Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our “2000 AD” weekly review column! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at Rebellion/2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment. Let’s get right to it!
THIS WEEK IN 2000AD
Judge Dredd: Black Snow, Part 1
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), PJ Holden (art), Quinton Winter (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Alice W. Castle: Something I love about the fact that Dredd has been around for decades now is that, despite the adaptations of the character tending towards such a narrow view of a character and his surroundings, the world of Dredd in “2000AD” is incredibly expansive and well-developed. This first chapter of a new story turns its gaze to the East of the world, to a mining facility outside of East Meg-Two as it comes under attack.
For one, seeing the world as it exists outside of Mega City-One is always an interesting spin on a story especially when it doesn’t just languish in the Cursed Earth like a bad Fallout fanfic. For two, seeing the evolution of Soviet ideology in a world brought to the brink of destruction allows for most of this story to be a commentary on the kind of backwards governmental organisation that puts protocol over empathy. The connection to Dredd only shows up in the very last panel because Michael Carroll and PJ Holden use this space to set up the environment of East Meg-Two and what will surely be some regulation roadblocks for Dredd in the coming chapters.
PJ Holden’s art is incredibly impressive here and again, entirely different from the stories I’ve seen so far in covering Judge Dredd. With much more scratchy and layered linework, building the shapes of the panel through choppy shading, Holden lends a sense of worn, rusted metal to the environment of East Meg-Two. There’s something reminiscent of early Soviet animation in Holden’s linework and the warm, rustic tones of the colouring that’s perfect for the environment before switching to the vivid greens and golds and cold blues of the world of the Judges in Mega City One.
Slaine – The Brutania Chronicles: Archon, Part 6
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Davis (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Rowan Grover: Part six of the latest “Slaine” saga does what it does best. Pat Mills has Slaine and Sinead overcoming their enemies by hacking away at them (the grotesque harpy things in this case, I’m still unsure as to their names) and seeds a developing storyline to do with Yaldabaoth and Gododin. Some of the key things that I find particularly interesting include how rhythmic and poetic Mills is with Slaine’s dialogue in this chapter. Not in some time has Slaine appeared to enjoy slaughtering his enemies that he delivers a near Spider-Man level of banter whilst doing so. With such great one liners as ‘Gaze upon your destiny, Vixen’, ‘Where’s vengeance and her crew now?’ and ‘I will send you harsh salutation!’, you can’t help but smile at the infectious fun that this chapter has.
Simon Davis, as usual, holds the floor and sets the tone. But there’s a lot of notable well-structured panels in this chapter, to accompany his usual skillset. The second has Sinead and Slain standing in front of mugshots of Slaine and a harpy-creature, showing the weary and bruised Slaine and the creepy, unwavering intensity of the harpy. It creates a sense of foreboding and almost works like a scoreboard, showing you who’s taken more damage. What I also found interesting about this chapter is how much I enjoyed the zoomed out panels. Sure, it’s great to have Davis give us an up close, detailed shot of blood, guts et viscera, but I rather liked the minimalist and atmospheric tone he uses when the camera is pulled out like this. A great example is on the fourth page, we get the a far shot of Slaine and Sinead on the harsh, rocky cliff, facing off against the group of hydra-like harpies, and the smaller figures and camera angle gives you a great sense of scope for how dangerous the enemies are.
Continued belowMills’s and Davis’s latest chapter into the “Archon” storyline delivers great intrigue and beautiful action, seemingly better than usual. I can’t wait for them to delve more into the relationship between Gododin and Yaldabaoth and to explore this visceral fantasy world further.
Indigo Prime: A Dying Art, Part 6
Credits: Kek-W (script), Lee Carter (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Kent Falkenberg: For the first time since ‘A Dying Art’ exploded out of a metaphysical cannon, it feels like the initial burst of momentum is starting to die down. Don’t get me wrong, Lee Carter’s art is as sleek as ever and Kek-W’s script reads just as smooth (even when broaching topics like parallel dreamscape gentrification). But where each preceding installment had some clearly realized forward progress, this feels like things are stopping for a pirouette or two.
Over a large slice of ‘A Dying Art, Part 6’, Kek-W and Carter illuminate Major Arcana’s mercenary-like betrayal of the Indigo Prime agency. While it’s nice to see the curtain pulled back on this thread of ethereal corporate espionage, it comes across feeling too expository. And Carter’s work through the sequence does little more than drop talking heads into the middle of the info-dump. Carter does depict grizzled, mercenary scowls like a champion; however, his line work never seems any more kinetic than just being in a gentle holding pattern.
On the other hand, it does make a certain amount of sense to stay in place for a bit, especially in the other half of the story. The dimension hopping though the preceding 5 parts of “Indigo Prime” was getting a little jarring. The threat of narrative whiplash was real. By keeping Danny Redman and Unthar, as well as Motherhead and Revere, the two agents who flew in like the cavalry last week, confined to the crimson wastelands of the Under-Id, it allows Kek-W to more directly orient the conflict as one between the agents and the wraith-like Nihilist. Grounding the story for now gives more immediacy to this exchange, as well as the impression of its lasting impact – which is a pretty big deal considering most other aspects of “Indigo Prime” feel off-kilter enough to keep you asking if what’s real is really real. In this light,it comes as no surprise that Carter blocks all of his panels straight on, as opposed to the off-plane, angled perspectives he’s been fond of elsewhere.
There’s nothing technically wrong with ‘A Dying Art, Part 6,’ but there’s no moments that really come out to grab you. Kew-W and Carter come close when Revere literally grabs the Ophidian sword out of thin air – or rather, reaches into shimmering blue expanse outside the Dreamtime and pulls the blade back in. Then again, it might not be that it’s the momentum that’s dying down. Could be this is just a pregnant pause before ramping up to the finish.
Sinister Dexter: Aztek Camaraderie: 2
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Steve Yeowell (art), John Charles (color), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: This weeks installment of “Sinister Dexter” was an experiment in bombast and contrast. Finnigan and Ramone take out the Takeout squad sent to take them out in a couple of pages of bombastic big guns, explosions and preposterous action sequences taking up lots of comics real estate. The deaths of the Chicken Itza goons are more Sam Raimi Evil Dead then Quentin Tarantino Pulp Fiction, featuring many cartoonish dismemberments. The final moment to the scene ran over half of the strip left no doubts that the gun-sharks Sinister and Dexter are stone cold killers, delivered Ramone’s implied threat in a beautifully characteristic and brutal way. Contrasting all the violence are the moments with the Instant Karma workers, who are rather horrified by the actions committed on their behalf.
Steve Yeowell and John Charles handle the cartoonish level of violence very effectively. Finnigan wields a gun too big for anyone to possible really use that shreds his opponents. Ramone delivers long soliloquies while doing midair gymnastics and taking out multiple opponents. This week was full on comic violence, down to Batman ‘66 style sound effects across the panels as things got shot shredded and blown-up.
Continued belowThe message of ‘the little guy vs the evil corporate overlord’ was nowhere near subtle, and neatly delivered in an almost GI Joe “knowing is half the battle” style. Abnett, Yeowell, Charles and Parkhouse drive home the pointed threat that Chicken Itza poses as the head of the company calls for three hundred men to be called against our heroes. They also show the female Instant Karma employee propose something as a non-lethal solution in the face of the obvious escalating violence.
Absalom: Terminal Diagnosis – Book One Part Three
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script) Tiernen Trevallion (art) Ellie De Ville (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: There’s a dry-humor, mundane quality to the macabre in this strip that Gordon Rennie hasn’t really gotten a chance to play with previously. Prior strips had a brooding, gritty quality to them. This strip is effectively a stakeout, which means it’s driven by mundane conversation. Barnabus complains about the intricacies of navigating magical England’s hidden dead zones. Their turn coat hellspawn describes his decisions to remove all things that make him organic and trackable (think Karl Ruprecht Kroenen). Both of these supernatural decisions are played in Tiernen Trevallion art and Rennie’s dialog as totally normal and rational. It’s just another day in the life of magical secret police. And then an Eldritch Horror shows up to the party.
Dry the presentation maybe, Trevallion does a good job doing the basics to efficiently communicate information. Basics like: little kids are always creepy, even if they’re already demons. We don’t need to know anything else about them, just look at them in their creepy anachronistic clothing and lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes. It isn’t that Rennie’s dialog isn’t necessary in that sequence (it pays off in the next page), but it visually tells us everything we need to know: the demons are on their trail.
Simple page design also effectively sets up the reveal of said Eldritch Horror. The page is cramped with everyone stuck in the car. But if you track one person’s movements it sets up the final panel and the page turn revealing the second worst thing Hell could send after them. As their demonic friend says, “I’m afraid this is going to be quite unpleasant for all of us.”
This is an overall highly effective strip that sets up and pays off better than previous ones in this new “Absalom” story.
