Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2028 – Venus In Flames!

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!

Cover by D'Israeli

Judge Dredd: Harvey, Part 5
Credits: John Wagner (script), John McCrea (art), Mike Spicer (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: After assessing the new Mark 8 ‘Mechanismo’ robot Judge’s suitability in supplementing the still-depleted Street Judge ranks (complete with full Judicial authority), Judge Dredd gives it near perfect marks in all categories…but a failing overall grade. So if that’s the case, why are we seeing a fleet of Mark 8’s in a rolling thunder rollout?

Because John McCrea makes that rollout look awesome, that’s why. Yes, I know Wagner has a perfectly good story explanation for that image, and we’ll get to that in a second, but seriously, if this was all just to get McCrea & Spicer to do THAT page with THAT splash panel? Absolutely worth it. And if you haven’t been following ‘Harvey’ so far, it’s indicative of why these two are such a good fit for Dredd art droid duty. They do great tech, possess a wonderful sense of scale, and keep the setting design (both architecturally and costume-wise) futuristic without being too clean or antiseptic. Their Mega-City One has chrome and lasers alongside grit and grime. Details abound but never paralyze action or the feeling of movement.

And speaking of movement, why is the Mechanismo project moving forward despite Dredd’s FAIL assessment? Was his involvement just for show? Dredd might think so, but I think Chief Judge Hershey’s words to the contrary are to be taken truthfully. She did need the Mark 8’s to get a proper shakedown because there have been multiple problems with robot Judges in the past; problems that incur sizable body counts. And Dredd was the perfect candidate to make sure they toed the line because he basically drew it. She knew he wouldn’t be swayed to cut corners in his assessment by the obvious need for getting reinforcements for the Street Judges. But she also knew that inability to compromise, even in the face of absolute need versus potential manageable risk (given the robot’s extremely high score), would keep him from giving a recommendation. And as the de facto leader of Mega-City One, she didn’t have the luxury of his hunches and intuition.

Now that Judge Harvey and his classmates are on active duty, I don’t think it’s talking out of school to say that something goes wrong with this experiment, and pretty quickly. Back in the original ‘Mechanismo’ story, that meant the robots treating jaywalkers like serial killers and dropping bodies like a bunch of ED-209’s. Wagner has 25 years of stories under his belt between that original run and now, so to think he’d fall right back to having one of the Mark 8’s go on a kill-krazy rampage is definitely selling him short.

But in that case, what kind of trouble could these robots get into that could give Dredd an ‘I told you so’ moment? Wagner laid clues for it in several of the prior ‘Harvey’ parts. What was it that gave Dredd the most pause about Harvey? The answer in just seven days!

Defoe: Diehards, Part 3
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Ryan Perry: Things happen in this issue that generally come out of nowhere. The whole premise of going through candidates to see who might’ve summoned the living dead seems as if it should’ve been set up earlier. Also, this seems to be the third genre for this story as a whole in three issues. While the first issue was a solid horror story, the second seemed to be squarely action/adventure, and in this third issue Pat Mills seems to be trying to write a mystery. It isn’t all bad though, as the characters introduced as our suspects do seem to be genuinely interesting. Each one is introduced as a certain thing only to have a dark secret uncovered, which gives them more dimension than most characters in this book. Readers are also given a little tease as to why the living dead have shown up, and while it comes out of nowhere, it is intriguing enough to make you want to come back for the next installment.

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Colin MacNeil’s style seems to steadily be getting worse for this series. He has a very specific thing he can do, which is creepy, almost gothic images. As the story ventures to more varied locations and more varied things happen, he tends to falter. All of his characters are visually interesting, as they all have a unique and varied look. This plays well with the introduction of new characters, as their look, as well as their story, make you want to learn more. The use of the color white on character’s skin makes everyone seem really eerie, especially the prostitutes who are practically ghostly. The visual dynamic of juxtaposing all of a character’s vices in white is really interesting.

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

Alice W. Castle: Now, this is more like it. I’ve lamented in prior weeks that “Brink: Skeleton Life,” despite having an incredibly strong opening chapter, has waned as each chapter that followed felt like it ran through the same motions in order to introduce a new element. This week, it feels like we’re finally getting into the rhythm of the story once more.

The opening page reminds us of what a powerhouse INJ Culbard can be after weeks of his artwork existing to serve numerous dialogue scenes. Here, the opening two pages exist to bring us even closer to Kurtis as she experiences severe vertigo at the sheer scale of the Galina Habitat. Culbard’s first page splash panel dwarfs Kurtis against a backdrop of intricately detailed and impressively dense machinery. Only a small panel at the bottom gives us the reverse shot, a close up on Kurtis’s horrified expression framed by an empty background. It’s the kind of opening page that says “Okay, now we’re really getting into this.”

From there, Culbard switches to a nine panel grid as Kurtis meets the Habitat architect, a man obsessed with symmetry. The structure feels cramped after the opening page, contrasting the vertigo Kurtis feels at the open space of the Habitat. Unfortunately, the meeting with the architect doesn’t yield much more than an odd character, but Abnett and Culbard at least end the chapter on a note that the story will begin to flow between chapters instead of the strange cycle of storytelling in previous chapters. At least it doesn’t end on someone mentioning ghost ominously.

Scarlet Traces: Cold War – Book Two, Part 6
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Rowan Grover: Now we’re getting into the thick of things. Part 6 opens up as the human race fires upon Mars. It’s eerie how quickly and intelligently they learn how to get past the Martian forcefield, and lends to the idea that humanity are the real invaders. However, we do get a little of the silly espionage at the end of the comic to balance the tone a little. Edginton cleverly writes our protagonists Ahron and the Mentat as hiding in a body, and skulking around Mars. The last scene is a little awkward as it lands on a joke, as the two characters comment on being bathed in bodily fluids. It’s an odd place to end the story and upsets the tone somewhat.

This issue gives D’Israeli a chance to once again draw some crazy high-concept sci-fi work. We get a good look at Earth’s artillery forces, my personal favourite being the ‘port lances’ that pierce the Martian forcefield. There’s a great single panel that depicts the fighters of Earth bearing the Soviet flags amongst others, and I feel like it’s a great way to summarize humanity’s overbearing sense of pride in a single panel.

It’s annoying that this series can be a little inconsistent in quality occasionally, but great to see that when it has its highs like this, they’re worthy of note. Edginton, D’Israeli and Parkhouse are creating a unique sci-fi that blends a bunch of genres together to become something even more special.

Cursed: The Fall of Deadworld, Part 6
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greg Lincoln: Entering the third – and possibly final – act of “Cursed,” darkness seems to have swallowed Deadworld, both literally and thematically. The panels in this chapter are steeped in darkness, shadows, and ominous portents. Kek-W and Dave Kendall waste no time in reminding us that Jess, Fairfax, and Byke are in fact captives of the 51st irregular army, despite the brief respite from tension of last week. Jess is surrounded by paranoid desperate adults; Byke is in parts and possibly erased; Fairfax is in restraints, likely to become a pawn in Turner’s plans. Everyone around them has an angle, and all seem to be looking for a use for their captives.

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Nearly every panel of this issue showed off Kendall’s command of facial expression and body language. The issue opens with Jess’s cunning, cautious face looking out of shadows as she searches for Byke and avoiding discovery. He showed Casey’s condescension for the ‘hick’ child through his sneering face and relaxed body language, adding to Kek-W’s cruel words. Kendall’s use of under lighting on Tucker brought out real menace as he threatens Fairfax. Again, there was that great marriage between the story and words that was evident last week, bringing you deeper into the story.

The choice to leave the page backgrounds and gutters white enforced that feeling of being trapped between all that shadow. I’m not sure if that was a conscious choice, but it was effective. I didn’t notice this until the final page when Kendall chose to do away with that. He laid the last panels over a splash page where Psiren appeared, followed by her usual atmosphere of nightmarish green tones. It ended the feeling of being trapped, but lent no sense of freedom implying more menace to come.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 2028 is on sale this week and available from: