Synopsis and 1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd opinion by Leigh Shepherd

Synopses and reviews contain spoilers for this issue

GH: A great front cover - despite the fact that you can't actually see what comic you're buying - with Ridgeway providing decent character art for both Dounrey and Dredd, and a great tagline. However, the back cover suffers - especially with the slightly crude landing ship - and thus seems a slight waste of a double cover.

LS: Well, there's not much to say about this that won't leave my Dredd review a little short - suffice to say just two things: Firstly, it certainly doesn't warrant a wraparound cover - there's very little going on on that back page. Secondly, while I'm not a complete cover Nazi like Gavin when it comes to covered up logos, the flag seems a pretty pointless and ugly distraction.

Damned Ranger - Part 3

The culling begins...

Synopsis: The New Mutant Army is driven back to the Black Hills, where they turn and fight. Dredd orders the judges to flush them out, as the mutants prepare to make their last stand. As they make their way through a wooded area, a judge and rangers are killed by booby traps. Dounrey takes point to make sure he goes before any more of his troops. Dredd sends the robots out first, which flush out the mutants, as Dounrey narrowly misses another trap. An air-strike is called down to destroy the mutants, and the combined judge/ranger force moves forward. As they reach a stream, a ranger is shot and wounded by a sniper. The other rangers can’t get to her without being fired at, but Dounrey rushes out anyway attracting the sniper’s fire so that the rest of his men can take her out.

The remaining mutants are grouping on Hill 31, as Dredd increases the ferocity of the bombing. Some judges suggest offering terms of surrender, but Dredd refuses – “These are my terms”. As the bombing eases off, a final push begins, and the remaining mutants are trapped in the mining tunnels under the hill. The rest of his men dead, the leader Red Eye, gives himself up. But Dounrey suspect something, and as Red Eye gets out two stick grenades, he kills him. He then jumps on the grenades before they can go off, but both grenades are duds, and Dounrey lives to fight another day.

The cull is over, but it has surely sowed the seeds of bitter mutant revolution. Dounrey admits to Dredd that he wants to die for letting his men down, but Dredd says they his casualty stats were the lowest, and they can’t afford to lose him. Dounrey realises that he doesn’t have to die to make amends.

GH: This is quite a difficult story to review. It is very much a tale of two layers. The first, the more traditional story featuring the “redemption” of Dounrey and the second concerning the judges brutal put down of the insurrection. However, the two parts don’t quite mesh well enough to provide a completely satisfying tale.

The Dounrey section is particularly poor. Part of this is down to the fact that he is such an unlikable character. He comes across as a killer with no thoughts other than the safety of his men. Perhaps this is a genuine portrayal of a soldier at war – taking orders unquestioningly while embarking on a truly reprehensible cause. But Dounrey’s thoughts are of revenge alone and he seems willing to stop at nothing to get this. It’s entirely possible, and indeed probable, that Wagner has set Dounrey up as an example of the danger of this type of unquestioning soldier, but there isn’t quite enough to back this up. Indeed, the only ones who seem to be questioning the ethics behind the slaughter actually happen to be judges.

This brings us to the second and more successful part: the overall actions of the judges in bringing the Mutant rebellion to an end. As Wagner clearly states, this is the beginning, not the end of the conflict, and he does seem to be slowly building up to something much bigger (though knowing Wagner, who knows when we’ll get to see the real results of this rebellion). As mentioned in pervious reviews, this is a considerably darker view of the judges that we’ve seen in recent tales and adds a welcome black satire of current events that has been missing from Dredd for quite a while. It’s a successful portrayal of the futility of large scale action against a guerilla force, and how such action can create enemies, not eliminate them.

Dredd’s actions in particular show him giving absolutely no quarter to the mutants, which on one hand is somewhat refreshing given the perhaps overly touchy-feely Dredd we’ve seen recently. However, it does mean that his character doesn’t actually stay stable between episodes – he can fluctuate from being a hard bastard with a good heart to neo-facist. Wagner’s recent episodes in the weekly focus on Dredd’s belief system more, and the Terror storyline in particular clearly shows why he comes down so hard on such terrorism. Perhaps this storyline could have done with a little more comment to help it all hang together a little. As it is, it’s a worthy tale, but not an overly successful one.

As for the art, the same issues as with previous episodes remain. Ridgeway continues to be an exemplary artist, but his first steps into computer art have not been completely successful. However, this episode, in particular the wooded scenes, show the computer art merging a little more gracefully with the line art. When he uses the computer to enhance his linework as opposed to taking it over, the art becomes much more interesting. Indeed, the pictures of the hoverships at the end are much more effective as a combination of line art and computer colour than the obvious computer effects seen earlier in the episode. So there’s promise here, as long as Ridgeway backs off a little from the obvious CGI.

LS: One of the great things about Wagner's writing is how he can capture any number of viewpoints and sell them as if they were his own beliefs. You could argue the beauty of Dredd is the way Wagner can have you sympathising with the perp one minute and Dredd the next. This story certainly tries to have it both ways, with the mutant army on one side and Dounrey on the other, but for me, doesn't quite pull it off. In particular, Dounrey's moping isn't very endearing, and the way he continually fails to get himself killed ends up as a little laughable. Of course, the mix of humour and drama is another great strength of Dredd, but something just didn't quite gel for me - the overload of odd contrasts left me a little non-plussed about what this story was trying to be. The fact that the art was also an uneasy mix of two styles probably made this seem more prominent than is probably warranted.

I always seem to remember reading somewhere that the printing process dulls the colours in the original art, so perhaps Ridgeway just needs to work out the right brightness to work with now he's switched to computer colouring - even the robots were wearing lippie this episode! That said, the appearance of the cgi washing up liquid bottle spacecraft really didn't do the strip any favours. Still, a lot of artists have taken time to settle into the new technology (compare Ezquerra's first digital work with his current stuff), and the problems could be fairly easily ironed out with a bit of practice.

Having said all that, overall it was an enjoyable enough tale that may pave the way for future developments in Dredd's world.

The simping detective at work...

Synopsis: Jack Point is a PI in Angeltown Mega City 1, who wears simp gear as “my shrink tells me I need to lighten up”. He gets a visit from “Molly” who tells him that her husband wants her dead. They are interrupted by some thugs who accuse Point of being a judge, but Point beats them up and leaves the club with Molly, getting into her car. Molly asks if he’s a judge, but Point says “not any more” as he and his partner were removed after a perp was killed in suspicious circumstances.

They arrive outside Molly’s apartment where she asks what happened to his partner. He says he was beheaded by a sword – just as he is surrounded by similar sword wielding ninjas. Molly tells him that the “boss” had taken the execution of the perp badly – as he was his brother. The ninjas attack, but Point easily defeats them with an array of weapons hidden in his simp gear. But Molly gets one up on him and prepares to kill him with her sword. But before she does, he tells her that the fight in the bar was a fake so that some friends could put a tracker on him. The friends are judges, who arrive to arrest Molly as Point shows her his judge badge…

GH: A highly impressive debut for Mega City Noir, which helps to rescue what would otherwise have been a slightly disappointing issue. The most striking thing about this story is Frazer Irving’s art which easily hits a new high. Showing influences of Bill Sienkiewicz, especially the image of Molly with the sword, this is fantastic work, successfully bringing a noir feel to a potentially very silly premise indeed. From the opening shot in the gumshoe’s office to the “surprise” reveal ending, this bodes very well indeed for the Simping Detective next month. As for the writing, Spurrier is at his best when he’s not writing Bec and Kawl, and he seems to have uncovered an area of Mega City One well worth exploration.

LS: When DeMarco left the Justice Department and was set up as a Private Eye, I expected great things. It was a shame when Wagner made her first case part of the Doomsday mega epic, as the setting and characters had such potential. Of course since then DeMarco has had a solo run of tales, but since they feature a gorilla butler and lots of crying children, the whole "noir" angle seemed to have been thrown out the window.

Given that, it's a straight cert that I'd be inclined to enjoy MC Noir, if only for the potential of the setting. On top of that, there's also the great twist of making the main character a simp. It's a perfectly Wagnerian idea that leads to some perfectly Wagnerian dialogue ("I ain't found a squeaky nose or a novelty button hole that couldn't be rigged."). Add to this some suitably moody yet silly art by Frazer Irving and you have a great recipe that should really take off when allied to a strong plotline.

If there's one thing that slightly niggled (and this is probably more a matter of individual taste) it was making Jack Point an undercover Judge - it would be nice to see an actual citizen (or even ex-judge) as the star of a strip for a change. After all, it's long been established that it's the City and not the Judges who make the strip such fun, yet how many stories in the Megazine have focused on a citizen rather than a Judge?

Angel Heart - Part 3

Mean's goes Butt Crazy

Synopsis: Cyberfreak attacks Mean after he asks him to leave. Mean manages to keep his cool, but Cyberfreak keeps attacking as the guests flee. Porsha tries to intervene but is thrown across the room. The med judges try to intervene, but are unarmed, and easily beaten, as are mean’s cyber supporters. Mean goes to Porsha and says that she is dead, turning his dial up to 4. He fights through the pain, and kills Cyberfreak with the perfect butt, and continue to butt him into little pieces, going into a butt frenzy. It turns out that Porsha is actually alive, and she tries to stop him. He almost butts Porsha, but seeing her, shakes him out of the frenzy, and he turns back down to 1. He decides not to marry Porsha as the judges take him back into custody…

GH: By some margin, this is the worst story in the issue. There’s just been something about this Mean Machine tale that has been completely pointless, and a re-tread of many similar Mean tales. In fact, so little has happened that this didn’t even need to be three episodes, when two would easily have done. It just seems like a tired idea stretched to fill a gap in the schedule. If this is what we can expect from Mean Machine stories in future, then can we keep the headbutter locked away for a very long time?

As mentioned in previous reviews, the art is also a failure, coming across as distinctly amateurish in places – not something you’d expect from a professional such as David Millgate.

Kali Yuga - Part 2

Rak makes a big mistake...

Synopsis: Rohan is forced to take the bus, and goes to see The Oaks – where the crazed druggie/alien came from. Inside the oaks, it appears that they are using it to hold Aliens prisoner on earth. Elsewhere, they meet with a new patient who they are about to begin treating with a new drug called Akto-phase.

Outside, Rohan meets Rak & Rita. Rak is quite put off by Rohan’s perceived betrayal and he asks Rohan to stand down. But Rohan refuses, and they get into a fight. Rak quickly takes the upper hand, and Rohan is beaten t the ground. Rita tastes some of Rohan’s blood but I dragged back by Rak. She says she’ll make him pay for that one day. They walk off, leaving the Rakshasas to feed on Rohan…

GH: It’s the “big fight” episode, featuring an entertaining turn from Rak, who feels he’s being unjustly betrayed by his friend – a nice touch by Mills. As Mills continues to surprise with Savage in the weekly, he continues to entertain with Black Siddha here (although this strip can be more prone to varying degrees of quality). OK, the idea of using Earth as a penal colony may be a little too close for comfort to the entire plot of Interceptor, but hopefully that’s just a throwaway side story. Mills does put in some nice touches here, such as Rohan sitting on the bus in Siddha gear, very well caught by Simon Davis, or his slight rant against the over management of the NHS. It’s with the latter, where Mills manages to make his point without going over the top, that he avoids the pitfall that has marred much of his recent work, and shows that there’s a lot more life left in Mills yet. As for the big fight? Davis does a wonderful job of showing Rohan get an almighty kicking, that you just know Rak’s going to get this back on himself before to long…

LS: It's a shame that Pat Mills has done so much damage to his reputation over the last decade, as here's an episode that had just about everything. There was some (believe it or not!) great dialogue ("I didn't realise the Lords of Karma ran Capital Radio"), some patented Mills off the wall ideas, nice characterisation and a proper cliffhanger. All of this was aided and abetted beautifully by Davis' art, which really does seem to have found its niche with this strip.

It's possible that people reading Mills stuff now fall into two camps - those who choose to overlook the clunky and the cliched elements of Mills recent work and those who see Mills repeating his old routines (such as the evil homosexual over in the otherwise interesting Savage strip) and quite understandably lose any interest in the rest of the strip. It's a shame, as this episode makes me feel confident in Mills ability to still hack it. Of course, come the next episode there's every possibility there will be more clunk than funk, but I'll enjoy this installment on its own merits.

GH: The “funny” side of Middenface comes to an end, with the promise of more moodier adventures to come before too long. Middenface makes for a good “regular” for the Megazine, and while the previous series was much more successful, it’s hard not to warm to this tale by the end. From the nasty end to the Kreelers (thankfully kept out of sight) to the similar end for the sheep, this is the kind of lighthearted story that may seem a little old fashioned in 2000AD these days, but actually ends up being a welcome change from the rest of the comic. That said – it’s still been very much a “read it – will never read it again” series, and even some very fine work from Goddard can’t quite pull it up to anything more than a nice diversion.

The art team continue to deliver the goods with solid, quality work that shows you don't need a comical style to sell a comical strip - a lesson that the Mean Machine tale could have done with learning...

Miscellaneous Material inc.

• Dredd Files
• Gordon Rennie
• Charley's War
• Metro Dredd
  

LS: Charley's War continues to shock (or would if Garth bloody Ennis hadn't given away the biggest spoiler EVER!), while Hell Trekkers continues to rock - I always thought the pseudonym used for this strip was more the consequence of management trying to disguise the comic was being written by two people, rather than any inherent embarrassment on the creators' part. The Dredd files seems to have been going on for a while now - perhaps a rest would do it some good - how about replacing it with an in-depth look at the history of the Megazine - after all, Bishop himself is the longest standing editor and given the Meg has been running for longer than the prog had been running before the Meg was launched, I'd imagine there's a hell of a lot of material.