Synopsis by Gavin Hanly
Review by Hugh Platt
2nd Opinion by Martin Charlton
Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

The Magnificent Umbersons

Dredd gets slimed...

Synopsis: The Umbersons are one of Mega City one’s most high powered families, with ambassadors, space explorers and sector chiefs in their ranks. Every year, on Grandfather Augustus Umberson’s birthday, they meet to celebrate. The black sheep of the family, Herb, arrives to see the family, telling Augustus he’s been up to great things.

Elsewhere Dredd witnesses a mass poisoning at a foodle-noodle bar just as Herb is telling the collected Umbersons that he was responsible for a new “foodle noodle” flavour. This caused the poisoning and he now intends to kill the entire family. Uncle Titus, the sector Chief tries to rush Herb but gets gunned down for his troubles. Herb seals the room.

Meanwhile, Dredd has tracked down the poisoning to Herb, who turns out to be an adopted member of the family. He arrives at the Umberson hostage scene as Herb goes on the radio and starts divulging family secrets, starting with Augustus’ bribery and corruption while building the Mega-way. Dredd makes sure they’re recording and tries to find another way in through the security as Herb goes through a list of offences. Dredd notices a teleport receiver and hacks into the Umberson’s private number. He teleports in while Herb is still in mid-rant and blows him away before he can start killing any more people. As Herb dies, he is happy that he killed thousands of people and will be long remembered. But Dredd tells him he messed up the chemicals and he only killed 7 citizens – seems he couldn’t even get that right.

HP: I’m not normally one for niggles, but there’s something about teleportation in Dredd that gets me. When placed alongside the rest of Mega City technology, it seems so out of place as to be ridiculous. The nod to Dr Who, with the TARDIS-shaped teleport box, doesn’t exactly help matters.

Otherwise, I can’t help but feel this was a much-of-a-muchness way of opening up the Meg. I can’t help but feel it’s just a little bit…identikit Dredd?

PJ Holden has done a sterling job – I’m genuinely unsure whether I prefer this or the black and whites of Johnny Woo. It’s not often you get to compliment someone on the quality of their vomit, but PJ’s earned it.

MC: Another chance for Rennie to shine here. You know how the whole thing is going to unfold from the first page, but it’s the pleasure of exactly how we will get there that we can savour here. Also, while I’m all for keeping the Megazine & 2000AD stories separate, it’s nice to give Total War a fleeting mention once in a while, to remind us that Dredd stories don’t occur in different continuities. Nothing too earth-shattering here, but this story does make for a welcome change of pace from Rennie’s Blood Trails, which was still running in 2000AD at this issue’s time of publication.

We really don’t see enough of P.J. Holden, do we? Some lovely art accompanies this story, with a more direct McMahon influence visible than in some of his other recent 2000AD works. And on a small note, the colouring of Chris Blythe really can’t go without comment. I love the red he uses for the Judge’s helmets. Like I said, a small note.

Playing Futsie - Part 2

Point meets another femme fatale...

Synopsis: Point is released and given Zig’s case notes. He learns that futsie rampages are up 600% and heads to the park where Shuffling Chegs first started Zig down the path to madness. Unfortunately, the hobos in the park turn on him, so Point calls on his pet Raptaur, Cliq. As the hobos turn and run, he meets Miss Anne Thrope, who is wielding a sonic cannon as protection against Cliq, and who says she wants to help him. She warns him to watch out for Daveez and gives him an unmarked unregistered handgun which she tells him will come in useful. She also tells him to come back to the park at midday and he’ll find Shuffling Chegs.

That night Point takes Cliq to find out more about Zigs’s workplace, and discovers that the guard was paid to fill the printers with disappearing ink. He then heads to Zig’s crime scene and finds a robot playing possum. He tries to find out who sent him, but the robot self destructs before he can tell him anything. Later, he heads back to the park and meets up with Chegs – who gives him the name – Elmort Devries – the big honcho in the Hunters club – who’s supposed to be dead…

HP: Hunters, Club, Hunters Club…was that from the post-Necropolis Death-Aid story? While every badge in the city might’ve heard of him, I’m willing to bet only readers with very good memories will.

Where the doll-faced Miss Anne Thrope and mysterious exploding robots fit in to the grand scheme of things I don’t know, but this one’s got more twists and turns than a rattlesnake that’s swallowed a corkscrew.

Does Frazer Irving need any more praise for his work on this strip? Well, yes, obviously. If there’s any strip that can only be drawn by the creator artist, then surely The Simping Detective is it?

MC: This continues to be the highlight of any issue it features in, sometimes to the detriment of the other strips running alongside it. If you read it first, the rest of the issue seems an anti climax, if you read it last, your finger itches to get to it, and you curse yourself for having to suffer the lesser elements of the Megazine. Likewise, if you read this issue from front to back, you find yourself on a thrill high when you reach Anderson. But more on that later.

This week’s issue is worth it just to see Jack Point wearing a suit and bowler hat, but the appearance of Cliq and Miss Anne Thrope make this another classic instalment (has there been any other type?) of this series. There’s a fine line between lunacy and genius, and this strip takes that line, urinates on it then moonwalks along it for fun.

That, and I warm more to Frazer Irving’s evolving art style more every month.

City of Dead - Part 5

Bad judges...

Synopsis: Gistane tries to kill Anderson while she’s trapped in Fauster’s mind, but Shakta distracts him long enough for Anderson to get back to her body. A fight ensues during which Gistane is impaled on his own knife – snapping out of Fauster’s control at the last moment. Meanwhile, the virus is spreading through Mega City One and riots are breaking out everywhere. Fauster is arrested and tells them that he’s fused the nanotech to the half-life virus with magic and he can now live forever.

Judges are starting to succumb to the half-life virus so they need to move fast. The learn that Anderson has no natural immunity to the virus but she remembers that a siren went off – perhaps that neutralised it. They get ready to broadcast the alarm sound city wide while a Death Cult leader is preparing to destroy a nuclear reactor…

HP: That’s it? An alarm ringing? That’s the wonder-solution to the Half-Life virus?

I can’t help feeling a little cheated. After what’s been one of the longest set-up Anderson stories for years (especially if you take My Name Is Death into account), only for an alarm bell ringing to finish off something feted as capable to destroying the world, I can’t help but feel like I’ve been handed a damp squib.

Arthur Ranson has done a stand-up job on the visuals though. The splash panel of the full-blown Half-Life block war has been the highlight of the entire series to date, and not just because of the almost-orgasmic look on Mr Mackay’s death mask.

MC: Aah, Anderson. Credit where credit is due to this strip: It really keeps going.
I know a lot of people love it, but I just don’t get it anymore. It just… keeps… going…, like the Books of Invasions seemed to in the weekly at one point. It’s almost like Anderson has been relegated not to a B team of the judges, but it’s like she’s ben cut out of regular continuity.

When the last panel of this strip teases that the judges have only one chance to save Mega City one, it’s hardly worth a flicker of the eye-lid. Nothing important happens here any more. The Half Life story span out of the first Judge Death series three or so year ago, out of what seemed to be regular continuity, but it’s hard to believe this story happens in the same universe we see Dredd in every week.

It’s also hard to believe this comes from the same writer who gives us some of the more off-beat Megazine Dredds. Where are the subtle absurdities that make this strip, and all Dredd universe stories click into place? All in all, I think this strip needs a kick in the arse soon. The art’s nice enough, and it’s always a pleasure to see a boarder in a strip (why didn’t I get off my ass and submit, I now wonder?), but changes need to be made, I feel, otherwise we could be here a while…

Midnapped - Part 2

Davie gives the Kreelers more than a wave...

Synopsis: The Kreelers realise they’ve hit a fishing boat, just as Middenface and Charlie board them. A firefight ensues and the driver is shot, causing the slaver ship to plough into the Forth bridge. Water starts pouring into the hold containing the mutant slaves, but Middenface and Charlie arrive to let them out. They come across Davie Numpty and realise he’s a norm. Middenface wants to kill him, but Charlie says they can’t, as he’s a prisoner too.

As they break out of the hold, they run straight into an ambush. The captain says that as his boat is sinking, he’s just going to collect the insurance. All the mutants have just become expendable – including Davie Numpty. Davie is aghast and picks up a gun, killing all the norms. They escape to shore as Davie explains his predicament. Middenface and Charlie realise that his Uncle Hamish’s house could give the rebellion supplies, so they decide to accompany him back there. As they climb up the Forth Bridge, they are attacked by a Kreeler helicopter. Davie finds a wrench left by a workman and throws it at the chopper’s rotor – it crashes to the ground. Middenface is shocked: “are you sure ye’re no’ a mutant?”

HP: Is there no bad art on any of the strips this month? I’m running out of adjectives. Thomas' black and white work is suitably cold for McNulty’s waterbound Edinburgh rampage - without excessive colouring, his line work is left to shine.

Thankfully, the more vulgar looking sound-effects that sometimes plague other strips have been left aside in favour of Thomas’ own – something I think artists should be left to do more often.

Like Killoden before, by having another character document the actions of Middenface through his own story has really lifted it. It gives the strip a real sense that McNulty and his early days are something that affected many more people than just himself, and makes him seem a much more chronicle-worthy character.

MC: When the last Young Middenface strip was in the Meg, I dreaded every month having to wade through another 8 or so pages of it, but this semi-reinvention under a new penciller has worked wonders, and it’s one of the first things I read this month.

As always, Shaun Thomas adds a gritty, ghost-like quality to the stories he illustrates, with the somewhat rushed feel of the art complimenting the pace of the narrative superbly. Also, his Middenface actually looks like the type of mutie you don’t want to meet down a darkened alley, rather than previous renditions, that looked like little boys with ‘lumpy heeds’. Remember the Rogue Trooper strip last year done in grey scale, and how it adds tone to the imagery without altering the mood the way colour can do? It’s the same here. I’ve long been a fan of Thomas, but this is exceptional. I just hope he can get more regular ongoing work when this strip is over.

See Naples and Die - Part 2

Silvio gets in on the act

Synopsis: The Camorra runs a lucrative Clandestine Lottery, but Michelle and Faulkner steal all the money. Elsewhere, Silvio is found tied to one of the poles in his own strip club. The next day, Faukner and Micheller are in a restaurant when they encounter Nicolini's thugs. Michelle taunts them and they attack Faulkner. However, one is so fat that he gets stuck in between a cubicle and the other has a heart attack while trying to fight.

Later, Nicolini has a meeting with the heads of the families. One of them tells him they might have to disavow Nicolini, but gets his head forced on a barbecue for his insolence as Nicolini warns them that he’s the one still in charge. Inside, his wife says he’s losing control again like he did with his son and tells him he needs to find out who’s ripping the families apart. 2 days later, Michelle is abducted as they have discovered the fake identity of her and Faulkner as con artists. Nicolini can’t get anything out of her, so his wife pulls out a flick-knife and warns Michelle to start talking…

HP: Faulkner and Michelle’s two-man assault on the Camorra is fun, but it’s certainly not triggering my thrill-receptors as much as the first time around, even with the gorgeous presence of John Burns’ paints.

The wheels are all in place for the final showdown, and even though the “mystery” of who the Bendatti’s client has bigger signposts, there’s enough gung-ho charm to carry it through. A passable addition to the meg’s roster of thrills.

MC: I must admit, when I first encountered The Bendatti Vendetta, I wasn’t too keen, I mean, it’s hardly Shakara in terms of its ‘2000AD-ness’, is it? But as it goes on, I find increasing pleasure in its (perhaps inadvertent) 1970s stylings, both in the story and as an idea for a strip, which is helped no end by the invaluable contributions of John Burns, who really paints Mediterranean villages like no other artist I can think of.

The retro style and mood of this strip combine to give a welcome change of pace for the Megazine, and although not a great deal happens from episode to episode (which makes me think the strip could have worked outside the Meg as a DC/Vertigo strip), it’s a romp from start to finish. Beautiful women, sleazy villains, chiselled chin heroes and grilled fish. Who could ask for more?

All Hell - Part 5

Accidents will happen...

Synopsis: Waugh gives Eddie Whiteman his first cigarette in a long time as he tells them he’s been trying to rebuild his body. He says that he’s been wandering through the courts and has found several shortcuts. As they cut through the Town of Those who Died in Accidents, the Catachist and his crew finally reach the tenth law court. There he has killed the god protecting it with dragon’s teeth dum-dum bullets. The catechist reveals he has lived for a long time indeed as they reach the house of Meng – the final obstacle to his mother beyond.

Elsewhere, Eddie tells Devlin that Kolkiss and the Catachist are summoning the Quppoth to swarm – an evil brood that is far worse than anything Devlin has ever witnessed. They pass Meng’s dead body and cross the bridge to the wheel of Transmigration – which has ground to a halt. “Hell is at a standstill and something is being born”

They work their way through lost souls and finally see Kolkiss in the distance. But the Catachist creeps up behind Devlin and slits his throat – Harry Kiri has let them all here deliberately and they are now using Devlin’s blood to feed the Quppoth hellspawn…

HP: Who needs superlatives when someone’s got a God-Killing Uzi Automatic? With the motives of his enemies becoming clear, the frantic pursuit of the last four months seems worthwhile. Betrayals, bloated hell worms and a bloke with a saw stuck in his skull – it’s this brand of John Smith madness that makes Devlin one of the least predictable (and most enjoyable) strips in the Meg.

Speaking of madness, MacNeil gets the balance between gore and guffaws spot on. Whether it’s the surreal brutality of Hell, or a gout of gore from a slashed jugular, MacNeil has it down. A gorgeous end to a gorgeous meg.

MC: I’ve just re-read the two Devlin Waugh books as part of a review for this very site, and I must say, I know Colin Macneil will always be ‘the guy who did America’, or ‘The guy who drew Johnny Alpha/Chopper getting killed’, but I think he should also be ‘The guy who took Devlin Waugh and turned up the volume to 11’. No offence to the other artists who’ve drawn the camp vamp before, but Macneil really has made this his own. The beautiful use of colour, the imaginative renderings of hell in all its forms, the way the panels seem to degrade when filled with parasites. Lovely, in a very vividly horrible way.

The story itself continues to enthrall, giving us Devlin’s most involved adventure since the Herod saga, with the revelation at the end of the strip proving an unforeseen shock even to me. Of course, we know Devlin’s in no real danger, but unlike Anderson, I really want to see what’ll happen here, because Waugh’s always worth watching just for his ‘my giddy aunt’ style exclamations.

Miscellaneous Material inc.

• Robbie Morrison Interview part 2
• Dredd fiction
• Dreddlines
• Charlie's War
• Metro Dredd
• Dredd Files
• Heatseekers

HP: The Robbie Morrison interview is exactly the kind of article I want in between my strips – informative, interesting, and full of the kind of neat little talking points you won’t get from anywhere else (Crest is a woman?!?). For the first time I’ve been just as hungry for the final part of an interview as I have some of the surrounding strips.

Part 19 and we’re still only up to prog 202 in the Dredd Files – is there an end in sight?

And I tried, I really tried to read the text story for this review. But I couldn’t get past the first page without finding myself dozing off. I don’t mind the occasional text piece, but at least try to make them interesting.

I think Alan Barnes made the right call, both in highlighting the quandary over the reprint this month, and by showing it uncensored. In the present political climate, I think Megazine readers are capable of seeing that it’s not an act of insensitivity, but one of great deliberation to show it in it’s entirety.

This month’s Heatseekers seem a little wet as well. Jonathan Morris takes a lot of time (and almost by his own admission, a lot of his word count) to tell us an awful lot of nothing about not much at all. That said, Si Spurrier is back telling us about something he passionately thinks we should be interested with, even if I could personally do with arsedribble being left with Lobster Random, not here.

Haven’t I seen Cab Wars somewhere before? In Meg 221 to be precise. I know the Metro Dredds are hardly a deal-breaker for the Meg, but this kind of boo-boo shouldn’t be happening in a professional magazine.

MC: For a few months now I’ve wanted an interview with a writer, not an artist, and the continuing Robbie Morrison interview is superb, not necessarily for the questions asked, but due to Morrison’s willingness to make the interview worthwhile. It’d be easy to trot out standard answers we’ve heard before about Dante, but he’s actually quite critical, which is refreshing.

Heatseekers continues to miss Gordon Rennie’s ‘roving reporter’ style input, and it’s been months now since the comics section sparked my interest.

Charley’s back, and back in Britain. If you like this, you’ll like this. If you don’t, you won’t. I’m sure everyone’s made up their mind now.

The Dredd files plugs on, covering less ground in a month than the current strips generate, so theoretically this could be a limited series of infinite parts. I don’t mind this, but I tell you what would have been nice: Some information in the synopses about where, when and if the stories have been reprinted. Too late now though.

Didn’t read the text story. Couldn’t face it, just from the caption that read ‘was that gonna be Dredd one day? Dying alone, taken off life support because someone figured you’d had your shot?’. The contraction of ‘going to’ was enough, but surely it should be ‘he’d had his shot?’. Side note, doesn’t it almost look like the judge on the final page is sticking up two fingers at Dredd?