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Dexter - Slay per View
Sinister
Dexter - Slay per View
Written by Dan Abnett, featuring art from: Greg Staples,
Alex Ronald, Simon Davis, Andy Clarke, Calum Alexander Watt, Paul Johnson, David
Millgate, Steve Yeowell, Marc Wigmore, Julian Gibson, Steve Sampson, Sean Phillips,
and Patrick Woodrow + Stephen Baskerville.
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What to Expect:
A very wide variety of art styles! Also, puns and guns and a few genuine jokes
in the Sinister Dexter tradition.
Review by Alex
Frith
7th May 06
This third volume
collecting 'most of' Sinister Dexter is a hefty 240 pages long. Anyone interested
in getting a single volume as a taster might be tempted by this as it's the longest.
They'd be wrong! On a weekly basis, Sinister Dexter was consistently entertaining,
to my mind with far more hits than misses in terms of both art and story. However,
there's very little in the way of a story arc or character development, and so
no great reward from reading the whole lot in one go.
The classic Sinister
Dexter format remains intact. Each story begins by introducing Downlode, a European
megapolis not unlike Mega-City 1, only with a feeble police force and a lot more
ganglords. Then we meet hitmen Sinister Dexter and their target(s) for the week.
Then they kill various numbers of people. Then there's a pun at the end, and usually
a bunch of funny dialogue along the way. Variations on this theme are few and
far between. Luckily, it's all very well done, and Abnett has yet to run out of
new ways to tell this story and keep it funny. (Actually, I guess that's a matter
of opinion...)
For die hard fans,
this collection is of note as it contains a few snippets of long-term plot/character
elements. In 'Drop dead Gorgeous', we get to see Sinister as a fledgling shark,
and meet his one-time wife Carrie Hosanna (who I think reappears years later).
'The Big Stiff' sees the death and sort-of resurrection of Holy Moses Tanenbaum,
a character who it seems is likely to make a big impact on the duo in 2006.
'Mother 'Lode and
the Red Admiral', a longish story at 4 episodes, introduces such recurring characters
as Steampunk Willy and Brutus Putin, and sees the return of Bubba Dotrice from
'Gunshark Vacation'. More importantly, it shows just how much clout Demi Octavo
has in the city of Downlode, setting up key elements for 'Eurocrash' - which would
be the next SinDex volume if the reprints ever continue. The rather touching 'Bullfighting
days' shows the first meeting of Sinister and Dexter, when they were young lads.
'Slay per view',
ironically by far the worst story in this volume, at least has the distinction
of showing how it is that Dexter ends up in bed with straight-laced cop Tracy
Weld.
Of course, none
of these are what you'd call essential reading. In many ways it's part of Abnett's
skill that you can pick up SinDex at any point and not struggle to understand
what's going on. The same cannot be said of the art, however. All too often it's
hard to see what exactly is going on, and some people just draw a better Sinister
and Dexter than others... There are people, they are shouting, they are shooting.
It's never entirely clear what keeps our heroes from being hit, or why they are
so easily able to dispatch their foes.
This volume has
got away from the murky painted art of the early days, but that's not to say that
storytelling skills are much in evidence...
Greg Staples
and Paul Johnson rise streets above the rest, most of the others are at least
competent, but a few really, really suck. It's a strength to the series, as with
Judge Dredd, that so many artists get to have a go. But if it wasn't for the good
ones, the strip would be a real chore to read.
If you're a big
fan, buy this volume. There are enough comedy gems to make it worthwhile, especially
in the first half of the book. If you're just curious, I'd recommend the previous
volume, 'Murder 101' as the better bet.
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