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 brand-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 such a large selection of comics 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.
II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1914
Judge Dredd: Dark Justice, Part 4
This is it: The Dark Judges have officially been reunited and are in a place where no one can stop them! Or at least it seems that way, assuming the stories developing on Earth and The Mayflower are now happening simultaneously.
Staples is really cutting loose here. The part of my brain that understands the concept of deadlines keeps expecting the art lose a step or two, but I’m just not seeing it. This week’s strip is every bit of what the first was, with no signs of slowing down. It’s a testament to Matt Smith as 2000 AD EiC that Staples was given such an enormous lead time to get this story done the way he wanted it.
It’s also interesting to see the Verminators popping up this week. As far as I know, the only other time we’ve encountered them was back in ‘Incubus’, aka Judge Dredd versus Aliens. So I’d say that if these Verminators have faced down Aliens, then it’s got to be a plus to have them in your corner when there are Dark Judges about. Obviously not everyone may agree with this, as is displayed by Anderson’s lack of enthusiasm when she hears about their mission. What’s the mission, you ask? No spoilers this week, so we will be getting into those details in seven days!
Credits: John Wagner (script), Greg Staples (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Savage (Book 9): Grinders, Part 4
Hammersteins are the Sherman tanks of the 21st Century; they roll into town against you and you know you’re screwed. Why do I say that? Couple of reasons. One, they’re giant robots. Two, they have huge-ass hammers for right hands. Three, they have huge cannons on their left forearms. And four, if that wasn’t enough, they have ANOTHER SET OF ARMS to hold assault rifles to shoot you with if you managed to survive the aforementioned arm cannon and smashy hammerhand. You go up against one of these things, you better have an armed battalion backing you up.
So why is Bill Savage taking on a squad of these robots on his own? Unarmed?
Surprisingly, this isn’t the last installment of ‘Savage’ (spoiler?), but Mills does a nice job of showing that Bill’s a dangerous opponent whether he’s got his shotgun on him or not. And Goddard manages to make this fleshy David versus a gang of cyber-Goliaths interesting and action-packed, despite David being armed with even less than a slingshot.
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
The Order, Part 4
Kids and their computers these days. Back in medieval times (not to be confused with Medieval Times(c)), they didn’t have iPads and wi-fi and the Google to figure everything out for them (although they apparently did have androids). Uh-uh; they did things the old-fashioned way: snorted enough gunpowder to ignite the brain and give them mathematical hallucinations, and then crunched the numbers and solved equations until figured out what they needed to know. Or until they had an aneurysm, which was probably pretty frequent with that method.
Continued belowBut like the rest of the motley crew making up The Order, X is a professional. So when he undertakes the fever-math method of divination to pinpoint where dragon-like wyrms are going to manifest in Prague and cause all manner of draconian hell to break loose, it works like a charm. A little too well, as it turns out.
The story continues to overlay modern types onto medieval trappings, and do it well. In The Order you’ve got a bunch of crew-based roles: the hacker, the bruiser, the kid. Sword & sorcery has rarely been this inviting to modern sensibilities while still feeling of its time.
Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Ulysses Sweet, Maniac For Hire: Psycho Therapist, Part 4
This week we see the next round of assassins that’ve been send after Ulysses: The Cruciform Gang! These guys have it all! They’re crucified, they shoot nail guns, they’re not afraid to use a flamethrower to combust a child’s head…all the hallmarks of a try gang of assassins. I mean, do I feel bad praising The Cruciforms so soon after losing The Hendersons? Well, yeah, of course. But am I glad that these guys have appeared in front of my eyes? You betcha!
So this kid was the last person with the chip that Ulysses seems so hellbent on digging out of someone’s skull. But now that it’s little more than cinder, what’s the guy to do? My prediction for next week: Ulysses heads home to get caught up on his soaps!
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Paul Marshall (art), Chris Blythe (tones), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One: Eurozoned, Part 3
What’s the first thing a secret agent would want to do when setting up operations in a new city? That’s right, Orlok is going to need to establish a false identity!
I like how Wyatt handled the time-jump here. There’s obviously been a few months between this week’s strip and last, but we learn this without a clunky “6 month later” dialogue box or any such nonsense. Instead, we’re simply launched into the story and given subtle but obvious clues to key us into the gap in time. Orlok’s new identity has certainly built up a reputation, and that’s just not something that happens overnight.
Also, keep an eye out for a cameo from none other than “Mega-City Two”‘s Pug Dredd. Looks like the IDW continuity is beginning to bleed back into the source!
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Jake Lynch (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
III. OF INTEREST
Two bits of business the week!
First up is the launching of the 2000 AD Android app (the AnDredd app?)! Finally, ‘Droids everywhere can get the Thrill-Power beamed right to their non-Apple devices, just as Tharg intended all along. As someone writing this sentence on an iOS device I am not exactly the best person to explain what this will exactly enable you to do, but anything that gets the Progs and ‘Zines and GNs into the hands of more humes is scrotnig in my book. Also, how can you not love something that gave us this image?
And second, a note that goes out to all our UK- or ROI-based readers, for reasons we’ll get to in a second…
There are lots of ways someone could read the adventures of Judge Dredd. If they hadn’t been following along since Day 1 (or Prog 2) in “2000 AD” or “Judge Dredd Megazine”, they could pick up any one of a number of reprints, like the Titan Books series from the 1980’s, the “Complete Casefiles” series that has every Dredd story legally possible to include, or any number of the more recent graphic novel reprints like “Origins” or “Day of Chaos”. But after today you can add a new way to that list: Judge Dredd – The Mega-Collection!
The Mega-Collection is a curated hardcover subscription series, released every fortnight, reprinting key storylines from all over the lawman’s career. Each volume will include bonus material, a unified cover design, and a spine design that, when all compiled, will show Judge Dredd standing off in front of the largest grouping of best allies and worst perps in Mega-City history.
Continued below
(And that’s only about half the total spine image; I cropped out the rest so as to not overloaded your monitors. Seriously, your bookshelf will be transformed into a beacon of Thrill-Power by this thing.)
Unless you happen to live outside the UK or ROI, in which case these volumes will have to be admired from afar, as licensing rights demand that they not be sold elsewhere on the planet. And we don’t want anyone going to the Iso-Cubes over these things, do we?
But aside from that minor detail, the Mega-Collection is a slam dunk. The first volume, “America”, is hands-down one of the best Dredd stories ever and absolutely deserves to be in every fan’s collection. It’s also an indicator that this collection will be keeping people on their toes by not doing a simple chronological reprint. No ‘waiting til they get to the good stuff’ here; it’s all good! And affordable, as the first volume is available for £1.99 if you sign up to receive the whole collection. I’m not exactly up on my pounds-to-dollars exchange rate, but that seems insanely cheap for a hardcover graphic novel of “America”‘s caliber.
You can find out all the details for The Mega-Collection here, and get a little blast of video Thrill-Power about it here.
IV. RECOGNIZE THE LAW
With the new year comes a brand-new feature here at Multiver-City One! We’re retiring the weekly ‘Perp Files’ and replacing it with ‘Recognize the Law’. It’s no secret that there are a great many flavors of Judges from a great deal of Mega-Cities, so we’re aiming to use this space as a way of exploring as many types of Judges as we can. Did you know that in Mega-City One there are Accounting Judges? And Exorcist Judges?
This week we take a look at a crucial piece of the Mega-City One justice system: The Psi Division! While there are not very many visual differences between a Street Judge and someone from Psi-Div, the two roles have a fair number of differences. Psi Judges are often called to crime scenes to try and pick up impressions from perps, and are also used to probe a suspect’s mind for clues or evidence during interrogations. Psi Judges are issued Lawmasters and patrol just like their Street Judge counterparts.
Elements or a Mega-City One Psi Judge uniform:
- Visored helmet (standard issue, optional for Psi-Div)
- Eagle on right shoulder
- Left shoulder pad
- Elbow pads w/ rigid plastic shell
- Psi Division Shield, chained to zipper pull, no surname
- Gloves w/ pockets and knuckle reenforcement
- Utility belt with eagle buckle
- High-impact knee pads
- Heavy-duty boots with holster for Lawgiver (right) and sheath for utility knife (left)
The highest profile Psi-Judge would undoubtably be Cassandra Anderson. Since her first appearance in Prog 150 back in 1980, Anderson has become a key character in the Judge Dredd mythos.
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1914 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,
- Select US newsstands, and
- Finer comic shops everywhere
So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
