2000AD Prog 1511 - 25 October 2006
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / Ezquerra) Chiaroscuro (Spurrier / Smudge) Sinister Dexter (Abnett / Williams) Harry Kipling (Spurrier / Cook) Nikolai Dante (Morrison / Fraser) Synopsis by Gavin Hanly 1st opinion by David Knight 2nd opinion by Adam Crabtree Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue. Cover: Simon Fraser

Cover Review

DK: A nice old-fashioned 2000ad cover that I’ve got no argument with. I’ve just noticed that Dante’s sword and the information box are uncomfortably close company, but I wasn’t looking at that when I picked up my copy in the shop.

AC: A very fine piece of work from Simon Fraser. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the soft hiss of Dante fans the country over pissing their breeks in fanboyish/girlish anticipation. This announces loud and clear a potential return to golden age of 1997 for Nikolai Dante, and is damn pretty to gaze upon to boot.

Origins - Part 7 - Working on the Chain Gang

"Not the face!"

Synopsis: Dredd is taken out to do hard labour and is whipped badly - but he hopes to wait until nightfall before making his move. Later, Cohn is tending to Logan in their cell - Logan tells him that Dredd is sure to come for them. Meanwhile, Dredd falls to the ground and, as his captors try to attack him, throws dirt in their faces, wrestles a gun off one of them and manages to escape.

In town, one of the townsfolk is joyriding on Dredd's lawmaster until Dredd knocks him cold, and uses the bike to pull the bars from Logan and Cohn's jail. Dredd frees them and is determined to get their bikes back. He starts shooting at the officers in town who make the mistake of shooting back with the captured lawgivers - which explode when not used by a registered judge.

Outside the town, a group of riders hear the gunfire and decide to investigate - each of them have the trademark Dredd/Fargo chin...

DK: I really enjoyed this. To me it was the best episode of Origins yet. It’s got mayhem, adventure, violence, numerous shootings, a jailbreak, and all kinds of crazy nonsense; and it’s not over-burdened with plot, either. The artwork is absolutely fantastic, and there even Ezquerra has excelled himself, and he’s a tough act to beat.

This Dredd plot resembles one of a ripe old vintage, and it’s a bit like a replay of the Burger Wars: Dredd on a chain gang in the Cursed Earth, Dredd’s captors let him keep his helmet on, there’s extraordinarily quaint dialogue (especially “yes boss, I’m working boss” from Dredd), he escapes easily, etc. The whipping on page 1 is bloody gruesome, and amazingly Dredd puts his jacket straight back on. He’s one hell of a hard cop!

This series has the perfect combination of writer and artist, working exceedingly well together. It’s a gripping story, and looks incredible.

AC: I’m at a loss with this one. I just don’t get what Wagner’s game is. First we get the faintly ridiculous sight of Dredd being stripped to the waist and still having his helmet on; the logic of this move is essentially sound within the context of the story, but the way it is presented just doesn’t have the usual, seemingly natural proficiency we’ve come to expect from the Dreddfather.

Dialogue straight out of ’77 is strewn around the place, with the sort of jokes and dramatic declaratives all deprived of the economy of language and inherent knowingness of the characterisation that made stories as recent as The Connection so very, very good. When “DANG!” is a gringo’s sole response to finding his hand has gone AWOL, you’ve got to wonder just what the Hell’s going on.

Now here’s the thing; it doesn’t ring true that Wagner is NOT in complete control of things. Past glories have me convinced that there’s SOMETHING intelligent going on beneath the surface… perhaps, just perhaps, we’re going to be moving all the way through the eras of Dredd for this story? We start at the beginning and by the end of Origins, we’ll be bang up to date!

….

That may be reaching a little. You get the point anyway.

At least we’ve still got Carlos Ezquerra’s art, which isn’t nearly so troubling.

Enter the bad guy...

At the seminary, she mentions something about all gods having Angels and Demons to reward faith or punish transgressions, but neither Slim or Elvy understand what she means. She said she received a call from Meyer who told her that he had found a way to "settle things once and for all" - and she assumes he meant Elvy. She tells them that she can't really help them and that David Berry, the camera operator on the film who now works in the Orkneys might be able to.

She asks them to leave her in the church and, after they are gone, we see she had a copy of the film with her, praying that she couldn't give it to them. However, something else is in the shadows of the church with her and it tells her that "La Bondje" can't hear her. When she tells it that it can't come into the church, it tells her it's getting stronger. She runs out of the church, past Elvy and Slim and is immediately pecked to death by crows in front of them. The crows rip the film to shreds too....

DK: I haven’t taken to this series. It took a while to see where it was going, and it turns out to be a supernatural murder mystery in which the victims all had something to do with a scarce ‘mondo’ feature film. Nothing wrong with the premise, but I’m finding the strip as hard to like as its main character, who is a bit of a dick.

The dialogue in Part 5 put me in mind of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, as parts of it would have sounded right coming from the mouths of Dr. Rick Dagless (M.D.) and Thornton Reed (“kicking against the tide” – what??). The one good thing was the new bogeyman villain, who I would like to see a lot more of, and who I would like to have seen make his entrance sooner.

MN: Recent revelations about the high-flying, studentesque lifestyle of Simon Spurrier give further credence to the theory that hardship begets genius. The significance of the baked beans component of this theory has yet to be ascertained.

Like the biggest, scariest onion you ever met, Chiaroscuro is a work of many layers. I’ve mentioned before that in this title we have that ultimate rarity; a horror comic that not only doesn’t suck but is genuinely unnerving and engaging.

A key factor in this is the way yon Spurrier has managed to set aside some of the rather self conscious prickliness that has marred (albeit only slightly) the likes of Lobster Random in the past, and I’ll be damned if he hasn’t STOLEN John Wagner’s economy of words! He needs that for Origins, Spurrier, give it back.

The art of the mysterious Smudge boasts more character than usual this week; some of his female faces have been a bit canine in past weeks, but his rather dynamic representation of this week’s new player (with a hairstyle that could kill a man) shows a nice turnabout as far as this is concerned. He gives every character a unique identity, something that not a whole lot of Tooth artists can do, even on some of the highest artistic echelons of the mag.

Places to go, People to do - Part 4

Broadus wishes he'd flushed first...

Synopsis: Sinister has tied Cutter's partner in the toilet and now Kal Cutter is worried that Sinister has returned to kill him. But Sinister merely asks Cutter if he'd introduce him to the Mover. Cutter, knowing that the mover is Tanenbaum, tells him that won't be possible. Sinister doesn't seem too bothered and tells him that he only wanted to sit down with him so that he could do so and not kill him - now Cutter owes him one. Sinister walks away...

Later a bag man for Apellido, Chevy Brakes, and his crew are returning with the nights takings. But waiting on a corner for them is Sinister, and he starts shooting...

DK: I’ve never disliked Sinister Dexter, and whilst some readers bemoan its return whenever it reappears, I always welcome its presence. It’s earned its place in 2000AD: I just like to see a bit of quirky fun going on when it’s there.

This episode didn’t start well for me, with three pages of talking heads featuring Finnigan Sinister and Kal Cutter. It had to be done, I suppose. It’s what you might call ‘house keeping’: dealing with issues that can’t be avoided, in order for the story to get going without interruption later on. Where this instalment got going for me was when the customary punning started. ‘Breakfast Epiphanies’ made me laugh. Any pun will do in Sinister Dexter. As long as it’s off the wall enough, it doesn’t even have to mean anything.

Here’s quite a forgettable chapter, not a satisfying read by any means, but it looks like the series back on the right track and it made me laugh once. That’s not bad.

AC: This is getting incrementally better by the week. I’m even getting used to Anthony Williams’ art duties (can’t pine after Simon Davis forever), with his vaguely insectoid Finnigan Sinister a particular highlight. The strip gets down to its Tarantino roots this week after last week’s introduction of more overtly sci-fi elements (and it still remains to be seen how effectively they’ll play out).

The charged confrontation between Sinister and his wayward protégé across a diner table adds more of a human touch to proceedings, the sort of thing that was amply provided in Malone in fact.

These are exciting times for this strip. Everybody’s kind of thinking that it could easily lapse at any moment into the fairly disposable fare it had become before last year’s “And Death…” and I think the creators know this.

And that’s good. Abnett’s scripting has got that hunger back, baby.

The Hitman and Hermoth - Part 3

Hermoth handily fills in some gaps...

Synopsis: Hermoth wonders why Kipling and Neela had the guts to escape, just as Neela looks at the Soma production line and realises they are diluting it. Kipling starts fighting back, but Hermoth picks him up and recognises who he is. His minions take Neela back to the holding cell, although Kipling embraces her before she is dragged away. Hermoth then releases his berserkers, also zombies like Harry, to fight him for entertainment. Kipling wonders what made them "empties" like this...

Meanwhile, Neela is brought back to the cell where she discovers the communicator that Kipling stashed on her during their embrace. She calls Klux with a message for the bird god, Bellin-Bellin.

Elsewhere, Hermoth has had enough of his entertainment and says that he's been ripping off his "boss" for years and getting away with it. But Kipling was the first "empty" his boss ever made and he'll be rewarded for returning him. At that point, Bellin Bellin rips open the ship: "What's all this 'bout cuttin' me bludgin' soma?"

DK: My enjoyment of Harry Kipling is a bit up and down from one Prog to the next, and I’m pleased to say this Prog it was up. Hermoth’s accent was entertaining for one thing. So was Harry and Hermoth carrying on a discussion while Kipling was being attacked by berserkers. Indeed, the whole thing was entertaining. There’s not much more to be said.

I’d like to see a lot more of Harry Kipling, in small doses. He’s an asset to 2000AD. The only thing I’m not sure about is the fine balancing act between Harry Kipling’s role as god killer and his more contingent adventures, like Something for Nothing and The Hitman and Hermoth, where Kipling gets to use his discretion. As a reader I like to know for certain what a character is about. If Kipling kills gods most of the time, that’s good enough for me; and if he’s not killing gods that’s fine too, as long as we know why.

MN: More madness from Kippers and I’m really not loving this drugs storyline. When you’ve got a big crow asking who’s cutting his supply… well, it just doesn’t seem in keeping with the earliest remit of the Kippers; high adventure’s what we want, without the rather seedy distraction of the Soma story arc! Hopefully, the strip’s apparently upwardly mobile nature will see the arc’s speedy conclusion.

We get a bit more story-wise this week, with hints made at Harry’s background, and it seems he’s got more than a little in common with Wulf-a-like peddler Hermoth. Don’t think we’ve forgotten that intrinsically evil bowler hat from the first proper story.

Boo Cook’s art is looking somewhat more rushed than it has been, a bit scrappier, a bit patchier perhaps. I still also think Neela’s new threads are reminiscent of the 1990’s wave of pseudo-feminism enjoyed by comics, where connotations of domination amounted to feminism. The two creators of this title are still very well suited, but I think Master Cook could use with a rest. I DON’T say that in a snide way; his workload was a little lighter before this came along after all, and his stuff isn’t exactly simple to produce.

I think Kev Walker would do incredible things on a title like this, but then I sometimes wish Kev Walker lived in my house and just did drawings for me all day, so there it is, out in the open.

Sword of the Tsar - part 1

The Kraken gives Dante a hand...

Synopsis: (Continued from prog 1507) Dante is surrounded by the Kraken clones and things are looking grim. Outside the Pacifica stronghold, Lauren and his mother are hoping he'll escape when the Tsar's army arrives and order the pirate fleet to stand down and withdraw.

Inside, Dante's luck is running out and one of the clones rips its hand through him. Dante falls to the floor, bleeding badly, as the Kraken clone prepares to deal the final blow, before it is suddenly destroyed by a large armoured soldier of the Tsar, who claims Dante for the Tsar. When the clones refuse to stand down, they are destroyed by the armoured warrior in a sweeping blast from his hand. The warrior looks down on the bleeding Dante and tells him that many people blame him for the state of the empire today, and that even with his healing abilities, he would die without medical attention, and the soldier could just watch him die. Instead, he sends a blast through Dante, leaving him crumpled on the floor. With Dante now unconscious or dead, the soldier removes his helmet and reveals himself as Konstantin Romanov - whom Dante had supposedly killed during the wars...

DK: Nikolai Dante wasn’t doing badly drawn by John Burns in the storyline that culminated in the attack on Pacifica, but the sudden change of artist to Simon Fraser adds a level of interest. For one thing, his line work rather than fully painted style somehow makes the gore seem gorier. Dante really suffers during this combat.

An army of a hundred ninja clones suddenly wiped out by a guy in power armour with an incinerator glove is a bit hard to swallow, but I’d had enough of them by now, so I’m not complaining. For some reason I was expecting Jena Makarov inside the armour, but then I haven’t really been paying attention. Bit of a shock when Dante got blasted through the guts. Like Sinister Dexter, I don’t mind Dante taking up space in the Prog, because it has a good scenario and good characters, and it has its moments. But, also like Sinister Dexter, I probably wouldn’t be spending my money on it if it was a stand-alone title rather than a 5 or 6 page strip in an anthology comic.

MN: And here’s another one for which the worm has turned in recent times (and it does tricks too! Snark!). With the turnaround in Sinister Dexter’s fortunes, Dante’s adventures have experienced a sudden, unabashed torrent of love. This may well have something to do with the reintroduction of a certain artist…

Dante co-creator Simon Fraser has a certain visual flair, something in the richness of his colour tones and the distinctiveness of his line-work… I always like it best when art is distinctive, when it has a face; people like Kevin O’Neill, Carl Critchlow, Carlos Ezquerra and Mike Mignola. Proficiency can be taught; style, it can be argued, cannot.

The last panel revelations mean decidedly less to me than they may mean to some more long term Dante-philes, but the story is definitely moving, with Robbie Morrison clearly being spurred on to greater heights by Fraser’s return, and that fire suit? Bitchin’.