2000AD Prog 1593 - 2 July 08

Cover by Simon Fraser

Richmond Clements: I didn’t like this at first, it being a stock Dredd pose. But the more I look at it the more I like it. There’s great use of colour between the image and the fonts.

And more importantly- it’s a good selling cover.

Chris Landless: It's a big, dumb, action blockbuster of a cover, this week. I've always like Critchlow's version of Dredd, all hard edges and craggy features, complimented by a limited colour palette providing a strong contrast. It doesn't bear much resemblance to what does actually occur in the Dredd strip this week either in tone or action, but it should catch people's attention on the magazine rack in WH Smiths.

The Edgar Case - Part 5 Script: John Wagner Art: Patrick Goddard / Lee Townshend Letters: Annie Parkhouse Colours: Chris Blythe

Dredd liked to show off...

Synopsis: Kubitts flees from the judges, leaving dead citizens in his wake. He escapes, but Dredd now knows his identity and the net is closing. Dredd starts investigating the Citizen's Court and sees that the investigating judges were always either Masterson, Eade, Ramos or Kubitts. One witness, Chaz Garcia, reported seeing judges commit the crime, but was arrested by Kubitts and Ramos for fabricating the story. Dredd decides to interview him himself, while Ramos gets a call from Kubitts. Ramos decides he has to deal with Kubitts.

RC: Four weeks of slow-burning drama explode into a superb action scene, but Wagner somehow still manages to weave further strands of the conspiracy/corruption storyline at the same time.

Sometimes when reading Wagner strips, I wonder why anyone else even bothers, he really is a master storyteller. I still don’t know where this is going, but I think I’m safe in predicting that it will not have a happy end.

There's nice art and colouring too, with only one panel in the strip causing me to stop and stare, and that was panel three on page two. I’d like to have seen the Lawmaster landing from that position! Because it certainly wasn’t going to land on the back wheel from that angle…

CL: John Wagner puts on a masterclass in script writing this week, with a perfectly paced episode covering motorbike chases and political intrigue. The artwork lacks a certain spectacle but can't be faulted when in comes to storytelling and atmosphere. My only concern is the actual mystery, surely there's got to be more to it than a bunch of judges killing off some perps a couple of decades earlier. Why would Edgar make such a big deal of it? I'm hoping that Wagner has a few more plot twists up his sleeve.

Brethren of the Night - Part 5 Script: Pat Mills Art: Leigh Gallagher Letters: Ellie De Ville

Bendigo cuts loose...

Synopsis: Servitor, a man supposedly responsible for dealing with the king's enemies, is visited by his brother Jones. He tells Servitor that he found La Voisin - queen of the zombies - and she told him that one of Servitor's men was really Mene Tekel. He tells Servitor that he must tell Defoe.

Meanwhile, Defoe sends Tonge down to destroy the nest, while Bendigo is surrounded by flaming zombies...

RC: I’ve been enjoying this series of Defoe a lot more than the previous one. There are still things that niggle at me, but I think I’m always going to get that with a Mills script. Last week it was the ‘phanatic’ comment, and this week… I have to confess there’s nothing there that annoys me!

I loved Tonge’s dialogue in the tunnel, muttering about conspiracies and the Invisible College- all very 9/11. All that and the Queen of the Zombies!

Gallagher’s art is great too; the linework feels contemporary to the setting, if that makes sense. I'm also loving the splash on the final page, even though the invincibility of Defoe and his team is reaching ludicrous levels!

CL: I'm having a few problems following Defoe. Now, this could be because I never actually read the first series. Or, and I suspect this is the real reason, it's because Defoe is madder than a monkey in a mental asylum. What is going on? I mean, what is going on?

To begin with Brethren Of The Night seemed to be using a typical zombie battle to introduce each of Defoe's henchmen in turn, a method that Pat Mills has used from time to time in ABC Warriors. But then he's taken a right turn and launched into a tribute to Bendigo, who I'm assuming was a real historical fistfighter. Then again he could just be some character that Mills has made up. Actually, I've just checked on Wikipedia, and Bendigo was a real person, but well outside of the time period of Defoe. Which makes the historical showing off that Mills is indulging in seem a bit daft.

For all the madness and directionless plot, this is greatly entertaining, with some excellent artwork by Leigh Gallagher. The final page, where Bendigo is fighting off a legion of burning zombies, is a fantastic set piece.

Part 5 Script: G Powell Art: D'Israeli Letters: Simon Bowland

Crispy gets results...

Synopsis: The Chairman and Veldt prepare to interrogate the prisoner to find the codes to disarm the bomb, but are getting nowhere. The Chairman tells Veldt that if he dies, Veldt is to take over and nuke the planet from orbit. Crispy arrives to take over the interrogation and keeps only Bless in with him to mind the "nervegear" which tells them if the prisoner is telling the truth. After torturing him, Crispy finally gets the codes. He gives them to the Chairman, but purposefully gets one digit wrong - and Bless doesn't correct him. The chairman explodes...

RC: This is great for a few reasons. The first, and most obvious one, is the universally adored Matt Brooker. The art’s been superb up to now, but this episode, for me at least, lifts it to an even higher plane. You can actually see the malicious glee in Crispy’s eyes as he goes to work on the ‘terrorist’. Something else to love is the script. Yeah yeah, who’s G. Powell? I dunno, and you know something else, at this moment I don’t actually care. The script is piping hot and full of invention and thrills, so for the moment that’s enough. When it’s over then I’ll probably have time to wonder about the real identity of the writer, but until then…

Most of all though I love the fact that I don’t know what’s going to happen next. In fact, I’m not sure what’s happening now! There are agendas within agendas for all the main characters (or so it seems to me) and I have no idea where this latest plot twist is taking us. Which is how a weekly comic strip should be! 

CL: I'm not sure I like this or not. The artwork is fine, the muddy miserable alien hell of the Vort is vividly captured by D'Israeli, and the story seems to be heading in an interesting direction. The torture scene in particular is fairly clever. On the other hand, the reporter and her typewriter narrative reminds me of the ugly horse faced woman from Sex and the City, which is a Bad Thing. Crispy, a morally ambiguous disfigured hero with amnesia, seems a bit of a cliche as well. I'm reserving judgement on the Vort until later on in the series.

G. Powell, it's John Smith, isn't it? Bound to be. Or maybe Ian Edginton. Or maybe somebody else, I don't know.

The Bournemount Identity - Part 3 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Leigh Gallagher Letters: Ellie De Ville

Dexter refuses to go to Specsavers...

Synopsis: Dex and Sinister take Tessa out the back way after blasting through a wall. Sinister is worried about Dex and his poor aim.

Meanwhile, Mr Zlik, who the Mover has been dealing with, turns out to be the alternate dimension duplicate of Bournemouth - and Cutter and Broadus are ordered to put him in Bournemouth's place...

RC: I’m not one of those folks who hate this strip. But neither am I a huge fan. Recently though- and by recently I mean since the whole Dex paralysed and Malone thing- I’ve been hooked. I’m surprised to see some people commenting that the story doesn’t seem to be doing anything at the moment, because through my eyes there’s loads happening with the whole Moses plot. And added to this is the intriguing Dex missing the shots thread. Very good stuff. But then, Abnett is one of the best, and that’s something we seem to forget! It says a lot about the quality of work in 2000AD when someone onf the ability of Abnett can be taken for granted.

I’m liking Williams’ work on the strip too. It’s lovely and dynamic, and even has a level of grittiness that I don’t usually associate with his stuff. 

CL: It's rubbish.

Amerika - Part 5 Script: Pat Mills Art: Anthony Williams Letters: Ellie De Ville

Rebellion should release all of this now...

Synopsis: Dante visits the mother of the girl who blew herself up, telling her that he thinks she was forced into carrying the bomb. However the mother isn't impressed and believes it will all just lead to more killing.

Meanwhile, faced with the threat of the White Army, Dante enlists Papa Yeltsin to get the details of all Mafiya operations in Amerika - and he starts taking down all the operations one by one...

RC: Shall I tell you how good I think this strip is?

I reckon that if when I opened this prog, and all that was printed there was the second and third panels of the opening page from this strip, I’d have been a happy bunny.

That’s acting that is! And as an added bonus, we get the return of Papa Yeltsin and the brilliant gag with the ship full of Dante merchandise.

You can tell I like this, can’t you? This strip really is as good as it gets. 

CL: Amerika provides another one of those great moments in the history of this series, as Dante sees a poster of himself in the bedroom of a suicide bomber. As a grey haired, tired looking veteran looking at an image of himself as a young, carefree, anti-authoritarian hero to the masses, Dante's got to be wondering where it all went wrong. When did he end up fighting for the regime he'd sworn to destroy? Dante's changes in fortune make for compelling reading, especially in the world of comic book heroes where nothing seems to change.

At this stage, it looks like Amerika is going to be right up there with the best of Tsar Wars and Hellfire.

RC: Five strips and five bull’s-eyes (yes, even Defoe!)! The current line-up really makes a nonsense of any doom-saying about the comic. This is as strong a run of strips as I have ever seen in 2000AD. Any one of them would easily be the best strip, if only Dante wasn’t so damned bloody GOOD!

Best Story: Nikolai Dante

CL: Another great prog, 2000AD is flying at the minute. Two classic stories in Dredd and Dante, with entertaining support from The Vort and Defoe. The only low point is Sinister Dexter, but that's to be expected.

Best Story: Judge Dredd