2000AD Prog 1483 - 12 April 2006
	Judge Dredd (Rennie / Gibson) Lobster Random (Spurrier/ Critchlow) Harry Kipling: Deceased (Spurrier / Cook) ABC Warriors (Mills / Flint) 86ers (Rennie / Richardson) Cover: Henry Flint

Synopsis by Gavin Hanly
1st opinion by Marcus Nyahoe
2nd opinion by Martin Charlton

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover Review

MN: After rather a lacklustre year for covers, the last few progs have seen a vast improvement in quality. Henry Flint provides us with a simple cover that immediately makes you want to turn to the story in question. Excellent.

MC: As always, the only words that spring to mind, Homer Simpson style, are ‘mmm… Flint’. And this doesn’t let me down on closer inspection. A nice parody of make over media like ten years younger. Maybe not the most eye catching selection of colours, but I’d buy it.

Return to Planet Gary

Dredd drops a ball...

Synopsis: Dredd's patrol takes him past Planet Gary, a bar whose patrons he's mixed with before. They are protesting the demolition of the bar to make room for a spaceport. Although they have a permit, Dredd breaks up the demo as they've gone over the protestor limit - but he also stops the demolition as they were past their work period for the day. Planet Gary has a reprieve, but not for long.

Dredd decides to look into their case and discovers that the permit for the spaceport was rushed through. The next morning, he arrests the councilman who approved the order on several charges of corruption. However, the Dredd's temporary suspension of the demolition has lapsed in the meantime and Planet Gary is demolished. But Justice department orders that the bar is to be rebuilt as close to its original location as possible. It's right next to the thunderous noise of ships landing at the new spaceport - but at least the bar is still there.

MN: A nice change of pace for Dredd as the Rennie droid gives us a more human judge, fighting for the poor folk who want to keep their bar. Despite all my nostalgia for Ian Gibson’s old 2000AD stories, the artwork seemed very weak. Maybe his style doesn’t suit colour, or maybe it’s just that it doesn’t suit Dredd anymore. Certainly the panel with Dredd and Cranston in front of the filing cabinets looks way too cartoony.

MC: God, 2002 seems a long time ago, doesn’t it? So much so that I think, yeah, I remember After Hours, it was ace. And it really was. This, on the other hand, seems a bit daft and slight. Ian Gibson never disappoints on Dredd, and it's not the art here, it’s the writing. Not a total failure by any measure, but I’d suggest that it comes at the wrong time. Dredd’s hardly going through a run of all time classics the past few months, and I’d rather something more substantial was provided here.

Was it David Bishop who said that you can judge a prog solely on its Dredd story? If that’s the case then I’d conclude after reading this that 2000AD is treading water at the moment. We shall see…

The Agony & the Ecstasy - Part 2

Random leaps into action...

Synopsis: Jimmy the Suit and his mobsters attack the Pasitenni Club and proceed to rob everyone inside - killing anyone who doesn't co-operate. Random decides to fight back but is stopped by one of Jimmy's associates, the huge combat-drugged orangutan, who sits on him. Jimmy escapes with the money, but not before discovering Mrs Redd and removing her brain to take with them. Random cuts himself a hole through the orangutan to escape and heads in pursuit.

Elsewhere, a bounty hunter with a smiley face manages to find the location and whereabouts of "the Master Don" after torturing a compatriot and heads out after him.

Elsewhere still, Redd's brain removal has sent out an automatic message, offering money and a message that she should be avenged - assuming that the message is caused by her death. The message suspects Random as the culprit and reaches bounty hunters Hogg and Pinn with an offer of a reward...

MN: This is more like the art we want to see. Carl Critchlow’s work is always a pleasure to look at. The mask on the rival torturer raised a bit of a smile (can you imagine being tortured by a guy with a smiley face for a head), as was the sequence with Lobster beginning his heroic charge into the fray, only to be squashed by an oversized simian.

As far as the story goes, it looks like Lobster has got deadly competition. I’m not sure how this new character is going to interact with our hero, but it should be fun finding out. Mr. Spurrier gives us enough humour and intrigue in five pages to satisfy, but leaves plenty to make the reader want to come back for more.

MC: There are only two types of people in the word, really. There are those who like Lobster Random and there are those I don’t like. I mean, what more could you ask from a hero? He’s grumpy, he’s ugly and he’s surrounded by complete maniacs at every turn. He’s also, as revealed this week, prone to astonishing bad luck (see page 4, top panel), which made me laugh out loud this week. The introduction of the weird Haribo Fried egg villain suggests more lunacy to come, and the prospect of a Lobster rage episode next week has me licking my lips. Bring it on, so to speak.

And although Carl Critchlow seems to favour an increasingly muted palette, the art is aces too.

Mad Gods & Englishmen - Part 3

Ungrateful curs...

Synopsis: After eating Willy, the god goes after Kipling almost biting him in two - but Kipling seems unhurt. However, the god is fought off by Neesha, who puts a big hole in him - but not enough to knock him down - and the god once again flees.

Kipling's comrade Klux morphs into a vehicle and they head after him, leaving Neesha by the roadside. They encounter the god in a lake and Kipling delivers the killing blow. The crowd are ecstatic until Kipling asks for the reward money and then they try to lynch him as a heretic. They flee, with Neesha tagging along, asking if she can be an assistant to replace Willy, and says it was fate that they met. Elsewhere someone watches their progress through a magical device. "Fate. Heh. Not quite, my dear, not quite".

MN: This was disappointing. I don’t know if it’s been cut unexpectedly short or not, but it seemed rushed. Boo Cook, who for my money has been steadily improving, gives us some poor panel progression. I had to read the last three panels at the bottom of the second page a few times, and whilst I can understand what’s going on, the three don’t seem to have any fluency to them.

The story was very slight – little more than hero kills monster and takes on new accomplice, and the scene where Kipling actually kills the god was very anti-climatic. We see a big picture of Kipling jumping and shooting the thing between the eyes, and the next panel we’re told he’s dead. Whatever happened to showing rather than telling?

All-in-all the creative team must do better when this returns.

MC: What, that’s it? Three weeks and he’s back in two months? Jesus, how to keep a guy waiting. But I guess that’s the point, yeah? I’ve enjoyed it, I’m certainly looking forward to more, and I get the feeling this could become ongoing like Sinister Dexter, rather than occasional like Lobster Random. Which would be nice.

No muted palette here, as Boo Cook continues on his quest to use up the world’s supplies of highlighter pens, which would seem out of place usually, but sandwiched between B&W Flint art & the aforementioned Carl Critchlow art. I like it.

The Shadow Warriors - Book 3 - Part 8

The Rev gets mean...

Synopsis: With Maniacus' head severed, there's a way into his brain for the snakes, who flee Hammerstein's body to attack their creator. Hammerstein takes the opportunity and kills Maniacus and the snakes as they feed on his brain.

Elsewhere, Blackblood is searching for the Rev, but runs into a trap and falls into a teleporter beam. The Rev has rigged the teleporter so that it turns Blackblood inside out - while also holding him in stasis. The Rev taunts Blackblood, but his victim isn't completely helpless as he sends out signals to his gun, which destroys the stasis field. Blackblood breaks loose and starts blowing the Rev to smithereens.

Outside, Mongrol is facing off against Warmonger...

MN: So I go from a negative review of a Simon Spurrier strip, to a positive one of a Pat Mills strip. The world has gone mad!

Anyway, the tables start to turn in our robotic protagonists favour this week, in an action packed issue which also happens to be entertaining and funny (rather than just robots with guns shooting each other which, frankly, does nothing more than raise a yawn). This latest outing for the ABC Warriors has been great. The dialogue from Pat Mills was very sharp this week and serves as a reminder of what he is capable of (and who didn’t laugh at Blackblood and “You Manufacker!”?).

As for the art – what more is there to say. Henry Flint turns in yet another stellar job. Almost perfect.

MC: God, I could not give a damn about this story. It’s obvious how it's gonna turn out, and although Pat Mills seems to be using this to actually get some story told and not just preach to me or lecture me about how much history he knows, this continues to have no redeeming features other than the art. Mmm… Flint…

Touchdown - Part 4

Rafe sleeping on the job...

Synopsis: The Skipper, refuses permission to let El go in and help Rafe, but Japeth ignores the order and heads in anyway - "figures the freaks would look out for each other".

On the station, Rafe is fighting off the marauding Norts, but is having more and more difficulty. She asks Gabe to help her, and at the last minute, he raises a slicer field to hold the attackers back. But Rafe has been bitten and appears to be slipping into a coma, while Gabe reveals that the base seems to be the setting of an archeological dig.

Back on the citadel, Kristos the Psi is having a fit, repeatedly saying "tell her not to open the sarcophagus. Tell her to get out before they arrive". The commander also hears that the Varr are heading for the asteroid and orders the fleet to retreat.

On the asteroid, Gabe is fried by a large creature who stands over Rafe...

MN: I’m not sure about this week’s instalment. Up to now I’ve found the strip to be an unexpected pleasure, with even the change of artist from Richardson to PJ Holden handled smoothly.

This issue it’s not quite as good as it could be. Too many plot threads have been introduced really, leaving it feeling a little unfocused and the reader feeling a little bewildered. It all seems a little confusing, and after introducing a load of characters in the second part, Gordon Rennie doesn’t seem to have established a relationship between the reader and any of them.

The colour seems a little off in this part too, with Rafe appearing to have a “normal” coloured flesh, as opposed to the GI blue. Still, it’s been very good before this so, no doubt, it’ll pick up again.

MC: Complex little beastie, this one. I read it every week thus far and think ‘not keen on that, too fiddly’. Then I sit down to review it and read it all over so far, and think ‘top notch, this 86ers story’. Read what you will into that. It’s one of the great excuses used by defenders of a poorly received story, and I’m usually reticent to use it myself. However, it’s actually true in this case.

The change of art hasn’t helped (not because of any dip in quality, just the change), but trust me. Wait till the end, read it in one go. That’s what I’m going to do from now on.