Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1984 – Orwell That Ends Well?

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 week brings us a new Prog, so let’s dive right in!

Cover by Matt Ferguson

I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1984

Judge Dredd: The Lion’s Den, Part 7
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), PJ Holden (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Mike Romeo: Over the past few months, writer Michael Carroll has put a lot of parts into motion, and now it all seems to be coming to a head. This week’s strip made clear that some big plans that’ve been in motion on both sides of the Black Atlantic have begun to spin out of control. It’s astounding how tightly Carroll has been able to plot out all of this chaos, and reading it every week is like watching the controlled implosion of an old high-rise: months of planning to (hopefully) manage the creation of the biggest mess you could possibly imagine.

So let’s start in Brit-Cit, shall we? Mild spoilers ahead, I suppose…

Mega-City One Judge turned Brit-Cit fugitive Fintan Joyce has found a friendly, yet grizzled face in BC’s Chief Detective Armitage. As it turns out, Armitage is in the know with regards to the official/unofficial plans for Joyce and Dredd’s extradition to Brit-Cit. As it was intended, the trial for the Emerald-Isle Massacre would return a not-guilty verdict after a lengthy process. The true intention for this bit of judicial theater was to dredge up as many of Mega-City One’s dirty little secrets as possible. It seems that Texas City isn’t the only Meg looking to keep Mega-City One down. I’d say that we’re in the midst of a reshuffling of the global order, which would be made all the more simple with Mega-City One completely out of the picture.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Joyce, Judge Dredd is on life-support in an undisclosed location somewhere in Bri-Cit. It seems that the old mad has served his purpose, as it’s been decided that his corpse should be found amongst the rubble of an exploded Home of an Emerald Isle sympathizer. It seems that some folks in the Brit-Cit Justice Department see a real benefit to tying Dredd, Joyce, and, as an extension, Mega-City One to Emerald Isle separatists. For good measure, there’s one more straw man to be made in all of this: The Sovs. By linking MC-1, Emerald Isle and Sov-Cit Two, the Brits will have successfully created the appearance of a global conspiracy against them, presumably to gain overwhelming public support for whatever actions are yet to come.

Meanwhile, back in Mega-City One, yet another spark has been thrown into the tinder box. It’s safe to say that ever since the arrival of Texas City Chief Judge Oswin and her 1,000 loaner Judges, anti-mutant sentiment in Mega-City One has been ratcheted up again. After years of hostilities, and a population-destroying crisis or two, Mega-City One had decided to relax its laws regarding Mutant immigrants from the Cursed Earth. After a process of mountainous paperwork and other bureaucratic hurdles, it’s possible for people born and raised in the harsh conditions of the Cursed Earth to relocate and begin a new life within the walls of the world’s largest Mega-City. Now, with border checkpoints staffed by xenophobic, anti-mutant Texas City Judges, the rules regarding entry to the city have become fluid, morphing and shaping as necessary to turn away as many people as possible at the border. This obviously stems from Oswin’s pressure on Chief Judge Hershey to begin restricting mutant entry again. As one could imagine, these changes have created feelings of desperation and hostility amongst those who seek entry to Mega-City One, and this week we saw it erupt into violence. I can’t help but think that this will be an inciting incident, which would undoubtably set off a number of other contentious situations.

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Even though they don’t appear in this week’s strip, Chief Judges Hershey and Oswin cast a long shadow over what’s happening in the strip. I must say, as a reader, I’ve really come to enjoy the relationship between these two leaders. That’s not to say that what the two of them share is in any way positive, because it’ll probably end in a world war. Instead, I’m intrigued by the almost submissive side of Hershey that Oswin seems to bring out. I keep scouring these pages for hints and clues as to why Hershey is behaving in this way, but Carroll’s done a pretty good job at keeping that tight so far. The hopeful side of me wants all of this to be a clever ruse, that Hershey’s luring Oswin into a false sense of power, only to bring the hammer down at the moment of her choosing in a bid to exert her own influence over the only resource rich city in North America. But then the realist in me wonders if this isn’t just another dictator seeing their long reign of power end with a humiliating whimper. It’s too soon to say, but I surely expect big things to come.

Next week sees the end of this arc, as the lead Prog and Megazine strips cross paths one last time.

Sláine: Psychpomp, Part 7
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Davis (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Adrian Johnson: Sláine and Gort take a respite in their battle for their beloved land of Albion. They bond further talking about their families. Mills takes the opportunity to continue Sláine’s memories of his mother Macha as related by Sláine himself. It’s something that I mention often about Mills with his ability to inject humanity in his otherwise fantastic and epic tales. Something else I always enjoy in warrior/barbarian fiction is the portrayal of women as the equals of men as fierce warriors. I suspect Mills does as well with not only with Macha but also other female characters in the world of Sláine and other stories outside of it.

Simon Davis makes this sequence really beautiful with his limited color palette of sepia and purple and great body language. And it may be a small thing to note, but Davis pays particular attention to getting the posture and pose of drawing Macha shooting her bow excellent here. In fact, it is mentioned in an anecdote as Sláine’s mother explains to him about shooting arrows. With Davis’ excellent posture and facial expressions, it’s a nice moment and perfect compliment to Mills’ script.

Brink, Part 7
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

AJ: Brinkmann and Kurtis continue to unravel the machinations of the cult cells aboard their floating habitat. And to be completely honest, my mouth dropped open at the conclusion of this installment. The slow-burn pacing that Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard have invested into the strip seems to have paid off. Big time.

To say more would be spoiler-y, but suffice to say that my pondering about what the pay-off would be has been answered somewhat. Abnett’s script is still dealing with the overall mystery of the murder; although it has metastasized into a greater mystery surrounding the culture of the cults; which has been a nice twist. This installment brings home the point that the cults are definitely real to Brinkmann and Kurtis.

Culbard’s storytelling and pacing is in perfect form; particularly with the startling denouement of this installment. In fact, I read back over the several pages leading up to it and Culbard had the pieces all in place with the characters and the staging.

Black Shuck: Sins of the Father, Part 2
Credits: Leah Moore & John Reppion (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: Just a quick bit of historical context on the state of English/Scandinavian relations in 815 AD: if five Viking longships roll up on your small coastal English abbey/settlement, then the last thing you would expect them to come in would be peace. Something more like this is what they have in mind when those dragon-decorated boats show up on the ocean horizon. In fact, our protagonist was sired by a Viking king having his way with a local lady during just such an incursion to this town of Dunwich. But as we see above, that’s not what’s happening. Black Shuck isn’t returning to loot the abbey or have his way with his former townspeople. He comes seeking their help, not their livelihood. Does he get it?

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That would be telling. But what isn’t giving away any secrets is saying Chris Blythe is doing an impressive job on colors. I probably mentioned this on the last ‘Black Shuck’ run but it certainly can be repeated: the texture Blythe adds to the colors helps what would be flat tones seem to be doing some extra duty. I didn’t notice this until just now, but there’s a bit of a parallel between the work this art team is doing and what Simon Davis is handling over on ‘Sláine’. For Davis, as a painter, he’d (presumably) not rendering out full pencils and then painting over that structure; his use of those cross-strokes help give everything a sense of depth and dimensionality, and there’s no way to separate lineart and color. With ‘Black Shuck’, I’d put those brushlines in the category of wanting to give the art a painting-tapestry-period art look without sacrificing the clarity of the bold blacks those colors are working inside. That feels reinforced as well by the fact that texture shows up in the backgrounds and the landscapes, but not on or inside the lines of the figures themselves. The setting may be picturesque but the characters themselves aren’t there to be seen and admired as part of the landscape; they’re there to do.

Does Shuck head out for a late night snack; to the medieval equivalent of a Wendy’s or Jack in the Box? If not, who or what (or both) is attacking that lone rider? I don’t have any more insight than you, but I would hazard a guess that the arc title might come into play in more combinations than from simply Black Shuck and his unborn twins.

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

MR: As the God-Star bears down on homeworld, Birdy and Bulliet finalize their vows in a ceremony lead by a priest who’s prayers are sung in battle. Meanwhile, Kymn does his level best to appeal to the common sense of The Harmonious Free. How does he make that appeal? Why, in song of course!

The way artist Mark Harrison illustrated Kymn’s song was a treat. Asking an artist to draw the sound of a song is a tall order, even for someone like Dan Abnett, but Harrison sure did deliver. His approach to this was almost entirely done with color, and it looks like the few holding lines he actually uses to sell the shape of the song has been done with color holds, which is where the linework you’d normally expect to be black is done in a different color. This helps the marks he needs to use to sell this idea sit nicely inside of the larger shapes and gestures he’s using, making each panel feel less like drawings and more like light shows.

Does Kymn’s plan work? Tune in next week to find out! Hint: if it’s just six pages of black panels, then the answer’s ‘no.’

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 1984 is on sale today and available digitally worldwide on: