2000AD Prog 1592 - 25 June 08

Cover by Simon Fraser

Luke Borley: Ticks the right boxes for what I like in a comic cover: dynamic, bombastic, a hero in peril. It's Kind of sketchy but I like that. Not much more I can say. In summary then: yep.

Hugh Platt: This makes me want to skip right to the back of the prog to consume the six pages of Dante immediately. Often Dante covers get farmed out to other artists, but whenever I see the crisp lines of Simon Fraser I can’t help but think they should keep them in-house. 

The Edgar Case - Part 4 Script: John Wagner Art: Patrick Goddard / Lee Townshend Letters: Annie Parkhouse Colours: Chris Blythe

The judges were sticklers for the regs...

Synopsis: Kubitts decides to go after Dredd. but fouls up the hit, shooting another judge instead. He flees from the judges who are now alerted to his presence, while they have already traced his weapon to Kubitts security. Dredd joins the chase...

LB: The only thing that isn't quite perfect here is the faintly ridiculous bad-guy-has-clear-shot-at-Dredd-but-another-Judge-lurches-between-them-at-the-last-moment piece o' kitsch on page 3. But this immediately wins me back round by having a guy 'run over' by a hover vehicle. And the bad guy pulls one over Control! To top it all off, we close with an old-school bordered Dredd headpanel on the final page. Solid, with promise of sublimity.

HP: And suddenly it’s all kicked off – Dredd’s brooding reflection of the last three weeks’ worth of investigation explodes into an explosive chase as he takes on Kubitts. It’s to Goddard’s huge credit that something that could’ve been a drokking nightmare to follow – a bunch of near-identically uniformed Judges gunning each other – never leaves me in doubt as to who is who. 

In this episode, Wagner has flipped the strip’s internal monologue from Dredd to Kubitts seamlessly. No doubt when the story spins back to being from Dredd’s perspective, it will be just as smooth a transition. And it’s the mark of how good Edgar’s final mystery is that we can be inside both their heads and still be in the dark as to what’s going on. Marvellous. 

Brethren of the Night - Part 4 Script: Pat Mills Art: Leigh Gallagher Letters: Ellie De Ville

Blazing dead guys...

Synopsis: Tosher and Snakes, Bendigo's boys enter what they think is Mr Quick's den. They take all they can carry, but decide against taking a crystal skull from an altar. As they head back up, the skull lights up. It sends out sparks, and before long, flaming zombies have caught up with them. The flaming zombies get topside, and Defoe's crew prepares to fight its way out.

Meanwhile, Jones arrives at Whitehall, looking for his brother, who's also known as Servitor...

LB: I'm enjoying this series a lot more than the first Defoe - it was the 'gong speech' won me over. Here the sewer thief kids wisely decide against stealing a crystal voodoo skull idol but are still outmanoevered by burning skellingtons (alright, "fire reeks" then) - and apparently die! Another shoehorned-in expositionary weapons list (on page four) and then some final page mystery! Nice. It's a bit like candy floss - sour candy floss. And candy floss, of course, is hardcore.

HP: Although I can’t deny it has a ghostly creepiness, Leigh Gallagher’s art sometimes loses itself amongst its own fiddliness. When the flaming Reeks surround Defoe and his crew, it was a bit of an eye-strain to make out exactly what was going on. 

Mills’ cringeworthy ‘phanatick’ dialogue aside, this week’s episode seemed to be over somewhat quicker than usual – without Mills trying to shoehorn in any almost-irrelevent historical anarchonisms to show us that YES LOOK I’VE DONE SOME RESEARCH, it certainly speeds Defoe up. 

Part 4 Script: G Powell Art: D'Israeli Letters: Simon Bowland

Crispy makes new friends...

Synopsis: Crispy is tied up outside for trying to set the huge froggy leader free. Bless goes out to visit him and sees him drinking the supposedly poisonous rain. She tries some herself and realises that it works as a psychotropic drug. Finally, the chairman decides that it's time to leave, but before he can a froggy sympathiser enters the camp and places a genetic bomb on him...

LB: Right, come on now. Who is G Powell? This is surely way too accomplished to be by a newcomer, so it must be a pseudonym. The conquering Spuz? Tharg himself? However wrote this is a master. Call me paranoid but the 2000AD website has been 'down for maintenance' for this strip's full run, barring any discussion or detective work... there's some revelation in store I'll wager.

It's like a 'best of 2000AD' - future war, weird beasties, mutant tough guys, psychotropic episodes, jokes... "Someone was crying somewhere. Kinda made me giggle." The mixture of pacing is perfect. The other strips are solid - but this is honed.

HP: There’s very much a Simon-Spurrier vibe to The Vort – from the Simping Detective-esque panels of pure text, to the pace and rhythm of the story. There are shades and echoes of a half-dozen Vietnam war movies bubbling in there – from the philosophical musings a la Apocalypse Now, right through to the senseless brutality of Platoon. 

It’s D’isreli’s gorgeous colours that have made this shine though – the last time I was blown away by art like this was…well, it was D’israeli’s B&W stuff on Leviathan. The rain and the mud and the explosions – D’israeli makes The Vort look more hellish than anything this side of Cinnabar. 

Yer Ass from Yer Elbow - Part 4 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Leigh Gallagher Letters: Ellie De Ville

Dexter forgets which strip he's in...

Synopsis: A "pornographer" called Mr Zlik is being em,ployed by Moses Tanenbaum while Sinister and Dexter look after Tessa Racked on a shopping trip. Appellido's boys are on their tail and Dexter makes them in the shop. He shoots at them but somehow manages to completely miss, even at close range...

LB: This is okay I guess. To be honest I'd much rather this was Kingdom. I hope the thing where Ramone misses every single one of the bad guys has a proper reason behind it - like they can't be killed because of the Parallel Dimension thing or something. Otherwise it's just a PULP FICTION ripoff within a PULP FICTION ripoff. And I'm not even that keen on PULP FICTION.

HP: I’m not sure why Appelido wants Tessa Racked whacked. I’m not sure why The Mover is hiring the services on Mr Zlik. I don’t know why Dexter managed to spectacularly miss everyone (although it’s also a tasty little nod to a certain scene from Pulp Fiction, a film the boys owe more than a little to…). I don’t know why Finnegan looks like Robin Gibb out the Bee Gees. What I do know is that for a strip that people often complain feels predictable, there’s a lot of uncertainty in Downlode right now.  

I’m not so keen on Anthony Williams’ art though. Something about it being too clean. Maybe I’m just spoiled after so many years of Simon Davis, but this feels makes Sin/Dex feel more ‘CSI Miami’ than ‘The Wire’. Meh. 

Amerika - Part 4 Script: Pat Mills Art: Anthony Williams Letters: Ellie De Ville

The real death of Captain America...

Synopsis: We learn that "Major Liberty" was created by America as a figurehead, but was always played by an actor. The latest actor to inhabit the role was killed by the Tsar when he invaded, and the head put on a stake. However, the mask with the bullet hole was soon stolen and used as a symbol of the fight against the Tsar.

The latest Major Liberty now kidnaps Jena, only for Dante to swoop in and grab her at the last minute. Dante and the Major fight, with the Major getting the upper hand until he's forced away by the Raven Corps.

Later, Arcady reveals that the genetic bomb inside the girl showed that it was made by the White Army...

LB: Great first page. The rest of it is fine. Good stuff to come, by the looks of the cliffhanger. I might be more effusive if I wasn't spoiled by The Vort. That would make a good t-shirt actually: "Spoiled By The Vort". Uh, Dante, yeah. This is a good strip too.

HP: Dante is back on its feet – it seems it needed that wilderness era, of feeling slightly off-balance, so that when it re-asserted itself with the Sword of the Tsar, it would give Dante something to rail against – he truly has become everything he ever hated. When the new Major Liberty sneers at Dante, it seems that his self-loathing is well placed. 

The Captain America parody could’ve gone so very wrong – instead Morrison’s script and Fraser’s artwork make it neither silly nor jarring. I like the juxtaposition of a man wearing the mask of a fallen hero knocking lumps out of a man whom many would consider to be the arch fallen hero. 

LB: Another top prog. All it needs now is Bob Byrne back and I will beam like a bastard. I kinda hope Sinister Dexter ends soon but what the hell, I can wait. For me, it's all about The Vort. 

Best Story: The Vort

HP: I’m not sure whether it was the lull in thrillpower that we got for much of spring, but the progs of late have seemed to land a tasty blow every week – and 1592 is no exception. With three strips having me worked up enough to count down the days till the next issue, and the other two more than punching above expectations, it’s a good time to be subscriber. 

Best Story: Defoe