Cover by Karl Richardson

PMcC: As London burns, a battle-scarred giant robot punches a dinosaur’s teeth out! There’s a real B movie feel to this week’s cover, which is greatly enhanced by those over the top cover lines. The only thing missing is a sardonic comment from the Detonator: something along the lines of “Chew on this, Gorgo!” or, you know, something clever.

Closer inspection of the image itself does raise a couple of questions. How on Earth does that robot’s torso stay attached to its legs? And are those two big white lines meant to be there? Nonetheless, it’s very eye-catching and, while I’ve never really got the Japanese obsession with Mecha, I believe “the kids” are very much into it these days and there’s even some sort of film coming out soon.

Origins - Part 22 - Hell to the Chief Script: John Wagner Art: Carlos Ezquerra Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Booth begins to regret taking on Dredd...

Synopsis: The dust settles, Dredd is released and Booth is pulled from the rubble of the courthouse. The judges rescue Fargo's capsule from the church but are swiftly surrounded by the townsfolk. Dredd puts their loyalty to the test and ties Booth to the front of their transporter. It only stops the mutants for a moment who open fire on the judges, killing Booth in the process. The judges are almost beaten until Logan appears with the lawmasters on automatic and opens fire on the mutants - it's enough to give the judges time to regroup - but Logan is hit in the firefight...

PMcC: I’m pretty much reconciled to the fact that Origins isn’t going to answer a lot of the questions it has raised and we’ve got another year or two’s worth of spin-offs to come. I felt a bit short changed by last week’s exploding extravaganza, but there’s much more meat to the story this week. The abrupt demise of Bad Bob Booth was well executed and I’ve surprised myself by caring what happens to Logan.

The art is Ezquerra’s usual reliable job, but I did really like the muted tones of the first page.

For me, Origins has been up, down and all around in terms of quality, tone and plot to the extent that I don’t want to say much about it until next week when I can sit down and read the whole thing through.

Double Yellow - Part 9 Script: Pat Mills Art: Charlie Adlard Letters: Ellie De Ville

Savage gets all modest...

Synopsis: Backup arrives for Savage and he chases Granville into the streets, finally killing him.

Later Savage learns of a crackdown on the South London Triangle but when Tom's report hit the Internet, an uprising started that finally drove back the Volgs from the area - making it the first unoccupied area of London. In the meantime, the extreme group Traitor's Gate, led by Royce has kidnapped the Prime Minister. It's also suggested that it's time for Savage to reveal himself as Bill Savage again - as the people need a hero. Savage goes to meet Royce telling him that the Volgans have captured a thousand hostages and plan to kill them if the PM isn't freed...

PMcC: This latest (and possibly last) instalment of Savage has been struggling to reach the giddy heights of average. The previous week’s ending had Bill apparently signing his own death warrant, yet that’s simply ignored this time round as his enemy simply runs away without shooting him. After some more dreary speechifying, the scene shifts and yet another set of characters are introduced. It’s quite frustrating that the good points of this series have been outweighed by the bad. Bill Savage has been made into a complex and interesting character and when this is allowed to drive the story it provides the best moments. For example, in the second half of this episode, he’s sympathetic to the idea of beheading “Scooty”, but is persuaded to see the big picture against his wishes. To me that’s good writing, but reeling off lists of munitions and the irritating habit of putting things like “best of British” in inverted commas is tiresome preaching and that outweighs the good.

Adlard does a good job on the scenes in the rain. While the stark black and white look does a lot to create the mood of Savage, it also seems to exacerbate a problem which I have noticed elsewhere (The Walking Dead for example) that he has drawing head and neck shots that often end up looking like a double chin.

Part 1 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Art: Chris Blythe Letters: Ellie De Ville

Monsters meet robotic fist...

Synopsis: In an undetermined future, the world was polluted and energy was low. Scientists found a way to break into a parallel dimension and sap it of energy - until the monsters of that dimension started attacking earth through the dimension for stealing their energy. Huge monsters devastated Earth until the huge team of robots - the Detonators - appeared. The monsters were driven back to their dimension and the rich took to the stars - leaving the poor behind on earth - only occasionally visiting to dump their extra pollution on the planet. All this is told by Jared Mckenzie Mackay - while taking some time out, lying on top of the huge Detonator X.

Meanwhile, the monsters appear again - this time on Mars...

PMcC: Now this is how you handle the need to give the reader a lot of background information which actually has them anticipating the action to come rather than breaking up the story or boring everyone to tears. I liked the use of a first person narrator to fill us in, although I don’t think it’d be a good idea to continue this throughout as it’s very Spurrier-esque. Not that that’s a bad thing, just that Mr Edginton has his own strengths as a writer and he should leave the tricksy narratives to Si.

This was an excellent beginning to Edgington’s latest saga, but only time will tell if it’s a second Red Seas or another Stone Island. The potted history of the future gives Steve Yeowell the chance to draw all sorts of disparate scenes from monkey’s throwing mud at each other to double spreads of giant monsters appearing out of thin air. I do prefer Yeowell’s art in black and white, but this the restrained colouring here doesn’t really detract from the story.

Already, there are a number of intriguing questions to be explored. Where do the monsters come from? And the Detonators? Is there only one left? What’s really on the other side of the hole? Who drives the Detonators? What are the other colonies like? How did the monsters suddenly appear on Mars? Who will stop them? I imagine we’ve already seen the answers to a couple of these, but it’s fun to speculate pointlessly.

The scene is set; now bring us all the giant robot vs. dinosaur fistfights that cover promised.

The Beast of Rudinstein - Part 3 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: John Burns Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Viktor's last appearance...

Synopsis: Viktor finally recognises Dante and is pleased to see him - and is introduced to to Gayla - Viktor's girlfriend. He tells Elena to take shelter in the church while he catches up with Gayla and Viktor. Gayla's parents died in the war and just as she decided she wanted nothing to do with either side - Viktor crashed into the lake beside her. Although badly injured - he healed in a matter of weeks. They fell in love and thought he could remain hidden there. Gayla is afraid that Dante will bring him back to the Empire.

Elsewhere Elena discovers that the priest is in fact the monster they are looking for - and he appears to be a werewolf...

PMcC: Not a classic episode, but some much needed explanations and I liked the way the we got flashbacks from a number of characters which helped to build up the idea of the war having been major event in the fictional world, affecting the lives of everyone. Having the priest revealed as the Beast was a neat enough piece of misdirection to fool me, but it seems a bit of a shame as he could have been an interesting enough character without the lycanthropy. Those dark panels in the ruined church are excellent. Unfortunately for Father Kordev, we know Elena is no Little Red Riding Hood, reliant on a passing woodsman to save her.

PMcC: With three out of four stories coming to an end and the other an expository introduction, this issue is all about what happens next. I very much doubt Elena Kurakin’s going to be dispatched by a simple werewolf, but which way the climax of Origins goes will have consequences for Dredd’s world and the subsequent stories we read for a good long time to come. The sheer energy of the new kid on the block finally topples Dante from the top spot he’s occupied in my eyes since the 30th Anniversary. 

Best Story: Detonator X