By Dan Abnett, Henry Flint and Anthony Williams

Buy The VCs - Back in Action

Review by Alex Frith

The book opens with my favourite extra feature - a foreword from the author. Dan Abnett explains his love for the original run of VCs, and how much he had to pester various Thargs to get his chance to bring the VCs back to 2000 AD. I'm glad Tharg finally gave in.

The story opens 50 years after the end of the last book. Abnett uses his consummate skill to remind us who Steve Smith is, and to restore the VC status quo of humans being at war with the Geeks without making it seem contrived. He even adds in a twist such that the new VCs have to wear their old uniforms and use their old weapons - even though they're 50 years out of date. A lovely touch that a lot of sci fi writers would ignore. And then it's straight into war, war, war - space style.

Of course, this is all just set-up. If you're going to buy the book, you're going to want to know about the main story, not just the opening episode. This collection includes the first 3 books of Abnett's saga, plus a one-off tale from Prog 2003. On the surface, it's more of the same - hard-nosed soldiers fighting vicious aliens in space, and occasionally on the surface of planets. But it's apparent from the get-go that Abnett isn't just adding more episodes to the original run - he's doing it better, with more respect for such things as 'plot' and 'characterisation'. One could argue that in doing these things he loses a little of the vintage charm of Finley-Day's work, but really it just makes for a different reading experience. Perhaps the most ambitious ting Abnett does is to tell an ongoing story with each book, but to do so in entirely different styles. The first book is I think not as good as the original just because it's somehow less fun, but once the change in style kicks in, it's clear that Abnett is not simply writing a love letter to one of his favourite strips as a youngster.

It's arguably pointless to spend much time comparing this volume with the previous one, chiefly because of the writing style. Comics have moved on a lot since the early 80s, and Dan Abnett is very much a modern writer, all sleek and sophisticated where Finley-Day was anarchic and silly - I guess it'd be fair to point out that the latter was writing stuff intended to be read by 10 year-olds, whereas Abnett is writing for 30 year olds, which informs a lot of the differences I'm sure. Anyway, in the new-look VCs, the plots make sense, the characters are given room to breathe (and to banter - this is a Dan Abnett comic, after all), and the artists provide plenty of hard action.

Even so, Abnett keeps it playful. He adds three classic war cliches to the mix which Finley-Day left out. Firstly, one of the new VCs is a geek. A good geek, for sure (or is he??), but nonetheless an obvious target for hatred from the other new VCs. Secondly, we get a training sequence in boot camp. Steve Smith plays the grizzled veteran who shouts a lot. and Thirdly, once we're into the war itself, Abnett introduces a rival crew of star troopers who are basically lazy and evil, and in the business of making things harder for our heroes.

I won't bother going into the plot too much, but basically Book 1 is a pretty straight set up with plenty of action, Book 2 is a superb series of one or two-part stories that showcase the daily grind of war, Book 3 is a somewhat experimental telling of one key mission, which switches point of view, and makes full use of unreliable narrators, dream sequences, and generally is a bit confusing until it all comes together by the end. I thought it was all too odd at first, but it really pays off in the end.

[OK, so it's confession time. Midway through writing this review, I've finally found myself watching the recent Battlestar Galactica outing. Abnett's VCs retread began way before the first mini-series aired, so there's no question of influence, but by God are there similarities between the two (OK, so the VCs say 'frick' instead of 'frak'). Not in basic plot conception (although there are some overlaps), but just generally in atmosphere and sophistication. I guess the thing to say is, if you like new Battlestar, you'll really like new VCs.]

And so on to the art. Henry Flint spearheaded the relaunch, and designed the new VCs crew. Flint is the quintessential 2000 AD artist, full of energy and imagination, but also fully able to realise plain old human beings. He has elements of McMahon and Kennedy, from the original VCs run, not to mention the likes of Ezquerra and O'Neill. Basically, he's awesome. Chris Blythe on colours adds a neat mix of cold blues for space, and angry reds for clashes of temper. A tough act to follow.

Anthony Williams is a very different artist, and it's just as well, as he can't compete with Flint for anarchy and just filling each panel with future shock madness, despite starting with an episode set in an Escher-themed bar. Rather, he brings his best storytelling skills and his seemingly effortless way with facial expressions. Williams' VCs bring out a lot of the humour from Abnett's script, not least in the banter between horndog Ryx and ice cool Lin Fu. Curiously, he also shrinks Ryx's ears gradually with each episode. Perhaps he felt sorry for the guy. Reading Williams is a different proposition from reading Flint, so it's as well that Abnett changes up the writing style. And if there's one thing that unites the two artists, it's that both let Abnett's script shine, rather than trying to overshadow it with anything flashy. They clearly enjoyed the story enough to work in support of it.

The VCs: Back in Action. Different. Classier. Better. But, conversely, less re-readable than the lunatic and at times childishly plotted original.

Buy The VCs - Back in Action