2000AD Prog 1485 - 26 April 2006
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Goddard) Lobster Random (Rennie / Critchlow) ABC Warriors (Mills / Flint) The 86ers (Rennie / Holden/ Blythe) Low Life (Williams / Coleby) Cover: Cliff Robinson

Synopsis by Gavin Hanly
1st opinion by Marcus Nyahoe
2nd opinion by Jordan Smith

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover Review

MN: There’s something that niggles me about this week’s cover. The design is great – it’s bright and should stand out on the newsagent’s shelf. Dredd looks cool, iconic even. On a purely subjective level, I like Cliff Robinson’s style. It’s just…haven’t we seen this somewhere before? Is Tharg recycling old covers?

Still, given that I’m just experiencing some bizarre case of deja-vu, this is an effective cover. It’s a pity then, that Dredd appears to be threatening the reader with something from the Ann Summers shop.

JS: An excellent cover from Cliff Robinson this prog. Very well detailed Dredd with his baton pointing at the reader. Made even better with the words,"Think you can handle it creep?" Colour was good though i do feel the baton should have been black. (It'd look better if you ask me). Quite disappointed that there was no real background to it, and might have preferred if it had something to do with the brilliant story within. (Maybe one of the surgeons holding a scalpel while a victim lay helplessly in the background?) All in all though, a great cover.

House of Pain - Part 1

Guthrie's new look...

Synopsis: A catch wagon judge comes under pressure from a group of juves until her partner leaves the wagon. It's Guthrie, now recovered from his convalescence in full Mandroid armour. He easily takes down the perps, who are shocked by his appearance. He knocks three months off their sentences for the look on their faces. Dredd comes by on his way to pick up a parole violator. Guthrie explains that this is the closest he could get to the streets since regs prevent any judge with obvious bionics from street duty.

Dredd goes on his way to check out the parole violator, Darren Vint, but finds nothing but a bloodstain.

Elsewhere, Vint is waking up strapped to an operating table, surrounded by masked men and nasty looking surgical machinery. He's in the House of Pain...

MN: Another promising Dredd from Gordon Rennie. Clearly Rennie is intent on using the extra characters he has introduced to the Dredd world. Over half this first story appears to have been given merely to let us know about Guthrie and the progress he has made. This is good as it makes reading Dredd a lot more rewarding. However, we do still get the introduced to the main plot, which seems like it’s going to be a fun ride (although not, one suspects, for the hapless Darren Vint, whom Dredd is hunting).

Ian Richardson does a nice job on the art, especially that first full picture of Guthrie, which almost had me cheering out loud. He has a clear style, very easy on the eye, and as a huge fan of clarity in mainstream comics storytelling, I’d like to see more of him.

A quick word on the colours – Chris Blythe does a sterling job (yet again) enhancing the art with his choices, using a mainly brown hues for the bulk of the story, with bright blue sparingly used during violent moment s (Guthrie’s weapons firing) and a rather sinister looking green for Vint’s waking up in the torture chamber. Just wanted to extend the kudos – it’s a shame that colourists seem to be overlooked when they can add so much to the story.

JS: This story got off to a great start with the introduction of the robotic Judge Guthrie who seems to be a pretty cool judge. I'm sure he was mentioned in the forums about being seen before but i'm new here and he seems a really cool new character to me.

Ian Richardson's art is not good, but not bad either and Chris Blythe's colours aren't brilliant either. The last thing I'd like to mention about this story is actually the very last page which (I don't know about everyone else) reminded me of Hostel.

Can't wait for part 2.

Random gets down to business...

One week later on Siattika Prime, they attack the TDC building - which stored the brains of hundreds of clients. However, Bendell's head explodes as soon as he tries to get the password from the curator due to new Psiblatter shields and the crew are surrounded by gun emplacements.

The curator leaves to congratulate the person who recommended the shields, but that person, Random, is more intent on torturing him to get the password. Sure enough, a short while later Random reintroduces himself with a new arm and the password. He's allowed to join the crew...

MN: Lobster Random continues in fine form. The first page was like worth the price of the prog on its own, with Random showing what a fine strategist he is! Of course he comes out on top in the end (did anyone really believe that he was dead after the house was thrown on him?), although severing your own arm is a little extreme.

Carl Critchlow offers visuals that brought a big smile to even this grumpy old git's face. A wonderful, fun experience, which had the best line I’ve read in 2000AD this year – “War is Satsuma”. Now that’s funny!

JS: After last week's (in my opinion) disappointment, this certainly makes it all better. This has been a brilliant story so far and I know will keep getting better and better. This week we see the Bendell Glass's brain explode - I mean, what more can we ask for? Also loved the line "Slaughter the little shitehawk". Simon Spurrier does indeed come up with strange lines. Remember Harry Kipling using the word "buggerration"? -
brilliant lines.

The art itself continues to impress and i do not want this to finish anytime soon.

The Shadow Warriors - Book 3 - Part 10

Rising from the ashes...

Synopsis: Steelhorn, believed dead after he melted in the first episode is revived by Mars as a warhead made from solid diamond. He destroys the confederate troops, decimates the oncoming Behemeks and fatally injures Bootleg. Deadlock persuaded Mars to revive Steelhorn one more time after many sacrifices and "much more". Bootleg dies without ever knowing who created him as the ABC Warriors emerge from the dust.

At the Confederate Red House, the president kills Bloomcrater, while his wife realises her mind has been "lovebombed." But now, something seems slightly wrong with one of the President's eyes...

The Warriors reunite, having beaten the odds. "Spread the word!"

MN: So we get to see the fruits of Deadlock’s labours as Steelhorn is resurrected again, and subsequently saves the day. To be honest, this climax (or more anti-climax) was probably the least enjoyable part of what has been a very entertaining story.

Henry Flint’s art is usually a joy, but having read through the entire ten parts of this story arc before sitting down to write this review, I’d have to say that he’s not exactly shone on this run (which contradicts what I said a couple of issues ago, but who wants consistency from a reviewer). While some issues have been fine, others have been let down by a lack of clarity in the storytelling, where it is difficult to work out what is going on. This final instalment falls into that camp unfortunately.

Having said all that, as a whole this has been the most I’ve enjoyed a Pat Mills strip since Third World War. Let’s hope the next ABC Warriors adventure isn’t too far away.

JS: Although this has all been way too obvious, I have to say that it has been brilliant never the less. I had a funny feeling that Steelhorn would save the day and I'm quite glad too because I didn't really care for him up to now. Did anybody else notice him getting handed that woman's (i don't know her name) number? Steelhorn, you have made me proud. Didn't expect Broomcrater to be shot by the president either.

As for that story Tharg mentioned about them looking back on their origins later this year, I cannot wait.

Touchdown - Part 6

Rafe gets some eye surgery...

Synopsis: In her dreams, Rafe discovers that the GI Dolls were originally created as a black ops division, designed for stealth and assassination. Her programming is being activated again as she needs to find out what's going on in Acoma station, but before she can be fully activated, she is woken by someone trying to kill her with a toxin designed to kill GIs. In her weakened state, she is almost killed, but saved by the Commander Harrigan at the last second.

Later, Rafe meets with the station Psychic and tells him that something is in her blood, talking to her... (To be continued...)

MN: Ah, the 86ers. This doesn’t seem to have gone down too well with the readers, but I’ve got high hopes for it. It reminds me a little of the first Caballistics, which I didn’t really enjoy at first. However, the Rennie droid drew me in as each arc revealed more and more, and raised more and more questions, about the over riding plot. There’s not a lot been revealed over these last six weeks, but there are a lot of questions that I assume will be addressed in later issues.

Anyway, there was some interesting information about Rafe revealed in this part, information which is interrupted after an attempt on her life. The mystery deepens and I think Gordon Rennie has done enough to at least show the potential of this strip.

Much has been made of the change of artist, but I didn’t think the change over was too noticeable. PJ Holden does a good job here, particularly on page three where we see the syringe fall to the floor – it’s been done before but it still works well. Let’s just hope that there’s not too big a gap between this and the next batch of 86ers stories.

JS: I've heard a lot of criticism about this, a main topic being the change of artist to PJ Holden, who I agree does not suit this as well as Karl Richardson did - but PJ Holden is still not a bad artist. Sure, his art is confusing a little (is Doctor Friedken young or old?) but he still did a good job on the space battles etc.

The story on the other hand is A-OK if a tiny bit confusing. Still, this is brilliant and I can't wait for the second story arc with Karl Richardson hopefully doing the art again.

Con Artist- Part 2

Aimee's new partnership has teething problems...

Synopsis: Nixon and Morse give their names and they are on the official list. The welcomers lower their guns and welcome them to Hitcon. they are encouraged to browse portfolios of other killers, network with whoever they can, and meet their "heroes". They also are forbidden from killing on the premises.

Nixon and Morse realise that the list of attendees is just what they need, but they can't bring in the judges until they see something heavy going down. Morse insists they go after the list and goes a bit mental when Nixon refuses.

Nearby, one of the attendees has noticed Nixon as an undercover judge while one of the top killers, Homicide has just arrived. Nixon suddenly has a panic attack and tries to get some space. Morse follows, but they stumble into an auditorium and are called onstage as volunteers to show the best way to kill a man currently trussed up...

MN: I’d better be up front and say that I really wanted to like this. Honestly! Having read it through a couple of times I just know that Rob Williams has crafted a decent story somewhere in there, but it’s hidden beneath unclear art.

I like the idea of the Hitcon, giving the creators a chance to lampoon comic conventions, and it is to Rob Williams’ credit that you can genuinely feel the tension as Aimee is right in the middle of some very dangerous people. It’s just that it’s hard work to tell what is going on. There seems to be very little attempt to establish the positions of the characters, so half the time I have to spend longer than I should working out what a particular panel is portraying. The tone of black and white is very harsh too, which may be part of the reason that it’s nigh on impossible to ascertain any expression on the character’s faces.

However, the really unfortunate thing about this is that it does look like a lot of effort has gone into the art – it certainly doesn’t look like a rush job. It may just be that this particular style isn’t suited to the strip

JS: This was my least favourite story this prog but was a much better instalment than last prog's disappointing start. In fact, it wasn't a bad story at all it's just that all the other stories were better. Simon Coleby's art is incredible and I'm sure many people agree with me.

The story itself is quite good but I miss Dirty Frank who i've only seen once in Prog 2006. Next prog looks to be good with Aimee and Morse in a pretty bad situation.