Cover by Cliff Robinson

SD: Origins is back with a firefight on the front cover and Dredd and Rico taking the heat.  It’s the not the best cover of the year but it definitely stands out and it’s the little things that I like especially the tag line under the prog number.  Trigger happy 2000AD seems good to me. 

JM: Cliff Robinson, the definitive Judge Dredd covers artist, illustrates the return of what seems likely to be the most influential Dredd epic of the last couple of decades.  Not surprisingly, it’s a damn good cover, crisp, dynamic and intriguing.  The chinstraps on the prototype Judge helmets (which don’t appear in Ezquerra’s designs) provide a very neat solution to the problem of how to draw Dredd’s chin on a preadolescent without making the child look a bit of a mutant.  I’ve no idea if this was the artist’s intention or not, but the pose Rico is adopting is very much the classic Judge gunfighting style while Dredd’s is much looser and more human, which subtly reminds the reader that Rico was always meant to be the better shot (see The Return of Rico). 

My only problem is with the bland, digitized background, which creates perspective problems. Is it the floor and hence they are leaning back, or is it the wall and hence the gunshots are impacting less hard than you would expect?

Origins - Part 17 - Sitting Targets Script: John Wagner Art: Carlos Ezquerra Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd goes joyriding...

Synopsis: Continued from episode 16. Dredd and Rico take Fargo and the doctors into the elevator - cutting the cable to escape the invading soldiers (the automatic brakes save them). They steal an ambulance, ordering some of the other ambulances to head out to give them cover. Dredd calls for backup which arrives just as they are about to be picked off by gunships.

Back and Justice HQ, Solomon tells Goodman he must issue the order to arrest Booth...

SD: Origins returns, with the Mighty Tharg giving us a ‘previously in Origins’ text & picture box to help those with a poor longer term memory a reminder of just where we are in this story.  I think this was needed as it’s been a long sabbatical.  I’m not too irritated by the delay as the stories in between were decent and this returning episode is exciting enough for me to forgive delays and reduce my impatience. 

This runs like an action movie, lift falling down a shaft (that’ll be me walking up the stairs), ambulance decoys, fires, weapons shooting everywhere and cadets Rico and Dredd pulling Fargo to safety, all exciting stuff.  So no complaints here.  The hints at what comes next with Booth and the White House will have me waiting impatiently for Monday. As for the art, there is little if anything to criticise when it is Mr Ezquerra at the pen.   

JM: Wagner is doing a masterly job of portraying Dredd as a child.  Joe and Rico are clearly possessed of almost superhuman control and initiative, but at the same time there is a more human element in parts of the dialogue (“Give me a hand, Joe!”) that one simply can’t imagine coming out of the mouths of the men these two will become.  The fact that you can’t always tell which of the two is speaking adds to the impression of them as a very tight team, pretty much interchangeable, which of course lends additional poignancy to their later history.  It’s to be hoped that in a later story we’ll see more of how the smart, brave, motivated child that Rico is became the cold-hearted Judge-killer that we’ve just seen operating in Judgement, but equally it’s refreshing that we haven’t seen a hint of foreshadowing of those events in Origins.

This week’s episode is pretty much a straight shoot-em-up which shows off Ezquerra’s skill at creating urgent, fast-moving action sequences, but doesn’t really advance the plot very much.  That is, until the final two panels, which for the third or fourth episode running builds up the evil of Booth and the drama of his forthcoming arrest.  It seems as though the Judgement of Solomon is going to be Origins’ big climax, and that Dredd’s history as we know it, for whatever devious reasons John Wagner has planned, will never be the same again…

Double Yellow - Part 4 Script: Pat Mills Art: Charlie Adlard Letters: Ellie De Ville

Savage tells it like it is...

Synopsis: Bill visits Madge, Tom's widow, and her kids, killing the SS man who was guarding them. He takes them out of the city to safety, destroying a troop of Volgs who try to stop them.

Later, Savage and Noddy are at Waltham Stadium on a mission - making a "switch" with Darren Knight - one of Tom's killers.

SD: Savage is as Savage does and this is an episode, which shows his brutal side and his affectionate side.  Kill someone, step over the body, greet your sister as if it’s just another day.  They delay as if they're going on a vacation and the little girl runs up to her Uncle and tells a story about the nasty Volgs killing a kid in the same way she’d tell a story about the weather. 

Sometimes this strip hits a chord with me and some times it misses the mark.  This time it’s hit home and it makes me feel uncomfortable as all good anti-heroes should.  The black and white removes you to some degree from the violence but the expressions of mistrust and hate on the faces of the characters is well drawn and draws you back in.   If it can keep up the raw edge it may yet turn me from a casual reader into a fan. 

JM: " Once upon a time, a boy was walking to school. On the way, a soldier came and did not stop following him. The soldier shot him and there was blood everywhere! The soldier said the boy was a terry-rist and was hiding a bomb in his schoolbag. The End."

2000AD’s anthology nature has always made it a heterogeneous beast, with many different and often competing agendas.  Of course, entertainment of the reader remains its primary goal, but occasionally a series rises above its pulpy origins to become something extraordinary.  Alan Moore’s Skizz springs to mind – an ET rip-off that rather than being a saccharine paean to the family became an indictment of a country throwing its heroes on the waste pile and the dole queue.  Strontium Dog’s reflections on apartheid.  Judge Dredd’s great moments of black satire. 

Much of Pat Mills’ oeuvre has aimed at similar heights, which probably explains why, when he misses the mark (as with the final series of Black Siddha, or much of the recent Slaine epics) he misses the mark all the way.  Ambitious, inventive and insanely political, his best work is probably closer to the heart of what makes 2000AD a uniquely beloved title than anyone else’s, even the much more consistent and equally political work of John Wagner.  In recent years, his hit-ratio has been lower than it was when he was genuinely having to subvert editorial fiats – one suspects he’s a writer who produces more interesting work when subject to strict and unreasonable editorial interventions on political or moral grounds – but in Savage, that brutal leftover from the earliest days of 2000AD, he has created a new masterpiece.

I’m not afraid to admit to getting the shivers when I read Annie’s story.  The reality of the world Mills is describing is, after all our reality, where children die every day as the result of actions by ourselves or our allies.  One might argue that Mills is guilty of in some way serving up our country’s disgusting war on the Muslim world as entertainment, were it not for the absolutely understandable, utterly serious hatred that seethes through this story and its psychopathic protagonist. By bringing the reader’s imagination to bear on the question of “What would you do if it was your family in the firing line, your neighbourhood patrolled by armed troops, your children seized and raped”, Mills, ably aided by Charlie Adlard’s raw monochromes, may just have created 2000AD’s finest hour.

Casino Royal Script: Alan Grant Art: Ian Gibson Letters: Simon Bowland

Samantha tries to change her luck...

Synopsis: While Hoagy and Stogie break into the casino, Samantha is still winning, apparently aided by the cheating 5 of aces robo playing card. One of the players, Tony Da Tongue, loses everything but decides to stage a heist to get the money instead. A bunch of robo-mafiosos burst into the casino...

SD: I have always liked this strip, it may not be intricate, dark or particularly compelling but there is nothing to say that everything has to have a serious slant and after the darkness of Savage this is quite refreshing.  It is amusing, light hearted, well drawn and well written.  The use of characters out of the old James Bond films, the magic No.5 and Sam’s side kick robots make this fun stuff.   

It may be criticised for being a little formulaic. Let’s face it Sam Slade ain’t gonna come out of this with any money, and will probably have to get herself and her robots out of a few scrapes. But hey, like they say - it’s not always about the destination, sometimes it’s about the journey and I’m happy to sit back and enjoy the ride. 

JM:The plot makes sense, the Casino setting is quite enjoyable, and Ian Gibson’s designs are getting back in tune with the lunacy of the original Robo-hunter series.  This outing for Samantha Slade is definitely the strongest yet, but it’s got a long way to go before becoming once again an essential element in the 2000AD line-up.  Some errors in the poker rules in this episode have been noted by sharp-eyed readers, but to those of us not obsessed with smoky rooms and the random interplay of bits of cardboard, it all seems to be progressing nicely.  While this is the weakest story in the prog, it’s by no means a low moment.

The Last Thing I do: Part 2 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Simon Davis Letters: Ellie De Ville

Sinister gets a fellow escapee...

Synopsis: Locked up in jail, Sinister is planning his way out and seems intent on taking Billy No Mates and Deakus with him. He tells them to expect the plan to fall into place soon...

On the outside, Kal Cutter and Broadus are outside Maybach's place. Maybach is Apellido's banker - someone the Mover will pay dearly for. While Broadus waits outside, Kutter goes in alone, guns blazing...

SD: I was becoming a little Sinister Dexter weary but the Malone strip gave a real boost to what had been a flagging story.  I’m not quite sure yet how the jail story is going to pan out, since finding his partner in crime alive if not kicking was surprising enough.  The drip drip of information, and storylines both on the inside and outside of the ‘punt’ are keeping me sufficiently interested for me to check it out next week.  Whenever I feel that this strip is getting a little lack lustre, it hits me with something out of the blue. I’ve been continually surprised by this strip and I dare say will be again, so while I’m waiting to see what happens, Simon Davis’s art will keep me sufficiently distracted not to worry too much about it. 

JM: I’m going to ignore the overly smug dialogue about “foreshadowing” at the start of this episode, because every time I think about Abnett’s smug, unfunny attempt at metatextual play I go red in the face and crumple my prog in my hands muttering about smartarse writers think they can come into my house and start with their… grr… snarl…

The rest of the episode, by contrast, is a joy.  Simon Davies’ view of jail time, which blank environment allows for his unique skills at depicting human facial expressions to really shine out, is a joy to behold.  I’d happily see a new prison story from him.  Providing it’s not Stone Bloody Island 2. 

Finny’s plan, whatever it is, is rocketing along nicely and there are some wonderful directions it could all move in.  My money’s on an eleventh-hour betrayal by Deakus, predicted by Sinister – that way of bringing him in “accidentally” was just too convenient.  But I’ll probably be enjoyably wrongfooted, as has happened so many times in this story so far.

Hellfire - Part 2 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Simon Fraser Letters: Annie Parkhouse Colours: Gary Caldwell

The disapproving Tsar ...

Synopsis: The Tsar is concerned at Konstantin's rather over-zealous interrogation of Emmanuel, but he did give up Lulu's location in Edinburgh - a city whose architecture has been barely touched by the progress elsewhere. In Edinburgh, Dante uses his symbiotic computer to bypass the security retinal scans, and Dante and Elena proceed inside. Once Lulu's presence is confirmed, the Lord Protector will launch an all out attack. Inside, while Lulu is getting bored with the Cadre Infernale, Elena and Dante witness the decadent training sessions. Lulu confronts them - and attacks...

SD: They say that you can choose your friends but not your family and when your relations are the Romanovs you really aren’t going to be playing happy families. The longer this strip goes on the more you get the impression that Nikolai is between a rock and a hard place. As far as the Romanovs are concerned he’s expendable.  It’s a lot more intense and less flippant than some of his other stories, which gives a different layer to his character and develops the story further.  However, this does have the downside of removing some of the humour that was a likeable part of this strip.  Perhaps I’m being too harsh and the grin which I’ve enjoyed seeing on his face when his enemies get their just desserts is not too far behind. 

JM: The treatment of sexuality in Dante is one of its great strengths.  Lulu Romanov’s use of sex to brainwash her cultists is implicitly contrasted with Dante’s carefree enjoyment of the two-backed beast and Konstantin’s sublimation of his sexual urges into torture and brutality.  Emmanuel’s death, while thoroughly deserved, was clearly an act of pure pleasure for the Lord Protector, and I can’t wait to see him and Dante go toe-to-toe once more.  

The picture of a future Edinburgh largely unchanged from our own times, and haunted by its dark pasts is fantastic, though I thought the reference to the current Scottish parliament slightly gauche (much like the reference to the Geneva Convention in the previous episode).  But the Cadre Infernale’s base, with wall-to-wall sex and death, hardly disappoints, and it’ll be interesting to see how Dante defeats the near-invulnerable Lulu.  

It’s odd to think that Dante a year ago seemed to be a shadow of its former self, reduced to silly high-jinks on the open waves.  Now that the imperial intrigues and family plottings are all beginning to mount toward a bloody conclusion (one that I’m not entirely confident Dante will survive), the series really is one of the most consistently reliable highpoints in my weekly Thrillpackage.

SD: Best Story: Judge Dredd

JM: Although Robo-hunter’s not my cup of tea, the rest of this Prog is firing on every cylinder.  Dredd’s current epic should of course be the ultimate thrill, but in fact there seems to be something in the air at the moment that’s got the writing droids competing to throw out the best stories possible, and Origins in fact comes somewhere in the middle in my affections, with both Savage and Dante more enjoyable and Sinister/Dexter bubbling under close behind.

Best Story: Savage