2000AD 1542 - 20 June 07

Cover by Arthur Ranson

FK: I’m hampered in my reviewing by being ‘out of the loop’; I haven’t read a prog for months!  Not since ‘Origins’ went on holiday and everyone complained about it.  Consequently this review will be short on knowing references to story arcs and the like and completely free of allusions to the last issue.  Looking at it another way, I’m liberated and can approach the prog as a relative outsider.  Here goes, starting with the cover...

Dredd looks a bit angst ridden in an alley way next to two portentous pieces of graffiti (‘History will be my judge’, which is from Tony Blair, I think, and ‘Judge Not that ye be not judged’ which is from the Gospel of Matthew).  Despite the fact that  one of Dredd’s shoulder pads is about a foot higher than the other, Ranson pulls of his usual trick of making anything seem serious and meaningful. A nice cover which tells us there is a deep Dredd story inside.  

SD: I appreciate Ranson’s attention to detail and this cover definitely delivers on that score.  The figure of Dredd however looks diminished and slightly off kilter.  However, given the storyline, this is no doubt deliberate which is why I’m not the one whose drawing on the front cover of 2000AD...  While it’s not my favourite of the year, it’s definitely something I can appreciate. 

Mutants in Mega-City One - Part 1 Script: John Wagner Art: Colin Macneil Colours: Chris Blythe Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd considers updating his CV...

Synopsis: Mrs Murfy gives birth in a Mega City hospital to a mutant. The Mutant Catchers are brought in to deal with the child which already appears to have some telekinetic powers. However, Mr & Mrs Murfy manage to lock up the catchers and escape with their child. Dredd is brought in to manage the case - ironic seeing that he had just proposed a motion to repeal the mutant laws. Hershey was sympathetic to his reasoning but not of the motion itself - and warned Dredd that the Council of Five would not be appreciative. Later Dredd hears that a group called the Mutant Helpline has probably moved the Murfys to a safehouse - just as he gets a note from his cousin Randy (from Origins episode 8) telling him that he and his mutant brothers are coming to see him in Mega City 1...

FK: There is a deep Dredd story inside.  I knew it!  John Wagner is indeed a god among men.  The trouble with his genius is it’s usually unobtrusive; it’s in the things he doesn’t write, which makes it difficult to rhapsodize about.  Here we have a pretty simple set-up, but extremely well told.  Dredd is showing his human side again. Usually the prospect of anyone revealing a human side fills me with foreboding, not because I’ve got anything against humans, but because, since we are all already human, showing our human side is usually short hand for ‘yammering on about one’s feelings’. In Wagner’s world, this is not the case. Dredd’s human side consists of a few quiet words of disagreement, so all is well.  Dredd and Hershey have an argument about the ‘no-mutants’ law, which gives us his thoughts, the law and everything we need to know about the issue very elegantly over a few panels.   I love the way Dredd says ‘as if mutant genes were going to swamp humanity’, thus giving us a well-thought out argument in a nutshell and without the need to slow the comic down with any more of the well thought out argument.

Obviously, I’ve missed something with Dredd’s mutant kin, who sound ominously backwoodsy and lovable.  Forget the gene-pool, these adorable lunks should be kept out of the city for the sake of future scripts.

The art is great, just serious enough, just silly enough for the one silly character.  In more shoulder hilarity, the mutant-catchers have outfits pinched from a 1960s ‘Dr Who’ story, which look as though they have no necks. No wonder mutants keep escaping. The benefit of these outfits is that it makes the Judge’s massive shoulderwear look light and practical. 

SD: Powerful mutant babies, a mutant helpline, Fargo, ergo Dredd’s, relatives coming for a visit, and Judge Dredd trying to have the mutant laws repealed and their forced extermination or exile lifted.  These six pages have really laid the ground work for a story which has the real potential to be excellent.  I don’t want to think of Dredd going soft in his old age though.  So we’ll have to see how it pans out.  In the meantime I’m happy to admire MacNeil’s artwork.  There is just something superb about the way he draws Dredd’s chin. 

Part 9 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Art: Chris Blythe Letters: Ellie De Ville

Holt to the "rescue"

Synopsis: Jared and the Detonator wrestle with the monster appearing from the rift. Soon they get some unexpected help from Holt in his own Detonator gear, giving Jared a huge sword to help the Detonators fight back the aliens. They start slashing away at the beast, but it soon seems that Holt is about to shoot Jared in the back...

FK: Nice Steve Yeowell art!  Giant octopus thingy fights blokes controlling ‘war-suits’ (that’s robots to you and me). Okay, that’s the summary, here’s the review. It’s just a giant octopus thingy fighting two blokes controlling ‘war suits’.  One bloke is sharing the war suit with the mind of someone who is dead, the other is controlled by a bloke in what looks like a US Air Force cap, who is probably evil…and that’s really all there is.  I can tell you no more. If that sounds enthralling to you, then you don’t need reviews.  If it sounds pretty flat, that’s because it is extremely flat and I shudder at the thought of the previous eight episodes (which I will eventually read, being a completist).

There’s some fairly gorgeous Yeowell art, a bit of tension between the two blokes and a smidgeon of John Smith-ish nonsense  (‘contaminating out reality with it’s own genetic template like some vile macrophagic infection’….’transdimensional effluvia’) and a bit of banter. The banter is too predictable to quote here and you’ll just have to take my word for it that, as banter goes, it’s pretty run-of-the-mill.  Maybe the rest of the story makes this gripping, but I doubt it. Particularly when it’s sandwiched between a good Dredd story and some Pat Mills verve, as we shall see… 

SD: It was with shock that I realised that this is the ninth instalment and we’re still fighting the alien entity which is trying to rip its way into this dimension.  This is not necessarily a bad thing; kicking alien butt can be quite satisfying.  Chung’s personality within the War Suit having to work along side his murderer to accomplish a mutual goal is a clever twist (would we feel the need for revenge without all those hormones?).  I liked seeing Steve Yeowell’s Artwork coloured and Chris Blythe’s work on this is excellent.  I hope that the momentum of this story continues and the ending does not disappoint.  “I’ve got your back” Mmmm, I don’t think so. 

1666 - Part 3 Script: Pat Mills Art: Leigh Gallagher Letters: Ellie De Ville

Defoe charms the ladies...

Synopsis: Defoe flashes back to 1656 where he worked with another ex soldier, the wounded Jack. In the present, he discovers that Jack O Bite is this old friend, now leading the army of the dead. He tries to bite Defoe, but the "cordial" protects him. Defoe backs away from the shuffling zombies and gets his "Grim Reaper", a bladed war chariot that decimates the remaining zombies. Jones asks Defoe if he can go with him to Sir Isaac and see the "wasteland - the site of 666"

FK: 1666 was the year of the Great Fire of London and also the year in which Newton split light up using a prism. Daniel Defoe was alive then, although according to the all-knowing Wikipedia he was only four at the time.

Lucky 2000AD readers know that it was also a year in which an army of the undead rose up in Restoration England, while demons disguised as angels tempted rich fat bastards with offers of superior technology.  Angels, Zombies, Roundheads, Zombie Roundheads and an enormous zombie-chopping up machine! Mr Mills, you’re spoiling us! There are some lyrical flights of fancy too, with such snappy lines as “concubine of Satan” and ‘you’re a bumblebee in a cow turd’ (I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but it sounds good).  Gallagher’s art is absolutely perfect for this story, all is rain and flying gore. I almost wiped my fingers after reading it.  In true comics/pulp style, there is apparently only one brothel in all England at that time, Madam Cresswell’s, which appears in a prologue and is referred to by some prostitute zombies in a completely different part of the country. Perhaps it was a chain.

Enough of my snidery! Review readers need to know that this story is good fun and rips along as Mills stories always do when he’s enjoying a new idea.  This is episode 3 and all is action with the promise of lots more interesting stuff to come.

SD: There is a part of me that’s glad that it’s in black and white.  There is however another part of me which kind of wishes it was in full blown colour with lots and lots of red ink needed.  We’re learning a lot about our fabled pest control expert and more about the pesky undead.  I like the idea of the undead army needing an officer to lead them, undead is one thing, undead with intelligence just don’t seem fair.  Nice touch with the holy water covered skin but this is all precursors to the main attraction the “Grim Reaper”.  The whirling dervish of undead eradication.  I can’t wait to see the next instalment and the wasteland site. 

Project Monarch - Part 3 Script: Pat Mills Art: John Higgins Colours: JH & SJ Hurst Letters: Ellie De Ville

Robbers in expository mode...

Synopsis: The episode flashes back to the bank robbery referred to last week, where a group of robbers break into some safe deposit boxes and discover pictures of a government minister and small children. They realise that they can't do anything about it, as the minister will be protected by the Greysuits, the people who run the country - "The British Men in Black". They ended up leaving some of the photos for the police to discover and took some for their own protection. The police covered everything up and the Greysuits sent Blake after the robbers - who killed one of them - making it look like a suicide. They believed the photos would have no reaction from Blake as he'd been desensitised by watching films on depravity & torture to make him a perfect killing machine...

FK: More Mills? Has he got a mortgage to pay off?  Certainly he doesn’t have much of a story to tell here. At first I thought Mr Mills did have something good to show us, given the interesting title for the story, his Mills-ish story telling skills and with the persuasive power of John Higgins’ terrific yet rather gentle art.  However, we have here yet another top secret government conspiracy thingy. It’s so top secret that the UK’s most thick-witted bank robbers have a natter about it whilst breaking into a safe with sledgehammers. Probably the only reason ‘The Grey Suits’ aren’t on the web is that these clods just shout exposition at computers rather than using keyboards. But how do I know they’re so dim? Well, after getting away with the money, these blokes celebrate their winnings by walking down public streets naked but for boxer shorts with piles of money stuffed in them.  I’m surprised the Powers That Be bothered with the super killing machine Grey Suit dudes and didn’t just hire some feller to hit them with a piece of two by four (mind you, ‘Bloke With Piece of Two by Four: Project Monarch’ doesn’t have the same ring to it).

Ah well, the rest of the conspiracy may live up to the art, we shall see.  Mills can certainly move it along when he likes.  The implausibility of a vast unknown conspiracy which is known by one and all won’t bother me if the rest of the action is interesting.  So far all we have is a suave sort who wears sunglasses indoors and who wears black, despite being a ‘greysuit’.  Oh and he’s really fast at shoving pills into people’s mouths.  Frankly, I’m not riveted yet, but will eagerly await more Higgins art.

SD: Another instalment of this new story? Well apart from a passing resemblance to Mach1 it’s definitely something we haven’t seen for a while.  The artwork continues to impress with the muted blue tones of the bank, turning to the purple of the clean up job on the bank robber.  Excellent drawing also lends itself well to this script and gives much needed depth.  This episode however is more of a scene setter only giving information we already knew but I’ll hold fire on my final judgement while the artwork is this good and the story still has time to develop. 

Thieves' World - Part 5 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Simon Fraser Colours: Gary Caldwell Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dante gets maudlin...

Synopsis: Dante and Elena survive the explosion and are met by Rudi Steinberg, Yeltsin's aide-de camp who sets up a meeting between Dante and Yeltsin - just the two of them. They meet at Gorky Park where Dante tells Papa Yeltsin that the Tsar demands a reckoning after the attack on his daughter. Yeltsin offers to find those responsible, but it becomes clear to him that the Tsar is using this as an opportunity to crush the Thieves' World. Yeltsin's men attack, but Elena comes to the rescue - and Dante eventually kills Papa Yeltsin - taking some retribution for himself after what he had to endure in the Thieves' World as a young boy...

FK: You know, Dante used to really grab me.  I never thought ‘this is the greatest thing in 2000AD’ but I read it every week.  Now the two of us have taken a break what do I find? Some bleakness, which suits Fraser’s art nicely, a bit of angst likewise and some revenge, which I now know is ‘Razborka’ in Russian.  Good oh.  Dante still grips, that’s for sure.  He’s in a kind of see-saw between being so silly I feel ashamed of reading it at my age and straining too hard for angst, which becomes a bit silly itself if pushed too hard.  In this week’s episode, everything is where it should be, there are hints at future developments, Dante gets a bit bleak and hard and a formerly fun character is rebuffed. The only false notes are from his chatty weapons crest thing, but I always found that annoying.  I remember someone saying they imagined the Crest speaking in a woman’s voice.  I’d imagined it in a man’s voice until then, but instantly started imagining something like the car from KnightRider. 

But I digress; it’s good to see Dante again, that’s what I’m trying to get across here.  He’s back, he’s comfy, there will be swashbuckling later and a bit more angst. 

SD: Ah the joy that is Dante.  We’re seeing a more ruthless side, a man come of age with greying hair and an ambition in his eyes.  This run of Dante has been excellent managing to still show the humour within his character “all the fun of the fair”, but with a tempering of steel.  I hope for one that he’s not going to hell quite yet as I will be happy to see him return for more than this run.  More Please! 

FK: Overall a strong issue, with lots of newness; new Dredd, two new Mills stories and the flat ‘guys in metal suits’ thing.   I’m really not the art critic (there are enough of them here and on the messageboard), but the art is damn good. Perhaps it’s just that I’ve been reading the occasional online Marvel comic of late, but gee whiz 2000 AD spoils its readers with art.  The closest the art comes to being pedestrian is Yeowell and even he pushes the boat out a bit here.  What am I doing taking a break and letting my subscriptions pile up? I must be insane! 

Best Story: Dredd, for calm controlled brilliance, although Defoe comes very close for Millsy bonkersness. 

SD: 5 stories this week and not one of them a clanger.  I’ve felt that the prog has been treading water a little of late, but it’s definitely improved with the offerings this week. 

Best Story: Although the Dredd story has potential and Defoe is getting my attention, it’s just got to be - Dante.