2000AD Prog 1505 - 13 September 2006
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Ezquerra) Malone (Hamilton / Coleby) Banzai Battalion (Wagner / Roberts) Stone Island (Edginton / Davis) Nikolai Dante (Morrison / Burns) Cover: Brian Bolland

Synopsis by Robert Cornell
1st opinion by Charles Ellis
2nd opinion by WR Logan
3rd opinion by Andrew Howe

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Cover Review

CE: Bolland draws Dredd riding out of Mega-City One and looking grim. What can you say? It’s not the most exciting or eye-catching of images, but both image & cover-text do get across the gist of the story and that is what it’s meant to do.

WRL: On one hand this is a fantastic cover, the Logo is perfectly visible for those that hate it when it’s hidden behind any artwork. The ‘Origins’ tagline is large and clear and Brian Bolland supplies the cover artwork which is bound to have plenty of readers lapsed, current or just Bolland fans wanting to see it.

A moody sky, the Mega-City skyline and Dredd & two other Judges astride Lawmasters heading away from the city walls, this cover just makes you want to delay turning the page to read the first part of the latest Dredd mega epic, a story that readers have been waiting years for John Wagner to tell.

As good as it is there’s something not quite right about it, if anything its too good, its straight on look at the Judges on their Lawmasters looks too neat, the lines are perfectly clean. Dread’s world is post apocalyptic and even the Cursed Earth outside the city should be a foreboding place but as with many of Bolland’s Dredd depictions the artwork is clean enough to eat your dinner off and its perfection is its only downfall.

The cover also features two city blocks that we can clearly see the names on. I’m not a fan of Pink Floyd so the passing of Syd Barrett and the naming of a block after him doesn’t really register, but more prominently displayed is the Tom Frame block. Tom was a true unsung hero of 2000 AD, he’d worked on more strips than I can remember and his contribution went mostly unnoticed by myself and others for years. The bane of being a good letterer is that when you are a master of your trade readers don’t notice your work. Tom was a gent, and I’m sure Dredd will be the poorer for his passing. A couple of days a go I was at Hope Street studios in Glasgow and saw Dom Regan and Jamie Grant’s colouring on a tribute ensemble piece in recognition of Toms contribution to The Galaxy's Greatest Comic and, as with the naming of a block on this weeks cover, it's good to see The Mighty One recognising Tom’s place in 2000 AD’s history.

AH: Origins is here, it’s Bolland, and it’s Dredd. I could complain about the lifeless backdrop, but it’s probably deliberate (the foreground’s where the action’s at), and in any event I couldn’t care less. Because Origins is here, it’s Bolland, and it’s Dredd. That’s it.

Origins - Part 1

Dumb kid ...

Synopsis: Judge Logan is helping Dredd select a team for a mission into the Cursed
Earth. Logan volunteers himself and Dredd reluctantly accepts. The crew are shocked by the nature of their mission. They are to escort a one billion credit ransom for the body of Chief Judge Fargo - the Father of Justice. The Tomb of Fargo in the Hall of Justice is a fraud and has never contained the real body, which was "misappropriated" at some time in the past.

The previous day, the package had finally been delivered to Justice Central. After a bomb scare, it was found to contain human tissue and a ransom note. Forensic tests revealed that the DNA matches Dredd's and that toxins
indicate the owner lived through the 21st Century. The Judges conclude that
the tissue was taken from Fargo. And that he was alive at the time...

CE: The shocking idea that Fargo might still be alive and in the Cursed Earth would be more convincing if I hadn’t seen Wagner quoted on this site/board as saying the story would involve Dredd’s mutant relatives. This being Wagner on a Dredd epic, there’s probably a big twist in the wings though.

It’s a bit of an understated start – most of the strip is set-up, getting the cast together, explaining the ransom note, revealing that Fargo’s corpse is missing and then setting out. Most of Dredd’s team appear to be new characters; it’s good if we get interesting new Judges out of it, but the only one I really know is Sanchez from Dredd VS Aliens (Logan’s appeared before but only as a minor character). Compare this to Gulag, where we get Giant, Guthrie and Karyn, characters who’ve had prominent roles before and who it means more to see. It’s all good stuff but not the most inherently exciting of Part Ones. Luckily, all the set-up has been done with in five pages, meaning we can get right into the thick of things in the next prog. And that “EVERYONE DOWN!” bit? Priceless.

And just look at that splash page! Fantastic!

WRL: Over 4 years in the making, "Origins" finally makes its debut in print. Carlos’s opening splash page is reminiscent of previous epics he's drawn and it’s only a pity he couldn’t have been given a double page for the splash.

Carlos’s art needs little reviewing - it’s solid and dependable and as soon as you see his name attached to any Dredd story you know exactly what you are going to get. Saying that, if the next 22 episodes look as good as the opening episode then the sooner that the story is finished so it can be collected in a graphic novel, with loads of extras, the better.

John once again shows why he’s been the principle Dredd writer since his inception. We’ve seen other writers attempt to tell stories about Mega City’s most prominent lawman but only a couple have ever come close and only one in recent times. After the lead-in story "Connections" John hits the ground running and, by the end of part one, I want to see where this story is going to go and what revelations we’ll discover.

As when I was in short trousers I’m wishing my life away - as soon as I finished a prog I’d want the next one immediately and I'll feel that until next February. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the postman to arrive every Monday… he'd better not be late.

AH: Origins has been a talking point for nearly nine months, but past experience with over-hyped disappointments made it difficult to share in the excitement. All that changed when I opened the prog and soaked in the opening collage – judges manning the foxholes as the tanks roll in, a politician blinded by hubris, Dredd wearing a rare look of surprise, muties and the lingering shade of Fargo thrown in for good measure, with all of it backlit by a nuclear sunset. And, of course, those two short words that have so often been a calling-card for quality - Wagner and Ezquerra, getting back to basics and doing what they do best.

Dredd epics have provided the weekly with some of its greatest moments, but we should never be fooled into thinking they’re automatically earmarked for classic status. Age and multiple re-readings have done nothing to lower The Cursed Earth, The Day the Law Died, The Judge Child, The Apocalypse War, half of Oz, and The Pit in my estimation, but I won’t be revisiting Necropolis or Judgement Day any time soon.

The formula for success is the same as its ever been – a vibrant supporting cast, emotional investment in the characters, memorable villains, and insanely high stakes (for which special mention goes to Oz, which conspired to make winning the Supersurf seem even more important than saving Mega City One) – and in that respect the extended page count is both a blessing and a curse. There’s more room to develop the characters and script a weighty storyline, but it amplifies errors of judgement in the creative process and invites filler-induced ennui if the concept isn’t up to the task. Epics have also been notorious for shuffling artists as deadlines come and go, which is fine if it’s Bolland and McMahon and intolerable if you’re trading Ezquerra for Lee Sullivan.

Origins appears to have the major bases covered – the early days of the Dredd universe is one of the few stories that has yet to be told in any detail, the present-day ramifications are presumably immense, and Ezquerra is on board for the duration (plus his only major weakness – an inability to depict graphic horror in the manner of artists who specialise in splatter – shouldn’t be a problem in a story that’s unlikely to feature Judge Death and his merry crew). I’ll admit that The Connection wasn’t up there with some of the great lead-in stories (think Block Mania and The Dead Man), as it was little more than five episodes of characters chasing each other around, but I expect it’ll improve when we can reference it to the main storyline.

As this is only the first episode there’s not much to work with – we’ve got a squad of judges who may or may not play a major role in the proceedings, a revelation (“Fargo may still be alive!”) that may or may not be true, and a mission that’s certainly only the first step on a journey that promises revelations galore. That’s enough for me, however, because I could have retired after the first page and spent the week a happy man. The promise has been well and truly made, and I’ll be back in a couple of months to let you know if they delivered.

CE: I’ll be honest – having only seen a few appearances by Rocky in Sinister Dexter and not that many where he was shown as having robot legs, I didn’t get that was Rocky until I went on the 2000AD Review message board. It’s not a twist that works very well unless you’ve read a certain amount of Sin-Dex’s. Once I knew who the character was meant to be though, I start looking back at the prog where the scary clown takes over… and it all clicks. The signs are all there in Malone that we’re talking about Finnigan Sinister, and the whole thing really is masterfully orchestrated.

It also adds a whole new level to Malone’s desperation on page 4, as his whole world and identity comes crashing down and we realise Malone wasn’t really his name at all. It’s compelling even if it’s not Finnigan, but knowing it is adds a whole extra dimension – what happened to him to cause such amnesia? What’s he doing this far from home? And what the funt happened to Billi?

Mind you, if it turns out that this isn’t Finnigan after all, this whole review’s going to look pretty daft!

WRL: Simon Coleby’s evolution from his Clockwork Pineapple style continues and for me his artwork gets better with each outing. Simon’s art is still very black and dark with a death metal sensibility but it’s less cluttered than it used to be and looks the better for it. We may want old droids back because we like their style, but it's also good to see that with a new upgrade an old droid can return with a brand new style and continue to improve.

For 5 weeks now we’ve been waiting for more info on the background of Malone. Who is he? Where’s he from? On the last panel we get no more information on Malone but his world leaps into that of another 2000 AD story we are far more familiar as a knock on the door reveals Rocky Rhodes. I’ve enjoyed Malone so far but I’m not a fan of Sinister Dexter or what we’ve seen of their world. I hope that in future episodes my dislike for Sin Dex won’t taint my perception of Malone.

AH: The road to ruin is littered with writers who thought that a hardboiled anti-hero, regular blood-letting and laconic dialogue was all they needed to give Joe R. Lansdale a run for his money (even the great Dan Simmons took a turn for the worse when he decided that bashing out dreck like Hardcase was easier than writing the next Hyperion). As a result I’m pleased to offer a tip of the hat to Cal Hamilton, whose obvious affinity for the genre and slow-burn scripting prevents Malone from becoming another one-note dirge.

Hamilton certainly ticks the boxes when it comes to the basics – Malone’s boiled pretty hard in the current episode (shooting a dude in the leg so you can watch him squirm is the act of an angry man), no matter where you are in the story you’re never far from a healthy dose of violence (threatened or otherwise), and the dialogue on pages 4 and 5 is quietly exceptional (it’s also structured to produce a rhythm that enhances the subject of the discussion, which represents an attention to detail I heartily endorse).

The jury’s out on whether the finished product will also prove to be exceptional, but Hamilton’s already done enough to make it one of the more intriguing efforts of 2006. He’s taking it at his own pace, building an oppressive atmosphere, using claustrophobic environments and repetition to good effect (“If she knows …” is both an enjoyable line and a signpost to an obsessive mind), and he keeps us guessing by raising questions with answers that may range from the simple (Malone’s a loon) to the unexpected (Malone’s the only sane man in a world gone wrong). Plus we’ve just been introduced to a guy with skinny robotic legs, which is a strangely disturbing addition to a strip that’s featured precious few laughs as it is (except, of course, for the hollow variety).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t save some praise for the efforts of Simon Coleby, whose affinity for malformed facial features and use of shadow is perfectly suited to the subject matter (memo to the editorial team – this is an artist who absolutely has to be matched to the script). Since Malone’s not a flashy all-colour affair it’s easy to overlook the thought that’s gone into the layouts, but check out the final four panels on page 2 for a case study in enhancing the moment with intelligent design (in particular the use of grey on Malone’s face to heighten the menace and the switch to a marginally closer viewpoint at a key moment in the dialogue).

It’s obvious that Hamilton and Coleby are invested in this strip, and if it maintains the current level of quality I’m with them all the way. And speaking of flashy all-colour affairs, that brings us to …

Part 6

Sorrel and his pets...

Synopsis: The five survivors desperately try to prevent the monsters getting through the door, but in a very short time they are all dead or in big trouble.
Fenton's plan to block the door fails - all the cars have been gutted. Sorrell is distracted from the danger by strange visions and a sense of unreality. When the monsters finally break through, Fenton is gruesomely
killed. Sorrel has nothing to fear - he's their "favourite son." The un-named woman tries to escape through a window but is dragged through by one of the things. More creatures gather around Rivers. Meanwhile, Prentiss cowers in the sewers.

CE: I knew the girl was going to get eaten, I bloody knew it. She didn’t even get a name! (And if she did, I don’t remember it) I’m surprised and upset to see Fenton eaten though, he was great fun; even more surprised to see Harry get eaten so abruptly, with him seemingly being one of the two main characters and all; but the biggest surprise of all is to find Prentiss wasn’t eaten. Since he seems to be the only character other than Sorrell left alive, I hope he shows more characterisation. Sorrell, on the other hand… it was obvious he had some ties to the monsters and that he may be dodgy, but he appears to know a lot more than he was letting on, explicitly stating he’s linked to the monsters.

It’s a nice frantic episode, as in five pages over half the cast is slaughtered after a doomed attempt at survival. Apart from the surprising nature of who got killed and how (you’d think if Harry was going to die he’d have a more meaningful death), it’s extremely eerie to see Sorrel going to the dark side. We’ve been following this guy since 1500 and generally identifying with him; seeing him suddenly change direction and be a possible bad guy is disorienting. (OK, he murdered two people, so it’s not like it’s unexpected that he’s a bit dodgy) With most of the cast gone, our lead changing sides and the continued mystery of what exactly the monsters are planning, Stone Island might be about to go in a completely different direction to where we originally thought it would go.

WRL: As soon as you see Simon Davis's name attached to any project you know exactly what you’re going to get visually, the only variable being the story he works on. Over the years he’s done a variety of strips but the one constant is the quality of his part on the project.

With Stone Island Simon, once again, doesn’t disappoint with the visuals but I’m afraid that no matter how good it looks, I’m not a fan of the story so far. Having said that, once it's finished I shall read it in one go to see if I can get more out of it.

AH: My predilection for realistic facial expressions is well-known (it makes it easier to convey emotion without resorting to redundant dialogue), and that makes Simon Davis one of my artists of choice. He specialises in negative emotions - surprise, terror, distaste, the look you get when a slavering beast tears your arm off – so he’s obviously having a field day with Stone Island. Unfortunately he’s the only thing that keeps me turning the page, as Edginton’s script has yet to offer us anything more substantial than contrived dialogue and spraying blood.

The comparatively low page count for 2000 A.D. strips often fools writers into believing they can script an extended action sequence and leave it at that (see my comments on The Connection above and Nikolai Dante below). I like my daily dose of mayhem as much as the next man, but the pyrotechnics have to form part of a larger whole, not the least because the viewer has to care about the characters in harm’s way. Some classic stories were little more than a series of violent confrontations – think Swimming in Blood and Zenith III – but the writers always took the time to develop the protagonists and construct an atmospheric and innovative premise.

We’re six episodes in, and to date the entire plot wouldn’t amount to more than thirty minutes of fighting, running, screaming and dying in a B movie. Moreover, a bunch of miscreants trading insults doesn’t qualify as character development, especially when the dialogue regularly borders on the ludicrous (when a door’s the only thing saving you from disembowelment and some dude orders you to shore up the defences with a car, your response will be something along the lines of “Sure thing!” or an imperceptible whimper. You will not say “What did your last servant die of?”, because that’s just stupid.)

As for an innovative premise – well, this is Edginton we’re talking about, and I can’t believe the man responsible for Scarlet Traces and Leviathan doesn’t have something up his sleeve. If not, then this strip is going to go down as a visually arresting but ultimately empty exercise in excess.

Robot Wars - Part 5

Bug Stomper fights back...

Synopsis: The robo-ratter is gradually picking off the dwindling members of Banzai Battalion. Flambo is captured and de-activated by Mrs Fitzenheimer, despite argument.

The Battalion launches an audacious counter-attack, Oscar sacrificing himself to allow Bug Stomper to access the robot dog's controls and deactivate it.
This use of such "weapons of mass destruction" is the last straw for the now "human" Captain and he declares war on the garden's owners.

CE: It’s tiny gardening robots who talk like old war movies fighting a giant robot dog called Killer. How could this not be fun? Stomper’s way of getting a volunteer is bloody funny. But despite all that, we still have a darker edge steadily taking over, as Stomper decides to take the battle to the humans – and since the Banzais have explosives, this is a slightly worrying prospect; it was always fun seeing the Banzais taking on human opponents and human environments and it will be next prog, but this time they’re taking on their own owners with possible lethal intent. Could this be leading to a final Banzai story? It’s hard to see how the existing status quo can be the same afterwards, with Stomper growing increasingly nuts.

Be pity if this was the last one though – based on the last few progs, there’s still some life in the Banzais yet!

WRL: I’ve liked Banzai Battalion ever since they first appeared and continue to look forward to their reappearances. Steve Roberts's artwork is a departure from previous outings as they’re now depicted as being very cartoony but, as John’s cranked up the humour in his scripts, could there be any other art droid in Tharg’s stable more suitable for the job? I’ve not enjoyed this Banzai tale as much as others but I’ve always liked them more when read in one go. If Flambo really has gone to the great bug-filled garden in the sky, lest we forget that Bug Stomper is still a legend in pest control...

AH: I appreciate there are times when writers need to take a break from crafting their next critically acclaimed opus, but a week in Ibiza would be preferable to asking me to fund their creative siesta. I imagine Wagner dusted off this strip as an antidote to late nights on Origins, but while the original Banzai Battalion was an enjoyable homage to Toy Story the premise was mined out by the time the third outing came to a close. Wagner’s solution was to jettison the humour that gave the strip its charm and replace it with a bizarre descent into lunacy for Mr. Stomper, with the rest of the story consisting of a firefight that threatens to go on forever.

Steve Roberts’s style is custom-made for screwball humour, so it’s a pity he’s invariably lumbered with scripts that aren’t particularly amusing (think Bec & Kawl and the kind of Sinister Dexter episodes Abnett writes when he should be joining Wagner in Ibiza). He rises above the subject matter to capture the spirit of the series, and while previous Banzai artists lent Stomper a pleasing air of nobility, now that he’s a garden-variety madman Roberts is actually a more appropriate man for the job (in his work for the weekly he’s yet to draw a character that doesn’t look like they’ve escaped from a mental institution).

That’s two strips in a row that feature (a) respected writers taking their foot off the pedal; and (b) endless action substituting for a well-rounded story. It’s actually three, however, because next up we’ve got …

Dragon's Island - Part 4

The remains of the Kraken...

Synopsis: Akita angrily rejects the Tsar's offer of assistance. He is satisfied to be an observer - for now.

Katarina and Lauren have escaped but Akita's Dragon warriors make fast work of their crew and they are soon captives again. Akita proudly explains how she created the Dragons from clones of Kraken. Suddenly, she is interrupted by a voice from above. It's Nikolai Dante, the Man who is Too Cool to Kill.

CE: Considering how well the pirates have been doing, it’s a real shock to see them all slaughtered so damn quickly by the Dragons. They get overwhelmed in just four panels. The Dragon’s are bloody hardcore, which does beg the question of how Dante is going to rescue everyone from them and also get away. And based on his track record, there’s a very real possibility he might not. Is this going to be Dante’s triumphant victory or is he going to fail where it counts? Even though it’s taken far longer than it should’ve to get to this point, it is still a sign in Dante’s favour that it is genuinely in question whether or not the hero is going to actually save the day. And then there’s the Tsar waiting in the wings – ooer! Love the scene where the oblivious pirates proudly tell Katarina how they tried blowing up her son too, that was great.

WRL: Yawn. Whatever happened to the swashbuckling, fighting sex machine that used to appear under the banner of Nikolai Dante? This latest adventure isn’t bad - both story and art are decent enough - it’s just that I’m starting to tire of these Dante stories that don’t seem to take the character anywhere.

We’ve seen Dante showing his more human side by saving individuals in other stories but trying to save the two children in this latest adventure seems to be lasting forever. I may have cared about Dante’s relationship with his mother but, as with his attempts to save the children, there seems to be no end in sight and when Dante’s family tree is full of characters that we yearn to see more of, this meandering section of Dante’s adventures seems to be keeping us from seeing the main event.

AH: Over the last eighteen months I’ve written three negative reviews of Dante strips (including this one), which is probably why I haven’t been getting any Christmas cards from Robbie Morrison. However, I simply can’t understand why Morrison hasn’t reacted to the faint praise his recent efforts have garnered, which leads me to believe that one of the following must be true:

• Nikolai Dante wasn’t actually as good as we remember it, so the quality is the same as it ever was.
• Morrison still hasn’t worked out what he wants to achieve with this strip now that the initial story arc has drawn to a close.

With respect to the possibility of the memory cheating, I recently re-read the bulk of the Dante offerings from inception to the end of The Romanov Empire. That period certainly saw its share of filler (usually the instalments that were played purely for laughs), but the Romanov’s long march to destruction was a gripping and emotional epic anchored by a powerhouse script and exceptional work from Fraser and Burns. It came at a cost, however - Morrison achieved the desired effect by killing off practically every supporting character, and the replacements (a bland female sidekick, a mother who didn’t give her son enough lovin’ and a couple of textbook villains) aren’t strong enough to carry a strip that can’t survive if Dante’s the sole focus (I laid out the reasons in my review of prog 1435, so I won’t restate them here).

It’s possible that Morrison has a five-year plan that’ll make me look like a fool somewhere down the line, but I still think he should have spent more time introducing new characters and less on talking gorillas and daring escapes (seen one, seen ‘em all). It’s worth noting that the only truly interesting individuals to appear in recent times – the pirate captains – were virtually wiped out in a couple of issues, an unfortunate quirk that also reared its head in the last run of Morrison’s Shakara.

As for the current storyline – well, something’s definitely happening at last, but so far it’s been little more than (all together now) an extended action sequence. That isn’t what I want from this strip, and at the risk of repeating myself I’ll lay it out one last time. I want new and interesting characters I can care about. I want an end to stories that feature swashbuckling, shagging and nothing in between. I want Lauren and Katarina gone for good, because one’s tiresome and the other’s served her purpose. I want villains who could be heroes and heroes who could be villains. I want a return to the days when Jena was something more than comic relief. I want to see the Tsar swinging from a gibbet in the noonday sun. And most of all, I want to feel the way I did when Dante and his companions made a hopeless but heroic stand in the name of a cause worth dying for, because that’s why I started reading 2000 A.D. when I was ten years old and nothing’s changed in the thirty years since.

There’s still time to make it happen – all we need is for Morrison to find the will to take us there.