Meg 209 - 26 August 2003
Cover by Greg Staples

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by Leigh Shepherd

Synopses and reviews contain spoilers for this issue

GH: A wonderful cover from the ever reliable Greg Staples, with a truly brilliant rendition of Death. Like other artists such as Critchlow and Kev Walker, Staples has considerably improved as he's moved to a mixture of painted and ink work, as opposed to fully painted art. This is a clear, beautifully rendered (a far as a psychopathic murderer can be) image and another fine Megazine cover, where the white border really brings out the character. Maybe it's because they have more time to spend on them, but the Megazine covers are constantly beating the weekly ones in the design and ingenuity stakes.

LS: Greg Staples does another great (if arguably uninspired) image of Death, with a particularly impressive misty Cursed Earth background adding a lot of class to an otherwise jokey image. I’m not normally a fan of space wasting borders, but the way the black line snakes around the image and logo makes for a clearer and more eye-catching variation on the previous cover layout.

Hong Tong - Part 1

Synopsis: A beautiful woman walks into a dive bar in Mega City one. She reveals herself as "Eddie" left to die in a Judge ambush and starts killing everyone in the bar, before finally being taken down by Dredd. Immigration records identify her as Suzie Cheung, but there's no record of her existing in her supposed home city - Hong Tong. They later discover that she's in fact Eddie Navarro, who's been fixed up in a high tech chop shop job - effectively a complete new body overhaul.

This body is the first real connection to illegal Chop Shop dens in Hong Tong, so Dredd heads there to follow up the lead. He's met by Shankley, the local Brit Cit rep, and handed over to Johnny Woo - the Sino Cit rep who'll escort him Downtown (under Sino Cit jurisdiction). Johnny Woo is a Sino Cit enforcer who crossed paths with Dredd before while taking out Hong Tong Gangsters in MC1. As Dredd accompanies Woo and his undercover downtown, Dredd orders them to stop the car - and leaps out after a a western perp. But Woo knocks him down before he can take a shot - telling him he's an observer only. Dredd tells them the man they let get away is Molko Tavarro, part of a 2 man hit operation. But Woo tells him they've already been following Tavarro, and they know exactly where he's going.

Elsewhere in "Uncle Ho's Chop Shop" Tavarro has reached his partner Chaddy, who's about to get a chop shop op, and tells him about Dredd. Uncle Ho warns his security to expect company - so Dredd & Woo are about to walk into a trap...

GH: Once again, Rennie proves himself to be the best Dredd writer that isn't John Wagner, showing here that he has a firm grasp on not only the character, but the part the supporting cast and the city itself play. However, in many ways this is a standard Dredd plotline - i.e. Dredd goes to another city to bring in a perp, and we get to see how justice is dispensed in another part of the world. We've seen Africa, Australia, Russia and Japan to name a few and now it's time for Hong K... I mean Tong.

At first glance, some of the satire appears a little dated (Brit Cit garrison in Hong Tong?) - but this doesn't appear to be a story that's going to play up the differences between the cultures - more the differences between the two men at the centre - Johnny Woo and Dredd. So far, it's undeniable fun - without becoming an instant classic. I do occasionally feel that Rennie would be a much better Dredd writer if he were let off the leash a little more - i.e. allowed to make a significant impact on Dredd continuity. Fun as this story is, you know that things will return to the status quo when it's all done - not something that can be said about Dredd's exploits in Brit Cit in the weekly.

As for the art, Goddard and Teague make a fine Dredd team, ably following up their recent three parter in the weekly. They do a really great Dredd, and the depiction of Hong Tong is wonderful in places (such as the 1st approach seen from the MC1 ship). Goddard continue his tendency to embellish the background with in-jokes (although I can't quite believe he got away with "gash 4 cash") which seem to litter the scenes in the Hong Tong sections. Whenever there's another big Dredd epic in the weekly comic - these two (of course ably backed up by Blythe) should be among the first choices for art duties.

LS: More solid thrills from the Rennie droid this month, and while this has yet to show the potential to be another "Non-Wagner classic"™ like "Couch Potatoes" or "Give Me Liberty", his Dredd's are always entertaining. There are some nice subtle touches on display here - I particularly liked Dredd's straight faced examination of the body. The Hong Tong setting is nothing we haven’t seen before (I'm always a little bored by the Blade Runneresque look that's on display here) and it could be argued that this story of Dredd on Holiday is overshadowed by the much more compelling Brit-Cit trip Dredd's undertaking in the weekly. Still, that piece of unlucky scheduling shouldn't mar what promises to be an engaging enough diversion from Dredd's guilt trip elsewhere.

Goddard and Teague put in a similarly workmanlike and professional job on the art side. Though "Suzie Cheung" doesn’t really look very Asian, it’s a small quibble when weighed against the quality of the work overall.

The Wilderness Days - Part 1
Synopsis: At a Cursed Earth farm, a group of children see a stranger coming across the field. It's Judge Death - the being for whom all crime is committed by the living, so therefore life itself must be a crime. The children run to their mum and Grandpa, who pointing a shotgun, tells him to leave. Death says he means no harm, but seeing he's not welcome, decides to leave. Later and alone he rests, waiting for night and contemplating the futility of his task when the humans breed faster than he can possible kill them. But he still decides it would be wrong for him to pass even one sinner...

Later, back at the farmhouse, the dog starts to whine so the mother goes outside to check the barn. She sees nothing but a Quad Bike in the barn until Death appears from the shadows and pins her down with a pitchfork through the middle. Death takes her shotgun and kills her father, after which he turns back to the mother and finishes her off. The two boys head for the field, but are chased down by Death in the quad bike, who kills one with the pitchfork - but the other hides until the morning.

The next morning, his father returns to witness the devastation, and his son finally comes out of the field to tell him what happened. But Death is still at large on his quad bike...

GH: Without a doubt some of the best Death artwork I've ever seen - rivalling even that of the character's creator, Bolland. The image on the second page (see above) is one of the eeriest and downright scariest renditions of this character I've ever seen, clearly emphasising his scarecrow-like construction. So it has to be said - Irving's work dominates proceedings here. I wasn't completely convinced about his take on Death, Dredd and the judges last time in the weekly, but he seems far more suited to the desolate setting on display here. I was also concerned upon seeing the cover that we were going to see a return to the jokey days when Death lost all sense of foreboding, but that has been swept away by the massacre on show here. Death quickly becomes portrayed as an unstoppable force, and both the death of the boy, and the stalking of the remaining child are actually very very scary.

As for the story, Irving mentioned in the recent interview that there would be an attempt to bring back the black humour while retaining the scare quotient and he and Wagner have achieved it here. The sight of Death stalking the young boy while saying "I promissse I won't hhurt you!" is both funny and terrifying at the same time - the sign of a great modern horror story. I'm looking forward to part two way more that I thought I would.

LS: Following on from "My Name is Death", the strip continues in it’s bleak reinvention of Death as misunderstood "devil incarnate/saviour". For all Death's "noble" justification of his actions, it's always good to see him revel in his slaughter, revealing the true evil nature behind his words. Death's vulnerability here helps to add something new to the character, and it fits in with what we know about Death's powers from previous stories. While Death might be better off possessing living souls than risk capture and suspicion at every turn, perhaps this shows Death's pride in his work, and desire to show the world his "good deeds"? It’s a shame he appears to have dropped the Dead Man style coat and hat that we saw in the final installment of "My name is Death" - perhaps that will return in future episodes?

Frazer Irving’s art is as good as ever, perhaps even more suited to the Cursed Earth setting - the only potential off note is the quad bike that Death has appropriated - for my money, it’s always been a strength of 2000AD that it can have the grotesque, the grim and the hilarious all in one panel, and I didn’t find it that jarring. That said, I can see how it could be argued it undermines some of the work being put into restoring Death to his early pure horror status.

Red Tide: Part 8
Synopsis: Waugh and the group take out the vampires before they can get to the workers, with Lilith saving Tyler from one. Waugh goes on a berserker rage with his samurai sword and tears through the remaining vampires after which they cut everyone down. Back at the Helsing institute, Hannah is eating her own flesh, driven ever mad the closer Lilith gets (as Lilith was the one who turned her). The doctors look back at the the security cameras and see that Landis has entered the building.

Elsewhere Devlin is introduced to "Bobby", the chief Psycho-pharmachologist looking into the response that "links the sleep/wake cycle with the hunger centres in the amigdala" - and may have a "secret garden" where they can hide away. Candice Manson II introduces herself to Devlin, but he shuns her as she had wanted to become a vampire. At that moment, Landis grabs her - "wishes can come true"...

GH: Ok - I still love this story, I have to say. But I'm kind of waiting for something to happen now. We have another confrontation with Landis now, and frankly very little has happened since the last meeting. We do get to see Waugh go a little crazy, which is fun, and allows MacNeill to cut loose, but other than that, not much happens, and things are beginning to slow down - which is a shame after the momentum that Smith has built up until now. Perhaps the research of Bobby will come of use later, and frankly it had better after the slowdown on show here.

But despite the concerns at this week's episode, the overall plotline is keeping me intrigued, and more importantly entertained. It's just about time Smith got to the point...

LS: If there’s a story that’s hard to review, it's Devlin Waugh. Eight months in and still we are on the run from vampires. The only other stories I can think of that have spanned this length of time are the Max Bubba Strontium Dog tales, Block Mania/The Apocalypse War, and Necropolis! It's certainly not the stories fault it’s been stretched out this long, and it seems harsh to criticise it for it’s scheduling, rather than its content. Still, even in weekly doses, I suspect that by this point in the story, with only a few more parts to the end, I'd be asking "is that it?". The frequency has just amplified this weakness in the strip, which in it's favour has great art and some good dialogue; the Curse of Devlin Waugh strikes again?

Part 1

Synopsis: An army of creatures waits outside a city gates, made up of a number of animals, including a dinosaur, Rex at the head, with lesser animals as the main ranks. Rex communicates with "Father", a human, who has located six people in the city. Forest, a tree creature, contacts Aviatrix who tells them the people are in an inner shelter. A battalion, led by Trike (a triceratops) moves in to attack the gate, but it's too hard to crack. They call in Raptor who, travelling at hypersonic speeds across country, smashes through the gate. The army rushes in, tearing the city apart until the humans surrender. They tell Trike "we accept his terms - we'll call him father again." But Raptor sees a feather and, going mad while chasing it, manages to kill all the humans.

Father uses the hotline to Rex's brain - Rex says that Raptor acted as Father made him, but Father blames Rex and turns the army against him. The lower ranks of the army turn against the commanders but they manage to escape into the humans' bunker, where they discover plans for a larger rebellion. They find a map with the remaining 2000 humans on Earth and decide it's time to take them out...

GH: One of the added benefits about reviewing the Megazine and weekly every issue is that I'm forced to sit down and pay attention. Too many times I've totally skipped over a story because it didn't click at first glance. And that's what happened here. After the first skim through I just though - "what the hell was all that about". On closer examination, I think I've got it now (the synopsis above will be a good indication of whether I have) and I'm warming to the premise a little more. Don't get me wrong - there's still a healthy dose of "what the f...?" that comes with reading this strip, but I can see a good element of promise beneath the initially confusing set up. i don't know how much this has got to run - but there's a hell of a lot to explain in future episodes...

As for the art - well, 2000AD readers are blessed with having D'israeli working on the weekly and the monthly at the same time. He brings a suitably otherworldly approach that helps to fully realise the writers ideas in ways that a lesser artist may not have been able to achieve. It's very hard to compare him with any other artist - the closest I can think of is Allred on Xstatix - and 2000AD should hold onto him as long as humanly possible.

LS: Like Lobster Random over in the weekly, this seems like a child of Andy Diggles famous manifesto for 2000AD, mainly the points about how "2000 AD used to be full of bizarre-looking aliens, cyborgs, robots, freaks and mutants – and they were the heroes! Nowadays, most of our characters look like they just stepped out of a mainstream Hollywood movie. Let's remember to create characters with a bold and unique visual style." and "We should give the readers something they can't get anywhere else – be it movies, TV, video games, whatever"

Whether this was the catalyst or not for either strip who knows, but if so, it has certainly paid dividends - a shame Andy didn’t take a leaf out of his own book for Snow/Tiger, but I digress. There’s potentially a dense and original world to uncover here, with a handful of humans living in a strange, post apocalyptic world, yet still behaving in the decadent and offhandedly destructive way with what’s left of the Earth and its "inhabitants". Disraeli turns in another superb art job here, with stunning yet deceptively simple design work more than living up to the potential of the script.

The only puzzle remains the "feather" that Raptor "sees" on the seventh page. Is it a holographic sign of surrender , a hallucination on Raptors part, a real feather? Hopefully, more will be revealed in later episodes rather than leaving this as a rather bizarre and unexplained event.

Blooded - Part 1

Synopsis: A funeral takes place in Kent. Afterwards "Vic" heads back to his car to take care of business. Inside is a bent copper keeping low down and out of sight from the rest of the mourners. As they drive off, he says that the people killed were those involved in the Richmond job and the man doing the killing knows what he's doing.

Vic shows his intention to get revenge on the murderer just as a black clad motorcyclist pulls up beside the car and starts shooting. The driver and bodyguard are killed and the car goes off the road. The cop is thrown clear and identifies himself as police, but the biker executes him anyway. But this has given Vic time to get to the wheel of the car and he knocks down the biker. More of Vic's men arrive, and as the biker tales some of them out, Vic gets his hands on a gun and starts shooting. The biker dives for cover and rolls down a hill, where a woman waits inside a sportscar. "Get in Mr Faulkner". They drive off leaving Vic cursing...

GH: As a returning reader to the Megazine this year this story was difficult, and is a typical example of why I started the site in the first place. As a continuation to the last Bendatti Saga, this may well be great - but I really don't have much clue about what the hell's going on or who all these characters are. This is the kind of story that begs for a more protracted explanation than the vague paragraph at the beginning of the issue - as it makes no concessions to new readers. This is one of the biggest flaws of 2000AD - even Marvel Comics has seen the need to have a considerable catch up at the beginning of every issue, and when a story goes on hiatus, as they do in 2000AD, we do need a bit of a reminder of what's happened before.

So what can I say about this episode. It seems OK. John Burns' art is good - although not as detailed as I've seen it elsewhere, and the opening episode is intriguing. I just wish I know more of what was really happening. hopefully next month I'll be able to give a more rounded review - or perhaps someone would like to summarise the last series on the forum?

LS: The hardest thing about reviewing this is getting past the feelings of "why aren’t this creative team finishing off the most recent Dante storyline instead?". The second most difficult thing is the original Bendatti series, which I found dull and out-of-place in the Megazine. The editorial makes a comment about this and Snow/Tiger being perfect strips to appear in a 21st Century Valiant, and I can’t help but agree, though not in a positive sense. Still, it's early days, and it's by no means a shoddy creative team, so there’s hope it can catch my interest yet.

Miscellaneous Material inc.

• Harry 20 on the High Rock
• Darkie’s Mob
• Apocalypse Soon
• Blazing Battle Action
• Sector Control
  

GH: First, I must start off by saying that Harry 20 is one of my all-time favourite stories in the entire 2000AD history. There was simply something about it that clicked with me when it first came out. So upon hearing about its return, I was a little concerned that the years may have left me with a rose tinted opinion of the series. But I'm glad to report that my fear were groundless, and I still think this is bloody fantastic. Great main characters, some really evil bad guys, and a seemingly insurmountable feat for our (handily innocent) hero to conquer.

Darkie's Mob, has, after all these issues, not been able to raise the same excitement from me - never being a great war comic fan in my youth. And it's this attitude that causes some problems for Bishop's history of Battle - I only have the vaguest memory of the stuff he's talking about. While it's great to see this kind of well written analysis back in the Meg - and hopefully we won't get such a large gap after this one finishes - it's not clicking with me yet. Part of this is that unlike Thrill Power Overload (the history of 2000AD) there are no small articles or features to break up the long prose. The second is that it seems, so far, a little too much like a summary of all the stories and whether they were good or not. A little more analysis is needed on some of the bigger stories - especially Darkie's Mob. We were told that the strip was edited for consumption in today's world - and frankly some reference or explanation of this was needed in the text. So hopefully, Bishop will shy away from simply summarising the plotlines and editorial decisions, and give us a story with a bit more grit as the series progresses.

Oh - and I still don't get Apocalypse Soon...

Blazing Battle Action is an interesting article despite my previous unfamiliarity with the comics it refers to. That said, the groundwork that was laid by Battle and Action for 2000AD justify it’s inclusion here.