Synopsis by Gavin Hanly
1st opinion by Gavin Hanly
2nd opinion by Alex Frith

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

Warzone - Part 3

He's good ...

Synopsis: The Space Corps rest in the ruins of the Diham temple. Only Dredd and Biggs are awake when Dredd’s helmet audio picks up some sounds in the jungle – and he tells Biggs to wake everyone up. The woodies realise they’ve been spotted and mount an all-out attack. The Corps are hopelessly outgunned and, one by one, they fall to the gunfire with only hoverman making it to safety. Dredd commandeers a hoverbike but gets shot down while trying to get to safety and the bike crashes in a ravine. The Woodies leave him for dead. Which, of course, he isn’t.

Badly wounded, he prepares to fight back.

GH: I have found myself being rather underwhelmed by this latest tale of Dredd as a fish out of water. Dredd’s reasons for being on the planet seem shaky at best and the set up for Mega City One’s involvement in New Sylvania is never really adequately explained. It feels that there is a good story waiting to be told here, especially focusing on MC1’s extra curricular affairs, but this has been abandoned for what feels like a Darkie’s Mob/Bad Company rip off – and a poor one at that.

So far, I haven’t felt any sympathy for the main crew who all seem to be a pack of clichés and Dredd himself doesn’t appear to have anything interesting to say about the war either. It all boils down to a standard war tale – but with no meat to back up the action, it all seems rather stale and pointless.

PJ Holden makes the best of the script and has visibly improved with every episode. He puts in a great deal of detail in the background which compliments his action scenes, especially in this issue, with good use of the ruins and jungle to create a believable battle. The last page too, works very well, especially the Iron Duke’s rat infested remains. Nasty.

I do, however, find myself preferring the grey wash effect that Holden last used in Rogue Trooper, and would like to see him try that style, or a colour offshoot of it, again. In addition - I'm just not too sure about his Dredd, who seems to grimace a little too much for my liking. But seeing as "grim determination" is part of this character, I'm guessing this is a petty grievance.

In all, it’s passable but remains an ultimately disappointing story. Perhaps Dredd unleashing guerrilla warfare next issue might spice things up a little.

AF: This story has been drawing a number of complaints, mostly along the lines of 'why would Dredd ever be in this situation anyway'. I can see their point, but I'm happy to forgive the premise for the sake of seeing Dredd in action alongside a bunch of nutters and hardcases.

Holden's style is perfect for the scenery-chewing silliness of this yarn, and ends this episode with a beautifully atmospheric page. I don't really understand why Dredd survived and the others all copped it, but I do know that he's mighty pissed, and he will bring the full fury of the Law to bear; I can't wait for the denouement!

A Scottish Sojer - Part 3

Middenface embraces his best friend...

Synopsis: The mutants find the streets crawling with Kreelers who have a tank to back themselves up. They’re going to wait until Stinking Billy’s banquet at the castle before attacking. Billy arrives at the hotel and immediately pisses off the owner by turning down his food. While waiting for the attack, Middenface drinks his last bottle of booze, while Charlie reveals that there’s a million cred reward on his head.

Later, at the castle banquet, Billy reveals plans to shoot al mutants on sight. As he leaves to return to his hotel, the mutants blow up the bridge in front of him. The convoy heads to the back road leading them towards the main mutant group. They take the helicopter and start firing on the convoy – but one of the cars is equipped with a surface to air missile, which hits the chopper…

GH: As ever with Young Middenface, the stories which back away from all-out comedy and veer more towards the grim mutant struggle are far more successful.

Grant manages to call up a real feeling of underground activity here and, while some of the previous episodes have been confusing (I couldn’t quite understand much of last month’s), things are starting to pull together here. I’m still unsure of how much Middenface’s drinking is going to have an effect on the overall story, though. It’s certainly been given enough space so far, and I’d like to see this having some impact later on.

As for this plotline – the development of Stinking Billy will surely make his possible demise next month all the sweeter, although Grant’s continuing method of showing the mutants snatching defeat from the jaws of victory – especially in this month’s cliffhanger, means that things could still take a considerable turn for the worst.

As for the artist, Shaun Thomas, I’m in two minds about his work. Much of it is incredibly moody and he has many high points in this issue. Whether it’s the mutants hiding in camouflage before the attack begins or the final cars vs. chopper race, he brings some wonderful dynamism to the piece. His only let-down seems to lie in the characters themselves. I have found myself wondering who was who, from time to time, and more differentiation in the facial characteristics of some of the mutants would be welcome.

AF: I'm not a huge fan of Shaun Thomas's art. I'd like his figures to be a bit more defined, his backgrounds more full of detail. But despite this, he has been drawing into the context of a cold guerilla war rather well. As the cover reflects perfectly, Young Middenface is a strange hybrid of 2000AD and the Beano, and it kind of works in tone, although I'm not always sure what exactly is going on in terms of action.

However, as has been pointed out before, the politics in the piece are spot on, and anything that fleshes out the epic 'Portrait of a Mutant' saga is worth reading.

GH: Oh… dear… lord. Where do I start? Is it with the incredible in-jokieness of this tale? The really terrible depiction of Stogie on the last page? The bizarre appearance of Tharg at the end?

Alec Trench has apparently appeared in many stories after the initial Future Shock and is based on a real writer – but how in hell are you supposed to work that out from this? This entire story smacks of incredible overindulgence and may well be one of the worst things I’ve ever read in the Megazine. And that it comes straight after Middenface, where Grant is at his best, makes this even worse.

The “whatever happened tos” sounded like a great idea when they were first mooted, but have, almost without exception, failed to deliver. It’s time to put this idea to rest and never revive it. Here’s hoping that the next run of one-offs, based on Mega City One’s Black Museum, lives up to its promise and doesn’t end up scraping the barrel like these efforts.

AF: This was a fun strip, and I assume that its blatant fanboy indulgence was not a problem for the majority of Meg readers. I'm always happy to spot references and in-jokes to past progs. That said, I don't think it added any humour to the Future Shock writing field that Droid Life isn't covering over in 2000 AD, although of course it followed on nicely from the small press article.

Always fun to see Tharg in a jumpsuit, as well.

Malachi arrives ...

In the camp, Bonaventura is training the inmates to use weapons, against the will of the warden who has fought so long to teach them all a better way of life. Bonaventura says there’s no other choice as Fungal and Fenman call in. They say that the Bismarck Span is down and they’re cut off – and are now more than a day away as they have to go around. Inez and Christie are stuck in a rad storm which is also heading towards the camp.

Koburn is down by the plantation when they start to see all the plants wither and die as Malachi walks through them. He sends everyone back to the camp and shoots Malachi – but to no effect. Shrapnel bursts out of Malachi and takes Koburn down. He tries an incendiary, but that too has no effect. Koburn calls his bike to him, knocking Malachi out of the way. He climbs on board and orders it to take him to the camp – with Malachi following…

GH: Now, this is much more like it.

Koburn and Bonaventura have proven to be a good team in the past, much like the team of Rennie and Ezquerra, who again turn in a solid tale. Rennie manages to achieve the creation of a downright scary character, using Malachi’s steady unstoppable approach to ramp up the tension and seemingly promising no way out. His walk across the field, with all the plantation dying around him is masterfully done by Ezquerra, as are Malachi’s vision of the Cursed Earth as it was before the missiles hit. Ezquerra’s work here is some way above his recent run on Strontium Dog, and it’s great to see him meshing so well with a writer other than Wagner.

Rennie, meanwhile, takes Koburn down a notch or two with a serious injury, which was needed to give the ex judge some gravitas. In addition, the plot threads set up in previous tales which set up the backgrounds of the other judges are all starting to come into play here.

An excellent tale – and it’s a shame there will be a longish break after this one. But then we will be getting Ezquerra on “origins” instead…

AF: Moving along nicely. Ezquerra always sucks me right into a story, doubly so in colour; he's still far and away the most readable artist working today (maybe ever?).

Rennie is keeping pace, too, with a neat bit of characterisation. Unkillable villains can bore me, but there's something about Malachi that intrigues me enough not to mind. He's a force of nature, not someone with an agenda - let's see where he's going, and hope that there isn't merely some secret weakness that Koburn and his juvenile delinquent recruits will discover and exploit.

The Harder They Come - Part 5

Dredd tells it like it is...

Synopsis: Shimura tells the story of how he me Stan Lee. He was on bodyguard duty for DaiSuke Toyama, who had a contract on his head. Lee burst into the place and killed the other judges and Toyama. Shimura was sleeping with Toyama’s daughter at the time and arrived late – only for the daughter to follow him and get killed too. Shimura attacked Lee and despite taking severe damage kept fighting until Lee was driven away by approaching sirens.

Back in the present, Dredd is unimpressed – “screwing the daughter while the father was getting killed’s hardly enforcing the law”. They are about to go at each other when there are signs that Lee and his assassins have broken into the compound. They make their way in until Lee confronts Dredd – only to be sucked into the machinery in the walls and delivered to Shimura.

They prepare to fight…

GH: As anyone who has read my previous review would attest to, I’ve been left feeling rather bored by Shimura in the past. There’s just been something that hasn’t clicked with me about him. You can only base a series around a stone-cold character if the surrounding cast are a little more colourful – and unfortunately, this isn’t achieved here. Neither Inaba or Amber come across as fully rounded characters, and the Dredd/Shimura antagonism gets older with each issue.

This episode has a slight saving grace with the tale of Lee/Shimura’s firs meeting being told from both perspectives coming across rather well, but the rest of it seems to be just biding time. Wouldn’t it have been more satisfying to have Dredd specifically let Shimura have dibs on Lee, since Dredd had nothing left to prove? Do we really need another fight to the death as promised for next issue? Was Stan Lee ever an interesting character? All in all, it comes down to the fact that I don’t particularly care for any of this – and am counting the issues until it ends.

On the other side of the coin – this does sport some excellent black and white artwork by Colin MacNeil. There’s a slight confusing moment as to how Shimura and Lee are left alone together - what's with the snakey pipes? – but he does manage to add some class to the strip and remains the best thing about it.

AF: I'm all for having team-up stories every now and then, but it seems a little odd to publish this strip at the same time as Warzone. Sure, the stories are very different, but the atmosphere of both is kinda similar. And this one even more so hangs on an absurd premise. Surely a stealth assassin like Stan Lee doesn't need a team, and as we have seen he has suffered as a result of their full-on attack.

Morrison has a go at mocking the idea that either Dredd or Shimura as sensible lawmen would need to face Lee and defeat him, but he doesn't pull it off as well as Whedon has in Firefly/Serenity.

Straightforward action and hardness, but not emotionally satisfying.

Miscellaneous Material inc.

• 15 Years, Creep!
• Small Press feature
• Charlie's War
• Heatseekers
• Metro Dredd
  

GH: 15 Years Creep proves to be worth reading, but I can't help feel that with a bit of judicious editing, this could have been cut down by at least one installment. It seems that, as we get closer to the present day, there is much less to tell other than the genesis of the strips. Still, Alan Barnes's comments do occasionally prove diverting, especially when it comes to his explanation of why the Megazine was cut and why he didn't feel the need to tell the readers at the time. I still think a quick note on the 2000AD Online messageboard could have defused that one fairly sharpish. He still does portray a deep dislike of the boarders' comments on a number of issues reading in-between the lines...

The small press article was a great idea and very well received. I'd like to see the Megazine doing more of these long comics-related articles that aren't necessarily connected to 2000AD. The Heatseekers occasionally touch on interesting material, and I'd like to see some of this explored in more details in a larger article. The heatseekers themselves are OK but the fact that they are driven by advertisers, as admitted in 15 Years Creep, does cast something of a pall over them. Having said that - I have always wondered why there wasn't more advertising in 2000AD - surely that inside front page is worth something?

Charlie's War, meanwhile, continues to be one of the best reads in the comic. I can't help but think that this is simultaneously a good thing and a worrying thing...

AF: I've picked up the odd small press comic here and there at conventions, but I've never had the balls to publish any of my own work. This piece was a real inspiration to read, and it's abundantly clear that the small press community is one to admire. A whole slew of creators and comics were described that sounded intriguing to me (I'd heard of a few of them, but not many). I'm also glad that the article didn't come across as an advert for these comics, but rather as a spur to wannabe creators (which means perhaps the majority of comics readers) to put their thoughts on paper, who cares whether anyone else reads them or likes them. Sure, there was a whole lot of back-slapping going on, but anyone who's put in the work to produce these comics deserves credit, so it didn't feel indulgent.

15 Years, Creep! ended well, with some telling insights into the last couple of years-worths of Megs. I was thinking of complaining that the Heatseekers columns only ever talk about newly-released products, but when Alan Barnes explained that this brings in advertising revenue, it all makes sense. But will the Dredd Files return? I want to see more ratings for every story!

Helpful crop of Heatseekers this month, which actually give some insight into the product being placed, rather than just talking around them as they have done in the past. Charley's War continues to be fascinating if a bit scruffy; Metro Dredd continues to be utterly ignorable.