2000AD Prog 1470 - 11 January 2005
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Goddard) Caballistics Inc. (Rennie / Reardon) Slaine (Mills / Langley) The Ten-Seconders (Williams / Harrison) Strontium Dog (Wagner / Ezquerra) Cover: Clint Langley

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly

Synopses and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover Review

GH: A Slaine cover these days often heralds a Slaine “stock pose”, albeit a highly detailed one. This one is , instead, pretty much a blown up frame of the last episode of Carnival. It’s a moody-ish cover, but unfortunately suffers from the problems that occasionally affect Langley’s strip art - that it’s actually quite murky and difficult to make out what’s going on.

In addition to this, the figure of Slaine, like he did in last week’s issue, has the appearance of floating behind Ukko, almost as if he’s a figment of Ukko’s imagination, as opposed to getting ready to strike him down.

So, despite being more geared to the storyline, this is a bit of a miss for me.

Your Beating Heart - Part 2

The Surgeon's handiwork...

Synopsis: The serial killer, nicknamed the Surgeon, murders with increased frequency, having killed 6 in less than two years, the latest being the slabwalker from last issue. Judges investigate the latest murder scene where the music “your beating heart” was heard playing, a hit from 50 years before. The Surgeon removes the heart from his victims and the forensic judges think he may be a blood drinker – eating the heart. Dredd had found no clues to the murders, with the only discrepancy being Jonas Clay, whom the Surgeon dumped at a garbage site, hands bound – all the rest were left at their murder scenes.

Elsewhere, the Surgeon prepares for his next attack, as the urge to kill is becoming irresistible.

Soon enough, the judges find his latest victim with bite marks on it, and hope to retrieve DNA. This was also another case of the Surgeon dumping his victim, but this time he left the heart intact. His first mistake.

GH: The media’s obsession with serial killers once again finds its way to the pages of Judge Dredd. However, what could be a fairly standard tale actually proves more rewarding with a closer look. Upon first scanning this episode, there seemed to be not much to it, but after producing the synopsis, it becomes clearer that the tale has a few more layers to it.

Wagner manages to fill in a great deal of the backstory behind the spate of murders in a short time and even gives us glimpses of the killer, but keeps enough back for us to wonder what is really going on. Is the Surgeon a vampire? Is there a medical reason as to why the blood appears to be keeping him alive so long? There are enough intriguing questions to make me interested enough in the outcome. The only downer so far was the forensic judge’s surmising about what the killer was doing. A lot of his ideas seem to be very handy and correct conjecture, without having any real evidence to back it up. Gil Grissom wouldn’t approve.

As for the art, Patrick Goddard turns in another fine Dredd tale, cramming in all the necessary detail for this detective story. However, some of the art is downright nasty. Did we really need to see butchered body laid out on the last page in so much detail, for instance? It seems a little voyeuristic, and does serve to make the story a little more unpleasant than it needs to be…

Changelings - Part 2

Caught in the act...

Synopsis: Prague 1672 – a village mob bursts in on a naked man/creature that appears to have broken free from a glass container and killed a man. It bursts through a window, escaping and eventually covering itself in rags. It looks at a road sign which says “Ravne.”

In the present day, Ravne is talking to Ms Celeste and preparing for Ethan Kostabi, who wants to visit the team while he’s in the country. At the same time, Chapter and Verse are investigating a report of fairies. Verse says there has been an increase in the paranormal since the events in Scotland. They talk about Jenny’s loud late night “meetings” with Ravne as they get to the scene of the alleged fairies, where a Mrs Shannon has reported that her daughter is seeing fairies.

When she answers the door, Mrs Shannon said that her daughter has already told her to expect them. She acts strangely and Chapter & Verse think she might be under a glamour spell. They are led into the garden where Rebecca is playing with what appear to look very much like fairies…

GH: After the impressive episode in prog 2006, I felt a little let down by last issue’s opener for this latest series. However, things seem much more back on track this week, with an extremely intriguing first page which raises a number of interesting questions about Ravne. Is he some kind of Frankenstein monster? Did he name himself after the first thing he saw? Was that even him we saw escaping the lab?

This, combined with the very spooky scene as Chapter and Verse are led into the house has sharply raised my interest in this latest tale. And I can’t wait till we get to see Professor Simmons’s reaction to Ravne and Jenny’s liaison, or indeed Ethan Kostabi meeting the team finally. When you find yourself imagining how off camera characters are going to react to situations, you know something is being done right. Things really appear to be getting somewhere at last, and as long as Rennie can keep up this balance of moving the overall plot forward while keeping us entertained with the Caballistics case, this looks likes another good year for the paranormal team.

As usual – Rennie is ably matched by Dom Reardon who manages to make even a couple of pages of exposition look dynamic.

Carnival - Part 3

Slaine shows how much he's missed Ukko

Synopsis: As Ukko tries to sell a “fragment from Brainbiter”, he is unaware that Slaine is behind him. Slain confronts Ukko who calls for “Anger Management”. AM says he has to defend his boss and asks Slaine to step away from the carnival so they can fight without disturbing the punters. Ukko is delighted that Slaine is finally going to get his just desserts after treating him badly over the years. However, it soon turns out that Slaine is AM’s biggest hero and he offers to buy him a beer instead. Ukko tries to make amends by offering Slaine a role in the carnival, to no avail, while Kai fills Slaine in on his own part in the carnival, and introduces her to Estella.

The next day, Chitterling and Skathan talk about her father’s death, and her mother admonishes her for not grieving. Kai fills Slaine in on Estella’s condition, saying that she naps now and again but her dream guardian won’t let her fall into a deep sleep. Kai thinks that the murderer was actually after Estella. They stop and watch Crom Dubh and the monster Cath Palus practicing for the night’s show, but suddenly Cath Palus escapes and heads towards Slaine and Kai.

GH: This change of pace for Slaine has proven quite welcome. After the constant battles and overwrought drama of the Books of Invasions, it’s much better to see something happening on a smaller stage.

Re-introducing Ukko has been a good move, as has been moving the focus of the story away from Slaine and onto far more interesting supporting characters. Although Kai himself isn’t exactly the most fascinating of characters, the carnival is populated with enough oddities to distract from the rather boring son of Slaine. There’s also a good deal of comedy in here – which always helps, as Slaine stories can occasionally be far too po-faced for their own good. The battle between Anger Management and Slaine was wonderfully done, with both parties being particularly civil to each other as they prepared to maim each other, and succeeds in highlighting how ridiculous Slaine’s battles can be.

Langley’s art, as with the cover, does look a little hard to penetrate at times, but he has his moments, not least the look on Slaine’s face as Skathan cleans herself.

In all Slaine and Sword n’ sorcery tales in general aren’t particularly my cup of tea, but this proves to be an entertaining enough story, with Mills at least taking us in a different direction. Certainly worth keeping with for a few more issues.

The American Dream - Part 3

A disciple attacks..

Synopsis: Hero, one of the Gods, hovers near the ruins of the Empire State Building, talking to Mach, who tells him that he had failed in London. Hero tells him to wake Damage as he flies off to destroy Cleveland.

In London, the resistance heads out with the man Hero and Mach are pursuing in tow, unaware that he is a God. They fly out of the city as the god wonders what Harris is building – allegedly something to fight back against the Gods. As they come up on Heathrow, they are attacked by Disciples, humans that let Gods experiment on them – and look like super-powered monsters. They fight most of them back, and the captured God kills one of them as he attacks the pilot – but warns him they’re about to fly right into some electricity wires…

GH: The Ten Seconders has been a tale very long in the coming. This anticipation, combined with the fact that it’s the only brand new story in the current line up means that many critical eyes are facing its way. Luckily, The Ten Seconders is more than able to withstand such potentially high expectations and has become one of the most intriguing things in the comic. In fact, it also feels like the freshest thing in a comic that, with tales including Slaine and Strontium Dog taking the old school route.

Superheroes gone wrong has been tackled in the past, but I have yet to come across any American comic that has done it particularly well, seeing that the entire industry is held up by such spandex wearing do-gooders. However, with a bit of distance, Williams has already managed to make something interesting out of a stale genre. The plot is moving forward quickly, and although Jennifer’s need to explain everything to the God seems odd, it’s a handy device to get us as much background as possible. Good touches abound, especially with the pilot inadvertently addressing their passenger by his correct title towards the end.

This all combines with the best work I’ve seen Mark Harrison deliver in ages. His Durham Red artwork was impressive, but occasionally seemed a little too gloomy – something unavoidable given the subject matter. However, Harrison’s depiction of a run down London and a desolate New York is nothing short of spectacular and he brings the series the “widescreen action” that it really needs.

In short, well worth the wait.

A Shaggy Dog Story - Part 3

Alpha liked a good pun...

Synopsis: The Strontium Dogs chase after the escaping No Bones. He almost escapes over a wall until Wulf brings him down with a hammer throw and Alpha stuns him with the electronux. No Bones tries to make a deal with them, telling them that if they let him go for one day more all the stolen loot becomes his - and he'll divvy it up between them all. Alpha is having none of this and refuses the deal, instead forcing no Bones into a large bottle so that they can transport him easily without him escaping again. No Bones tells tem that they're making a big mistake and are passing on a fortune.

In the morning - they head to the spaceport, expecting their warrants to get them through any trouble quickly. Customs looks suspicious since, being clean shaved, they no longer match their photos. However, Shaggy pulls down his trousers to prove his identity. The official blows a whistle and they are surrounded by gun wielding soldiers. They are all taken away on the charge of aiding and abetting an enemy of the state as Alpha wonders what else Shaggy has been keeping from them...

GH: It's always a pleasantly nostalgic occasion whenever Strontium Dog appears these days. It's one of those few tales that is still written by its original creators 20 years down the line, yet still retains a degree of freshness (unlike, say, Rogue Trooper). It's almost certainly the fact that Wagner has taken over creative control over the direction of the tales that this is so successful, plus the fact that it's all set in the classic Strontium Dog timeline. There isn't much more to this strip than an ongoing farce, but when it's as enjoyably written and illustrated as this, it becomes an ideal way to end the issue.