Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2042 – Beware The Hollow Men!

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 Tiernen Trevallion

NOW ARRIVING

The Alienist, Inhuman Natures, Part 1
Credits: Gordon Rennie & Emma Beeby (script), Eoin Coveney (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Alice W. Castle: The beauty of covering “2000AD” is that you could go from one story to another that is completely unlike it in every way. From the tense dread and vibrant neons of “Brink” to the stark linework and period charm of “The Alienist,” that change alone is pretty endearing. What also helps is that “The Alienist” is, as I mentioned, full of a certain charm. Between the monochromatic inkwork and cross-hatched shading to the period setting blended with a kind of weird fantasy, my first impression was of a story close to those offbeat time-travel issues of “The Invisibles.”

There’s something decidedly ’90s about this little story and it’s hard to be put a finger on what that feeling is. It feels like something that would be right a home at Vertigo in the late ’90s with its offbeat charm and gothic sensibilities. It’s early days yet so all I can comment on Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby’s writing is how they waste no time at all in bringing readers into this strange world and presenting the more fantastical elements without much fanfare. The idea that our main character is not human and works to defend England of the early 20th century from extra-dimensional threats is treated so earnestly it’s hard not to buy into its inherent charm.

Add on top of that an eccentric counterpart in the form of the incredibly named Edward Praetorius and Eoin Coveny’s stark, almost woodcut style artwork and story are instantly a lot of fun. There’s a strange charm to in how it presents itself and I cannot wait to see where it goes from here.

THIS WEEK IN 2000 AD

Judge Dredd: Ouroborous, Part 2
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Paul Marshall (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: Paradox Vega is back! The seventeen-year-old mutant was last seen in Prog 2017, dropped off in the Cursed Earth after Dredd pressed her into service for a case. Exile might seem like an ungrateful reward for helping a Judicial investigation, just remember (1) this is Dredd we’re talking about here, and (2) Vega was not only a drug personalizer/manufacturer but also had old Sov tech in her possession. When she tried appealing to Dredd’s better nature by pointing out her only options had been to help him or be arrested and was now being arrested for what she did TO help him, the top cop’s response? “It’s a quandary.”

He’s all heart, that Dredd . . .

I’m not gonna lie, this week’s installment of ‘Ouroboros’ is a big, fat infodump. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but creators have to be careful when doling out this much exposition, especially when it takes up so much of the week’s episode. Five pages of a 20-page story is a bit of challenge to pull off. Five pages of a 6-pager, tho? That can be a real problem. Thankfully, Marshall & Winter do a good job of showing while Carroll has Vega telling Dredd how she got to this point. We see her time in the Cursed Earth, we see her figuring out things becoming relevant to the plot, AND we see her chasing down quarry on the most adorable canine mount this side of Buster from Toy Story. I know it’s called the Cursed Earth for a reason, and we’ve all manner of bleakness across its desolation these past few decades. But that dog? Adorable!

Here’s hoping we’ve galloped past the set-up by now and are ready to start chasing down some actual plot next week!

Hunted: Furies, Part 9
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), PJ Holden (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

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Greg Lincoln: I made one of the classic errors when heading into writing about “Hunted Furies”; I entered this Rogue Trooper pastiche expecting a piece of considered military science fiction. It’s only this week after the con jobs, Mexican standoffs, gruesome torture, bombastic propaganda, betrayals and double crosses that I finally get that Gordon Rennie is writing a grindhouse sci-fi story. “Hunted Furies” is more akin to a John Carpenter action flick like They Livethen a James Cameron epic like Aliens. It’s the penultimate part and I’m finally onboard with the real story.

The various plans and schemes laid by the Traitor General and his son Trasker have brought all their enemies right to their doorstep as the Xianta fleet arrived last week. All hell breaks loose around them on the old Black Star orbital station as the human fleets came together for a moment to attack the aliens. The General, his son Trasker and bodyguard Kobalt have little time to bask in the scene of the space battle as multiple boarding parties hit the station reminiscent of the attack on the Enterprise in Star Trek: Beyond. Most of the forward motion in this weeks story is best described by a quote from Clarence Boddicker, the heavy from the original Robocop “Guns, Guns, Guns.” The fallout of the attacks lead to the General initiating his escape plan and sacrificing men along the way.

P.J. Holden and Len O’Grady do much of the story’s heavy lifting showing the valiant attempts of the traitor’s men trying to repel the assaults of the aliens, and the various human attackers. This week the art really shines in the panels that are full on Kill Bill moments drenched in crimson red and magnified with speed lines bringing a wailing soundtrack to mind. If I should have had any tip off to the grindhouse nature of the story it should have been the leering faces, Cheshire grins and cartoonish gory deaths spread liberally through the whole story to tip me off. Though some of the panels belie a bit of deadline pressure hast the heavy inks, overall red color pallet with splashes of bright color bring all of it to life regardless. Holden maintained that lived in look in his backgrounds. The final panel appearance Doctor Cochran and her three shot stab at revenge are a real effective hook for next weeks finale.

Greysuit: Foul Play, Part 3
Credits: Pat Mills (script), John Higgins (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Ryan Perry:My one big qualm with this story is that it still feels like it’s a story about technology in the modern world by someone who hasn’t really experienced technology in the modern world. It feels disingenuous. This issue also comes across as fairly hollow. Most of the eight pages the story takes place in are used to detail a fight between our main character and the characters chasing him, however, the characters that take part in this fight just aren’t interesting enough to carry that much of the story. Conversely the end of the story devotes more time to detailing the secret organization that this all drips down from and that’s terribly interesting because it has character.

The art in this issue is better than last. John Higgins is given the opportunity to work in a wider format that doesn’t focus on facial dynamics, which allows him to do the dynamic body work that he’s good at. There are several really cool shots such as when a couple characters have their heads cut off by saw blades or when a truck is driven off the side of a mountain. Then in the second half of the story where there are a few talking heads Higgins handles them better than last issue. You can generally tell what emotion is being depicted and it doens’t feel like a static image.

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

Rowan Grover: Dan Abnett seems to be diving into any sub genre he can for “Grey Area”, which is great because it makes for wholly interesting stories. In the case of ‘Lutwot Holiday’, the comic becomes something of a family drama, as we see the alien Lutwot rejoin the ranks, who had lost his beloved. It’s a little forced at times, but there’s a lot of tender interactions between the alien and the crew. The punchline ending feels perfectly in tone with past issues of the comic, as the Lutwot has a bit of a pervert side.

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Harrison’s art feels looser here than previous issues, however it works better tonally. Throughout the opening pages, the journey the Lutwot takes is frantic and exciting because of this, almost with a cowboy western feel to it. You also have to appreciate the facial work heavy lifting Harrison has done in the back end of this issue, as a lot of the panels are exchanges between the core cast. The best is how Feo reacts to the Lutwot’s goodbye, which is a lovely moment of her trying to look tough, but on the verge of tearing up.

Abnett, Harrison and Parkhouse bring about another great self contained issue, and I’m looking forward to more of this anthology style work in future issues.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 2042 is on sale this week and available from: