.

Worthwhile.

AF: Abnett has been building up to something big. I thought it would be an end to the strip, but instead he’s pulled off a minor miracle by surprising everybody (well, me at any rate). Dexter is dead, but Sinister is still very much alive. And there’s a whole cohort of side characters with stories that need following in the weeks and months to come. Charon and the new (old?) Moses Tanenbaum are there to provide villainy. Billi Octavo is on hand to support Finnigan, and poor old Tracy Weld is going to have some serious therapy issues. And who knows where Kal Cutter’s loyalties lie at this point…

Davis gives Dexter a beautifully cinematic send off. It’s done in such style that I can’t believe Dex will be back, although there’s just enough artistic freedom that it could be done, I suppose. But given that countless goons with guns couldn’t off the fastest man alive (wait, isn’t that Outlaw?), it makes sense to me that only his girlfriend could kill him - because he let her. As fine a send-off as I’ve ever seen in 2000 AD.