Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1983 – Wild Thing!

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 with the return of Leah Moore, John Reppion, and Steve Yeowell’s ‘Black Shuck’, so let’s get right to it!

Cover by Glenn Fabry & Adam Brown

I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1983

NOW ARRIVING

Black Shuck: Sins of the Father, Part 1
Credits: Leah Moore & John Reppion (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: Black Shuck has returned! Much to the delight of Prog readers (and the dismay of at least one gigantic wyrm)!

Moore, Reppion, & Yeowell’s ‘Black Shuck’ debuted two years ago in Prog 1871 and with its Thrill-powered lycanthropic ninth century Scandinavian mayhem added another non-science fiction-based character to the 2000 AD universe. The first story saw Shuck wash up on the Scandinavian shore of the kingdom of King Ivar, where Shuck proceeded to help said King defend said kingdom against the monstrous Jotunn attacking it. Key to Shuck’s success was the fact he is a kind of werewolf, making him one tough hombre in combat (see image above for example A). But as we meet up with Shuck this week, that asset has turned into hindrance in the worst way.

Moore & Reppion show us that Shuck has taken Queen Freydis as his own wife with the passing of King Ivar, and that she is now pregnant with his twin children. But those twins are more their father’s children than their mother’s, and the magic making him a lycanthrope is threatening all three of their lives. So the writers waste no time juxtaposing Shuck at his peak in battle with his nadir at his wife’s bedside.

It’s one thing to set your story in medieval Scandinavia with the requisite amount of period costuming & setting mixed in with non-medieval monsters…but it’s another to sell all that to the reader. Yeowell and Blythe return and continue to keep up the artistic salesmanship. Yeowell himself has an interesting balance going on between detail and brevity in his linework. I would never describe his style as particularly rendered (or over-rendered), but whatever page I look at always seems to end up having more detail on it than I remember. That memory always includes a sense of motion with his work, so it speaks to his skill that he can tell stories that readers think back on for what happened in the story rather than what piece of setting was rendered to the hilt.

Judge Dredd: The Lion’s Den, Part 6
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), PJ Holden (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Mike Romeo: Joyce’s disappearance seems to be causing all sorts of chaos in Brit-Cit. No one knows where he is, who he’s with or what he’s planning, so there are some folks who are understandably freaked out. Also understandable, in a twisted, conspiracy-minded sort of way, is that the Brit-Cit Judicial System will use this to their advantage by launching a number of false flag terror attacks. Someone get Alex Jones on the line!

Meanwhile, on this side of the Black Atlantic, Chief Judge Hershey seems to finally want to push back against some of Texas City’s Chief Judge Pamelina Oswin ideas. It seems as if Oswin feels that she’s nearly completed her not-so-hostile takeover of Mega-City One, and maybe she has. Her Judges are out there maintaining their own brand of order, pulling Mega-City Judges out of danger and mercilessly delivering overly-brutal sentences. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say that these 1,000 Texans will bring Mega-City One to heel, which would free them up for other things. You know, like imposing their will upon the established seats of Mega-City power in order to see Oswin’s vision of North American unification come to fruition.

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But can it really be that easy for her? Is Hershey feeling so defeated that she’d lay down before a domineering foreign city? If I think about it realistically, it seems like it must be tempting. She could just… let it happen, right? Then her mountain of seemingly unsolvable problems would belong to someone else. Without Judge Dredd as her bludgeon, maybe she can’t see a way forward.

Or maybe she’s got a plan. Here’s hoping.

Sláine: Psychpomp, Part 6
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Davis (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Adrian Johnson: Sláine and Gort must hack their way through the horde of undead Trojan warriors to escape the clutches of the Cyth Lord OdinGod. This installment is pretty much all-action; though Pat Mills does find a way to move the story along with humor. Mills also has Sláine and Gort bond even in the midst of the violence. As I stated in a previous review, I feel one of Mills’ under-appreciated strengths is his ability to render humanity and pathos to his tales regardless of how ‘high-concept’ or fantastic the story may be.

Simon Davis’ art as always is highly effective and lovely. The opening two-page splash of the undead Trojans is very nice as is the choreography of the action. Davis’ chunky strokes of color are very well suited for the freneticism and lay on the page solidly. Davis also has great body language and facial expressions that sell Mills’ scripting perfectly.

Brink, Part 6
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

AJ: Investigators Brinkmann and Kurtis get even closer to the truth of the cults and their implication into a murder aboard their orbiting habitat. Writer Dan Abnett was really able to pack a lot into this installment. I was glad to see the two leads get a bit more characterization respectively this installment; with Kurtis starting to embrace eating healthier while Brink stays otherwise. It’s a nice touch that distinguishes them further from the almost exclusive hard-boiled portrayals that have been their constant since the story’s beginning. However, the highlight is a scene of Brink questioning a supposed cult member. Abnett is adroitly juxtaposes the drugged-out passivity of the cult member with Brink’s assertiveness to get to the truth; culminating in one heck of a reveal in the last panel. I think I said ‘Oooooooo….’ out loud when I saw it.

A healthy portion of the wonderful pacing is also thanks to INJ Culbard’s storytelling. His art and colors continue to make each installment a denser read than belied by its eight page count.

In addition, I was impressed by the shot selection that Culbard makes in the aformentioned scene where Brink confronts the cult member. Culbard is able to ratchet the tension with a steady ‘two-shot’ for several panels of Brink and the cult member without resorting to a close-up. Even though I’ve mentioned in a recent review that I try hard to not make the correlation between film and comics, Culbard’s work really makes it difficult to not do so.

Grey Area: Big Day
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

MR: I think this might be one of my all-time favorite ‘Previously, In…’ pages of all time. Just a casual conversation in the midst of a world-ending battle. That Dan Abnett sure knows how to comic book!

This week’s strip was not necessarily the series’ most enthralling installment, but it served a purpose. Through exposition and the throwing together of an impromptu wedding, Abnett was able to not only play catch-up with new readers, but give everyone a little refresher on who all of these characters are. Sure, Bulliet and Birdy play huge parts in this story, but others like Kymn and Neats have their roles to play, too. But with the months-long break between installments, it’s easy to let the secondary cast slip from memory.

Now that everyone’s caught up, next week will presumably bring Kymn’s plan to the fore, along with all of the action it’ll require to work!

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II. 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 1983 is on sale today and available digitally worldwide on: