Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1912

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.

We’ve got the first Prog of 2015 this week, so we’ll jump right in after this quick public service announcement!

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. A regularly updated FAQ, The Guide will collect everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.

II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1912

Cover by PJ Holden

Judge Dredd: Dark Justice, Part 2

It’s looking like The Touch of Mortis suffered by Judge Logan is effecting him in worse ways than we thought! The reemergence of these two ghastly, yet familiar, faces is not sitting well with Judge Anderson. She’s been down this road before, so she knows damn well where it ends.

There seems to have been a bit of a jump in time between last issue’s conclusion and this week’s strip, as Death is moving rather quickly and has covered a lot of ground. This installment has left me with questions about the order of events as well as the fate of one of the story’s bigger characters. Wagner has the reader in the same position as Dredd and Anderson: we know something terrible is unfolding, but we haven’t a clue where to begin taking care of it. We don’t yet have the whole picture, but once we do, it’ll probably be too late to react.

Staples’ art continues to impress. Not only does he have few comic art peers in his understanding of light and texture has few peers in the comics world, but I really enjoy how he designs his pages as well. His storytelling is measured and intuitive as he shifts between tight grids and more fluid, gutterless compositions. He’ll even blend the two, allowing characters and story elements to break the gutters, pushing them to the front for the reader’s attention. It’s easy to do something like that in a grand and overstated way, but not Staples. He uses these tricks modestly, only to achieve a desired effect and never just for the sake of bombast.

Credits: John Wagner (script), Greg Staples (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Savage (Book 9): Grinders, Part 2

Quick recap: ‘Savage’ is set in an alternate 2010 where Britain has been invaded and occupied by the army of the Volgan Republic. Although they made sound like something that would show up in a spaceship, the Volgans are actually post-Soviet-era Russians who attacked after large oil deposits were found in the North Sea off Britain’s coast. Bill Savage, the title character, is an ex-lorry driver turned resistance fighter who has been attacking the Volgans in every way he can. Now, after years of struggle, the tide has finally turned against the Volgans with the arrival of American aid that includes Hammerstein robots and Raptor drones designed by industrialist Howard Quartz. Victory seems to be at hand. But now that the Volgans are signing surrender papers, who’s going to get all these techno-genies back into their bottles? And will Savage and his compatriots get back the England they lost, or find themselves relics of the one that remains?

One thing I do know is that Goddard is killing it on this strip. Bringing one part Dave Gibbons and one part Darick Robertson, Goddard knows how to marry the sleek techno look of the Hammersteins and drones with the grit of urban warfare we have become all to familiar with. Like a lot of successful art, there’s a balance of peppering the larger images with little humanizing touches. Just to pull an example from the image above, look at O’Dell in the upper panel. Goddard peppers the last few pages with little bits of paper and detritus floating in panel backgrounds to give an impression of wind, but he makes sure to carry that logic through, like with her hair. Yeah, it’s a little touch, but it’s little complimentary bits like that (and things like the consistent placement of her anti-Volgan propaganda cap pins) that help ground settings and let the story be the story without distraction. Plus, with curls like those, making that hair move naturally takes a commitment.

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But don’t worry that this strip is going to be page after page of models in front of wind-machines. Mills may be moving ‘Savage’ into a new phase, but given the events set in motion last Prog with regards to Volgan “grinders” and this one, it looks like Bill’s going to have his hands full for quite some time.

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

The Order, Part 2

You don’t have to have a robot in your strip if you’re going to be in “2000AD”, but it helps. Especially if you’re telling a tale in medieval Europe and your robot is the size and shape of a cool-ass knight’s helmet that can use and corpse as a body just by plugging in to the neck stump. That last bit does require a decapitation beforehand, but given the general abundance of robbers, thieves, and other unsavory types during this time (to say nothing of the lycanthropic wargvolk or the likes), there seem to be no shortage of people deserving a good chop. Which is good, because few people draw limbs being severed and blood gushing like John Burns.

It turns out Ritterstahl served with Anna’s father Siegfried as a member of The Order. The heroic picture the robot paints of him clashes with Anna’s memories of a man who never had time for his family, although she does drop a hint if two that he may have given Anna a gift no one else has. Kek-W does a good job of maintaining Anna’s anger at her father without her becoming too U likable or one note. He also makes her pretty handy with a pistol, which comes in handy when everyone else is using swords.

‘The Order’ is a brand-new strip to the Progs and I’m hoping we get to see a lot more of it to come!

Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Ulysses Sweet, Maniac For Hire: Psycho Therapist, Part 2

I’m so happy to see that The Hendersons are back! And look, they’ve brought friends!

A wise man once said: “Set a thief to catch a thief… But not thieves. No. Mentals. Really mental mentals.” Well, maybe not wise, but certainly a man. A man with nice hair and a nice suit and an unrelenting voice in his head. This man seems to have many enemies, one of which is dear old Ulysses. This is why he’s hired, amongst others, The Hendersons. I’m glad he did so because that means that I got two incredibly hilarious panels featuring this duo of assassins.

It feels like Adams and Marshall are really settling into a groove with Sweet. Together they’re crafting a strip that still has plenty of that big, ridiculous humor we saw with the character’s last story, but this time around they’re adding a touch of subtlety to the comedy.

Credits: Guy Adams (script), Paul Marshall (art), Chris Blythe (tones), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One: Eurozoned, Part 1

Every time we see his work it’s obvious Jake Lynch has been improving by leaps and bounds. Not to imply that he wasn’t good the first time we encountered him, but when you compare that ‘Black Museum’ strip to what he’s done here with Orlok? It’s no contest. Lynch has clearly been working his ass off, and it shows. It feels like we’re seeing his true voice come through on the page. Back when Lynch was working on ‘Sinister Dexter’, I noted that he did not shy away from anything Abnett threw at him, which is clearly true. But in looking back on those pages, and comparing them to his work this week, they feel so much stiffer than I remember them. They’re incredibly impressive from a mechanical point of view, but don’t feel quite as lively as these Orlok pages, like he’s now struck the difficult balance between technical proficiency and the immediacy of comics storytelling. He’s still bringing his rock solid understanding of perspective to the table, but Lynch is now unafraid to exaggerate his foreshortening to achieve a sense of speed and motion. And I’ll award some bonus points for laying down plenty of zipatone.

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Wyatt, to switch to the writing side of things, delivers a concise and exciting first chapter. Well, actually a second chapter, but who’s counting. He’s taken a character from a pretty huge chapter of Judge Dredd’s life and presented him to readers in a context that requires zero knowledge of that continuity or his backstory. If you know all of that stuff, then great, it adds another dimension to things. But if not, it doesn’t really matter because this a dramatic and fast paced cloak-and-dagger type story. In just a few short pages, readers are armed with everything they need to carry them into next week. Wyatt’s one of the best, and it really shows in this strip.

It feels like Wyatt and Lynch are super excited to tell this story. This was an incredibly engaging reintroduction and I hope to get plenty more Orlok from this day forward!

Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Jake Lynch (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

III. OF INTEREST

As we’re getting back into the swing of things this week, I thought it would be nice to start things off with a little themed gallery. In this case, we’re looking at artist’s take on the 2012 “DREDD 3D” movie.

Starting things off is a piece by Jock, the film’s very own artist in residence. This Mondo poster he cooked up would have been the primary artwork for the main theatrical release if we lived in a just and fair universe.

The next few are from artists who I’m not very familiar with, but that doesn’t stop them from bringing the goods! This first piece was done by Gabz (aka Grzegorz Domaradzki)…

…this second one is by Bruce Yan…

…and the third in the trifecta came to us from Tyler Champion.

Last but not least is this favorite from last year by Dredd artist Chris Weston. Yeah, we’ve run it in the column before, but can you blame me for wanting to give it another go?

Hope these prompt at least a few of you to fire up your DVD/Blu-Ray/VOD player of choice and watch Dredd and Anderson take on the Ma-Ma Clan!

IV. RECOGNIZE THE LAW

With the new year comes a brand-new feature here at Multiver-City One! We’re retiring the weekly ‘Perp Files’ and replacing it with ‘Recognize the Law’. It’s no secret that there are a great many flavors of Judges from a great deal of Mega-Cities, so we’re aiming to use this space as a way of exploring as many types of Judges as we can. Did you know that in Mega-City One there are Accounting Judges? And Exorcist Judges? Things get pretty nuts, but we’re starting with the most familiar of all:

Mega-City One Street Judge

In Mega-City One, the Street Judge is the most common type of Judge you’ll be encountering. They are the faceless sentinels of the Justice Department and are tasked with maintaining law and order in The Big Meg. Street Judges have the power to apprehend perps and deliver a sentence on the spot.

Elements of a Mega-City One Street Judge’s Uniform:

Visored helmet
Eagle on right shoulder
Left shoulder pad
Elbow pads w/ rigid plastic shell
Shield bearing Judge’s surname, chained to zipper pull
Gloves w/ pockets and knuckle reenforcement
Utility belt with eagle buckle
High-impact knee pads
Heavy-duty boots with holster for Lawgiver (right) and sheath for utility knife (left)

The first appearance of a Street Judge was Judge Dredd in “2000 AD” Prog 2.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1912 is on sale today and available from: