Cover by Jon Davis Hunt

Floyd Kermode: Much as I complain about the lacklustre Megazine covers these days, I wouldn’t want it to turn into Heavy Metal, the covers of which seem to be made to be read with one hand.  Still it’s nice to see a pair of Bristols on the cover. Too bad they’re attached to a villainess with such a chunky bland face.

Gavin Hanly: A decent enough cover from a technical standpoint, but it just isn't dynamic enough to grab the attention. The most intriguing aspect of the piece, a crumbling skull, is almost an afterthought. So, well drawn, but definitely lacking in overall composition.

Synopsis: A group of Cursed Earth mutants, led by a female gangster Quantrill, attacks the Nixon Line - a Cursed Earth railroad. Later, Dredd is on the scene and meets the line's owner, JW Nixon, who says he'll take revenge. Dredd says that Quantrill only seems to target Nixon, something he finds suspicious, and will hunt her down. Nixon tells him to feel free, but stay out of his way.

Later, Nixon hires the Dog Soldiers, vicious mutants, to take out Quantrill and also to get rid of Dredd. Meanwhile, Dredd has tracked down Quantrill with the help of some satellite cover, where he sees them being attacked by the Dog Soldiers. But one of them attacks Dredd, telling him that he's "marked for death" too...

Floyd Kermode: A ripping yarn, this, and yet another reason why I’m in no hurry for the Dredd-unfairly-stuck-in-the-Cursed-Earth story line to come to an end.  I love this old west stuff and Morrison does a fine job – I had to look to make sure it wasn’t John Wagner, which is a compliment.

The art rocks, for mine, (although no doubt there’s some criticism of Dredd’s face, which looks as though his wrinkle cream has worn off in a big way).  Some lovely spooky alien types with a cheerful overabundance of pointy teeth.

Gavin Hanly: After our recent interview with John Wagner, it might be wise for Tharg to tell his droids to lay off the geriatric Dredd renderings for a while - as he looks more like his Dead Man days here. That said, otherwise the art from Leigh Gallagher is excellent throughout and, facial aging aside, he draws an excellent Dredd. Decent story by Morrison too, nicely emphasising that Dredd doesn't have quite the immediate impact on perps that he used to.

Synopsis: Back in her days working for the army, Tank Girl learns that the army had been making a clone of her to try and work out why she seems almost immortal in combat. They install the brain in a robot tank and then pit Tank Girl against it in a training exercise. However, Tank Girl was blessed with experience - and stupidity - and rushes the tank - managing to destroy it.

Floyd Kermode: I think the long mission number is meant to make it look military, but to me it really does feel like there have been 3098401583 episodes of the new Tank Girl.  To me the whole thing is misconceived because the original TG was a fad and the comics were a good looking momentary chuckle.  Bringing it back is like doing an opera of the Smiley button or a novel about the Singing Frog and expecting gratitude.  The other great misconception involved from the start is that The Ramones were awesome and that it’s cool and wacky to refer to them.  Each to their own – for me the Ramones were as boring as batshit and their only merits consisted of inspiring far superior bands like the Boys Next Door and Shonen Knife. However, for Ramones reference fans, there is a picture of The Boogas, featuring Booga and a bunch of kangarooids looking  just like the Ramones and even with, get this, Ramones-like song titles on an old LP.  You lucky things!

Having gotten that off my chest, it is my reviewerly duty to report that the story isn’t bad as pointless new Tank Girl stories go.  In fact - bah humbug! - it’s quite good.  The story is coherent and interesting, the art is striking, appropriate and witty, and the sound effects (‘Footumsh! Bum!) are funny.  There’s a bit of a disconnect between the getting the story across stuff  and the wacky, witty tone. Martin should be using this sort of narrative seriousness on a proper story – like Judge Dredd – without Ramones jokes please.    

Gavin Hanly: The last couple of months have dealt out better Tank Girl strips than usual, with a well constructed story backed up by the usual excellent art from Dayglo (who I'd love to see on something else either in the Megazine or the weekly). I echo Floyd's response to the umpteenth reference to the Ramones - is their record company sponsoring the strip or something? So - decent strip, but I'll be much happier when Lux and Alby takes its place (which I hope is the intention).

Synopsis: Tempest fights with Deathfist's daughter until she demonstrates the "hand of unmaking" on a bystander which can make someone explode just by touching them. She says that she wants Tempest's help in breaking Deathfist out of Iso Block 666. They climb to the highest part of the undercity and she starts to use the hand of unmaking to bore through the rockcrete. The iso block prepares for an incursion, while something odd is happening with Deathfist's hand...

Floyd Kermode: The title character here continues to skate a thin line between ‘interesting’ and ‘stop showing off will you’.  Happily, he’s on the fun side of the line this month.  I love the moments in which we realize that Tempest is a bit of a prat (‘watch your tongue, little madman’) and not quite the full credit.  If Ewing wants to really make me smile, he’ll kill off Deathfist and his family members for ever – they’re becoming tiresomely invulnerable.  The other great character here is the worried judge, who is cracking up due, I think, to Deathfist’s psychic whatever.

Really well done and I can’t wait for next months.

Gavin Hanly: Some great things in this month's strip, from Deathfist's batshit insanity brought quickly down to earth by the "Hand of Unmaking" to Davis-Hunt's artwork which clearly works best when he has something tricky to achieve, like the exploding man. Again, I agree with Mr Kermode in that I too have no real interest in Deathfist or his clan, but if anyone can make them interesting, it's Ewing.

Synopsis: It's 2103 and Block Mania is running wild. The latest victims are the members of the Church of the Almighty Grud, who are wiped out by the Richard Dawkins rational thinkers. The reverend swears revenge and uses all his money to get a juve gang to ambush a judicial vehicle and take the sonic weapons. They use them to kill the Richard Dawkins mob but that's not enough for the reverend who has lost faith and now wants to kill everyone. Dredd rushes them, his audio protective filter saving him (but not his fellow judge). He takes out the juves and executes the reverend. They now have sonic weapons to take on Block Mania - but the Apocalypse War is just around the corner...

Floyd Kermode: A really disappointing little Dredd vignette featuring way obvious citi-block names ‘Richard Dawkins Rational Thinkers’ and jarring, cartoony art.  For continuity fiends, this fits into the Apocalypse War saga. For fans of old-school Dredd, his helmet looks the way it used to.  There’s not much else to say about this story, which has a feeling of auto-pilot to it.

Gavin Hanly: I, on the other hand, actually really liked this little retro tale, which I feel has some phenomenally good artwork from PJ Holden - mixing in references from McMahon and Smith to really help place this strip in continuity (right down to using a panel from the original Block Mania strip). There's also the particularly brutal effect of the sonic cannons (Finbow's tongue - ewwwwww).

Grant hasn't had much success on Dredd in recent years, but these last couple of tales, where he focuses more on the citizens, has definitely helped him up his game, so I'm happy to see these in the Megazine.

Rogue Trooper Collection
Mike Carey interview
James Cameron interview
George Romero interview
The Pod Squad
New Movies

Floyd Kermode: Interrogation: The Devil’s Advocate (interview with Mike Carey) - You know, I kind of groaned when I read the editorial in which the Megazine gives itself a pat on the back for its series of in depth interviews with anyone who’s ever laid finger to keyboard for 2000 AD or the Megazine.  Usually, I find these far too detailed and entirely predictable “I did some art, I got noticed by Tharg, I do American comics now”.  Besides, I’m the kind of person who’d rather watch the dvd than the extras.  I just want to watch James Bond jump off the cliff and escape certain doom, not listen to the stuntman who really did the thing.  So I approached this interview in a spirit of reviewerly grumpiness.

What redeems it for me is firstly the large Carver Hale picture. I loved Carver Hale, me.  Also Carey has done an awful lot of things, so that’s a bit interesting.  It’s depressing to read about all the help he got from his mate who did a degree in ‘Narrative Theory’, but that’s just me being in love with the idea that good writers just write, despite the mountains of evidence that they work their tails off. Nicely illustrated and the guy has something to say.  Having said that, it’s bloody long.

Screen Story: Euroshocks - There’s a big film festival in Spain.  The films reviewed are mainly zombie/horror flicks, apart from The Road. A zippy little guide to what’s new (and mostly underwhelming) in the zombie/horror world.

Interrogation: George Romero – well it’s short and sweet. It was news to me that Dennis Hopper was a Republican.

Comicana: Podcasts - What it says on the tin.  Podcasts are terrific, anyone can make one and there are a bunch of good podcasts about comics and science fiction.  Woo hoo! Links to a bunch of recommended podcasts.

Reviews: Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, The Road, Carriers, Ninja Assassin -  Spoiler – Avatar is lovely to look at but a pretty ordinary movie really. That’s sort of what the review says, although he adds that ‘if you’re interested in fantasy cinema you need to see this’.  I don’t see why – I’m interested in fantasy cinema and I’d like my money back.  Anyway, here’s a bunch of competent reviews for you if you can trust the judgement of someone who thinks that ‘Dancing with Smurfs’ is essential viewing.

Interrogation: James Cameron - Surprise, surprise!  James Cameron thinks that  Avatar is the shape of things to come in movies.

Free comic (Graphic Novel) – Rogue Trooper - Umpteen pages of murky Friday artiness from Dave Gibbons and Will Simpson, and a few more war is hell, featuring furious Chris Weston faces. The cover features Friday looking not merely ripped but alarmingly lumpy, showing off his 64 pack.

Gavin Hanly: Alas, I must admit to only skimming through the extras this month, with only the Carey interview and the podcast feature standing out as really interesting. I still feel that there's too much general Sci-Fi, which everyone else is doing, and not enough about comics - so I'm still very much turned off by the features.

Floyd Kermode: Two great comics, one tolerable and one disappointment, together with a lot of rather readable prose.  Oh and a good freebie too.   S’alright.  Value for money, but feeling a bit tired all up.

Best Story: Tempest, followed closely by Dog Soldiers

Gavin Hanly: Three decent strips, one OK (Tank Girl), but surrounded by a whole heap of material I find next to know interest in. I still think the Meg needs more of a shot in the arm...

Best Story: Tempest