2000AD Prog 1629 - 1 April 2009

Cover by Simon Fraser

Daniel Payne: This week’s cover is a welcome sight simply by virtue of signalling the return of Nikolai Dante; but the artwork in itself is worthy—it is quite an appealing portrait of some key figures in the Tsar’s world. The image also seems to disclose forthcoming plot developments, as Lulu Romanov appears to be amid the gang, despite still being missing and presumed dead the last time this reviewer checked. The biggest worry about the artwork it that the colouring is too murky; it is well to express the dark tone of the story, but it should be possible to achieve that effect without dampening the artwork quite so much.

John Amans: An absolutely tremendous Simon Fraser cover to herald the return of Dante. It seems to fill the page, is incredibly dense and deserves more than one look as a lot of detail is not so evident on first inspection.

Backlash - Part 2 Script:John Wagner Art: Carl Critchlow Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Francisco plays for the cameras...

Synopsis: We catch up with Dan Francisco - on patrol with the cameras watching as ever. Elsewhere, senior judges inform Hershey of the leadership bid, and confirm that Francisco is their man. Dredd gets the news on patrol, but when he comes back to the sector house Judge Logan says a vid slug has arrived for him...

DP: John Wagner’s last Dredd story, The Ecstasy, was not well received; but the opening episode of the Backlash last week appeared to indicate a return to his usual good form. Wagner seems to be completely engaged by the mutants’ rights story line that arose from the Origins epic, and that enthusiasm is inspiring him to generate some of his finest work yet. This episode lends itself more to plot development rather than any major events, but it continues to pique the readers’ interest.

Carl Critchlow is an excellent choice of artist, as he demonstrates here that he can mach anyone for quality when he has the right material to work with.

JA: Ah, the great Dredd story - a touch of Judge-politics interspersed with Dredd cracking skulls on the streets. Alongside Carl Critchlow doing an admirable job we have a tight Wagner script with Hershey fighting for her job. We can only wonder what is on that vid slug...

Classic Dredd that is still hard to beat after all of these years.

Prologue - Part 2 Script: Tony Lee Art: Lee Carter Letters: Ellie De Ville

Uriel gets miffed...

Synopsis: The Jotunheim's emissary is given an audience with Lucifer, but is killed. Valion rages at Lucifer's actions. As Uriel leaves the scene he is confronted by a Seraphim, Raziel. He warns Uriel that Lucifer is going insane as God does not want a "final battle" with him, and that Uriel could make a good successor. Meanwhile, Cythia is cheating on Uriel with Neboron.

DP: A fascination with the concept of Satan seems to be fairly widespread amongst some alternative cultural groups, who probably form a notable portion of 2000AD’s readership. For that reason, Necrophim, may prove popular with some readers; but for people who have never taken an interest in the subject, this story, as with the genre as a whole, is quite difficult to penetrate.

The plot, the dialogue, and the illustration are all typical of work in the category; there is plenty sadomachoism, and characters with names from fantasy lore. There is no evidence so far, however, of any component to raise it beyond the level of a stock satanic knockabout.

JA: A comment last week alluded that this strip was a little wordy. That I think is an advantage as it's obviously not going to be an "action-fest"strip. Good on you, Tharg, as the great thing about 2000AD is the balance of action/narrative stories. Necrophim does, unfortunately, fall into the trap that the new strips with no history suffer from. Because it's not Dredd, Dante, Strontium Dog or any other classic story with an established fan base (possibly the only flaw in my logic is Sinister and Dexter) then it has a rather slow uptake and is viewed with scepticism and comments along the line of  “it's not as good as ……….(insert an old story circa 1977-1991).

All of that said, I rather like this.  It has some decent art, characters and a certain style which fits the plot and look of the strip. After finishing this weeks episode I was rather intrigued as to what will happen next. It hasn’t dipped in its second episode so I hold out hope that this will not disappoint in the coming weeks.

More words and decapitations please!

An Army of Thieves & Whores - Part 1 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Simon Fraser Colours: Gary Caldwell Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dante gets his soapbox...

Synopsis: Nikolai Dante and Jena are continuing their battle against the Empire, as their rebel army destroys Fortress Krigstein - all televised so that Dante and Jena can deliver warnings to the Tsar. Meanwhile, the Tsar has sent his men to arrest Jocasta, while Arkady comforts him back at the palace saying that he'll execute her himself, if it comes to that...

DP: Nikolai Dante’s exploits were at the top of their game last year, with the leading man pulling his most audacious stunt to date; it will be a serious challenge for Morrison to maintain that level of excitement.

The elements of a rousing adventure are in place though, as Nikolai is on the run with the Tsar’s daughter and a new guerilla army at his side. The opening episode of ‘An Army of Thieves and Whores’ gets to the point pretty quickly—Arkady indicates that he is as odious as anyone, by agreeing to execute his mother, and the Tsar’s ex-lover, Jocasta Romanov; it is a compelling plot to open the story with.

Fraser’s art too is typically high class, and he appears to be experimenting with his style a little, to reasonable effect, with some unusually detailed inking in some panels.

JA:As the best Johnny Alpha story for ages disappears into the sunset the other jewel in 2000AD’s crown make a welcome return. We have Simon Fraser’s art and an awesome script that ticks all of the “great 2000AD” story boxes.

I now feel that we’re on the last lap (but not the home straight) of the Dante saga. I won’t go on because this is simply awesome and totally faultless! But, I should make no excuses as the truly great stories should be properly praised in equal measure as the bad ones are criticised.

Under Pressure - Part 4 Script: Arthur Wyatt Art: PJ Holden Colours: Eva De La Cruz Letters: Simon Bowland

Rafe gets into trouble...

Synopsis: Friedkin kills the Nort scientist and heads out to meet the Varr, on his way to wake the "abomination" at the heart of the anomaly. Rafe takes the last remaining ship to go and stop him, but she's hit by a missile...

DP: It is difficult to think of a spin-off from a major story in 2000AD that could be described as a success, and it does not look as though the 86ers is about to buck the trend. 2000AD is essentially a science fiction comic, so it is possible that this kind of run-of-the-mill cavorting in space will hit the spot for some readers. But dialogue such as ‘You mean... wiping out all life in the system?’ and ‘I mean wiping out the entire human race’ sum up this story—it is ever so clichéd.

PJ Holden’s artwork is reasonably watertight, and better than some of his previous work, but it is hard to judge from this strip how he would perform with a superior script.

JA: As much as I try to get into this, the walls aren’t quite touching the ceiling on this one. I rather lost patience and interest in the whole “Rogue Trooper” universe of Norts and Southers back around 1995. Though this spin-off isn’t as bad as some of the other efforts it does suffer from being a bit “stop start”. Having been rather under-whelmed by the last series and not quite sure what was going on then I’m rather struggling with this series as well. Ok, the Norts are invading the base blah, blah, blah…. What's happening again?!?

The art is good but none of the characters really shine and the whole thing has a whiff of all of the other RT related stories. It's not terrible but compared to some of the high quality content this week, it rather sticks out as the weakest strip in the prog.

DP: Low Life is good, the 86ers and Necrophim are trite, and Judge Dredd and Nikolai Dante both look extremely promising; there have been better progs, but few readers are likely to lapse right now, with the latter two strips showing such form.

Best Story: Judge Dredd.

JA: With the return of Dante and a strong Dredd along with a decent Necrophim we have a strong prog. Though Low Life and the 86ers aren’t bad, they don’t quite reach the heights of the other stories. Still, can’t complain.

Best Story: Nikolai Dante