Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1951 – Sinister Dexter Returns!

Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment! Between the weekly “2000 AD” itself, the monthly “Judge Dredd Megazine”, an extensive library of graphic novel collections, and new US-format one-shots and mini-series, they have decades of zarjaz comics for you to enjoy.

There’s a brand-new Prog this week, so right after a quick public service announcement we’ll jump right into the Thrills!

I. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD

We understand that having such a large selection of comics to choose from can make knowing where to start with 2000 AD seem daunting. What do they publish? Where can I get it? What’s up with Judge Dredd? Can I still read “2000 AD” if I don’t like Judge Dredd?

So to help new & potential readers, we’ve put together An Earthlet’s Guide to 2000 AD. This FAQ collects everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.

II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1951

Cover by Rufus Dayglo

NOW ARRIVING

Sinister Dexter: The Taking of the Michael, Part 1

About funtin’ time! Your favorite gun-lovin’ criminals are back and looking to pull off a hit so big that all of time & space are at stake!

If you’ve been following this strip, you know that Finnegan Sinister and Ramone Dexter are the two best gun-sharks (read: hitmen) around. Think Vincent Vega & Jules Winfield from Pulp Fiction, only one’s Irish, the other Spanish, and they’re conducting business on a future Earth rather than a retro-friendly Los Angeles. But instead of just walkin’ the Earth, these two have been traveling around Generica looking for their former boss, “Holy” Moses Tanenbaum. Sure, they fulfilled the contract his wife Demi Octavo put out on him and sent the crime boss six feet under, but it turns out he wasn’t as dead as they thought. Or rather, he was, but a Tanenbaum from an alternate dimension is now using his identity in this dimension and hiding out in Generica under witness protection, aka WitSec. And his presence here in the wrong dimension threatens the entire fabric of the universe.

So, you know, typical “2000 AD” stuff!

There must be something in the air right now, because this is the second strip in this batch of Progs to use a flashback structure. While not going completely fragmented a la Pulp Fiction, Abnett does kick things off with the aftermath of a huge gun battle on the St. Michael, Tanenbaum’s floating palace docked in the Skeleton Keys. Shell casings and taped body outlines abound, leaving us to try and figure out who they belong to before Abnett brings the story back to this point.

Jake Lynch pinch-hit for the last string of stories, but for this inning we’ve got Patrick Goddard moving over from ‘Savage’ to take the reins. And this time, he’s brought a sun-drenched palette with him in the form of Eva de la Cruz’s color. Seeing him handle guns and gun battles in ‘Savage’ was a real treat earlier this year, so knowing we’ve got that to look forward to again, WITH COLOR, has me all kinds of excited!

Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Eva de la Cruz (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Judge Dredd: Serial Serial, Part 2

I’m really enjoying MacNeil’s art on this strip. The guy’s already one of my all-time favorite Dredd artists, but what he’s doing here feels a little more spectacular than usual. Maybe it’s because he’s getting to draw some really dark and visceral stuff. MacNeil’s no stranger to dimly lit, moody comics, but I can’t really think of anything he’s done that’s as grotesque as this week’s strip. The reveal of the corpse, and even the obscuring of it, plays with horror and suspense in a way only comics can. Even more enthralling is how MacNeil chooses to compose these scenes. Over the years he’s become more focused on cartooning than rendering, using bold lines as sparely as he can in order to convey information. He’s also using spotted blacks to achieve this effect by silhouetting figures in order to obscure unnecessary details without hindering the visual narrative. I’d even go so far as to say that by giving us less, we’re actually able to learn more about the story. Both lighting and perspective are economically, and dramatically, presented to readers. We can even see when Dredd means business. That is to say, more business than usual.

Continued below

It’s not often that you see an artist who works so minimally tell a horror story as well as MacNeil can. The problem usually lies in the spareness, which can often convey a sense of levity. That said, there is nothing light about what MacNeil is doing here, which provides a nice juxtaposition for the reader to chew on. The balance being struck here, between cartoonish and horrific rendering styles, makes the art feel like nothing else on the stands.

For Judge Dredd this week means another corpse with another note. A poorly written note, I should say. I really like what Wagner is doing here, leading us deeper and deeper into this mystery. And the fact that PJ Maybe, the writer of the aforementioned notes, is yet to be seen gives the story a sense of unknown danger. There’s a knife in the water, and the longer we’re in here the more likely we are to get cut.

Credits: John Wagner (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Defoe: The Hanged, Part 2

Between this strip and ‘Savage’ (there’s that name again), Pat Mills is working with two separate protagonists trying to settle back into peacetime lives after spending years engaged in status quo-demolishing conflicts. But he’s using those protagonists, Bill Savage and Titus Defoe, to show two different sides of the same shilling in terms of what their pre-war lives entailed.

Bill Savage is a Royalist. He fights to expel the Volgan occupation from Britain in part so that the the Royal Family can return from Canadian exile and reclaim the throne. But, to his dismay, that’s not what happens once the ersatz Russians actually leave. The people decide they’ve gotten along just fine without the Royals and elect a Democracy Party to govern them, with the former Royals remaining in Canada.

Titus Defoe is a Leveller. My understanding of English Civil War politics is a little rusty (although I can guarantee it’ll get better by the time this strip is through) but as I can ascertain, Levellers were a faction of the anti-monarchy side advocating for, essentially, a more ‘level’ society for British citizens: extended suffrage, louder voice in government, better land use rights, popular sovereignty…the works.

Two similar characters in terms of short-term goal but vastly different in terms of long-term view. So why do I bring this up? Because Defoe gets his Leveller past thrown right back in his face this week by a talking reek (which has to be disturbing in and of itself). Is there any traction to be made with this line of argument? We’ll soon find out!

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Brass Sun: Motor Head, Part 2

So back to the flashbacks. Last week’s installment ended with Septimus distraught over his involvement in the torture of his companion Wren at the hands of a different sect of the order to which he belongs. This week, we see why.

We first met Septimus back when he was simply Conductor Seventeen, an acolyte of The Prime Numbers. The Prime Numbers are a holy order dedicated to maintaining the rail system allowing transit between worlds in ‘Brass Sun’s clockwork solar system. As Conductor Seventeen, Septimus was ordered to be the Numbers’ eyes & ears while accompanying Wren on her quest to restart the Sun. This happened back in the early days of the series, so it’s not too much of a stretch to think readers might have either forgotten about it or figured Septimus has spent enough time away from the order to assert his independence. Certainly Edginton gives us enough conversational clues this week to consider Septimus as someone who holds Wren in very high regard.

The decision to open ‘Motor Head’ with Wren’s torture and then go back to the setup is interesting. Certainly it allowed for a much bigger and splashier first strip; not a bad idea when you’ve got INJ Culbard on art retainer. But I think having the two strips reversed, or going closer to straight chronological order, wouldn’t have been a wrong decision. This week’s strip ends on as much of a gut-punch as last’s, and gives good series set-up beforehand. Six of one, half-dozen of the other, I suppose.

Continued below

Credits: Ian Edginton (script), INJ Culbard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Bad Company: First Casualties, Part 2

All praise to Rufus Dayglo and Jim McCarthy! I went into it last week, but let me reiterate my love for this art. From the line work to the halftones, every inch of this story feels simultaneously like classic 2000 AD art and something all together new. Like it could either be printed on newsprint or glossy modern comics paper. If this strip were housed between the same covers as one of those Jake Lynch ‘Orlok’ stories I’d probably go into cardiac arrest.

Peter Milligan takes the opportunity to fill readers in on what’s been going on over the last ten years, and none of it was pretty. The majority of the Company have been heavily medicated and put to pasture. It’s not perfect, but they seem contented enough to not put up too much fuss. And then there’s Kano. For him the war’s never ended, having spent the better part of a decade being ‘rehabilitated.’ Danny’s been temporarily pulled out of retirement to try and get control of Kano, and it just may have worked.

The last two weeks we’ve been introduced to everyone, and filled in on their history. Now, with the conflict that’s been sparked at the end of this week’s strip, it feels like we’re about to plunge headlong into a Bad Company reunion tour!

Credits: Peter Milligan (script), Rufus Dayglo & Jim McCarthy (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

III. OF INTEREST

New York Comic-Con kicks off tomorrow! I would use this opportunity to give you information about the 2000 AD panel, but sadly, Reed Pop decided to give The Law a one-finger salute by not accepting Tharg’s panel request! Don’t they know Tharg’s reach is mighty and his vengeance as swift as a daystick? Apparently not. If given the chance, please let the organizers know you want some Thrill-Powered panels at NYCC 2016 or else!

This doesn’t mean that Tharg won’t have a presence at the show, thankfully! We’ll have more coverage next week, but rest assured that PR droid Molch-R and company will be on-hand to dispense with the zarjaz comics and graphic novels at Booth 2242! If you’re lucky, you might even see a couple of Multiver-City One humes there, plying their journalistic trade!

But here’s a little something before we go – a look at the Dave Gibbons cover for the 2000 AD Dan Dare collection hitting UK & digital outlets early next month!