2000AD 1561 - 31 October 07

Cover by Boo Cook

Adam Crabtree : Just beautiful work from Boo Cook, infusing a typical Dredd w/Gun cover with energy and style. Busy and detailed without being cluttered, vibrant and resplendent without being showy, it's just the sort of advert the mag needs.

Mandroid - Instrument of War Part 7 Script: John Wagner Art: Carl Critchlow Colours: Peter Doherty Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd closes in on Slaughterhouse...

Synopsis: Slaughterhouse tells Kitty that they need to escape from the General, but Kitty suggests that they should keep the General happy. It turns out that the General's terminally ill granddaughter is controlling Kitty and is laying the groundwork to make the Mandroid do the General's bidding. However, it appears that she's starting to enjoy the part she's playing - and the General tells her that she may be able to be transplanted into Kitty's body.

Elsewhere, Dredd interrogates one of Slaughterhouse's friends and discovers that the they were too quick to dismiss the General's involvement. They prepare for a "shakedown".

AC: And I'll be damned if I'm not right back there with Nate Slaughterhouse, getting as much behind his vigilante quest as I did the last time. Instrument of War plumbs the same depths of despair as its predecessor (the revelations concerning Kitty is managed so quietly, so matter-of-factly, and is all the more devastating as a result), while never getting excessively maudlin, or anything less than a scintillating bit of storytelling.
 
And Carl Critchlow is a Boss Hogg. But you knew that.

The Chaperone - Part 2 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: John Burns Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dante learns some restraint...

Synopsis: Dante, Elena and Arkady arrive at Ulan Bator and Dante unsuccessfully tries to find out about elena's past in Mongolia. They meet Sladek and Sonja - and Sonja seems more interested in Dante - attempting to seduce him later that night. Dante manages to escape her - preferring to try to stay loyal to Jena. The next day, the fly to St Petersburg where the wedding announcement would take place but are attacked by sky warriors. Their ship crashes...

GH: Diavolo! And so forth. Poor old John Burns though; if it's not series creator Simon Fraser the peeps just don't seem to wanna know. To be fair though, I recently saw a Burns illustrated issue of Marvel's Fortune and Sable for the first time; a luscious piece of work, and I'm sorry to report that the white spaces in Dante make it look half finished by comparison. Still, the story's a serviceable romp, if a wasted opportunity to get more out of Arkady as a character.

Life is an Open Casket - Ep 2 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Anthony Williams Letters: Simon Bowland

Dex limbers up...

Synopsis: The three assassins who arrived for Appellido are genetically modified from notorious hitmen, which has also given them special abilities. Ms Prior is fast, Mr Homer has tracking abilities and Ankyle can "armour himself". Appellido sends them after The Mover.

Meanwhile, Sinister is worried that Dex has lost some of his edge and calls Tracey, asking her to visit him. However, he's overheard by Charon the taxi driver who believes the dead should stay dead...

AC: Sigh.

Yggdrassil Script: Arthur Wyatt Art: Vince Locke Letters: Simon Bowland

Plant life...

Synopsis: A starship crashes on an Yggdrassil leaving three survivors. The planet is populated by a seemingly sentient plant species which mimics the dead, copying them into its collective consciousness. Soon only one of the crew survives, pregnant with the Yggdrassil's spore. She is finally rescued to take the seed back to Earth...

AC: "Oh Hell YES!"
 
I don't say that sat on the toilet enough (it's a whole thing), but when I looked at the credits card and saw Arthur Wyatt's name I knew I was in a for a treat. Wyatt's knocking these one-shots out of the park at the moment, and Yggdrassil is no exception.
 
Now it's a tall order to tell a concept heavy sci-fi story in five pages, and artists either stand or fall by it, but to accomplish not only that, but to make us CARE what happens to the (almost certainly doomed) players in the piece at the same time? Juan, Mirari and Rodriguez' plight, as three ordinary human beings at the mercy of inconceivable alien influences, is rendered with simple, unshowy empathy. The result is a story that is moving, strange and mysterious; how are you meant to feel about the spreading of Yggdrassil when it is almost as sympathetic as the humans?

The Hitman's Daughter - Part 11 Script: John Wagner Art: Frazer Irving Colours: Fiona Staples Letters: Ellie De Ville

Adele embarks on her revenge...

Synopsis: Adele kills Byrne and confronts Uncle Max with the truth - something which causes his manservant Bert to leave in anger. Max says he was her father's voice but that he didn't give him up - but he still went on to make Adele into his own personal Button Woman. Adele leaves and begins a campaign of killing all the "voices" that Byrne told her about. Finally the other voices have had enough - and decide to give her what she wants, but might regret - Harry Exton.

AC: In truth, I'd expect The Hitman's Daughter to be further along in the story by this point. No matter. Wagner knows what he's doing, there's no question of that; the atmosphere crackles like a lit fuse, the occasional flare of ultraviolence jolting the reader when they least expect it. Now we finally see the two distinctive narrative threads entwine, and I find I can hardly wait for next week's confrontation... if confrontation it will be...

GH: Proggy bliss from Wagner and Wyatt, with Nikolai Dante killing time and Sinister Dexter just still pissing about much as it always has and always will until the end of time.

Best Story: Future Shock.