2000AD Prog 1502 - 23 August 2006
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Walker) Malone (Hamilton / Coleby) Stone Island (Edginton / Davis) Banzai Battalion (Wagner / Roberts) Nikolai Dante (Morrison / Burns) Cover: Simon Davis

Synopsis by Gavin Hanly
1st opinion by Stephen Watson
1st opinion by Robert Cornell

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover Review

SW: Simon Davis’ first cover since Sinister Dexter checked out (prog 1467) is an excellent and eye catching piece of work which is in stark contrast to his ‘Black Siddha’ that wraps this month’s megazine. The composition is good with an evil and toothy face that looks like Cilla Black after one procedure too many. The bright colour of the face offsets the gloomy prison and the logo is free and unmolested. The tagline about jailbait may attract the wrong kind of reader, but I’m sure Tharg thinks there is no such thing! I have always liked Simon Davis’ iconic Sinister Dexter covers more than his strip work, and this effort doesn’t change my views on his strengths.

RC: I suppose it's best to judge a cover on my initial reaction when it slid out of the envelope, which was, "what's that supposed to be?" On closer inspection, I've seen lots worse. (Isn't "jailbait" being used out of context?)

The Connection - Part 3

Dredd gets his arse handed to him...

Synopsis: Dredd opens fire on the muties, killing one, as the other holds the porter in front of him as a shield/hostage. Before Dredd can act, the mutie fires through his hostage, wounding Dredd and then putting the boot in. He escapes as Dredd calls for back up. When it arrives they look at the footage from their room and see them stashing the package. They identify them as muties as they see Tooey showing through the shirt and they appear to be working for Linus Francks who's currently doing time for arson.

Meanwhile, Sven Kafka, the night porter, opens the box which is refrigerated and contains a ransom note, while Tooey and his mutant host decide to wait outside the Sleepery for him to return. Dredd is trying to track Kafka down as he reports back to work, but the mutants spot him before the judges do...

SW: Dredd seems to be spending more of his time on Mega City’s mean streets these days and I certainly prefer that to the global ambitions he shows over in the Megazine. Strips like ‘The Connection’ show the seamy gritty style of the city, which is where a cop of Dredd’s make up would be needed most.

The story itself is pretty straight forward with well worn ideas like mutie infiltrators and a ‘what’s in the box?’ mystery surfacing once again. Of course ‘Connections’ is a lead in strip to ‘Origins’ and therefore a lot of exposition is needed. That said a couple of good surprises kept the interest level high and it was a cute trick to have the ransom note partially obscured.

Kev Walker is fast becoming the ‘gritty’ Dredd artist of choice, the same way Ian Gibson cornered the ‘funny’ market a few years back. A lot of credit for the look clearly goes to colourist Chris Blythe who must have hundreds of shades of grey and brown in his palette.

It may be a set up strip, and we may have seen some of the ideas before but it’s still great stuff and easily the pick of the prog.

RC: There was an almost audible sigh of relief when John Wagner got back behind
the wheel two weeks ago. Not because the stand- ins have necessarily been bad, it's just that this feels like the "real" Dredd and that things are finally moving towards you-know-what in two weeks. Last prog's cliff-hanger has a surprise resolution; it's really quite shocking to see Dredd literally given a kicking. The partial reveal on the "what's in the box?" mystery only poses more questions and there's some great banter between a man and the face on his chest. In one word: quality.

The artwork is perfect for capturing the mood of the story, especially on page two. Some artists find it necessary to caricature Dredd. Walker's is all too human. We don't have to be TOLD that his Dredd is getting old; we can SEE it etched on half his face.

Malone gets a backbone

Later, he's woken by banging at his door. The same heavies who Malone told he wasn't a made man are back - and after the incident at the bar, they need more convincing...

SW: Before I comment on the strip I have to say the poor print quality in my copy certainly tempered what enthusiasm I had for the story. Pages 1 , 4 and 5 were a washed out grey and looked like a poor photo copy . For a black and white strip that’s pretty noticeable!

The strip itself is OK but derivative from every private eye / amnesia story you have ever read, from the inner monologue to the slow realisation that he possesses skills and knowledge that can only mean trouble. Add to that the femme fatale and the invisible friend/monster last seen in ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘True Romance’ and you have a pretty familiar set-up.

I do like Simon Coleby’s art and the dialogue is fine, although the constant censor approved words - ‘Sock cutter’- are getting tiresome already. It’s not bad, just pedestrian, hackneyed and as a wise man once said ‘meh’.

I always like to give new strips a chance, but this is one guest whom I hope checks out sooner rather than later.

RC: I seem to remember that this is nominally science fiction; it's taken a film noir turn. As a fan of both genres, I'm impatiently waiting for it to grab my attention. These are the hardest stories to review; it simply doesn't provoke a reaction, good or bad. This all seems desperately familiar.

I quite like the artwork, especially the clown.

Part 3

A prisoner gets the hands on approach from Grice...

Synopsis: More monsters are roaming the prison, killing the inmates, while Sorrel and Rivers stay concealed in the vents. Rivers reveals that he convinced the guards that he wanted to write a book on Longbarrow. He was given full internet access and managed to get a huge amount of information on the layout of the prison - which means he can guide them out. however, the monsters have started breaking into the vents to search for them so they finally find a way out - only for Sorrel to be hit over the head with a nightstick...

SW: I enjoyed the first two parts of this new Shawshank meets Silent Hill prison frightener but I feel it missed a step with this week’s episode in which nothing really happened. I don’t know if it was intended to be a mood setter or mere padding but our men were running last week and were still running up to the last panel this week. ‘Chase’ episodes are OK if there is funny dialogue or great art but neither checked in to this dull outing. The first page for example has a nice first panel, but the second looks like it won second prize in an under 5’s art contest. Add that to the virtually non existent dialogue and you’ve got a five page strip that you can read through
in 30 seconds.

I still have high hopes for ‘Stone Island’ but on this offering ‘Stoney Broke’ may be more appropriate.

RC: Like Malone, this reminds me of other things but at least it's fast. This episode we get two characters crawling around in ventilation ducts, very much a staple of the monster movie genre and I doubt if the inventors of the Internet anticipated it being used as literary polyfilla, smoothing over the cracks and filling in the holes in any plot. Edgington has quite skilfully shifted from formulaic prison drama to formulaic horror but because he's so upfront and cheerful about it, I'm inclined to forgive him.

Where this strip gets big points is with it's gore score. Like all artists with extreme styles, there's an inevitable love it or hate it aspect to Davis' art. I'm not a big fan but he's perfect for dismembered corpses.

Robot Wars - Part 2

Captain Bug Stomper blows a fuse...

Synopsis: Captain Bug Stomper decides that there's nothing for it but to switch off and accept progress. He turns off the soldier who helped him, but is unable to turn himself off because he can't reach his own switch. He decides to wait until his power runs out, but while waiting manages to convince himself that they shouldn't accept decommissioning after all. He turns on all the Battalion and they set out on a mission.

They find Pest Patrol and discover that the owner of the garden thinks that Pest Patrol are doing a much better job than the Battalion ever did. The captain decides that it's war and they are going to retake control of the garden. The crew are juiced up from the power supply and begin a Guerilla war against Pest Patrol, destroying any of them that they come across. The captain has realised that he is doing this out of his own free will, and thus surmises that he has become human...

SW: The Banzais make their first appearance in almost five years (Prog 1262) and
in many ways less is more for the diminutive bug squashers. I’ve never been a big fan of humour strips in the Dredd slot but in their solo outings these micro marines have slowly won me over.

The premise is relatively weak and I’m sure that’s why they’ve only had three solo outings in six years - once they’ve saved the garden, and their owners what’s left? The answer is each other and that is the premise of this operation. There may be something being said about valuing the elderly or about technology being made obsolete before it’s time but I don’t think so. It’s about small androids killing bugs and forgetting the subtext!

I like Steve Roberts’ catoony art which is well suited to the light hearted script and Bug Stamper’s cliché ridden military speak is a laugh. The story isn’t substantial or even that funny but it is a welcome distraction form the gore on show elsewhere.

This run is developing along familiar lines but I for one wouldn’t object to another tour of duty, but maybe not for a while.

RC: This would make a neat Pixar animation. I like the war diary idea, and Bug
Stomper finding his inner humanity. One of 2000 AD's great strengths is variety and Banzai Battalion's job is to be lightweight and funny. As such, it works reasonably well.

Steve Roberts' artwork is simply awful. If you can't draw robots, you shouldn't be drawing stories about robots.

Dragon's Island - Part 1

Potentially famous last words...

Synopsis: Katarina Dante is brought before Sagawa at her stronghold. After haranguing her, she rips off her eyepatch to reveal the scarred eye underneath.

Meanwhile, Dante is pulled from the Depths (having been kept in suspended animation by his crest) by Spatchcock and Flintlock who are with his mother's crew, now led by Lauren. They put him on trial where he tells them what is really going on as he is trying to save the children. They don't believe him, but he then tells them that with their forces and those of the Kraken's who joined after his death are enough to take on Sagawa. He says they should pick their fastest ship packed with explosives and ram the thermodynamic core of Pacifica to gain entry. Lauren agrees, with one minor change...

SW: As one well informed (!) letter writer pointed out Dante has been spending too much time with his Mum lately, so it was good to see them split up for this new adventure.

The character has however stagnated for some time and I don’t see how this premise is going to advance things much. Already with the plan in place we know the next few weeks will chronicle a rescue mission - and then what? Square one again? I hope not and more specifically I’m hoping for a death in the family so that the character and strip can move on to less well covered territory.

The highlight for me is always John Burns’ painted art and he doesn’t disappoint here, although Ma Dante’s eye problem looks like it could be cleared up with some tippex remover!

The strip is another to the damned ‘OK’ category with its handsome visuals and workmanlike script, I just feel that I don’t really care which is a shame for a character once heralded as the next big thing.

RC: There's one piece of Dante's anatomy we used to see all the time but these
days he keeps it under wraps: his teeth. A quick flick through the TPBs of his early adventures reminds me that he used to smile a lot. It didn't seem to matter whether he was shagging a princess or facing execution, he was obviously enjoying himself. These days he's doing much the same kind of thing but there's a bitter weariness about the character and it's infected the strip. Not to mention readers. Having come up with such a striking idea, Morrison is scratching around trying to work out how he did it.

Burns' art is similarly colourless. All his characters wearing identical glassy expressions from one panel to the next. Probably because they're all thinking the same thing; "God, I'm depressed."

If ever a character needed to live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse it was Nicolai Dante. Without a change of artist, direction and, most importantly, attitude he'll simply fade away.