2000AD Prog 1504 - 6 September 2006
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Walker) Malone (Hamilton / Coleby) Nikolai Dante (Morrison / Burns) Stone Island (Edginton / Davis) Banzai Battalion (Wagner / Roberts) Cover: Mark Harrison

Synopsis by Pete McCosh
1st opinion by Pete McCosh
1st opinion by Adam Crabtree

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover Review

PMcC: Absolutely fantastic. Everything about the pulpy design – from the lurid taglines to the digital creases – works to give you an idea of Dante which is far more evocative of the series’ high points than the story inside. Seeing this a couple of weeks ago on the site I’d assumed it was John Burns but, up close, Mark Harrison’s work is much more detailed. It’s probably too late in the day now but, on this evidence, I’d love to see Harrison tackle a full Dante strip.

AC: There’s a lot of fascination in the modern comics scene with the earlier parts of the twentieth century; these artists, you feel they’d all be more at home in an Edwardian era Reform Club rockin’ the Absinthe than in the land of turkey twizzlers and gold plated bling bling that we know today. The romanticism of and unabashed hyperbole of fiction in these times has ensnared luminaries as high up as The Moore (or maybe they just like taking the piss) and this is a worthy addition to the canon.

Dog-eared effects, stirring taglines and a striking action pose from Nikolai Dante all conjure up an exciting yet good humoured cover. John Burns’ art is always beautiful, and it lends itself particularly well to imitating the lavishly painted covers of the old pulps. The lighting is gorgeous to boot.

The Connection - Part 5

Gant escapes...

Synopsis: Last week’s – presumably intentional – confusion over the identity of the judge on the last panel is cleared up as Dredd responds to a report of the mutant Tooey fleeing on Gant’s hover-buggy. Attempting to escape, Tooey leaps onto a passing vehicle but is killed when it enters a tunnel. The mysterious box is not on the body

Units searching Gant’s apartment also find nothing, but it is revealed that the eldster is a former judge who opposed the changes that led to the current Judge system and has been a lifelong anti-judicial campaigner.

PSU pick up Gant in the vicinity of the Grand Hall of Justice and Dredd heads to intercept him. Unfortunately, the shock of discovery is too much for Gant and he dies of heart attack when arrested. Once again, there is no sign of the box and Dredd muses that perhaps they are destined never to recover it.

Meanwhile, a young scrawler – paid by Gant – climbs the steps to the Grand Hall with a familiar package under his arm…

PMcC: Aaargh! How can Wagner do this to us? I was sure we’d find out what was in that box this week!

The Connection has been a fantastic intro to Origins: drip-feeding us some tantalising hints about what’s coming up while still managing to function as an exciting story in its own right. This week’s revelation that the eldster Gant was himself “an old-style” judge automatically raises questions about the arguments that must have gone on then and how they were eventually settled. There must still be others who were alive at the time, so what are they up to? In amongst all this, Wagner still has time to make us laugh out loud at Chuck’s full name and then leave us with that cliff-hanger. This is writing of the very highest calibre.

Of course, good writing is only half the story in comics and Kev Walker’s art has really amped up the brooding, portentous atmosphere which has characterised this tale and the dynamic panel of Dredd flying over the hill on his Lawmaster like some avenging angel is something really special.

The preview of next week’s Bolland cover only serves to turn the anticipation up to 11. There have been criticisms of Rebellion on the boards for their perceived lack of marketing push for Origins but I have to say that little touches like this clearly show the editorial staff are trying to make it something special for the fans.

AC: Kev Walker’s oh-so-distinctive art is still impressing the hordes, and in the final part of the Connection we get an awesome picture of Dredd “intercepting that hover buggy” in true Dredd style. A lot of artists fumble the “En route to kick some ass” moments in Dredd (there are rather a few), but Walker gets you interested immediately. What say we not keep this droid away for so long, eh Tharg?

John Wagner continues to exemplify what drives a good story; solid action, good pacing, with character moments deftly woven into the flow without compromising the speed of the narrative. It’s hard to be mad at so many of the young bucks for not being able to boast his array of skills; this is what he does.

This has served as an exciting lead in to the shining jewel in this year’s roster of strips. Voices of complaint have decried the solidity of the Dredd material of 2006 up to this point, but I tend to think that with such an event on the horizon, there was decidedly little they could have done about that… short of having a few more lead in strips of course but hey ho.

A new man/clown

We next see him returning to Serge’s pool hall where he advises the bouncer he forgot something earlier then tells Serge he has an answer for him before placing his revolver on the pool table. After allowing a moment for the significance of this to sink in, he kills the two heavies while Serge makes a run for it. Malone strides menacingly after him and, as he walks through the back door of the club, the shadow that falls on the alley wall is that of the dream clown…

PMcC: Sweet Lord, when will this garbage end? Simon Coleby’s horrid art (people don’t appear to have real features in the future) does precisely nothing for me. I can see what the idea behind this pairing was: get some moody black and white art to give it a Sin City in space vibe. Perhaps that might have worked if the story – which I must admit is competently scripted – was anything but a collection of lazy clichés. Mysterious guy arrives in town, hidden past, femme fatale, takes on local hoods, blah blah.

If it wasn’t already obvious from the comments about his voice (I also wondered if the sudden appearance of a couple of Irish mannerisms was deliberate) the last panel makes it abundantly clear that the Clown persona is now in control. Hopefully, we’ll find out what the Clown’s actually all about and what Missy’s role in creating it was next week rather than drawing this out any longer.

AC: Cal Hamilton’s expertly scripted future noir continues apace. Noir is ANOTHER area that many funny book writers foolishly, foolishly plunder for their own pedestrian stories; ever take a look at some of the crappy Catwoman books they’re putting out where some hard boiled PI is ways on her case? Luckily, Malone doesn’t fall into the trap; it isn’t too obvious.

We as an audience believe Malone as a naturally tough and savvy character, not someone putting on a front, or worse, someone not as tough as the writer thinks he is. It’s more urban and modern than most stabs at the genre, which owes a lot to Simon Coleby’s dark depictions of ear ringed, tattooed players and grim cityscapes.

Some of the comfort and ease is taken out of the strip with this instalment; Missy’s monologue, pleading with a comatose Malone, and Malone’s possessed threat to the gangsters… they just don’t ring true like some of the earlier dialogue. The story moves up though, and I remain intrigued as to how the various elements will come together.

I fear this will be a criminally underrated series, but the privileged will continue to enjoy it for its reserve and competence.

Dragon's Island - Part 3

Katarina makes an impression...

Synopsis: As the bomb-ship reaches its target and the pirate fleet begins its assault on Pacifica, it becomes clear that Lauren had deliberately attempted to provide for Dante’s escape. Unbeknownst to her, Nikolai is dragging himself out of the water and pauses only to slaughter a couple of guards before heading off in search of his mother and the children.

Meanwhile, Katarina manages to overpower Sagawa’s guard as Nina and Karl look on. In her control room, Sagawa appears relatively calm under the circumstances; it seems she has a trick up her sleeve and she is about to leave for “the Dragon’s Lair” when an urgent communication is received from the Tsar himself.

As she deals with this, Dante stumbles into a massive lab where the mass-production of Sagawa’s mutant ninjas is under way and Crest identifies the base material as the remains of the Kraken…

PMcC: I’ve been very surprised with how quickly this story’s going. It seems that, after years of procrastination, Morrison is now keen to get the swashbuckling over with and get back to the business of wreaking revenge on the Tsar. On that point, it was very nice to see him pop up here; proof that we’re heading in the right direction at last. In the next few weeks, I imagine we’ll see the last of Katarina, either killed saving Nikolai or disappearing into the sunset with Karl and Mina to make up for abandoning him. I’m also interested to see if Dante destroys Akita’s genetic infantry or manages to convert them to his own private army to complement his pirate navy in an assault on All the Russias.

Funnily, I don’t have much to say about this episode itself, it seems to be just a stepping stone on the way back to the proper story.

The news that Simon Fraser will be back on the Dante at the same time is very welcome in my house and seems quite fitting. John Burns can be great – and this week’s double page spread of the pirate fleet is excellent – but his faces seem to be getting more and more identikit and I’ll be glad to see the back of him for a while. Lauren and Akita are both rendered as amorphous blobs with different coloured wigs this week.

AC: Now we’re getting to the good stuff; a little disappointed in this week’s Malone, I was happy to see a falling out of epic proportions spilling out onto the pages, as depicted by the flourishing paints of John Burns. They sure as Hell spent enough time building this up, now let’s hope they see fit to stretch it out for a spell.

The scale of the thing is perfectly judged, as is the consistency of the stew of historical elements; piracy and swashbuckling sits side by side with industrial revolution*10 architecture, and double page spreads of wonderful oily, smoky battleships going at it.

Naturally we have a few human drama threads complementing the warfare, with Dante searching for his Mama and the kids, Lauren facing the destruction of her lover by her own hand, and the resurfacing of Vladimir giving Akita a fright. The ending is a deliciously old-fashioned cliff-hanger, with plenty of gruesome imagery.

Part 5

Sorrel sees things differently...

Synopsis: After a brief bit of history of the prison, we find our gang of five climbing along the pipework between the inner and outer walls of the prison. Harry tries to probe Sorrel about his background – which doesn’t seem to match up with his abilities – but is interrupted as he takes a dizzy turn. From Sorrel’s POV, it seems as if he is somehow seeing the energies of those around him…and his own are quite different.

Arriving at the prison garage, they find that all the vehicles have been sabotaged and all the tools and parts taken by the creatures. As they are standing discussing what to do, Sorrel seems to sense before the others that the creatures are coming for them and they run to close the garage door. Sorrel gives an over-eager monster a good hard whacking, allowing the others to lock the door.

PMcC: Although it’s slowed down a bit to give us some background on the prison, I’m still enjoying this. We’ve now gone to a disparate group of survivors, not all of whom will make it out alive and, for the moment, I’m enjoying George the cynical warder getting all the best lines. This week’s episode also introduces something else unexpected. What is behind Sorrel’s “Matrix-moment” and how does it influence his obvious connection with the mutated monsters?

Simon Davis style is pretty good at evoking the claustrophobia of the setting, but I’m looking forward to seeing him cut loose with some seriously gory scenes in the near future.

AC: The last couple of instalments of Ian Edington’s answer to Wentworth Miller’s sleep-acting have been rather dense in comparison to the uniquely decompressed-yet-fast-moving instalments that opened the series. They’ve also conformed more to type. We’ve seen our two heroes, who are fairly interesting on their own, forced to team up with the requisite band of unappealing “other survivors”; a drippy bit of skirt, a drippy bit of shirt (destined for an insanity/death combo), and a slightly evil one whose inevitable, bloody death you won’t mind.

I’m still intrigued by the main plotlines of amnesiac murder and monsters that work to an unknown blueprint, but the stand and talk conformity of the past two parts has brought the quality level down.

Robot Wars - Part 4

Captain Bug Stomper steps over the line...

Synopsis: The Battalion infiltrate the Fitzenheimer house in search of the remnants of Pest Patrol. The Patrol have been making some repairs and are regrouping when the Banzais take them by surprise and massacre the survivors. Wakened by the noise, Rosie stumbles on the scene and grabs hold of a trooper as the Banzais beat the retreat, whereupon Captain Stomper stabs her in the leg to free him.

Becoming increasingly paranoid, Stomper declares all house humans enemy combatants and attempts to crack down on the growing dissent in the ranks. Meanwhile, Rosie and Mrs Fitz take delivery of a new robot guard dog which seems like just the thing to root out the Battalion…

PMcC: I’m not really sure how I feel about the turn this has taken. A fun story about tiny robots fighting slugs and foiling dastardly plots somehow doesn’t seem like the right place for a meditation on where the line is drawn between brutality and justifiable force in combat and whether following orders is justification for a soldier’s actions. Or maybe I’m just taking the whole thing too seriously.

The first couple of pages still show some amusing touches as the Banzais have to overcome such monstrous obstacles as doorknobs and birdcages and I think Steve Roberts is eminently suited to such light-hearted fare. By the end of this episode, things are looking grim. Could this be the last outing for the pint-sized pest-controllers?

AC: It’s become increasingly hard to maintain interest in Banzai Battalion; it’s a fairly lightweight offering amongst the meatier titbits surrounding it. John Wagner seems to be moving away from the endearingly whimsical tone and focusing on some rather nastier and mildly philosophical themes. Trouble is, it’s a strip about pest control robots; you don’t want nasty and mildly philosophical from a strip about pest control robots.

Steve Roberts is dong the best work I’ve seen from him on this strip; irregardless I still wouldn’t call myself a fan.