2000AD Prog 1471 - 18 January 2005
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Goddard) Caballistics Inc. (Rennie / Reardon) Slaine (Mills / Langley) The Ten-Seconders (Williams / Harrison) Strontium Dog (Wagner / Ezquerra) Cover: Boo Cook

Synopsis and review by Hugh Platt

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover Review

HP: Boo Cook does an admirable job on what’s a fairly generic Dredd cover. It’s hindered slightly perhaps by the fact that The Surgeon is basically A Bloke In A Hat (hardly the most iconic of opponents to have lurking ephemerally in the background).

Your Beating Heart - Part 3

The surgeon finds another victim...

Synopsis: The Tek-Judges have identified The Surgeon as Millet Linton Brophy from his DNA. Dredd and a team of Judges storm his apartment, but he is not home. However, the Judges find a recording of “Your Beating Heart” in Linton’s entertainment system.

Meanwhile, Brophy is stalking Sector 31 for his next victim. Brophy is unwilling to select a drug user for a victim, but when a Hispanic woman drops her shopping near him, he chooses her, and offers to help her carry her shopping home.

PSU are tracking Brophy, but surveillance shortages mean he is able to avoid being pinpointed. Dredd is surprised at the escalating schedule of Brophy’s murders. Meanwhile, Brophy has reached the Hispanic woman’s house. He talks his way into the house, pretending to have a wife in the Housing Department. The woman wises up to Brophy’s malicious intentions when he locks the door behind him, but he easily subdues her when she tries to defend herself with a knife.

The Judges find Brophy’s car abandoned. Brophy has the woman tied down is preparing for the kill. Over the noise of the nearby Deadbeat Bar, Dredd hears the faint sounds of “Your Beating Heart” and sets his helmet to amplify the sound, in the hope of locating the killer…

HP: I’m slightly underwhelmed by Dredd’s chasing of The Surgeon. The whole schtick of Dredd working hand in glove with the Teks, PSU and other less frontline sections of Justice Department has been done better previously (such as Total War) and while I can see that Wagner was trying to make me empathise with the latest would-be victim by giving her a bit of a sob-story, I’ll be honest and just say that I couldn’t give two hoots.

Patrick Goddard has a fine line in gloomy urban squalor. With this story arguably being more about The Surgeon than the Judges, Goddard has really had to make Mega City-1 work for him, and the grimy streets and blue neon really stand out.

Changelings - Part 3

Hannah makes another enemy...

Synopsis: It is 4000BC, and what appears to be some kind of meteor falls to Earth in a huge fireball. A couple of African-looking tribesmen watch on, as the figure of Kostabi rises from the flames. He has bleeding stumps of what appear to be recently-removed wings.

Back in present-time London, Kostabi comes out of his reveries when his assistant notices a man watching the house from the street. Kostabi dismisses it as one of “Absolam’s Dullards” (see progs 1443– 1448) or the Vatican, but it is in fact Professor Brand.

Chapter and Verse discover that all but one of the faeries are psychic projections. Mrs Shannon tries to sneak up on Chapter from behind, only to be easily knocked out by Verse. Hannah pursues the genuine faerie to the same hole which the boys disappeared into in 1922.

Back at Exham Priory, Ravne is showing Jenny his basement laboratory. It is protected by a variety of mystic wards. Howard Slater is revealed to be down there, in a tank similar to the one that Ravne regenerates in.

HP: Three plot strands in five pages, and in none of them do I feel I’ve been short-changed. In just one page, so much is clarified about Kostabi…but with still so many more questions still to ask. When Rennie answers one set of mysteries, he simultaneously opens up a whole load of new ones, which is what makes Caballistics so damn compelling.

Dom Reardon continues to be inseparable from the strip, with the sleazy eye asides of Ravne and Jenny on the final page being particularly creepy. The way he mixes up the panel types gives it a pure cinematic edge.

Carnival - Part 4

Slaine finishes things off...

Synopsis: Slaine and Cath Palus engage in combat, only for Slaine to easily behead the beast. Ukko’s Assistant did not lock the cage adequately. Crom Dubh is angry that his act has been destroyed, but Slaine scoffs at his demands.

Slaine and Kai question the Shoggy family to find more information about Crom Dubh. Skathan doesn’t think he is the killer because he was a drinking companion of Wardo. Sepha, however, is in fear of Crom Dubh, claiming to know of his dark secrets. She reveals he has a fear of gold.

Skathan “loses” her clothing as the interrogation comes to an end. Slaine asks her directly if she murdered her father. Kai is angry at his father’s directness and lack of trust in Kai’s methods. The pair then meet Estella as she goes for a walk to clear her head. Again she refuses to let Kai examine her dreams.

As Kai ruminates that any of the Carnival performers could be the murderer, due to their mix of grudges and arcane abilities, a shadowy figure approaches Estella on a nearby hilltop. Judging by her reaction, they are not unknown to her…

HP: The nice change in pace for Slaine at the moment (ie, anything other than him just hitting things with Brainbiter) is marred this week by confusing art and clunky dialogue. It took me a while to work out exactly WhoWasWhatWhereDoingWhat when Slaine took on the infernal feline. As per usual, it’s all very pretty, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best way to tell a story.

Perhaps the main strength of Mills’ script (well, it sure as soth isn’t the dialogue…) is that while we know something mysterious is going on with Estella, there is enough sneaky little lurking characters for there to be the possibility that even more of the Carnival performers are more than what they seem. Is Shock Head Red following Estella? Is the Bog Mummy eavesdropping on Slaine and Kai?

The American Dream - Part 4

A god and his pet...

Synopsis: Willis swerves the plane and narrowly avoids the power cables. Harris looks as if he will fall from the plane, but the Defecting God is able to save him by using his stretch powers. Malloy shoots the Disciple loose on board, and Harris then head-butts it clean out of the vehicle.

Another disciple smashes through the fuselage of the plane and surprises Harris and Malloy. Jen shoots the Disciple but is struck by a return blast of electricity. The Defecting God then subdues the Disciple and “switches him off”.

Meanwhile in New York, Mach is talking to Damage, a huge hulking God, hiding in the shadows. Initially Damage refuses to do anything Mach asks, claiming that it hates to be at Hero’s beck and call. However, once Mach reveals that The Scientist is returning to New York, Damage is far more interested in the proposal.

HP: Mark Harrison’s return to a slightly less murky palette is one of the principal reasons to celebrate the (eventual) arrival of the Ten Seconders. And a good solid slice of rough’n’tumble close-quarter violence was what this prog was missing.

I don’t care what anyone might say to the contrary – I still can’t read this without seeing Zenith Phase IV. Hopefully as the world fleshes out a little more, it will start to move away from this, but until then I’m reserving final judgement.

Right now I’m far more interested in the Gods than the human resistance. With the current focus, it still seems like slightly better-than-average filler strip until another of the big guns for 2006 are ready to be used.

A Shaggy Dog Story - Part 4

Alpha prepared for one of his "back room" rendezvous...

Synopsis: Alpha, Wulf and Shaggy are brought before Prince Elbis, one of the Halcyon Royal Family. More of Shaggy’s lies are exposed as it becomes apparent that Shaggy had been a novelty to the Royal Court, nothing more. The King and his Daughter, arrive. Despite the princess’s pleading, the King passes sentence – Shaggy is to be castrated the next morning. He decides that Alpha and Wulf unknowingly aided and abetted Shaggy, and drops all charges against them. He invites them to dine with him, where they unsuccessfully try to convince him to release Shaggy.

Later, Alpha and Wulf are mulling over the problems of breaking out Shaggy when the barman ushers them into the back room. The princess wants to help them break Shaggy out and then elope with him. With her insider knowledge, they easily break Shaggy out of jail, only to be spotted by one of the geriatric guards as they make their final escape.

Back at the safe house, No Bones Jones convinces the princess that he is suffocating inside his jar, and makes a fresh bid for freedom when she loosens the lid.

HP: Wagner seems to be firing on a lot more cylinders with Alpha than Dredd right now. As soon as Shaggy’s web of lies started to crumble, we, the reader knew it would all collapse eventually, even if the Dogs didn’t. And seeing the house of cards of their fellow Dog’s deception come down on Johnny and Wulf is a comedic joy. I’m not sure now which counts as the main plot and the sub-plot, but with No Bones Jones breaking free, Wagner has woven a few fairly simple ideas into one big radioactively-enhanced whole.

There’s nothing really to say about the sheer class of Carlos Ezquerra’s work except to marvel at the fact that he makes every member of an almost entirely bald ensemble cast completely unique and facially distinct.