Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of 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-powerful entertainment! Between the weekly “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 of zarjaz comics for you to enjoy.
Before we jump into the usual business, I wanted to point out that our brand-new Earthlet’s Guide to 2000 AD is now live! This handy FAQ is designed specifically for anyone looking to get up to speed on just what the deal is with 2000 AD (it’s really not that complicated). 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? All this and more is covered in the Guide; read it and you’ll be able to comport yourself as a real squaxx dek Thargo, including knowing just what that happens to be!
With that out of the way, there’s a new Prog to talk about this week, so let’s get right to it!
(You can download free sampler PDFs of the currently running strips’ previous episodes here and here.)
I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1907
Judge Dredd: Block Judge, Part 8
Oh man, I kinda forgot about that guy with his bomb. I guess that’s just the way it goes when you’re following a squad of Block Judges through their day-to-day duties policing a building with tens of thousands of citizens. There’s just so much going on for them to deal with that some things, even those revealed through a third-person omniscient narrative story structure, will inevitably fall through the cracks. I wonder what else we’re forgetting?
This strip seems to be setting up the final act of this story, as everything continues to build to one big, cacophonous climax. The more Dredd and his fellow Judges tighten their grip on Gramercy, the more trouble seems to be bubbling to the surface. There’s a major retaliation on the horizon, some very powerful people who’ve been blackmailed, and our friend the anarchist, pictured above, who has so far been able to stay completely off the radar. Wagner seems to have just about finished building up the tower of plot points and social commentary he had in mind for this strip, and it feels like now he’s about to begin tearing it all down.
Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Stickleback: The Thru’Penny Opera, Part 8
Since we like to throw in a little education into the mix every now and again, your new vocabulary word for the day is: megaopolismancy. It’s the magic of cities, according to Orlando (the cyclops-blindfold guy), that can be used to, among other things, transform a city and its populace into a viable host for something which has no form of its own. And as anyone whose read a horror story or two can tell you, things without form are the LAST things you want to have actually get one.
That said, I’m sure D’Israeli would make that one awesome-looking vessel of unholy destruction.
But we may or may not actually get a chance to see it, as Edginton keeps Stickleback and crew almost neck-and-neck with the immortal Sisters in stopping or starting the formless apocalypse. When told he needed gods and monsters to stop such a threat, Stickleback replied he knew one or two. I’m just hoping, for London’s sake, he wasn’t counting a dragon as one of them, because guess who the Sisters Three are paying a not-so-social visit on?
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greysuit: Prince of Darkness, Part 7
Mills and Higgins have driven us straight into hyper-violent, spy-versus-spy territory. And it is glorious.
John has tipped his hand and taken out a fellow Greysuit by the name of ‘Tangerine Man’. He didn’t do it in a neat or elegant way, but then neat and elegant really don’t send the type of message John is so clearly trying to convey. So let’s just say that everyone has heard him loud and clear.
Continued belowCredits: Pat Mills (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colors), Ellie De Ville (letters)
The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And The Dead Left In His Wake): One Last Bullet, Part 7
It’s common knowledge that Native Americans used every possible part of the buffalo they hunted, but do you know how they actually hunted the buffalo? At least in certain areas? Buffalo are massive and bringing one of them down without the aid of gunpowder would be like arming a matador with some bar darts and wishing him good luck. So what did they use? The buffalo jump.
I bring this up because buffalo play a big part in this week’s strip. And the idea of someone being guided or forced into a course of action beyond their understanding or control is also a part of the strip as a whole. Someone is either corralling Ichabod in a direction he doesn’t want to go, or making him think the direction they want him to go is one that he himself wants. And when he tries to deviate or slow down to reconsider, something keeps spurring him on.
Will Ichabod see the cliff before it’s too late? Have you seen anything happen to Ichabod that made things easy for him? I didn’t think so.
Credits: Rob Williams (script), Michael Dowling (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Kingdom: Aux Drift, Part 8
We’re seeing a lot of firsts for Gene the Hackman. Last week had him get an eyeful of an enemy that he wasn’t so quick to dive into a brawl with, while this week finds him in a plane for the first time. Gene sure is learning a lot on his search for The Kingdom, isn’t he?
I like how, now that the big boss is revealed, Abnett has throttled back on the pace of things a bit. I mean, there’s still plenty of action happening, but it seems like we’re finally able to take a breath and look toward a larger goal. This stands in a pretty stark contrast with the first big chunk of this strip where Gene was quicker to ‘Get Whet’ and lay waste to any and all enemy in his way. Not only does doing this give us some breathing room in an otherwise decadent action story, but it also gives readers the chance to get a little more familiar with everyone Gene finds himself surrounded by. It’s easy to lose sight of how big of a cast Abnett and Elson have on their hands, and the last couple of weeks have been a welcome reminder of that size.
Now, onward to the massive battle with the giant bug monster!
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Elson (art), Abigail Ryder (color), Ellie De Ville (letters)
II. MULTIVER-CITY ONE AT NYCC
It’s become a Multiver-City One tradition to check in with PR-Droid Molch-R at NYCC to chat about all things 2000 AD, and this year was no exception. Get to know the robot under the fleshy exo-skin suit in this talk from our Robots From Tomorrow podcast recorded at the 2000 AD booth at last month’s show!
(The Molch-R portion starts at 29:54 into the episode.)
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/robotsfromtomorrow/rft_130_mixdown.mp3]
III. FUTURE PERP FILES
ATTN: ALL CITIZENS OF THE MEG! Be aware that there is always a Judge watching you. Each sector is equipped with millions of HD-CCTV and bioID units. They are there for your protection. If your intent is upright citizenry, then you have no qualm with our surveillance. And remember: if you see something, you are now an accessory to a crime. That’s six months in an Iso-Cube, creep! Random CPU algorithms has selected this citizen for immediate surveillance and assessment…
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1907 is on sale today and available from:
- The 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone,
- 2000ADonline.com in print or DRM-free PDF and CBZ formats, Continued below
- Select US newsstands (though probably not the hardcover), and
- Finer comic shops everywhere.
So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
