Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1910

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-Power 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.

We’ve got a new Prog this week, so we’ll jump right in after this quick public service announcement!

I. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD

We understand that having that large of a selection to choose from can make knowing where to start with 2000 AD seem 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?

So to help new & potential readers, we’ve put together An Earthlet’s Guide to 2000 AD. A regularly updated FAQ, The Guide will collect everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.

And as another way to help new readers, 2000 AD has made free downloadable sampler PDFs of previous episodes from Judge Dredd, Stickleback, & Kingdom, and Greysuit & Ichabod Azrael available.

II. NOW DEPARTING

Cover by Glen Fabry

The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And The Dead Left In His Wake): One Last Bullet, Part 10

One last bullet. One last strip.

There are a lot of things about ‘Ichabod Azrael’ that I didn’t understand over the weeks. That’s not a slight against Williams or Dowling since this is the last section of a serial narrative, so there’s going to be a certain amount of stuff that’s just not going to be rehashed at this late date. And to their credit, I never felt confused on the week-to-week particulars; the main characters and situations were laid out well enough to keep me going. (One minor quibble would be that towards the strip’s end, some of the characters got a little hard to distinguish visually given the identical costuming, lack of color, and similar facial features.) And some of those things I was unsure about were also mentioned as unclear by characters in the story itself, so a fair amount of ambiguity was probably intended. I only mention this to say that I’m really looking forward to revisiting the ‘Ichabod Azrael’ story from the beginning when 2000AD releases it as its next US-format miniseries, a la “Brass Sun”, in February 2015.

That said, there was a lot to enjoy in this final leg of the journey. Action, mood, humor, violence…lots of the ingredients of good Westerns. The creators stuck the landing in this one; I’m just looking forward to reading the whole thing to figure out just how crazy the routine leading up to it was. But coming from the guy who gave us my New Character Find of 2014 (Sarcasm Horse), I think it’s going to be crazy indeed. And I think it only fair too give him the last word:

“His name was Ichabod…”

Credits: Rob Williams (script), Michael Dowling (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

III. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1910

Judge Dredd: Mask of Anarchy

Holy smokes, this strip is packed with so much satire! The entire story takes place at a Comic-Con-type event during a panel, and that’s where the skewering begins. Besides calling the event ‘Trash-Zine Con,’ Worley and Wilshire take every opportunity to poke a little fun. There’s the obvious stuff: the play on Guy Fawkes and the ‘free hugs’ sign, the Batman cosplayer, and the signs for ‘Big 1’ scattered about the hall. And is that Stan Lee’s head in a Futurama-style floating jar? It’s hard to tell being behind the credits, so I’ll just let myself believe it is.

After taking in all this satire, I started to notice something. The speaker at the panel, ‘Quick Draw’ Kurt Vymarr, sort of reminds me of someone. I don’t know if it’s his fedora, his open xenophobia, or his black and white cover with red letters, but I think this guy’s supposed to be Frank Miller! It seems sorta obvious, doesn’t it?

Continued below

While the comics roast is all well and good, I feel like this strip left me a little wanting. Once you look past all the ‘inside baseball’ stuff, the story is pretty straightforward. Someone causes trouble, Dredd steps in, trouble over, the end. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad story by any measure. It’s probably just that Wagner and Ezquerra are a tough act to follow.

Credits: Alec Worley (script), Ben Wilshire (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Stickleback: The Thru’Penny Opera, Part 11

I was expecting some payback this Prog. Stickleback has been taking it on the protruding chin a lot this strip, so I was hoping we’d get to see him start taking the fight to the Suspiria De Profundis. I know we’re too close to the end of this chapter to see him take them down for good, but a little symbolic moral victory would have been nice.

We don’t get that. There’s absolutely zero way to classify what happens in Prog 1910 as a win for anybody not thrilled to be unleashing a Lovecraftian Elder God-level catastrophe on the citizens of London.

Having said that, I will add that through the miracles of modern technology and the benevolence of Tharg and his droids, I’ve read next week’s chapter and can tell you with absolute certainty…it gets worse.

But doesn’t England have a hero that rises in times of trouble? A man of almost mythic stature who works with a group of followers to bring order to the land?

Maybe. You just have to wait seven days to find out. See you then!

Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greysuit: Prince of Darkness, Part 10

This was an interesting chapter. Not only do we witness the recruiting process a Greysuit goes through, but we also learn a little about their physiology. I’m not sure what Blake’s plan is yet, but it’s clear that Mills has gotten all of the pieces in place to wrap this one up. After that interrogation scene, I doubt Blake will get his revenge on Prince. It’d be a shame to knock him off so soon, and probably a bit more interesting to keep him around. For a little while, anyway.

Credits: Pat Mills (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Bob Byrne’s Twisted Tales

I thought this strip was a joke. Or, more to the point, that Bob Byrne was a joke. Or at least a pseudonym, in the same way that Tharg is thought by some to be a disguise for the 2000 AD editor. Not us, tho – we know that Tharg the Mighty is 100% real. All hail Tharg! (Please don’t have us blasted into atoms!)

Ahem…

It turns out Bob Byrne is a real person, and related to John Byrne in the same way that Alan Moore is related to Steve Moore (which is to say, he isn’t). He’s an Irish cartoonist who’s been given this slot in several Progs over the past near-decade to turn in wordless one-shots. They’re not 3rillers, and they’re not Future Shocks: they’re Twisted Tales.

Credits: Bob Byrne (script), Bob Byrne (art), Bob Byrne (letters)

IV. OF INTEREST

I’ve never seen a 3D printer in person, but just the idea of these things strikes me as being just one step closer to a Star Trek-inspired future of replicators and holodecks. Which, barring my getting assigned a red shirt, is pretty cool. And it looks like somebody decided to plug their printer into a little Thrill-Power by having it whip up a Lawgiver, the Mega-City Judges’ trusty sidearm. You can find out more about the project here.

Couple of things to keep in mind:

1) That does, in fact, look pretty badass.
2) It’s takes about 24-26 hours of printing time to do this, and it is actually done as three separate pieces that are then assembled into the facsimile of Dredd’s weapon of choice.
3) This will not result in a working Lawgiver! Which is good, since they have a tendency to blow up when handled by someone they aren’t DNA-coded for.
Continued below

4) Addendum to #1: this piece looks exactly like a Lawgiver, which means it looks exactly like a gun. Please please please keep that in mind when in a situation with someone who might not understand it is not real. No one wants to see you end up in an Iso-Cube or worse because of it. Please cosplay responsibly.

V. THRILLS OF THE FUTURE

This is a teaser that ran on this week’s table of contents, and I have to say that it has gotten my attention! What can this motley crew of familiar faces mean? I immediately considered the possibility that there is a massive story looming on the horizon, which would be awesome. That’d be a huge drokkin’ cast, which’d mean it’d need a lot of room. Could we be sneaking up to another Trifecta-style crossover? I wouldn’t be surprised. After all the new readers that have jumped on this year a big ol’ Mega-City event, if done right, could cement this new readership into long-term fans. Or maybe we’re looking at the characters who will end up populating the pages of the Megazine in the near future? I’m pretty sure that there’s a new Lowlife story headed our way, as well as a return to the Orlok strip from this year’s Sci-Fi Special. Throw in some Angel Gang and Robo-Hunter strips and that makes a pretty solid mag.

VI. 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…