2000AD Prog 1572 - 06 February 08

Cover by Cliff Robinson

Alex Frith : A scene from last week's episode of Dredd, which is a little odd. It's OK. Strangely, although this cover features a decapitation of a child by a grown man, it somehow feels a little tame by 2000 AD standards.

Robert Frazer: If I was previously unfamiliar with 2000 A.D., this cover would definitely arouse my interest and pique my curiosity. There's a great interplay of a lot of different elements here - the background of Dredd's scowl suggests a looming menace but despite its complexity it doesn't detract from the clarity of the foreground image. The newcomer's eyes would be intrigued by the various elements - the mayoral desk sign, the practical-looking bodysuit, the easy manner with which the character lounges back, and of course the careful, well-lit study of sketchy slaughter resting on the desk - which seem at first incongruous but draw the reader into the ostentatious and outrageous conspiracy, gearing him up for the fun and frolics that lie within before he's even opened the comic up.

It's not playful - that would imply jocular harmlessness - but rather gamesome, as Maybe's confident grin also encloses a hard gaze which glints with steely challenge. However simple and silly that drawing may look, big stakes are being played for, and that daring manner is sent bouncing along nicely into the pages within by the pleasant alliteration of the tagline.

Excellent proof that an attractive cover can be much more than a gunslinger staring sombrely into the middle distance, and very well-received from me.

Emphatically Evil - Part 4 Script: John Wagner Art: Colin Macneil Colours: Chris Blythe Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd's adoring public...

Synopsis: Judge Dredd surveys the scene of Bobert Ignatz's death with Judges Roake and Beeny, and is quite perturbed at even the insinuation that the notorious killer PJ Maybe could still be at large - however, he eases his uncertainty and reassures himself that that the prospect is impossible as he was actually a witness to Maybe's demise by immolation. Even so, Dredd is intrigued by the conundrum posed the Ebeneezer Industries murders and is tempted to take over the investigation, but in the end relents to allow the newly-commissioned Beeny an opportunity to grow with her first serious case, and besides, he has a larger preoccupation...

As the time for the vote on restoring citizenship to mutants draws closer, conflict and disorder continue apace - both civic distrubances from mobs of incensed residents within the Mega-City, and battles beyond it as impatient mutants attempt to force their way inside. Between fruitless skirmishes with rioters, Dredd is also suffering slow progress with his attempts to persuade the final Council waverer, Judge Niles, to support the resolution; while Dredd remains committed to righting the perceived injustice of mutant exclusion, the howling walls of hatred blocking off the streets and the wearing politicking in the Grand Hall is sapping at his morale, and he is glumly aware that whatever happens, the vote will only be the start of the troubles.

Meanwhile, the - still-living - PJ Maybe attempts to solve a puzzle of his own: finding out just what obnoxious self-aggrandising twerp is trying to upstage him with the Ebeneezer Industries killings! He strikes gold with the brainwave that a juve is responsible (reasoning that it can't be an actual E.I. official as the Judges would already appraised everyone hoping to benefit from a 'board reshuffle'), and begins narrowing down the field of executive offspring into likely suspects. Jimmy "JP" Buwick, the killer, is amongst four children that Maybe believes are most likely to be responsible...

The following day - and adhering to Maybe's accurate prediction - JP Buwick begins covering his tracks by pinning the murders on another E.I. employee, Quilp. After offering him some sweets - actually impregnated with a mind-controlling drug - Buwick hands Quilp the murder weapon and instructs him to massacre the R&D department...

AF: The PJ part of the story is great, and we get to see the evil genius getting closer to his young adversary. Exciting and funny stuff. The mutant vote part of the story by comparison is more prosaic, but as ever Wagner writes in such a way that I really, really want to know what's going to happen, and I can hardly wait for the next episode. This is Dredd gold, make no mistake. 

RF: It is effectively disguised by the reappearance of the mutant controversy, which helps to invest in the pages with a greater sense of moment, but this week's instalment will prove dissatisfying for readers expecting plot progression. The playing-pieces are no more than lightly nudged, and the first page and a half are little more than an overgrown recap. Even if this episode does seem like a transitory lull, however, that's not to say that it's necessarily a failure, because it allows for some quiet and fulfilling character moments the opportunity to be expressed.

It applies to quite a diverse stretch of the cast, as well. Beeny's line to Dredd, "Mutant vote Thursday - we're going to win?", is a small but important one, and rendered all the more significant by its casual manner. Prior to this, we could never perhaps be entirely certain that she was being pulled and tripped along by Dredd out a sense of obligation through their shared history - this telling "we", though, confirms that they're striding in step together, of like minds, and locks one corner-stone of personality into place.

Dredd's interlude with the protestors and Judge Niles also shows a strength of consistent personality - recalling the vicarious smile of pleasure when he was seizing a ganger in "Fifty-Year Man" last year, Dredd has a firm and concrete idea of justice - he sees a wrongdoer, he gives them a clobbering. Crime perpetrated, sentence administered - just look how poor old Dredd suffered in civil cases in the famous "Block Court" story. In light of present difficulties, you receive the impression that he's actively hurt and distressed at this straightforward road to Right being tangled and jumbled into such a sorry mess. It may be a little blithe to insinuate that Dredd might be undergoing something of a mid-life crisis, but some of the placards being waved in the background are a helpful reminder of the confused funk of the painful question over whether Dredd is committed to The Law of just his own law - but then again, "I am the law!"...

PJ Maybe is a delight, as always - his life's passion (ending others' lives) runs the whole gamut of black brooding, revelatory joy and dry wit - the reader might never realised before that killing could be so fulfilling! His genoid sex-bot, Inga, however, seems quite out of sorts. She refers to the Ebeneezer killings as "terrible crimes", and looks seriously subdued against Maybe's hard satisfaction. This is a little puzzling, given that Inga has never shirked from a good slaying in the past - indeed, in the Megazine she even drove Maybe to a killing spree because she thought that her owner was getting too wrapped up in his mayoral alter-ego of good works and philanthropy.

The artwork for the strip remains capably competent but largely unremarkable. The lighting effects on Dredd's and Beeny's dometops in the opening page are a pleasing source of detail, though, and Quilp's design is also strong (as one minor continuity point of note, though, his name-tage appears and disappears between panels) - presented almost as some amiable parson, which makes his nonchalant slip into Buwick's accessory all the more shocking.

The previous week's instalment left a sour taste with its dismal tone - the reflective character of this strip, however, as well as providing some insights into our lead actors' personalities, also allows the ponderous subtexts to fall back to some extent and so is quite refreshing.. 

The Defiant - Part 7 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Henry Flint Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Shakara confronts his makers...

Synopsis: Towing the ancient artefact retrieved from the Bugger spaceship, Shakara takes the badly-wounded and comatic Eva with him as he flies to the "Tomb of the Shakara", an installation located within an asteroid belt. There, meeting with the spirits (or computerised consciousnesses) of his extinct race, Shakara requests that they heal the ailing Eva, insisting that she is an "innocent". The spirits flatly refuse to countenance assisting one who would have had them destroyed, and Shakara has to fend off defence systems primed to finish her off.

Enraged by this show of insurbordination, the spirits clench Shakara in an excruciating lightning-cage, roaring indignantly that Shakara is the tool by which they will exact retribution on the hostile universe and that he has no purpose to his existence without that mission. Shakara manages to break free, blazing a swathe of destruction about the station as he proclaims that HE is the Shakara by default of being alive, and he won't be bound by the empty will of ghosts. Settling back down, Shakara now openly demands that the spirits heal Eva, and that he won't be inclined to wait...

AF: Series 3 of Shakara is definitely better than series 2. I was curious to see if Morrison could deliver an original story that wouldn't reduce the rawness of Shakara, and so far he hasn't disappointed. I'm glad to see in this episode that his anger extends even to those who created him. Henry Flint continues to be the best weirdness artist since O'Neill. 

RF: Last week, I described Morrison's script as just a frame to the picture of Flint's art. That still holds true, but while I don't hold pretensions of being a curator I think that they'd agree that a good frame remains important for completing and clinching the final essence of the image.

This week's Shakara strikes something of an off-note, then, in that as it begins and ends with the same action of Shakara demanding that Eva be healed, there's no real sense of much happening - and the idea of events moving is vital in a strip such as this which relies on the kinetic energy of the hero bounding from encounter to encounter, if it's not to founder. Perhaps it seems inconsistent to not react favourably to a character moment in this strip when I praised the same in Dredd, but I'll admit that I don't have the advantage of context that comes from reading the previous series of Shakara - perhaps someone who is more familiar with the character's adventures will thus take more from Shakara's rebellion in this part than I did, then.

Flint's art remains impeccable in its lavish and unstinting detail. The defence systems are a good design - not just a random agglomeration of blocks but vaguely suggesting a humanoid form, and the geometric shapes also conveying an idea of implacable menace that comes from their mathematical and mechanistic contours. Shakara's hunched stance at the bottom of the second page almost makes him appear as a cornered animal lashing out, and his pose in panel 3.8 emanates an aura of almost touching entreaty, as if he's abasing himself before the light of distant divinity that's casting that long shadow behind him. His stance in the main panel of the final page has a positively ballsy swagger to it as he defiantly asserts his independence.

Certainly a lot of attention has been focused on Shakara this week, then, but I don't suppose that the strip is named after him for nothing!

The Promised Land - Part 7 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Richard Elson Letters: Simon Bowland

Gene discovers the truth...

Synopsis: The farmers attempt to face down Gene and lead him out of the Culture Shed, but Gene plants himself down firmly and demands an explanation for why the Shed is inundated with the nauseating swarms of giant ticks, steadily becoming angrier the longer the farmers stall. Learner John eventually concedes to Gene, describing the ticks as vital in the defence of the Promised Land - they are a hostile parasite which is lethal to Them, and so the tick colony in the Culture Shed helps to ward Them away. The Culture Shed is as much a part of the farms as the fields and the fence, and Gene should guard the place from Them as readily and naturally as he would any other.

Gene is decidedly unhappy about the arrangement, growling that Learner John, the clever one, should know better - this strategy is counter-productive, because it is driving Them to overrun the Promised Land and eradicate it entirely - if the Ticks were destroyed, then Them would have no reason to attack. Gene tries to leave to start a fire and incinerate the Shed - when Learner John tries to hold him back, Gene furiously swipes at him, tearing away his clothes... and revealing a tick burrowed into his chest. As Gene stares, appalled, the tick itself speaks, burbling that Gene has seen too much - and then Gene sees nothing at all as Ralph Sower manoeuvres behind him and clubs him unconscious.

Gene awakens the next day to the reproaches of the Urgings echoing in his mind, chiding him for his bloody-mindedness - had he just followed a simple rule, a single instruction, he could have avoided all of the current unpleasantness: for Gene is now chained up, leashed like a dog...

AF: Richard Elson continues to blow me away with his artwork, in particular the sumptuous colours. And Abnett delivers another of those twists that you can see a mile off but the timing is so right that it still twists in the gut when Gene realises his benefactors are not what they seem. 

RF: While this week's instalment by necessity includes a fair amount of exposition, this doesn't feel like a drag weighing the strip down. This is partially because, in the end, the situation is a fairly straightforward one, and Abnett has a keen ear for dialogue and a sense for appropriate movement.

While the explanations provided are not necessarily entirely staisfactory - what's happened in the centuries intervening between mankind's internment in the Cold Place and emergence of this colony of cuckoos remains a frustrating blank - I'm happy to leave it be 'unknown information' rather than necessarily a 'plot hole'.The revelations in this week alone are startling enough to amply serve for the time being, and I suppose that enough backstory has to be left open for any future Kingdom III to grow into!

There are a couple of fluffs with the art this week - when Learner John needs to gesture with both hands, his weapon magically spawns a strap out of nowhere, for instance - but Gene is definitely the apple of Elson's eye this week, and every movement he makes is rendered in exquisite detail, from gritted teeth the the true violence of his swipe at Learner John. Particularly adored, though, is Gene's expression when he discovers what lies beneath the schoomaster's shirt - the agape incomprehensions is nothing short of glorious. The poor Hackman looks like a slapped trout - as well he might!

The wordplay of turning Learner John's soothing reassurance of the march of "evolution" into Gene's suspicious and agitated "evil-you-shun" is delightfully realised and an ingenious way of conveying his hostility. One of the reasons why Gene appeals to me as a character is his honest loyalty, which is refreshing in the current age when it's fashionable to have heroes cynically second-guessing everything. That certain quality to Gene is well-represented here - when he discovers the dark secret behind the Promised Land, it's not that his faith in the Masters is compromised, but rather that the farmers were never Masters in the first place - it's a good demonstration of clearly individual character.

While I was initially puzzled as to why Gene the Hackman would seem to shirk from the promise of good scrapping with Them, on reflection it makes sense when you consider that Gene is a guard dog, not necessarily an attack dog. His strong decrying of the ticks seems a little excessively strong, but I don't know - maybe that bite back in Part One hurt a lot?

I think that it's fairly obvious that Leezee Sower is going to be playing some sympathetic role - perhaps being spirited away before she's implanted with a tick herself when Gene makes his bid for freedom? It was observed in last week's reviews that a sedate bucolic outpost must be concealing some dark, terrible secret: so far, so formulaic, but Abnett's described and Elson's rendered the Promised Land with such verve and distinction that so far I haven't thought to care. However it develops, whether the bowls are pitched straight or spun, I do definitely care to see how Gene extricates himself from his latest predicament.

England's Glory - Part 6 Script: Ian Edginton Art: D'israeli Letters: Ellie De Ville

Stickleback meets the badder guy...

Synopsis: Stickleback is in no mood to negotiate and flatly demands that Cody surrender the Jewel of the Seven Stars. Cody, however, remains cooly obstinate, and when Stickleback announces that he knows Cody of old, Cody - or rather, the malign presence that occupies his body - believes that he can use it to exert leverage over the London kingpin. He's promptly disappointed, however, as Rubadub shoots him with a poison dart.

With Cody dead, Stickleback and his cohort begin overturning the circus grounds, searching for the Jewel, discovering in the process that all of the cricus labourers are either corpses or mannequins ambulated by Cody's magic - and all are inert since his death. The only living soul to be found is the circus's 'human ton', seated in the centre ring and apparently catatonic, with mysterious footprint approaching him but none retreating away...

An inspection is interrupted by the arrival of Cody, flanked by his zombies - naturally, he died a little too easily for it to be genuine! As Stickleback prepares to kill him a second time, the gang is interrupted by the fat man behind them suddenly bursting open, revealing a howling portal from which the performers emerge! An evilly-smiling Cody moves in for the kill...

AC: Edginton is using the formula from the Red Seas of filling his latest yarn full of faces familiar from early 20th century lore. It works for me! I have to say I'm not entirely engaged by the underlying plot, but there's so much fun going on that I can let this slip. 

RF: This is another transitional comic - it definitely comes across as a long set-up to a grand main act of the evening's performances. This is no bad thing in and of itself - particularly when the truly gruesome transformation sequence as the human ton slickly bursts open in the final page promises that it'll be a spectacular one. Prior to that, Stickleback himself convyes something of a monstrous aura himself, his poise, sunken features and thickening dialect ably conveying bitter invective - even though his crooked nose reminds me of the parsnips I had for dinner today in a couple of panels!

Beyond that, there are a couple of pleasing pieces of environment-improving flavour, such as Cody's zombies pickling themselves for transport or an archetypal Yankee gun-cabinet.

Stickleback's gang seem unusually dense, however - they've been bemired up to their necks in the occult and yet they don't twig on the essence of those footprints leading up to the fat man? It was obvious the first time they were mentioned, but they scratch their heads over the "mystery". It's a forgiveable device, though, as it isn't lingered on and just leads up to Cody's return (who himself gives a laudable triumphant leer).

I receive the impression, though, that this strip's reception will depend by and large over whether the confrontation to follow will satisfy Cody's concluding promise of "pretty shit", so I'm content to wait and see how it develops. Let's hope that Cody's comment doesn't have to be taken at face value...

The Glum Affair - Part 6 Script: John Wagner Art: Carlos Ezquerra Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Alpha starts peeping...

Synopsis: Johnny and Wulf track their next target - Bigfoot Melinga, a former mutant camp trustee now wanted for crimes against humanity totalling a cool 297,500 credits in value - to a bordello abaord the Club Paradiso; however, the intervention of the station security prevent the hunters from ensnaring their quarry, as they are taken to meet the club Manager himself.

The Search/Destroy agents are questioned about the suspicious circumstances in which the criminals (that Johnny and Wulf have covertly captured for their bounties) visited the pair's shuttle. Bounty hunting is illegal in the Club Paradiso, but Johnny successfully wriggles out of the probing by claiming that he and Wulf are recruiting for a mercenary operation and that the missing guests haven't emerged from the shuttle simply beacause they're training in the hold. The Manager at least seems to accept their explanation for the disappearances (although in more likelihood he is glad to be rid of low-spenders), but is nonetheless suspicious of Johnny and Wulf and demands that they leave the station immediately. The two agents - with their shuttle and secret prizes - are sent packing to the freighter Gu'lot, en route to Earth.

Aboard, Johnny solves the problem of how to avoid arrest for the bounty still extant on him by inviting Faceache, the Strontium Dog they encoutnered when first arriving at the Club Paradiso, to hand in their bounties for them in exchange for a small cut of the proceedings. That still leaves them with half a million credits to find, but opportunity arrives when they espy Groule and his criminal gang amongst the passengers...

AF: The humour quotient is upped, and that's to the good. Otherwise business as usual. 

RF: Previously, I judged my first taste of Strontium Dog to be good but not great - entertaining but not exciting. As the strip advances, though, it's growing on me, and I'm inclining further towards the latter. The dryly observant and understated wit allows this strip to be more than a catalogue of incidents.

Ezquerra's art helps here immesurably - the entertaining interplay with The Manager shows the obvious ease with which he and Wagner work together, as the Manager's thin peering scrutiny and considered steepled fingers combine with the dialogue to create a nice conspiracy. It's plain to see that the Manager doesn't believe a word the bounty hunters are saying. However, while he's willing to overlook indiscretions in the name of profit, he's savvy enough to see trouble coming and not let the bottom line cloud his awareness of the integrity of his position. Masterful stuff, and seeing word and art complement each other so well is one of the strengths of comics.

There are other smaller touches in the strip as well. The diversity of aliens seen throughout the sojourn at Club Paradiso is used to repugnant effect in the whorehouse. Also, the line about "making soup" is a good quip, and Johnny wrinkling his nose as he blunders across a couple of aliens in coitus and his lidded disdain when the security robots escort him to the Manager are well-expressed. Johnny also breezily shaking off the dire threats from his prisoners also shows the easy confidence of someone who's seen it all before...

Billy Glum thankfully refrains from sticking his unwelcome oar in this instalment too much - out of the three panels in which he's featured, he's off to the edge on two and has the tact to cover up his ugly mug in the other. It's interesting to see the focus given on the bodybag, though - I'm curious to see what comedy of errors will ensue to bring that into play in capturing Groule's mob next week...!

AF: Solid entries from each story despite being in mid-flow. Exciting news to see a glimpse of Dante in Amerika, and a good bit of banter in the letters. The new Golden Age continues. 

Best Story: Judge Dredd

AF: With most strips this issue well-advanced and building up to their finales, there's not necessarily any stand-out moment amongst them.

That's no bad thing, though, as apart from Shakara (whose superb art is the engine-whistle this week) they all stoke up tension effectively, building up a good head of steam that promises to be released with explosive effect over the next couple of weeks.

Coupled with a much-welcomed (and much-needed) stronger performance from Judge Dredd this week, I'm posiitvely quivering with anticipation.

Best Story:Judge Dredd/Kingdom (tie)