Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Each and every Wednesday we will be examining the latest Prog from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, and giving you all the pertinent information you’ll need headed into the galaxy’s greatest Thrill-Zine! We’ve got a new Prog this week, so let’s get right to it!
This week’s cover is by Leigh Gallagher.
I. NOW DEPARTING
Jaegir: Circe, Part 6
Cir·ce
noun \ˈsər-(ˌ)sē\ :
1. a goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress). By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid.
2. The “Circe effect”, coined by the enzymologist William P. Jencks, refers to a scenario where an enzyme lures its substrate towards it through electrostatic forces exhibited by the enzyme molecule before transforming it into product.
3. a variety of chess variants in which captured pieces are reborn on their starting positions.
Origin: Latin, from Greek Kirkē
First Known Use: 14th century
Rhymes with mercy, pursy
Circe has some very interesting definitions. They’re quite different from one another, but all seem to apply to this story. SPOILER ALERT: we’ll be going into detail about this one, so skip down to ‘This Week’ if you want to avoid that sort of thing!
This story ends as it began: Kolonel Mabuse in the Frankenstein-ed body of a Souther infantryman, Atalia Jaegir hunting for answers, and their fellow war-broken countrymen finding themselves on the wrong end of a beating. It’s a nice symmetry, I think. Back in Prog 1893 we found Kapiten-Inspector Jaegir following up on a lead during an investigation, which brought her to Mabuse’s doorstep. He can help her, sure, but he’d need something in return first. So began our adventure.
“We’re going to hunt a sorceress…” Jaegir declares as they begin their hunt for the source of this thing called Circe (Definition 1?). When described to her, Circe was explained to be a drug, and it was implied that its users went through a metamorphosis. This is an interesting juxtaposition with Jaegir’s last adventure ‘Strigoi’, which was about genetic mutations. Although both Circe and Strigoi transformations are the results of Nordland experimentations with chemical warfare, the former looks to have some element of choice in it. Narcotics seem a common thing in this military: not only does Jaegir recount her own experiences with battlefield self-medicating, she’s also surprisingly lenient when new recruits are found to be carrying.
The hunt Jaegir and her crew find themselves on is certainly a dark one. At one point, overcome by anger and the heat of the chase, Jaegir finds she has been lured into a trap (Definition 2) where she is captured, drugged, and has tissue samples taken. She’s told her search for Circe is over and that her father’s legacy is not a curse but a gift. She is also told that “it is the strength we need to defeat our enemies and all their lab-grown genetic abominations.” Interesting.
Thanks to the quick, brutal, and decisive action of her team, Jaegir was extracted but not before being given what she believes was a large dose of Circe. She feels it in her veins, whispering to her, and it’s around this point we begin to hear references to the Kommander. Madame Kommander, to be more precise; a mystery woman who had Mabuse collect Jaegir’s blood. She wanted it tested, and whatever she was looking for turns out to be there.
Seeking retribution for the assault, Jaegir leads an attack on Mabuse and his ragtag solders that first has to go through her fellow veterans before getting to him, having the story come full circle (Definition 3). As should be of no surprise to anyone, Jaegir’s revenge is taken and Mabuse is eliminated. There was a pretty neat explanation about how he was able to manipulate these reconstructed corpses, and it all has to do with Souther bio-chip technology. If you’ve read any ‘Rogue Trooper’, then you’ve seen this stuff. It’s the little numbered chips in his gun, helmet, and backpack that talk to him. Given the world where this story takes place, it makes total sense. Rogue is able to keep his fallen comrades alive and in his company with these chips, so of course it’s how Mabuse shifts his consciousness between bodies.
Continued belowIt is now, at the end of the story, when all becomes clear to Jaegir. Circe is not a what, but a who. The last panel is interesting, if not ambiguous. Is that an older Jaegir pictured? Her mother? We were told in ‘Strigoi’ that her mother was executed for being a traitor, so it couldn’t be her, could it? On the other hand, Jaegir’s father was a huge jerk who seemed to be into some vile stuff, so I guess making up a lie about her mother couldn’t be outside the realm of possibility. Any way you cut it, whoever that is looks a lot like Jaegir, and Coleby is too good of an artist for that to be an accident. Either Jaegir, or someone she shares blood with, is Circe. My takeaway from her capture is that there is something in her blood that the drug can be synthesized from, and that there are intentions to use its transformative properties to create a new breed of solider to combat the Souther Infantrymen (Definition 2, again).
Jaegir will be back in the Progs soon, but our feeling is it won’t be soon enough.
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Simon Coleby (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)
II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1898
Judge Dredd: Cascade, Part 5
This week we’re given more on what exactly Gideon Dallas could be, how he came into contact with The Lawlords, and Dredd’s plan of action.
Last week I said I wasn’t totally convinced that The Lawlords were even here. Well, while being skeptical about information you’re given but can’t verify is a good thing, in this case I was wrong. They’re totally here and now everything is terrible. But fear not! This new fascist regime will first have to confront our old fascist regime. It’s like when New Coke was a thing and people realized they like Classic Coke better: it’s all chemical poison, but this new stuff is so bad it makes what we used to have look great. Anyway, soda aside, Dredd’s got a plan that’s been in place since his last encounter with these Lawlords, and now it’s time to implement it!
Marshall and Caldwell are on a roll this week. The strip’s looked good since it began, but this chapter feels like they’re really hitting their stride. Just look at the title page and you can see what I mean. Marshall’s fantastic panel-layout design and figure work are on full display, and Caldwell’s color choices make it clear these are two separate scenes on one page. Then, the two come together in the last panel like Voltron with Caldwell putting a red color-hold on Marshall’s inks. Great stuff!
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Paul Marshall (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brass Sun: Floating Worlds, Part 11
There’s an image that’s conjured up by the use of blonde or golden hair that tends to be associated with either angelic beings or, at the very least, well-intentioned ones. While not pure as white, blonde-haired characters tend to be heroic. Unless, of course, they’re Nazis, in which case that tendency is not being discounted but rather inverted. I’m going on about this to say that using a character with a primarily golden color to them as a villain is a deliberate choice to play against reader expectations and therefore increase the tension.
So take Arthur above. And yes, while I have my doubts that is actually Arthur King of the Britons, he was put on this blood-spilling rampage by something called Merlin. But Culbard and Edgington are, and this might just be me, pulling from the John Boorman “Excalibur” in his appearance, specifically the character of Mordred, Arthur’s son. Mordred wears bright golden armor with a face-and-hair-sculpted helmet but contrasts that fair image by leading the forces against Arthur the hero-king. In ‘Brass Sun’, Arthur is a golden-skinned clockwork youth with acrobatic deadliness and limbs covered in the blood of his targets. Which now include Wren, the gang, and her ‘wraith’ Kurt Vonnegut.
So it goes.
But for how long? We’re one more Prog away from the jump-on Prog 1900, which means ‘Brass Sun’ will be wrapping up this arc next week. But is that the end of the arc or the series? The US reprint series is a 6-issue mini which would conclude the 6th issue with the contents of next week’s strip. Can Edgington and Culbard wrap everything up in 8 more pages? Probably, but I don’t want them to. Edgington has just enough pieces in play, with the wraith’s statements from Wren’s coma in Prog 1892 to the fact Chairman Pei’s now-decapitated daughter carried some aspect of the key Wren has been searching for, to conceivably bring things to a close. But 8 pages means about 30 panels — not enough! And the next Prog blurb says “Parting Ways”. Arrggghhhhh! I’m not ready for this to end!
Continued belowCredits: Ian Edgington (script), INJ Culbard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Aquila: Carnifex, Part 9
There’s a scene in “Watchmen” where a drunk Comedian breaks into the dwelling of a sleeping and defenseless Edgar Jacobi and rants to the startled man about how screwed with all are with doom impending. That scene you see above? Same basic premise, with Aquila-companion Felix Fortunatus playing the part of Edward Blake, aka The Comedian. He and Aquila have been through a lot, Aquila goes off to play out the endgame while Felix finds solace in the bottom of a mug. Several mugs. Several several mugs. To be fair, despite his pudgy exterior and perchance for curses at indignities so slight he seems tailor-made for comic relief, Felix does know his way around a sword, and earns his drunken time-out with some Gallagher-pencilled violence.
Speaking of Gallagher, I will say it before and I will say it again: the man knows who to incorporate grit and texture without losing overall tightness in his linework. After that fight, Gallagher shows Aquila with not only massive amounts of small scars and scrapes on his skin, but several trenches of claw marks on his head that have discernible depth to them. Those nails didn’t just cut the skin, they scooped out chunks of skin and meat with them. It helps sell Aquila’s role as more-than-human to make his wounds as wince-inducing as possible, and Gallagher does that.
Prog 1899 will start with seven servants dead, Fortunatus passed out from alcohol consumption (most likely), and Nero being paid a visit by the one ‘man’ left in Rome who has a prayer (to whatever god is left he hasn’t killed a servant of) of stopping his ascent to godhood. What happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Leigh Gallager (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Black Shuck, Part 8
Back when Part 1 ran in Prog 1891, I mentioned the following about the origins of the cryptid Black Shuck:
And it turns out that the Black Shuck is a ghost dog supposedly found in the region of East Anglia in eastern Britain. This dog is a cryptid like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, and is alternately described as a protector or a harbinger of death, with the latter occurring not necessarily to the direct observer of said Shuck, but to those close to him or her.
So you can see that what started off as me thinking the 2000 AD Shuck might be like this in spirit turned in something closer to “Oh yeah, he’s a dog!” And while he might be trying to protect some, he is without a doubt harbingin’ some death to just about everyone he comes in contact with, man or beast. Plus there’s also the curse to worry about. Curses mean that something is fated to happen to you or you are fated to do something whether you want to or not. Moore & Reppion make sure to keep that curse alive and show it by the way seemingly incongruous events lock right into a path to the same inevitable conclusion Shuck was trying to avoid, either by going in its opposite direction or barreling towards it with enough momentum to break past it and free.
One more week until we find out if he reached escape velocity on that attempt.
Credits: Leah Moore & John Reppion (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
III. OF INTEREST
As you may or may not have heard, there was a second motion picture attempt to bring Judge Dredd and Mega-City One to cinematic life. The first was in 1995 and starred Sylvester Stallone as a Joseph Dredd who spent the majority of the film without his helmet. That crime against thrill-power turned the film landscape for Dredd and his stories into its own Cursed Earth, making us wait almost 20 years until another shot was taken. This one, however, was hi-ex all the way. Karl Urban brought a grit to the 2012 film “Dredd” that sent the earlier version to the movie Iso-Cubes.
Continued belowDespite this, “Dredd” was a box-office failure. Failures do not get sequels. Urban and the filmmakers have been very vocal in their attempt to get this accused party a re-trial. Someone asked Urban about the chances of a “Dredd” sequel, including one touching on the Dark Judges. According to Den of Geek, his response was:
There is a definite possibility. But it is more likely that we will do the origins story with Dredd trekking through the Cursed Earth to find the first Chief Judge Fargo
There’s a lot of ‘origins’ and ‘firsts’ in that statement, which has led a lot of people to think the next “Dredd” movie, should it ever materialize, would be a prequel. Having that be true would be a real mistake, for no other reason than it would negate one of the best things about the first “Dredd”: the chemistry between Dredd and Psi-Judge Anderson it spent the entire movie establishing. And in this case, I just mean character chemistry, not romantic chemistry. Not cool at all. But I think, and here’s where capitalization and punctuation count for a lot, that it should read as Urban saying it would be more likely for them to do the ‘Origins’ story.
We will go into this story, done by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra primarily and running from Progs 1500-1519 & 1529-1535, in the near future, but in a nutshell, Chief Judge Hershey gets a package containing indisputable evidence that someone has the body of the Chief Judge Fargo, who was the original top cop that Dredd was cloned from. Dredd leads a cadre of Judges into the Cursed Earth to get it back, and along the way huge chunks of Dredd and Mega-City history is laid out. So even though Anderson wasn’t one of those Judges in the original story, there’s no reason she couldn’t be in this crew.
If you want to dig into the extra-large slab of Mega-History, the whole story is available in trade paperback, as well as digitally from 2000 AD.
IV. FUTURE PERP FILES
ATTN: ALL CITIZENS OF THE MEG! Be aware that there is always a Judge watching you. Each sector is equipped with millions of HD-CCTV and bioID units. They are there for your protection. If your intent is upright citizenry, then you have no qualm with our surveillance. And remember: if you see something, you are now an accessory to a crime. That’s six months in an Iso-Cube, creep! Random CPU algorithms has selected this citizen for immediate surveillance and assessment…
That’s gonna do it for us this week! 2000 AD Prog 1898 is on sale today and available from finer comic shops everywhere, from 2000ADonline.com, and via the 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone. So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
