Meg 203 - 11 Mar 2003
Cover by Cliff Robinson & Chris Blythe

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly

GH: A fantastic Valentine's themed approach from Cliff Robinson this issue - perfectly summing up what's in store inside. It's raised slightly above the norm by the little flying Dredd shooting Cupid through the head with an arrow - such a fantastically detailed little drawing that I'm even willing to forgive it for obscuring the logo. My only slight complaint about this cover is that the tag line is pretty unreadable and lost in the bottom left corner.

The Marriage Game
Synopsis: Walter and Mrs Gunderson are in the studio audience for the Marriage Game. While the 3 contestants looking for a husband are announced, Dredd and the judges are behind the scenes scanning the crowd for perps - it's a sting operation. Crayton Fudd is the first one to be lured backstage and arrested. The potential husband is brought on stage, dressed in Judge Death garb - it's Troy, Mrs Gunderson's latest tour guide of Death's old haunt. He seems a little on edge, an opinion shared by Walter: "I'm a twifle wowwied about Twoy's state of mind".

The show continues, with most of the potentials horrified by Troy as the Judges continue to lure more perps backstage - eventually leaving Gurning, a potentially violent perp. Meanwhile, Troy picks Pru, who seems a tad worried about Troy too, but also pretty desperate. The ceremony starts, but the Reverend wishes them a happy life together. Wrong move, as this sets Troy off (all life is a crime etc.) who starts to strangle the Reverend. Two old ladies rush outside and call a judge to help - Judge Gross responds and before control can warn him about the sting, he's stormed inside.

Gurning grabs a hostage, firing at Gross, who takes cover behind Walter - while they're still trying to pry Troy off the reverend onstage. Gurning is gunned down by Dredd, as are two other perps, and Troy is daysticked off the reverend - who's now dead. Gurning's taken away, while Dredd warns Mrs Gunderson he's concerned about the frequency this sort of thing is happening. Meanwhile, last week's contestants return to the stage, looking the worse for wear after a ski honeymoon on Everest, but only Walter and Mr Gunderson are left in the audience.

GH: Ian Gibson's recent return to full colour painted artwork has resulted in a major improvement in some already stunning work. The 12 pages on show here are some of the best work he's produced in years, and very few artists would be able to pull off this story - devoid as it is of much of the usual Dredd uber-violence, and re;lying far more heavily on slapstick. All his characters look fantastic - and as usual, his female characters are worth highlighting in themselves. In an episode that demands a certain variety in the models, this is fantastic art all round, and here's hoping these talents are put to use again another longer collaboration with John Wagner.

Wagner saves his best light-hearted stories for the Megazine, and this is an entertaining satire on the usual reality dating show (although the recent ITV programme with the same idea behind it means that reality is catching up with 2000AD faster than ever before!) It's also always a joy to see Walter and Mrs Gunderson in any story.

Phoenix Falling - Part 2
Synopsis: The Van family panic about the killing, and start to restrain the crowd, killing at least 4 people who try to escape. Finally everyone's under control, as November's pager from psi-div goes off. She tries to leave but is dragged on stage. Her boyfriend tries to save her and is knocked down. November's ordered to entertain the crowd telling them about their date - she's worried he'll be put off her after all this. But he's not, and they kiss to the applause of the crowd. Suddenly, half the wall comes down as two bank robbers storm in - to the wrong building. A face-off begins between the two crews, as November's pager goes off. Deezl Van grabs the pager: "She can't talk. She's in a hostage situation!" Justice Dept picks up the call and ask Dredd to check it out...

GH: A significant improvement on the 1st, rather pointless episode, this gets things moving nicely. Grant manages to have fun with a completely absurd situation as the hostage taking gets underway. It's much more visibly tongue in cheek than the opener, and all the better for it. I still don't know what the point is behind Juliet November - she still doesn't appear to be a character with a whole lot to say or do. I'm sure this will change in future episodes, but at the moment I'd like to see her with a little more backbone. The art also shows improvement, despite certain panels being a little stale. Although I'm not sure about Manley's Dredd on the last page - his helmet looks totally wrong - let's see what he can do with him next week. So overall - a improvement and a much more entertaining read - but lets see the art develop a bit more, and take a few more risks.

Red Tide: Part 2
Synopsis: Vampires start to attack the ship, as the crew begins to break out weapons - too late. Waugh starts fighting them back - hoping it's just a scouting party - but it clearly isn't as they're all over the ship - including the bridge. Waugh and Professor Helsing head down to get Lilith. The lights are shut off, as Lilith's guard down below starts to worry, with good reason as two vampires storm in and kill him. Lilith seems highly unimpressed with the sea vampires - who are after her because she has the "daywalker gene" Waugh kills one, as Lilith takes out the other - and Helsing warns her not to try anything else or he'll detonate the suit she's wearing. Waugh tells Helsing to take Lilith to the life rafts below - protected by Chem Repellent - as Waugh sets the ship alight. But the chem repellant is months out of date, and useless.

GH: I have but one complaint for this story, so let's get it out of the way first. It's too damned short! 6 quickly read pages a month really isn't enough for this story. It's fast-paced, which means that the action is halted badly by the significant break between episodes. A shame this wasn't put in the main comic.

That aside, the art is still fantastic, with some exceptional use of colour by MacNeil throughout the episode. He also delivers an extraordinary amount of violence in a short period of time, and the shot on page 3 of the ship being overrun is brilliant, evidencing a great hold on the pacing of the story. As mentioned last time, this is a Waugh story that I'm actually managing to keep up with, and not be bored by psychobabble, and is therefore one of the best 2000AD stories I've seen in ages. here's hoping the quality remains this high for the entire run.

Part 3
Synopsis: Mr Cane is showing one of his casino managers the view from the top of his casino. But it seems the manager's an undercover cop. Cane tightens his fist, and the cop's head explodes - he's then thrown off the side. Gio won't be happy - and this could be seen as a leadership challenge - Cane doesn't care.

Meanwhile, Gio's concerned at his daughter Talia's clubbing and sleeping around, and warns her to keep the bloodline pure for the powers - but Talia's still not happy about being ordered around and storms out. Chrissie and Ritchie are in the Casino. Lara, Stone's girlfriend is there with Chrissie as Stone comes in. She refuses to go with Stone, who lives up to his name, turning to stone and knocking her brutally to the ground. Chrissie fires up his gun powers, but is pulled back by Ritchie - who's trying to avoid a gang war. Stone leaves and Chrissie goes outside to cool down.

Outside he's met by Silver, who says he wants to start a war, and as to make Gio think Cane is "gunning for him". He drops a decrepit building on Chrissie...

GH: The police don't really appear this week, and the story's the better for it. We get a chance to develop the growing war between the rival gangs, and really start to get under the skin of the main characters, as well as learn more about their powers. Silver's crusade to set up a war between them is moving along smoothly, and keeping him to the shadows is a good approach. This is shaping up into being a true classic, and let's hope it stays that way, and Williams doesn't use the excuse of the gang war to cut loose too much.

Fraser's art gets better all the time, and the use of the moody clouds in the opening scenes are extremely well done. I'm still not convinced by Chrissie's guns, though - but then I guess I don't have to worry about that any more... Fraser doesn't shy away from some really unpleasant violence in the Stone vs Lara section, which has the intended shocking effect on the reader.

Bad Karma - Part 2
Synopsis: The priestess tells Rohan she's there as the counsel for his defense against the Lords of Karma. The original Siddha is accused of mass murder for using his power to destroy his enemies, the Asuras. Rohan is disbelieving of this, but the priestess tells him he must now fight for justice. But Rohan tells her of his father who took on the Bollywood mafia and was killed - so he's unwilling to follow him. He's also more concerned about Mirabi and her father's approval than being the Siddha.

The priestess pulls him through a mirror as they begin their journey to the Lords of Karma. The original Siddha believes he was right to use the powers, so with his attitude, he couldn't go before them. They reach the lords who are watching the scene where the Siddha was unarmed and attacked by 3 Asuras. He defended himself using his "death finger" - attacking an enemy by pointing at them - causing one to have a heart attack, another's blood to boil and the last one to drown in his own mucus. Rohan just thinks that it was a cool way to kill someone...

GH: It's still hard to know what to think of this. It's better than Sláine, that's for sure - mainly due to the fact that Mills has remembered that it's good to offset all that mumbo jumbo with a bit of self deprecating humour. But there's an awful lot of mumbo jumbo - and two episodes in, I'm really not at all sure what's going on (something that's made the summary on this one rather hard). Is Rohan the Siddha? If so, why? It's not really elaborated on in this issue - so we don't know why he's been chosen, or what has happened to the original Siddha. Very confusing indeed. Perhaps a little more foreshadowing would have helped here? The art still suits the story very well indeed, and gives Davis the chance to really show off in some key scenes. Overall - it's not bad - but still has to totally grab me.

Miscellaneous Material

• Slaine: Time Killer (2000AD Gold)
• Darkie's Mob (2000AD Gold)
• Future Shock: The Collectors (2000AD Gold)
• Thrill Power Overload Part 13
• Pat Mills Interview
• Sector Control - Gordon Rennie Column
• Sinister/Dexter: Dead Famous
  

GH: Just a quick rundown on these. Sláine is still great, and puts the current new series to shame. It's also now revealed Elfric, who was always a great Sláine villain. David Pugh, meanwhile, does one hell of a good warped Slaine - whatever happened to him? Darkie's mob still provides some classic Battle action, plus there's a really great Future Shock from Ian Kennedy - one of the greats. I note how the Future Shocks, at only 4 pages, don't outstay their welcome. Something to carry over to the main comic?

As for the features, Thrill Power Overload still rules over all - but there is one irritating omission. There's a whole section on the offensive 2000AD ad in Loaded, but we don't get to see any of them - a missed opportunity. The Pat Mills interview is a decent size, if a little unadventurous in the questions, and the Sin/Dex story is still a bit crap. I also thought the Rennie column was pointless in the extreme.