Multiver-City One: 2000 AD 1977 and Judge Dredd Megazine 371

Welcome, Earthlets, to 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 British sci-fi comic “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 worth of zarjaz comics waiting for you to discover and enjoy.

This special week brings us a new Prog AND a new Megazine that, trust us on this one, you REALLY want to have in your hands at the same time, because…

I. THE CROSSOVER EVENT OF THE SUMMER

Mike Romeo: These two comics kick off a Judge Dredd crossover!

I debated whether or not to call it a ‘major event’ but decided to hedge my bets. In a nutshell, over the next four months, the weekly Judge Dredd strip that runs in the pages of “2000 AD” will tie directly into the lead story in the monthly “Judge Dredd Megazine”. So we’re talking about, all told, a 24-part story that could forever alter the Dredd-verse status quo. If you want to call that ‘major’, I’d be hard-pressed to disagree. But, and I blame this squarely on the event-driven machinery of The Big Two, if you declare that you’ll believe the change when you see it, I’m right there with you.

That’s not to say that I’m totally jaded, though. I really hope this mega-epic (as Dredd stories of this length are called by nature) not only turns over the apple cart, but sets it on fire. And that’s not some sort of unfounded, anarchistic thinking I’ve just stumbled into. There are real instances throughout Dredd’s publication history that have irrevocably altered the course of his narrative. You don’t even have to look that far back for some perfect examples. Let’s take the much-lauded “Trifecta” for instance. There’s another event that seemingly appeared from nowhere, tying every strip in “2000 AD” together into one masterfully orchestrated narrative.

Much like the massive story that writer Michael Carroll is about to unwind across two publications, “Trifecta” presented itself without pomp. No media blasts, no press conferences, no spoiler-filled solicits made public months ahead of publication…just solid comics made better by the simple fact of not knowing every detail beforehand. Contrast that ‘wait-and-see’ approach with Marvel’s handling of “Civil War II”: four months of solicits, leaked issues, and spoilers readily available for anyone who wants them. There’s no joy to be derived in the discovery. But here? In Tharg’s house? This is where you can be blindsided. This is where big stories actually contain surprises and twists. This is where you read without already knowing what hammers are waiting to drop and when.

So enough with the chit-chat. Let’s get down to brass tacks.

Cover by Carlos Ezquerra

II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1977

Judge Dredd: The Grindstone Cowboys, Part 5
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Len OÆGrady (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

MR: I’ve been yammering about this for a while now. About why I think that Rico was placed on a shelf, cast into the Cursed Earth with a duty but minimal visibility. If you want a refresher, I got into it at the start of this very strip.

So, so, so many spoilers follow. If you haven’t read it yet, scroll on down to ‘Survival Geeks’ for safe harbor.

I don’t even know where to begin. Did that really happen? I mean, happen the way it seems to have played out? Is Judge Joseph Dredd, the ultimate symbol of law and order in Mega-City One, really dead? It would make some bit of sense. The clues have been so clearly written on the wall for years now, to the point that even I saw it. Dredd got old; he’s been missing steps, making rash decisions. He had visions of a black stallion running wild in the streets of his city. Bad news and human deterioration has been following him around for a while, so really, it’s only been a matter of time. And here we are. Maybe?

Continued below

Carroll laid out a nice back-and-forth with this one. The shot that Dredd took didn’t kill him straight away, though the wound was clearly mortal. But hey! Fill that gaping hole with riot foam and it’ll buy the old man some time. Brilliant! off you go to the nearest speed-heal machine! But wait, what’s that spark?

There was a lot of poetry in this issue. Take, for example, the aforementioned spark. We saw it as Dredd’s Med-Wagon had lifted off, which seems to have been a sign of a major malfunction. Rico and his fellow Judges watched in helpless astonishment as the flying transporter saving Dredd’s life exploded in mid-air. I’ll call back to Rob Williams and Henry Flint’s ‘Titan’ strip, in which some transport vehicles may or may not have been exploded, their passengers unaware that Judge Dredd was left in command of their mortal souls. Then, of course, were The Lawman’s final words: “You’ll do.” We’ve often seen Dredd impressed by his peers, which usually precedes some manner of understated, slightly insulting compliment. So for Dredd to say to his own clone “you’ll do,” perfectly and succinctly communicated his acceptance of the situation. I’d guess that he’d been waiting for this day to come for a while now.

In addition to all of the fireworks, we were also given a smaller pleasure: Dredd and Rico face-to-face. I don’t just mean sharing a scene; we got to see MacNeil draw these two Judges in a way that gives the reader a good look at the two of them simultaneously. I mentioned last week about how this hadn’t happened yet, and I gotta say that it was worth the wait. Dredd looks so old, with his greying skin and deep creases. Granted, he’s at death’s door, but Rico just looks so… fresh in comparison. It’s like something outside of the story is being communicated to us. We’re presented with nearly four decades of published, in-continuity stories and the apparent fresh start side-by-side. Everything Joe Dredd has done will always be canon; thanks to Tharg’s ‘no reboot’ policy, nothing will ever undo that. But Rico can be a new Dredd, creating decades of his own history informed by his predecessor’s while not being crushed by it. If this really is the end of Judge Dredd as we’ve known him, then his stories can morph into legends for Rico to keep alive.

Unless that spark was not a sign of malfunction, and was instead some sort of technological back-door Carroll built in order to reset the status quo. I mean, this is comics and that’s what comics do, right? As readers, we’ve come to expect an eventual trail of bread crumbs to lead us out of the forest and back to the comfort of the familiar. I wouldn’t be shocked if that turned out to be the case, but I’ll be damned if it wouldn’t be a huge letdown, as well as a missed opportunity to do something grand and bold.

This party continues down in the Megazine section with our discussion of the first part of Carroll’s cross-publication tie-in, ‘Dust to Dust’!

Survival Geeks: Geeks Fatales, Part 5
Credits: Gordon Rennie & Emma Beeby (script), Neil Googe (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: It’s all well and good to call yourself something like “The Total Testosterone Mental Crew” to boost morale and (presumably) make your enemies quake in their boots, but unless you happen to be in a dimension where testosterone lets you, say, deflect energy blasts, then it’s not really going to come in all that handy when the lasers start flying. Having a pet Cthulhu, on the other hand…

I really try to not dwell on the pint-sized Elder God when coming up with these reviews but Howard is not only adorably rendered by Googe & Caldwell, but Beeby & Rennie know just how to pop him into and out of the story without making him too much of a presbuteros deus ex machina. Granted, he really gets to shine here, but the creative team does play off the actual human Geeks as well. Sam’s dilemma and possible solution helps give a little bit of weight to this sci-fi sitcom. I’ll have a little bit more on the sitcom aspect next week, but until then, I’ll just leave you with this line of dialogue that I can’t believe was typed by either writer without a huge grin on their face: “Ha! Who wants to give me a hard time about wanting an eldritch being of unspeakable evil for a housepet NOW, eh?”

Continued below

Tainted: The Fall of Deadworld, Part 5
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

MR: This is where it starts. The infamous, “…The sentence is death!” sees an utterance at the close of this week’s strip, and all is right in the world. Well, my world. Not the one in the story; that one’s totally boned.

There’s a bit of ambiguity in this story, as we’ve basically joined a cataclysm already in progress. The idea that a culture of death has been embraced by the world was floated a couple of weeks back, and now it appears that whatever’s happening to make folks ‘not well’ isn’t news to anyone. I mean, the whole zombified-Uncle-Luke-eating-a-monster-locust thing didn’t really seem to get anyone’s dander up, did it? The plan seemed to just keep driving and get him fixed up later. So, yeah, these folks have seen a thing or two in the years leading up to the start of this story.

And yes, take the speech chip out of that bike. I’m all for dark humor, but a motorcycle with a snooty AI is just a tad too hokey for this type of story. Or maybe that’s just me?

Aquila: Charon’s Mercy, Part 5
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Paul Davidson (art), Len OÆGrady (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Adrian Johnson: In the last installment, Aquila and Felix finally penetrated the lair of Tortrix The Necromancer in their quest to find Ammit The Devourer, the progenitor of slave-gladiator-divine weapon Aquila’s immortality. Their success does not come without cost, unfortunately, as the pair brutally discover at the hands of Tortrix.

Gordon Rennie continues his great scripting. The machinations of Aquila and Tortrix deepen this week and as such, the plot continues to twist in ways that make this strip one hell of a fun read every week. The visual team of Davidson and O’Grady are also on-point with their respective artwork and colors here; particularly depicting Aquila’s live dissection(!) by Tortrix and the portentous gateway to Hades they must enter in the next Prog populated by screaming souls and the various creatures of the underworld.

ONE WEEK ONLY

Tharg the Mighty in “The Mystery of Prog 1977”
Credits: T.M.O. (script), Michael Collins (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

AJ: As we celebrate Prog 1977, which shares its numbering with the hallowed year of “2000 AD”‘s creation itself, we have this short authored by The Mighty One himself: Tharg! Two droids investigate a rumor that has been floating around The Nerve Centre for decades. Who or what is…The Diss?!?

The black-and-white artwork by Mike Collins is very crisp and reads beautifully. It invokes, in a real sense, the pulpy newsprint of those very early Progs; particularly with the use of halftone dot patterns and Collins’ traditional renderings. Tharg The Mighty scripts a very succinct tale of how the magazine came to be, as well as other now-hallowed 2000 AD mainstays such as ‘Thrill-Power’. As a 2000 AD fan in general, I thought this was a neat strip with nods to the enduring legacy of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!

Cover by Ben Willsher

III. THIS MONTH IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 371

NOW ARRIVING

Judge Dredd: Dust to Dust, Part 1
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Henry Flint (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

MR: All hail Henry Flint, making his way back to ‘Judge Dredd’ for this Cursed Earth, Wild West-inspired jaunt. Not only is he one of my all-time favorite Dredd artists, but he also seems to enjoy drawing Chief Judge Hershey in her control room as she handles some serious business. Which is my favorite way to read Hershey: dealing with the sort of stress that’d make anyone else’s eyeballs explode. She’s the best.

SPOOOOOOOOILEEEEERS! SPOILERS COMIN’!

What the fuck is up with Farrow, man? Since the start of ‘Grindstone Cowboys’ over in the Prog, he’s been not-so-subtly playing some sort of angle and seemingly trying to throw a wrench in the system at every opportunity. He pushed to extradite Dredd, he wants to appease Brit-Cit, he suggests Hershey takes some time after the report of Dredd’s death. I don’t know what he’s trying to do, but he’s clearly up to something. But the fact he’s not even bothering to be sneaky about it isn’t sitting well with me. What’s his motivation? Does he know something that we don’t? Something that’s making him overconfident? Or maybe he’s desperate and just has little time for pretense. Time will tell, I suppose.

Continued below

It was a surprise to see Cursed Earth Koburn pop up here. If this is your first encounter with the guy, don’t worry, it’s been a few years since he’s come around. In a nutshell, Koburn was made a Judge-Marshall out in the Cursed Earth after crossing the wrong folks in the Justice Department. He’s what you’d call a loose cannon, so instead of waiting for the day he’d do something that’d get him shipped off to the Judicial penal colony Titan, he chose to bring the law to the lawless as a Marshall. It’s probably worth noting that, for obvious reasons, he and Dredd did not get along. But it’d seem that Koburn feels a fondness for Rico, seeing as how he asked the guy for help. It turns out that he’s working a case that coincides with what Rico’s in the middle of, so it’s not a stretch to see why it makes sense.

Meanwhile, back in Mega-City One, Hershey is looking to bulk up the number of Judges under her command. As a means to this end, she’s seen fit to reinstate the city’s retrainee program. The same program, by the way, that saw Judge Joyce make the jump from the Emerald Isle the Mega-City One. The only hiccup in her plan is the time involved; a lot of training goes into getting other cities’ Judges ready for these streets, as the sheer volume of laws and regs governing Mega-City One is massive. The most time-effective way to go about this would be appealling to Texas City, another Mega-City whose penal code is close enough to Mega-City One’s that the transition would be quicker and easier. The problem with that plan is Texas City has a history of being notoriously self-interested, which has created hard feelings amongst Mega-City One’s Judicial elites. Hershey seems confident, though, as she sets about procuring a meeting with TC’s Chief Judge Oswin.

In terms of the two comics crossing over, I get the impression that, while this story may feel like it runs parallel to the Prog, there’s a lot happening that will surely inform the wider story. Yes, Rico and Koburn are on a mission, but the Texas City stuff will most likely feed right back into the weekly story. But that’s yet to be seen, I suppose. I guess what I’m saying is: don’t let this seemingly disparate storyline fool you into thinking you can pass on one or the other. My suspicion is that, as the weeks roll on, the two narratives will become inseparable.

All in all, I think Carroll has done a very impressive job setting this one up. It’s been a story full of twist and turns, with more layers than an onion. I’m eager to see how the crossover plays out.

Lawless: Of Munce and Men, Part 1
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

MR: Can this week get any better? Flint back on Dredd AND the return of ‘Lawless’? Tharg must surely be pleased with me!

Last we saw Judge Marshall Metta Lawson she was left for dead, gunned down in The Badlands by Mr. Brotherly’s Pinkerton thugs. This installment picks up six weeks later, with the question of Lawson’s ultimate fate left in question.

One fateful day, Lawson ventured out into The Badlands without much notice, looking into the dreams and visions of the presumed mad man who preceded her in her post. What she found were the ruins of war and an ambush, which she has yet to return from. Now, her clerk Nerys Pettifer is left to assume the role of interim-Marshall. She’s under pressure from the mayor of Badrock to declare Lawson ‘missing-presumed’ in order to begin the process of installing a new, permanent Marshall.

Over the life of this strip, I’ve found Pettifer to be a really interesting character. Having served as clerk to both Lawson and Badrock’s preceding Marshall Psi-Judge Hetch, we’ve seen her grow more confident in her duties, becoming someone who could fill the role of Marshall for a time. I can’t imagine the Pettifer we met at the beginning of these stories to have been capable of that, but after working under Lawson, we have someone who could surely become a Judge if she decided to. I think she realizes that as well, though finds herself none-too-pleased with the revelation.

Continued below

If I had to place a bet, I’d figure we’ll see Lawson reemerge. While she was out in The Badlands, writer Dan Abnett made sure to make mention of the scavengers who scratch together a living out there. Plus, Lawson formed a relationship (and even a psychic bond!) with Badrock’s native population, so there’s another road to salvation.

Realm of the Damned: Tenebris Dios, Part 3
Credits: Alec Worley (script), Pye Parr (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

GM: If I’m remembering it correctly, the old saying goes: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. If you happen to be Alberic Van Helsing, living a nomadic Omega Man-style life of attacks and attrition against the world’s vampire ruling class, there is no love lost between him and his targets (as you can see above). So given that, what kind of man or beast would bring those two sides together in any kind of pact?

Balaur.

Worley & Parr spend a couple of pages setting up this Big Bad as particularly big and exceedingly bad. When your name translates to “Dragon” in Translyvanian Saxon, the chances of you being a cute & fuzzy bunny of an antagonist are slim to none; and even if you were, you’d turn out to be one of those Monty Python vorpal bunnies. Think more like an angrier, death-metal version of Viggo the Carpathian. And it may seem weird to say this, but I’m feeling a kind of symmetry between this strip and the Paul Grist ‘Demon Nic’ story that ‘Tenebris Dios’ replaced in terms of having an all-powerful evil returning from the past to endanger the present. But while Grist took a more seen-but-not-heard approach to setting up his dread, Worley is making sure you know EXACTLY what kind of unholy terror is on its way.

Balaur.

Parr doesn’t do the usual flashback-palette-shift trick here, leaning a little more on giving the setting around Balaur a 15th-century-appropriate veneer. As a fan of such books like “In Search of Dracula” that reprint a lot of those period woodcuts, I noticed Parr styling the faces of Balaur’s victims to match up with those heavily bearded, wide-eyed archetypes. That last bit might not be 100% conscious on Parr’s part, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

So what could be so evil as to bring two hated foes together in a common cause? The man, the beast, the dragon…

Balaur.

DREDD: Dust, Part 5
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Ben Willsher (art), Chris Blythe (color), Simon Bowland (letters)

GM: The latest in the Dredd movie-verse strips concludes this month as our favorite lawman deals with a devil and dust out in the Cursed Earth. Wyatt and Willsher bring this favorite (if blighted) setting into film continuity, complete with Marshals, mutants, and maybe something a little more metaphysical.

There has been talk of Dredd sequels and even a Dredd ongoing series on Netflix or some other streaming service. But for my money, Wyatt has given us something just as satisfying, if one is to only look. His cherry-picking of regular Dredd continuity to seeds into this alternate series is pretty spot-on, slowly expanding the scope of this world while still making it feel like something tied to the budget and particular vision of the film.

We’re three stories into these comics continuations and I can’t help but both agree and be excited when I read this line from Dredd about the what the beat he walks or rides brings his way: “You stay a Judge long enough and you’ll see stranger.” With Wyatt in command and artistic talent like Willsher, Paul Davidson, or Henry Flint giving him back-up, one can only hope that’s the case!

IV. MEGAZINE FEATURES

Feature: Free Comic Book Day by Karl Stock

GM: As we rocket towards this year’s Free Comic Book Day, Tharg takes this opportunity to give everyone a rundown on what kind of heat his gratis-priced Thrill-Zine is packing. From the Allred & Allred cover (seen above), to a new Dredd strip from Alec Worley and Eric Powell, to new strips from Joelle Jones (with Matt Smith) and the team of Hannah Berry & Dani, this has to be the best 2000 AD FCBD comic yet! The number of Eisner awards accounted for in just those names alone is staggering, and that doesn’t even count the classics reprinted along side them! We’ll be going into our usual detail about this slab of awesomeness a little closer to the event, but if you can’t wait, check out Karl Stock’s write-up and get an informative and tantalizing teaser of the Thrills that await on May 7th!

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A Beginner’s Guide to: Eric Powell by Matthew Badham

GM: Did you know Eric Powell will be illustrating the lead story in the upcoming 2000 AD Free Comic Book Day comic? You did? Excellent! That means we’re doing our job. But what if you had no idea who Eric Powell was, or why enlisting him into the ranks of Dredd artists was such a coup? Well, we could give you an exhaustive list of his accomplishments (trust us on this!), but Tharg already has that covered, and much more efficiently, to boot! The Mighty One enlisted Matthew Badham to put together this one-page sum-up that will take anyone from Powell zero to “The Goon” hero in no time at all!

Obituary: Tony Koroizumi-Luke: The Indomitable Spirit by David Bennett

GM: It’s a blast talking about comics and Thrill-Power and all the joy 2000 AD brings each and every week, but as we all know, life has its share of sorrows to counterbalance and put things in perspective. This month brings us an obituary for artist Tony Koroizumi-Luke, who passed away just over two months ago after a long-time battle with lung cancer. You can’t really sum up a person’s life in three pages (no matter how small the font size), but David Bennett does yeoman’s work trying to do so. Covering Luke’s career (which incorporated UK comics, manga, animation, rock music, and goth for over two decades) as well as getting insight from both those who knew him and the man himself, this article is a must read.

New Books: Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics by Stephen Jewell

GM: I don’t know exactly when it happened. I can’t pinpoint a real date, but some time between when media companies started putting out tie-ins to their films/TV shows/whathaveyou and now, there was an overall shift between an earlier laissez-faire attitude regarding adherence to canon and the current synergistic approach. I do know that rubicon date was after the inital 1969 publication of the Star Trek UK newspaper strips IDW is now releasing. And just like all the best TOS episodes had Kirk thumbing his nose at the Prime Directive, these UK-produced comics treat the source material with the same ‘damn the photon torpedos’ attitude of action first, canon second. Or maybe third. And these aren’t Marvelman-style UK ‘versions’ of Star Trek, but rather fully licensed new stories, even if Paramount or Roddenberry had no idea of their existence. Stephen Jewell does a great job of giving context and content about how these continuing voyages of the Enterprise and her crew made their way to UK readers, and eventually, their American cousins.

V. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD

GM: At Multiver-City One, we understand trying to figure out to start with a selection of almost 40 years worth of comics can be 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?

To help all you new & potential readers, we’ve put together something we call 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 easy and simple as possible.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1977 and Judge Dredd Megazine 371 are both on sale today and available digitally worldwide on: