Meg 202 - 11 February 2003
Cover by Simon Davis

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly

GH: Pat Mills' new character gets a showcase cover from Simon Davis this week. However, there's something about this that doesn't work for me. It just seems a little too indistinct to work as a cover, and the pose of the Siddha is somewhat lost among the detail.

Bato Loco
Synopsis: Fatty Louis the Gut smuggles contraband through customs, but has a heart attack and dies. Carlito Aggara - Bato Loco (Crazy Guy) - hears about this while playing cards, and like others is thinking of the fortune in uncut diamonds inside Louis' belly. Don Morte's men come to take Bato to the Don. The Don is dead and stuffed, and "gives orders" through his consigliore, Vito Machievelli. He orders Bato to get back the diamonds from Resyk.

Hiding in a funeral car he breaks into Resyk, but the judges are onto him. As he emerges from hiding, he meets up with two other hired goons with the same idea plus a third, Guignol, who smuggled himself in inside a dead fatty - and gets out using a chainsaw. All hell breaks loose, and Dredd goes in as Bato and Guignol come flying out on top of Loius' gurney. The gurney smashes to a halt, with Louis' body landing on Dredd on the resyk conveyor, from where he shoots Guignol. Bato takes this opportunity to escape, as Dredd narrowly avoids going into the grinders with Louis. But as Bato escapes under Resyk, the gears give way under the stain of processing Louis, and a rain of blood and diamonds covers him. And Bato escapes with them all...

GH: An OK episode from Gordon Rennie, but not up to the standard of some of his recent Dredd outings. Focusing primarily on the bad guys, and with very little Dredd, this is certainly quite entertaining, but it's missing something of a spark for me. Perhaps it's that I don't care enough about this new Bato Loco character for me to worry too much about the outcome.

There are some high points, though. There's a nice use of a fatty to smuggle stolen goods, the runaway trolley knocking down Dredd is funny, and we certainly don't get to see Resyk enough, if you ask me.

Simon Coleby's drawing, in the meantime, benefits from being in colour, as his art can be a little too over-detailed to take in black & white. It's still a little cramped in places, but he certainly draws a dynamic Dredd. I do think his art could benefit from a certain amount of restraint, and perhaps in a lighter touch on the inking.

Phoenix Falling - Part 1
Synopsis: Psi Division Auxillary Juliet November is a pyrotechnic who has some difficulty in controlling her power. She's going out on a date with Antonio Gloop, and Psi Division have to sign off on it first which, after some stern warnings, they do. November gets ready for the date, while her house robot puts out the fires that she caused while "excited". The date goes well, and they head to the Vox Theatre, where members of the public "act out their life's frustrations in return for cash". A group of kung fu acrobats, The Van Family, come on stage and berate Casting Director Jimbo Lynt. But things go too far as Jimbo's neck is broken with a flying kick...

GH: I'm afraid this story didn't really hit home with me either. It's the art that I have the most problem with. While highly detailed in places, the characters have a degree of stiffness about them, especially in the earlier pages. It also reminds me a little too much of 2000AD 15 years ago, and a style that I didn't particularly like back then either. If I didn't know better, I'd originally have assumed this was a reprint.

The story doesn't do much for me either. I like a great deal of Alan Grant's work, but I just can't see the point in this. Juliet November just doesn't seem like an interesting character. I only became involved in the story in the last two pages, with the Vox Theater segment - so perhaps this bodes well for next month's episode.

Red Tide: Part 1
Synopsis: Devlin Waugh is on a cruise towards Fangland, and joins professor Helsing at his table. Waugh is heading to the "institute" to perform a vivisection on a violent vampire Gangstress, Lilith, that they have captured. Meanwhile, aqua vampires swim beneath the boat, sensing Lilith's presence and preparing to act. Uuth is kept below in a cell beside another captive, ex SJS nutter Rohmer. Lilith suggests to Rohmer to bash his own head in - and he promptly does. The guard threatens to taser Lilith but she replies: "It's too late. They're coming. You're dead on your feet." The vampires board the ship and attack. "What beastly rotten luck. And just when everything was going so swimmingly..."

GH: Extremely good artwork from Colin MacNeil make this the series to watch in the Megazine. His highly detailed painted artwork has rarely looked better, with the scene where Rohmer bashes his own head in being particularly effective, and downright gruesome. The only complaint is that at 5 pages a month - it's a bit too damned short. For my £3.95, I'd like to see a bit more than this.

Kudos must go to the story too, as I'm becoming more drawn into this Devlin Waugh story than any other before it, and this is mainly down to the slow dread that this episode and the prologue last month have helped to instill. So far Smith has restrained himself from overly complex dialogue that can weigh down his stories, a trait he shares with Grant Morrison, and I can only hope that this continues, as it allows his superior plotting to shine through.

Part 2
Synopsis: One of the gangsters, Ritchie, crackles with energy as the other, Chrissie, holds a gun to Kurt's head while the rest of the gun morphs into shackles around him. Talia - still naked - comes in and knocks Chrissie down. They order her to come with them, and despite telling them they don't give her orders - she eventually does - also telling them that Kurt's a cop.

Meanwhile "Gio" is interrogating a man who stole $100 from him. On a whim, his heavy, Cane , breaks the man's neck - pissing off Gio in the process. Gio orders "Tiny" to get rid of the body. Tiny is outraged at being called that - but as Gio owns the town, he has no choice but to comply. Gio is told about Kurt asking questions, but he makes an order for no more cops to be killed for a while, after the warehouse disaster. Tiny reminds him that of the "old gang", Gio's the only one still alive. Crabs comes into to report on the Warehouse disaster, and says only one made man had that power - but he's dead. Gio tells him to get the DA to warn Kurt off the case.

Kurt, back at the station, learns that only the Family has powers - due to the Sicilian bloodline. He discovers that Talia is daughter of the head of the family...

GH: Things progress this month, as we learn that this is more than any old mob story. It's a super-powered mob story! The main characters are pretty much rounded out in this episode, and we learn everybody's place - with the true identity and purpose of Sliver from last week's episode being the unknown quantity that should start turning things topsy-turvy. It's a clever prospect giving only the villains powers for a change, and we'll have to see if Williams can keep that up - or whether he'll have a super-powered cop before too long. It's an intriguing set-up, and as mentioned with last issue, Rob Williams handles suspense and intrigue very well - so this is becoming a worthwhile read.

Simon Fraser continues to excel, again making the most of the limitations imposed by black & white. As I've mentioned before, one of his strengths is creating recognisable characters, and it's praise indeed when you're able to tell everyone apart in a character-heavy piece like this.

Bad Karma - Part 1
Synopsis: An Indian family, Rohan, Rahul and their mother, are on their way back from another failed potential arranged-marriage meeting. Rohan is apparently into "weird" stuff, and no-one wants to touch him. His mother wants him out of the house. However, Rohan is apparently having an affair with the house cleaner, Mirabi.

Later that night, Rohan goes to stay with Rak, a black magician, and Rita, his "Tanktrika". Rohan goes to sleep. and begins to dream. He dreams of a village being attacked by Asuras, drunk on "Soma". They are about to attack the villagers when a masked and cloaked man walks towards them through the flames. They throw spears at him, but he gets up unharmed - he is the Black Siddha, and he attacks and kills them all with the urimi, the Serpent sword...and then Rohan is woken up by Rak and Rita.

They go to bed as Rohan waits up with a coffee, musing about the drug Soma - when a priestess appears across the table from him, claiming to be the Black Siddha...

GH: Pat Mills' new creation has much in common with his others. Magic plays an important part in the story, as does folklore. It's not bad - but I'm not sure it works for me yet. I feel it demands a great deal of knowledge about Indian culture, and the reader can be left feeling somewhat bemused at many of the terms, especially when we get to the dream sequence. It's still a little early to say if Mills is going to avoid the trademark earnestness that has dragged recent Sláine sagas down, though. I'll reserve judgement until I've read episode two.

The art is highly impressive and lets Simon Fraser show that he's capable of much more besides Sinister Dexter. I'm still not sure about the Black Siddha design, based mainly on his cover appearance, but elements like the dream sequence are handled extremely well, with an originality not seen in Fraser's S/D work.

Miscellaneous Material

• Slaine: Time Killer (2000AD Gold)
• Darkie's Mob (2000AD Gold)
• The Bounty Hunters
• Thrill Power Overload Part 12
• Gordon Rennie Interview
• Sinister/Dexter: Bouncers
  

Time Killer regrettably highlights all the flaws in Sláine's epic currently running in 2000AD. It has more interesting, less earnest characters, Sláine is depicted as little more than a mindless thug, which is far more enjoyable, and Ukko is a thieving scumbag, who Sláine both relies on and has to keep in check. And Nest was always a more interesting character than the dull Niamh. Great fun. It's also fascinating to see how Glenn Fabry has developed.

This is the first time I've come across Darkie's Mob, not being a previous reader of Battle, and a mighty fine find it is too. Classic artwork together with a fairly uncompromising, if a tad jingoistic, plot make for great reading. It shows there's plenty of scope for the Megazine to dig more into Fleetway's past. Perhaps some reprints of Hookjaw?

The Bounty Hunters meanwhile reminds everyone just how a future shock should be done, from the master Alan Moore and John Higgins.

Thrill Power Overload continues to impress, although I would have enjoyed a little more information on just how and why the Dredd movie went so wrong - perhaps with more input from Danny Cannon.

Finally, there's a short, and a bit crap one page Sinister Dexter story.