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Review
by Charles Ellis
2nd opinion by Richmond Clements
Summaries
and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.
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Cover
by Clint Langley
Charles Ellis: It’s Mek-Quake! I love
it automatically.
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Mandroid -
Instrument of War Part 7 |
| Script:
John Wagner |
| Art:
Carl Critchlow |
| Colours: Peter
Doherty |
| Letters: Annie
Parkhouse |
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Charles Ellis : Critchlow
draws a great massacre scene, and the montage on page 2 is very effective in
showing how dangerous Slaughterhouse is. Add that to him starting to think like
the General – a guy who is quite
obviously deranged – and
we’re probably not getting a happy ending here. The Freetown massacre isn’t
the most memorable scene though: that honour is reserved for Kitty regaining
consciousness. It’s gut-wrenching and pitiful, and you have to wonder if
Slaughterhouse really believes it when he says all that counts is she’s
alive. The fate of his family is one of the nastier and more memorable bits of
the Mandroid stories, and Wagner somehow has found a way of making it even worse
for the guy…
As a side note, the Canadia bits are
interesting me (on a continuity obsessive level) – their dialogue (and the fact they have a Freetown) suggests they
don’t have a Judge system, while they still seem to have a good standard
of future tech. A working, modern civilisation with no Judge system, this close
to Mega-City One? There could be some story potential here.
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The Harrowers
- Part 10 |
| Script: Ian
Edginton |
| Art: Simon
Davis |
| Letters: Ellie
De Ville |
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Charles Ellis: Er… The problem here
is that the ideas – the alien world being
an experiment, the potential of it switching to Earth – are interesting
enough, but this is the wrong time to bring them in. It’s the last episode
and there’s been no set-up – it comes off mainly as a cheap and
easy way of saving the cast and driving the monsters off Earth (which undermines
the “doomed Earth, desperate last stand” vibe that the early parts
had going for them). And why is David Sorrell now a good guy? The original Stone
Island made it clear he was willing to help Earth be invaded! Sara and Harry
don’t seem to bring this up either, even though it’s pointed out
how he was evil back in Prog 1553! I do like the art though – Simon Davis
is almost too good at drawing a whole race being slaughtered. Though now I think
of it, why didn’t the energy beings do this earlier?
The series is basically a misfire, which
is a pity as it showed so much promise – rather
like Detonator X. (Whereas Stickleback was really good – when are we getting
Book 2 of that?!) In its favour, Harry’s a fun character and the twist
that he’s actually going to be killed and knows it was something I didn’t
see coming and was genuinely an affecting moment. Stone Island II could have
done with more moments like that, and to be fair it did seem to try (notice the
death of whatsisname two progs ago). But that would mean we’d need to care
about the characters, and the fact that we don’t (as reader feedback seems
to show) is why it misfires – a shame, as Edginton is usually very good
at that.
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The Volgan
War - Vol 2, Ep 10 |
| Script: Pat
Mills |
| Art: Clint
Langley |
| Letters: Simon
Bowland |
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Charles Ellis : Mek-Quake’s back as
a villain once more, and that’s a very interesting character development
after so many years of him in the ABC Warriors – and by dint of working
with Volkhan and murdering the asylum staff, he’s less of a comedic villain
and more an outright threat. This is very promising.
Though I’m worried this, and Mongrol’s “he
goes or I go” ultimatum, will somehow be reset at story’s end – the
Khronicles of Khaos trade mean we can see the ABC Warriors having major character
development, which is then completely ignored or reversed in the modern day strips.
On top of The Shadow Warriors – “Steelhorn and Joe are dead! No they’re
not!” – it gives the impression that there’s no consequence
in the current ABC Warriors tales and nothing will matter for very long. I’m
hoping future instalments wipe this impression away.
The massive double-page panels show off
the real story of this prog’s instalment – Langley’s art! His
robots and their battles are always good, but the Marineris City landscape is
stunning. I could look at it for ages. We also get some nifty world-building;
this was done in the earlier Mars stories, but finally it all comes together
in a way that makes sense (we now know why they use a crane system for transport)
and makes the city quite an interesting dystopia. The idea behind it looking
like a construction site, the No Talk Zones, the trade in bottled air from Earth… all
fun ideas. The scene’s now set for some present-day conflict, and I’m
eagerly awaiting Book Three.
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The Hitman's
Daughter -
Part 9 |
| Script: John
Wagner |
| Art: Frazer
Irving |
| Colours: Fiona Staples |
| Letters: Ellie
De Ville |
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Charles Ellis: We’re back with Harry
and the Game, and bloody hell he’s a vicious bastard. The fourth page,
going from “I’m going to get you to a doctor” to a sunny daylight
scene where the character’s casually mention how Harry murdered him instead,
is incredibly nasty and tells you everything about the Game.
It’s interesting
to compare it to the first Button Man, where Harry’s the star and partially
a narrator – he’s doing the same acts as before, but this time his
mind is completely closed off to us and we’re only rarely spending time
with him. This turns him from protagonist to a terrifying antagonist, from the
guy we usually root for to someone we know is going to be thrown against Adele
and hope she comes out of it.
Frazer Irving’s art works better for this
sort of story than Ranson’s might have – Ranson’s Harry looked
like a normal bloke (which is another reason why he worked as a protagonist),
Irving’s Harry is a permanently scowling bastard with cadaverous skin.
I’m not so much anticipating his eventual battle with Adele as bloody dreading
it…
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Charles Ellis : As with last week, a strong
prog except for Stone Island. And it seems we’re getting Nikolai Dante
back next week along with the start of Sinister Dexter’s War of the Moses,
so next week should be even better! As for the best strip, from an intellectual
POV it’d be Button Man but since I love the Marineris City stuff too much…
Best
Story: ABC Warriors
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