Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Plunder, Part 2
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Karl Richardson (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Christa Harader: Everything’s gone seriously south in “Plunder” part 2. Dredd and his fellow judges are trapped on a chunk of Luna-2 and pinion between rogue mercenaries, pirates and a prison crew that’s decided they’ve had enough. Four factions, four corners, a potential gold mine in loot and a dwindling amount of escape routes.
While interesting, the intrigue here becomes a bit bewildering as we flick back and forth between each faction. Carroll has too many names and faces on the page to contend with, and a smaller cast would help maintain the tension needed to sell this tale. With the amount of time that’s passed, it’s not always clear who everyone is, and wracking our brains to remember is a chore. Similarly, Richardson does some good work to try and differentiate everyone, but there are a few too many beards, helmets, frowns and guns to contend with. Parkhouse gets to play with more big sound effects in this installment as all hell breaks loose, and despite the chaos places balloons with her customary flair and skill.
Despite the heat-seekers and a character death (with a classic Dredd moment to boot,) we’re losing the thread a bit in this one. Narrowing focus and following just a few folks in the next installment would be a nice break. Easier said than done, but if more characters kick the bucket, well … it’d be appropriate, no?
Devin Waugh, A Very Large Splash, Part 2
Credits: Ales Kot (script), Mike Dowling (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: Well, that escalated quickly. If the previous chapter on Devlin´s most recent adventure was played for comedy and light-heartedness (despite its more absurd jokes), this entry takes a decidedly sharp turn to the bizarre and horror, that will likely hit the audience on its head. And despite of the dramatic tonal shift, it is handled really well by the creative team, both on how the transition occurs within the story themes, and how the gradual change visually occurs.
“Devlin Waugh” picks up relatively close to where the last chapter left him, amid friends and colleagues on the Amalfi coast. It is through a clever device of conversations on the foreground, and smaller changes on the background, that writer Ales Kot moves the story into strange and horrific territory. It is remarkable how that transition is made slowly, so that when readers look back, it becomes hard to determine where the shift changes precisely.
The same can be said by illustrations and colors by Mike Dowling. Characters and backgrounds start off sharp and bright, directly under the Italian sun and its hues. However, when the story takes its u-turn, tones gets increasingly darker, drawings growingly distorted, and themes certainly footed on terror imagery. The very final page has a quite graphic display, that is the climax of that crescendo.
All in all, the latest of “Devlin Waugh” is a surprise and a wake-up call to those claiming this would be a light, even disposable series. It manages to balance those two elements of its DNA, and deliver something surely unique.
Blunt III, Part Two
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Boo Cook (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: “Blunt III” works well as a good sequel to the indigenous disaster narrative that was “Blunt II” with this prog, telling a tale of survivors that wish to be rescued yet still want to respect the sanctity of the environment they have been veritably traumatized by. The back and forth scenes between the rescue ship and Blunt’s gang is a great way of telling the story in two parts also, especially as the narrative works in a call-and-response kind of way. At the end of one page, the robot on the rescue ship will say something that ties into what Blunt might be seeing on the planetside, and the pages bounce back and forth like this for a while, which is a great way of mingling both narratives efficiently. I also love how Eglington makes Blunt and Ilya feel truly world-weary. This is neatly captured when the rescue ship wants to take a moment to survey the wildlife, to which Blunt strongly cautions against before reconciling that they won’t listen to him.
Continued belowCook feels like they have really stepped up their art in this sequel, balancing the chaotic, angular and alien feel of the last two stories with some really clean, sweeping landscapes. On the second page, we get a great establishing shot of the planet which feels lively and interesting, yet manages to maintain a feeling of serenity in its representation of beautiful alien nature. There’s also a great sense of movement in the scene of the rescue ship crashing into the planet. Cook uses page structure and panel placement to give a sense of chaos to the page that the ship crashes, whilst also using downward camera angles to convey the heavy impact the ship makes on hitting the ground.
“Blunt III” is a great successor to the previous two stories as it feels like the natural next step for all the characters involved. It doesn’t hurt either that Cook is at the top of their game in terms of environmental work and kinetic action sequences.
Zombie Army: Last Rites, Part One
Credits: Chris Roberson (script), Andrea Mutti (art), Matt Soffe (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: While other media properties have seeped into Rebellion’s publishing line before (like the stories set in the Dredd film universe), seeing Zombie Army migrate from video games to comics feels a little out of place in the world of 2000 AD. Plus, finding new zombie stories in 2020 seems more challenging than ever, making this a strip that has two strikes against it before it even begins.
Luckily, writer Chris Roberson is one of the few folks to tell a compelling and new zombie story in the past two decades with his Vertigo series with Mike Allred, “iZombie.” While ‘Last Rites’ isn’t exactly “iZombie” in terms of humor or inventiveness, it also isn’t trying to be a Walking Dead pastiche, like so many modern zombie stories are. The wrinkles here are the man-made, weaponized aspect of the zombie infection, and tying the zombie apocalypse to the Nazis. Again, neither of these are unheard of in these types of stories, but Roberson manages to both borrow from enough sources and bring his considerable skill for dialogue, so that the work doesn’t feel as bogged down as a lot of undead tales.
A big part of the strip’s success is Andrea Mutti’s artwork. The work is crisp and kinetic, and Soffe’s colors add exclamation points on big moments, and help tint moments of introspection with a nostalgic mixture of sepia and shadow. Mutti’s zombies more or less fit the bill for what you’d expect, and are reasonably close to their video game analogues. Due to the tie-in nature of the story, it never really feels as vital or essential as some other Megazine stories, but in broad strokes, the strip works to establish the property in the comics realm.
Lawless Boom Town: 02
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Matthew Blair: “Lawless: Boom Town: 02” opens with Marshel Lawson facing down two threats to her town. The first threat is the apparently angry group of alien natives that seem intent on butchering incoming settlers, although she has a source that states it might not be them. The second threat is the outside interests of the law and the company that owns the town, both of whom distrust the Marshal and wouldn’t think twice about usurping her and everything she’s built.
Dan Abnett’s writing continues to be fantastic and builds on a strong beginning with great character development and pacing. While the reader is introduced to a corporate delegation that promises to be a massive thorn in Lawson’s side in future issues, the focus of this issue is the tension between Lawson and her SJS co-workers. While the SJS behave like typical stick in the mud Judges, Abnett doesn’t make them cartoonish or laughably corrupt. They are professional lawmen who are very good at their jobs and are used to doing things their way, which plays off nicely with Lawson’s altruism and desire to take care of the town, no matter what.
Since we seem to be in this story for the long haul, and since the excellence of Paul Winslade’s artwork has already been established, future discussions of the artwork are going to focus on one particular aspect and/or detail that really stands out in each particular story. This week, it’s Winslade’s ability to make each panel clear and easy to view while lavishing a tremendous amount of detail into each page. Since the comic is published in black and white it would be very easy for finer details to get lost in panels that are especially crowded. Yet Winslade manages to cram a ton of detail into almost every panel and his use of shading and line work makes each person, building, and bit of technology easy for the reader to distinguish and identify.
“Lawless Boom Town: 02” does what any good second part of a serialized story does: expand and develop the world and the threat to the goal of the main protagonist. It continues to be a fun and engaging story that promises some great intrigue and action.
