2000AD 1556 - 26 September 07

Cover by Frazer Irving

John Amans: On first glance I wasn’t that impressed as it comes across as a little “pink”! That said after a second glance and noticing the detail it’s rather good and sets up this weeks Button Man nicely.

Chris Landless: It's a little disappointing by Frazer Irving's standards, although the young girls face superimposed on the image is a nice touch. Still, it doesn't really stand out as a good cover.

Mandroid - Instrument of War Part 2 Script: John Wagner Art: Simon Coleby Colours: Peter Doherty Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Mandroid escapes...

Synopsis: Slaughterhouse escapes through the laundry chute and manages to get away in a laundry truck. He accesses the truck's computer cabin and calls General Trig Vincent - a space corps vet - who gives him a location to go to (as the truck takes verbal directions). Vincent's robot helper meets Slaughterhouse, and destroys the laundry truck to stop them from tracing the call. Vincent tell him that he'll help him get cybernetics, and Slaughterhouse replies that they must save Kitty. Meanwhile, the judges have found the burnt out truck but still managed to trace the call to Vincent. Dredd decides to investigate...

JA: Mandroid was one of those Dredd stories that you remember not just for the story and excellent art but in the fact that it had a bit of heart and emotion. Simon Coleby does a decent turn on the art front and, though the escape scene is a little bit unbelievable, it still has enough drama to carry it off. The great thing is that you want to know what is going to happen next week. Sometimes, the story where Dredd is not the centre of attention can be as good as those where he is. This is shaping up to be a worthy successor to the first Mandroid series.

CL: Mandroid 2 seems to be picking up momentum nicely. Great storytelling so far from Wagner, and you've got to cheer when a man with no limbs escapes from a high security hospital. I'm not normally a fan of Simon Coleby but he's really delivered the goods here, and there's some great muted colouring by Peter Doherty.

The Harrowers - Part 7 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Simon Davis Letters: Ellie De Ville

Harry cuts loose...

Synopsis: The bio weapon and missile will take time to fix, so Harry and Walker are sent to keeps the TDIs at bay. A fight ensues, and Walker is ripped to pieces. Harry gets mad and starts tearing into the horde of demons...

JA: The first Stone Island rather baffled me. This is just a little too weird. Nice art but I’m totally lost and baffled and worst of all I don’t really care what happens as I’m not bored but apathetic. It does have some mindless gore, head-ripping and blood but it is still the token duffer in this weeks prog.

CL: Some lumpy purple things fight some gray lumpy things. I haven't got a clue what's going on here, though it appears that one of the lumpy purple things has made a heroic sacrifice. Good for him!

The Volgan War - Vol 2, Ep 7 Script: Pat Mills Art: Clint Langley Letters: Simon Bowland

Volkhan's sprog...

Synopsis: Deadlock discovers that Volkhan has built another robot - his son, Kalevala - an act which is against the Helsinki Convention. Volkhan builds up Kalevala's tolerance to pain by putting him in furnace and beating him back into shape on an anvil. But Deadlock arrives on the scene to attack both Volkhan and his son...

JA: I loved the first ABC Warriors series back in 1980 or so and I’ve really enjoyed this segment of Volgan war reminisces with Clint Langley’s superb art. It sort of takes me back to that golden time. I make no apologies that I love Pat Mill’s work and have done since reading Charlie’s War in Battle Action, oh so many moons ago. Ok, this isn’t ground-breaking but it has my favourite ABC dude in Deadlock plus some rather disturbing robot torture by Volkhan on his own “son”. The final panel with Deadlock and the Knights Martial attacking is wonderfully dark, dramatic and pretentious and yet it is also utterly brilliant!

CL: Brilliant stuff so far, hopefully this flashback won't fall to pieces like Blackbloods'. The one flaw in Clint Langley's artwork is his transparent use of human models, but it's not too bad this week with a human character who doesn't actually look like Slaine/Leatherjack/the bloke from the cover of the Warhammer 40,000 novels. Kaleva's slaughter of the ABC Warriors is particularly cool.

Ashes - Part 6 Script: Gordon Rennie Art: Dom Reardon Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Ravne keeps Magister under control...

Synopsis: Ravne meets with Kostabi in a church at Spitalfields. Kosatbi tells Ravne that he created him as the last in a series of failed experiments and didn't realise till much later on that he was the only one who had lived. Kostabi reveals that he was an angel cast down from heaven and that he wants to get back in. He feels the only way for God to notice him again is to kill "a few million" - and Ravne tells him that he'll have to stop him.

Outside, talking to his assistant, it appears that Kostabi's promise of destruction is merely a ruse to get Ravne to attack him...

JA: I’ve sort of lost touch with what’s been going on with this series over the last year or so. So after a dig through so old progs I was back up to speed. That said, I get the feeling that this story has lost a bit of its “zip” and is rather treading water. Not much happened this week and the whole episode reminded me of a scene from Highlander, i.e. discussing their lives through history, and tinges of Preacher. This isn’t bad but I think it is time to ties up some loose ends and finish this off before its reputation starts to suffer.

CL: Great art by Dom Reardon, there's a real emphasis on storytelling and no wasted effort, but the series has been flagging badly since Dr Brand snuffed it. It's hard to care what happens when all the characters happen to be demons or fallen angels or super powerful madmen plotting against each other.

The Hitman's Daughter - Part 6 Script: John Wagner Art: Frazer Irving Colours: Fiona Staples Letters: Ellie De Ville

Harry makes a deal...

Synopsis: When she was young, Adele was taken away to train in martial arts by her uncle Max - becoming a ferocious warrior - but one whose hatred could prove her undoing.

In the present day, she gatecrashes the wedding of the granddaughter of Sir Ralph Byrne. She lures Sir Ralph out onto a lake in a row boat and reveals that she knows about The Game. She threatens to kill him unless he gives her the names of the men who condemned her father to death. He eventually gives in, but tells her "...damn all good it will do you! You're dead! Dead!"

JA: During the dark days of the early 1990’s as 2000AD diced with oblivion due to far too many rubbish stories, Button Man shone out like a beacon of hope. When I saw it was returning I thought great! Then I saw it wasn’t Arthur Ranson doing art. Oh no, I thought, are they going to ruin this gem like they did with the ghastly Bad Company bodge up a few years ago? Thankfully this is not the case.

Ok we don’t have the realist art of Ransom but we have a decent story tagged onto the Button Man mythos. This is important as the artwork is not amazing but functional as has some nice flashback scenes that make this very readable as the hitman’s daughter’s quest continues. It has a nice pace and hopefully it won’t drag and have that great ending that all previous Button Men series have had.

CL: I've enjoyed this series so far but it seems to be strayed into Kill Bill territory this week. How can Adele, an orphan from a seemingly working class family, afford to go to a boarding school for ninjas? Adele's ease at infiltrating the wedding party and snaring Byrnes also seems a bit too convenient. Still, the art is great, and hopefully this series will get back on track next week.

JA: Despite Stone Island letting the side down a bit, there are some really solid stories at the moment with ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd providing quality and with Button Man providing a refreshing surprise.

Best Story: ABC Warriors  

CL: Overall, a fairly good prog, with Button Man slightly disappointing and Stone Island a confusing yellowy purple mess.

Best Story: Judge Dredd