Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our “2000 AD” weekly review column! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at Rebellion/2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment. Let’s get right to it!
THIS WEEK IN 2000AD
Judge Dredd: The Removal Man Part 4
Credits: John Wagner (Script), Colin MacNeil (Art), Chris Blythe (Colours), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: The final chapter of ‘The Removal Man’ throws Judge Dredd into some extreme action as he closes in on his prey. Explosions, shoot outs, and his revving Lawmaster are really all this needs to make for compelling, and violent action scenes. All this is moving in tandem with quieter dramatic moments making for a lot of text heavy back and forth. It’s done well, but feels a little overwhelming in the context of shorter story space. It moves fast and takes over.
MacNeil’s artwork seems to change characteristics again for this chapter. We get some of the cartoonish character style with some Mega City One residents, but Dredd, his colleagues, the city, and most other elements are much darker and edgier. The sillier style really falls to background quickly as the story is need of the more mature look. Blythe’s colors are on point to match the illustrations as well. The complexity and change of palettes from scene to scene not only match the tone of the story being told, but really bring a dynamic look to the entire chapter.
A decent, if somewhat rushed, conclusion to this latest “Judge Dredd” strip. It gives plenty of closure while leaving the door open for some more possible entanglements with The Removal Man.
Aquila: Rivers of Hades Book 1, Part 2
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Aquila and his motley crew venture out of the river Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. Gordon Rennie wastes no time introducing opponents in the form of Roman-era Max Max like pirate extras to fight. They seem formidable, but Aquila and his roguish mate Felix make quick work of them. Though their leader seems formidable, he becomes little more than the object lesson and a punchline in the face of the more seasoned and furious warriors. Out of this chapter, we see our heroes acquire a bigger boat. ‘Chapter 2’ feels like more set up then story as our heroes travel deeper into Hades. A lot of the interest in this weeks installment comes from the interesting designs and characters that Patrick Goddard created for the band of incidental enemies.
Bigger threats loom on the horizon as Aquila’s band of heroes being watched from on high by Lady Cruciata and the still animated head of her “son.” Rennie is at the moment populating the stage for events to come and whetting our appetite for more. The smattering of action and humor in these pages, though entertaining, does little to move the story forward.
Department K: Cosmic Chaos, Part 6
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Dan Cornwell (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Simon Bowlnad (letters)
Brian Salvatore: Last week, I mentioned how “Department K” has been a series of fine, but somewhat uninteresting pages, followed by a shocking final page/panel to set up the same type of strip next week. Part 6 of ‘Cosmic Chaos’ keeps the last panel reveal, but put together a story that is more interesting than what we’ve seen in a few installments.
Much like last week, Dan Cornwell is the star of the show, and he gets to continue his Kirby-inspired tour de force. This chapter is all about the death of the Locust that set off the events of this strip. We see the Locust shot, not just through the chest, but through the multiverse, and the quest to find out where it landed. It was seemingly killed for its magic properties, but lost in the process.
While we spend very little time with Department K this week, it allows Rory McConville to do a little world building, even if it is likely for a world we will never see again. While the story is still extraordinarily decompressed, the change of pace was refreshing, and allowed the art to really sing.
Continued below
Skip Tracer Eden: Part 3
Credits: James Peaty (script), Paul Marshall (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Jim Campbell (lettering)
Matthew Blair: “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 3” does a lot of emotional lifting for the main character and helps fill in a lot of the backstory and motivation of Skip Tracer for the reader. Also, there’s a hell of a twist at the end that changes the entire meaning of the story and motivation for a lot of the characters.
James Peaty gets to show off his capacity for emotional storytelling in “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 3”, and he’s very good at it. While Skip Tracer’s backstory and previous life with a government sanctioned partner does play some pretty familiar romantic story beats, it’s a nicely written bit of romance between two very capable people who have other responsibilities that ensure they cannot be together. It’s a pretty sweet romance and it goes a long way towards setting up the massive emotional twist that promises to create all sorts of conflict and problems in the future for our main character. If there was any worry that this story might start feeling a bit boring or stagnant, that worry is gong now.
Artist Paul Marshall doesn’t get to show off a lot of future weirdness in “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 3”, but he still does a very good job enhancing the human aspect of the story and the emotional bombshells it creates. Marshall does a great job of showing all of the necessary emotions that bubble up in stories like this while colorist Dylan Teague does a good job of separating the past from the present through the use of different colors. On top of that, there’s a hint at a more pastoral and idyllic setting near the end of the story, which is a nice change of pace from all the expected futuristic chaos and really explains why the planet is called Eden.
“Skip Tracer Eden: Part 3” is a great emotional beat for the story and helps to fill in a lot of the plot and motivational gaps that the previous two installments helped build. We’ve gone from a broad, impersonal story to something with much deeper emotional stakes and it’s a welcome change of pace.
Chimpsky’s Law: The Talented Mr. Chimpsky Part 6
Credits Ken Niemand (script), PJ Holden (art), Chris Blythe (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The sixth part of ‘The Talented Mr. Chimpsky’ promises the second half of the surprise twists, and textually that claim is satisfied. However, that is not the only surprise this strip has in store. The biggest other surprise is that this strip still has more time to go! I thought we were headed for a quick and not so tidy close last week. Judging by where this strip leaves off, we might have two maybe three strips left and that has me excited.
The second textual “surprise twist” that the creative team promised is that Amanda Jepperson “gives” Noam all the family banking information and transforms him into her legal heir. That is a grandiose gesture that in other stories might constitute something of a reparative babyface turn. The creative team, rightly, don’t see it that way and let Jepperson off the hook. The way she delivers this information to Noam is once again without his consent and visually coded in torture, his disinterest in all that money is reinforced several times afterwards. In trying to break the cycle of pain all Jepperson does is perpetuate it. To say nothing of her arrogant reasoning that shows her underlying racism is easily being modified to justify the murder of her “unworthy” family in effect fusing her narcissism and objectivism into one. Jepperson becomes a stand-in for contemporary American billionaires who have seen the Rockefeller light and try to give the money they’ve made off an inequitable system away – and further negate any tax liabilities. The first three pages of this strip might be the most effective pages in the entire story.
After those pages though, the strip due to its nature must begin working through plot and tying off loose ends. It turns out she isn’t his secret admirer, though she claims to admire him nonetheless. There is the matter of Burdell to contend with. And figure out a way to save the rest of the apes on the station. In retrospect, expecting this strip to finish up here seems a bit foolish.
