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 2000 AD
Judge Dredd: Parental Guidance, Part 1
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Quinton Winter (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Matiasevich: The lack of the smallest things can cause the biggest catastrophes, both societal and personal. From the loss of a kingdom for the want of a horseshoe nail to the loss of a man’s self from the swatting of a housefly, it doesn’t take much at all to bring everything we have and want to crash into ruin. Or, to put it another way . . . always write down your passwords.
McConville graduates from Future Shocks and Dredd-verse strips to full-on ‘Judge Dredd in 2000 AD’ with this Prog. And although Dredd isn’t seen very much this week, the story itself does a lot of what good ‘Judge Dredd’ stories do: use Mega-City One and its futuristic setting to comment on the world we live in. We saw the strip take a political bend with the ‘Sons of Booth’ story back in Progs 2030-2032, but McConville goes more personal with ‘Parental Guidance’. With Innosense, a parent’s desire to keep their child from seeing the uglier side of life too soon can be more than wishful thinking: ocular implants literally change violent/sexual/disturbing images to G-rated equivalents (which Leigh Gallagher and Quinton Winter make their own types of disturbing visuals).
The Innosense child was supposed to be weened off the technology gradually. Unfortunately for the main character of this story, his well-meaning mother died soon after his implants were put in and, you guessed it, did not write down the password for turning the system off. By this point, Innosense the company had gone out of business, leaving the kid-now-adult to keep trying to guess the password on his own.
So there’s the science fiction element, but what makes this a Dredd story?
At his wit’s end, our protagonist seeks the help of a texorcist to free him from these G-rated demons. Said texorcist has run afoul with the law and Judge Dredd before, so guess who shows up during the texorcism? The cutest-looking muppet ass kicker this side of that Angel episode! Gallagher nails that fine line between genuinely adorable and somewhat unsavory, a line previously drawn by Darick Robertson with his ‘Sex Puppets’ gags in “Transmetropolitan”.
So does Judge “Grover” let the texorcist finish his job? Or will this G-rated nightmare have a hard-R ending? Seven days until we know for sure!
Defoe: Diehards, Part 12
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Ryan Perry: I’m of two minds about this installment. One mind is quite shocked to learn that this might actually be a story about politics and not creepy puritan magic, and then other is quite shocked that a well-written, well-set up character is re-entering the story. This issue begins with our antagonist spouting something about Tories and how Defoe should lead the reeks to defeat the tories. As a reader, you should have no idea why that’s happening because there’s been nothing set up to suggest Defoe ever summoned reeks or had any political motivation.There’s a middle section of this issue that’s just there. Then it ends with a character coming into fight the antagonist who has a proper motivation, seems as if he’s going to complete a proper arc, whose dialogue is well written and who is actually interesting. The conclusion to this issue is more than likely the best moment in the series, which is why it’s such a bummer that the beginning is as bad as it is. This could’ve been a genuinely good installment.
There are two standout pieces of art in this installment. One is the issues opening panel and the other is its closing one. They have contrasting colors which are probably supposed to represent something but I didn’t catch anything. The first is just a really cool, big image of a reek. It’s really detailed and eerie which sets up a great time heading into this story. The closing image is really dark and foreboding. The visual of a kid who’s sure to be eaten up by these monsters is almost moving and almost scary. This moment that we end on is really what would drive readers to come back as it’s the closest thing this series has really gotten to a cliffhanger.
Continued belowGrey Area: Batch Recall
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Rowan Grover: Abnett’s exploring the dregs of his dystopian society in “Batch Recall”. The Grey Area squad make a black market weapons deal that mishmashes a Mojo-esque bad guy with “Ghost In The Shell”-esque mechas. It’s an interesting combination that falls short of being something original, with the “Mr. Kwukwalf” coming off as a pathetic and annoyingly strange-tongued bad guy. The rapport between characters is interesting at times, especially between Bulliet and Bitch. The latter character protects the former while Bulliet supplies information, a sort of dominative buddy-cop routine that serves to be the most appealing part of this chapter.
Harrison’s surreal art becomes more structured here, using firmer inks to detail the gritty underground of the Grey Area. His depiction of Mr. Kwukwalf is interesting here, being a grinning, reclusive overweight… entity. The viscerality of this character works great within the context of Grey Area and brings in some interesting cyberpunk elements. On that note, the Feo vs. Mech scene is a lot of fun, with the Mech chasing down the crew in a narrow corridor type scene, adding a claustrophobic sense to the reading experience. The final shot of Feo standing in front of the Mech’s exploding wreckage works well as a male action hero stereotype being turned on its head, something I didn’t expect from this series.
“Grey Area” continues to surprise me with “Batch Recall”, being one of the lewdest and derivative progs at the moment but also with high-octane artwork. I’m interested to see where this continues to go, should it stick around.
Brink: Skeleton Life, Part 15
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Alice W. Castle: Dan Abnett has characteristically been one of the strongest voices in science fiction writing for years and this is the issue where he reminds you why. While most of “Brink: Skeleton Life” has treated the Galina Habitat as a setting in which space is a fairly mundane occurrence, this chapter focuses on the pulse-pounding tension that comes with trying to survive being trapped in an airlock about to explode. It’s a fascinating chapter because it uses all five pages of the comic to cover the space of barely a few minutes in the time of the story from the opening panel to the last.
To build that sense of tension mixed with dread, INJ Culbard is on top form with panel layouts that use lots of heavily structured and pretty tight panels with most of the panels awash in deep red lighting. In many ways, the red lighting is an easy way to indicate danger, but coupled with the calm, measured way Kurtis, Gibrani, and Mariam (well, maybe not Mariam) manage to barely make it to safety brings a nice juxtaposition. This isn’t tension building to panic, but more the crushing weight of inevitability that forces you to remain stoic in the face of certain death.
It’s perhaps the least story heavy of any of the chapters so far, but there’s nothing wrong with that when the craftsmanship on display is this tight. And with that teaser of a final panel hinting at something epic to come, it’s a reminder of just what I’ve loved about covering this story.
Hunted: Furies, Part 4
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), PJ Holden (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: This part of ‘Furies’ introduces a band of motley mercenaries that reminded me of the colonial marines from James Cameron’s Aliens. They may have fit a bit true to stereotypes, to be honest coming off racist, well speciesist, and xenophobic even using the vile phrase “make humanity great again” but they did make a lasting impression. Rennie, Holden, O’Grady and de Ville spent time and effort on these characters that only have a few pages in this story, but dominate more than half of it. PJ Holden and Len O’Grady put lots of details into making them visually distinct and interesting. Writing wise they seemed like they had the past, were here on this lived-in looking transport for a reason and have a future, well at least expect to. They reinforced the image that the endless war the Norts and Southers are trapped in is being manipulated by aliens regardless of man’s very proven violent nature towards itself. It’s good to see that there was time spent on these pages rather than having them treated as boring throwaway fodder. There are context and clues as to where they were right before this scene all went down.
Continued belowWhat does go down revealed some more about the mysterious armored character Kobalt. The few lines of dialogue they had given a weary impression to me about their feelings toward killing. It’s is like they are resigned to violence as it has its uses and proves ultimately a point.
The other two page vignettes of this week’s installment reveal character flaws and bits of plot as the story moves ahead apace. The page the creators give us of Colonel Kestrat/Traitor General shows his willingness to use others alien or human for his own ends and shows his malicious nature. The Cheshire Cat like grin that his page ends with is easy to read, its melodrama but it’s played very well. Wire and Trasker made a brief if likely important appearance to the rest of the story as this week wraps up.
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 2037 is on sale this week and available from:
- The 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone,
- The 2000 AD app for Android devices,
- 2000ADonline.com in print or DRM-free PDF and CBZ formats, and
- Finer comic shops everywhere
So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
