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: The Chosen One
Credits Rory McConville (script), Dan Cornwell (art), Abigail Bulmer (colors). Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln:This one shot satire may be a bit of filler, but that doesn’t keep it from being a fun bit of storytelling. ‘The Chosen’ plays into the same kind of thought as the fundamentalists that look forward to the end of the world. The “pop up cultists” in this could easily be from a Coen Brothers movie given their level of ineptitude. Though Dredd and his partner, Early, don’t wait for back taking to the sewers to enter the victim was largely only in danger if dying of boredom. The way McConvilke writes the cult members it’s hard not to feel for the poor schlub they kidnapped merely because of his legal name matches some nebulous old prophecy.
Dan Cornwell’s art is pretty solid throughout. His Judges were a bit hard to distinguish between, Dredd only standing out because of this badge, but in real life uniforms do make people, well, uniform. His cultists are great foolish looking dupes right out of b-movie central casting. What stands out on the page , what makes his pencils, layouts and inks really sing are the colors by Abigail Bulmer. I noticed her name the last time she colored a Dredd story, and again her use of that classic gold, green indigo color pallet works a treat. Her she rendering on the Judge uniform detail, particularly the shoulder pads created a real sense of depth. When the Judges confront the death cultists covered in the sewage they mucked through created a likeness to the Dark Judges much due to the lovely yet gross coloring. It’s easy to see why the cultists thought they had finally succeeded in their summoning.
The outgoing comments point to the failings of a top heavy bureaucracy. Legalese, paperwork, and increasing fees kept Owen Krysler from changing his name and preventing his repeated kidnappings. It’s silly, stupid and as Dredd alludes to just “cheaper to just have him live under an assumed name.” That is the first time it’s mentioned but it makes my wonder what is the cost of policing in “Judge Dredd.”
Sinister Dexter – The Gangbusters ‘Chapter Three: Dog Fight at the A.R. Corral!’
Credits Dan Abnett(script) Steve Yeowell(art) John Charles(colors) Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: And another strip of “Sinister Dexter” comes to a close. With the cheat engine active, Yeowell and Charles drop any pretense of paying homage to old flying ace comics and just go for the good stuff. Finally the dog fighting feels action packed. The paneling isn’t all that different from prior strips, but the perspectives used are. We get a longer view, if not depth of field, of planes at all grounds within the panel. That view mixed with a few accent lines and number of planes make things read like an actual dog fight.
Yeowell has primarily composing pages in thirds, with the upper and lower thirds tending towards representing the world outside the cockpit. This leaves the middle section for an interior view primarily focused on Ramone. These panels make for a nice buffer in the action and help bridge some of the more sudden movements that make tracking the spatial geography of everything hard.
Speaking of bridge moments, has one of the better page turn reveals I’ve read in a “2000 A.D.” strip. Finn discovering his upgrade isn’t all that surprising, ending the previous page on a two panel sequence, locked on their targets face, and the shift between confidence and shock, sets up the reveal perfectly. He was so happy and then he was so sad.
With their job done, it’s on to the next one. Downlode is of course different, but the city scape now seems inundated with little black specs which either looks like some kind of art error or just the wreckage of the various drones. Either way it works.
Continued below
Skip Tracer: Heavy Is The Head, Part One
Credits: James Peaty (script), Paul Marshall (art), Dylan Teague (Colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Kent Falkenberg: I love the smell of a brand new strip. And while “Skip Tracer” might look to the great housing project in the sky for its futuristic bounty-hunter showcase, there’s an unmistakably sour stench of crime and corruption wafting off of it. Maybe great is the wrong word.
“Within a decade, two billion souls were living inside the largest sink-estate in the galaxy,” says Nolan Blake as he races down a mark through the over-crowded thoroughfare of The Cube. Marshall makes sure to stuff an uncomfortable number of on-lookers and passers-by into the frames of a kinetic chase sequence. The crushing number of people is palpable, and there’s enough trash and grime strewn about the backgrounds that there’s not a doubt to be had that this world is far removed from being some great-big-beautiful tomorrow.
Peaty’s script juggles the visceral thrill of Blake cornering his human target, with a hint of world-building. We get the gist of the cube, but not so much his role in it. Or his backstory. But that’s just fine for an opening salvo. Allegations of conspiracy and allusions to his own special ‘talents’ are enough feathered in just enough to pique one’s interest in whatever overarching story is in play.
‘Heavy Is The Head, Part One” is a breakneck opening salvo. It’s clear that James Peaty and Paul Marshall know exactly where they’re heading. The fun will be in tagging along for the ride.
Damned: The Fall Of Deadworld, Part One
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Rowan Grover: “The Fall Of Deadworld” checks back in with its still-living residents in part one of this new story. Kek-W does a good job at seeding character development within Jess, the proclaimed Judge Child who seems to have a special connection with the mysterious Boneman. It’s the most solid bit of story in this first part, giving us ideas that Jess is a child with latent potential and a big player in the “Deadworld” storyline. The second part to this prog is more social commentary than story, but it’s interesting how it deals about the Deadworld refugees, residents of a literal apocalyptic timeline, with similar means that do occur in some real world places. Kek-W also uses this as a platform for Jess to inspire action in those around her, and it’s a good leaving point for the chapter.
Dave Kendall handles art in a way that feels classical and tactful. Often the digital painters that work on “Deadworld” titles can give a too supernaturally extravagant aesthetic to the series, but Kendall presents a tone and coloring palette that feels gritty and close to home, yet with light shades of neon blue and toxic greens, reminds us that this is a desolate, futuristic setting. My favourite scene, the premonition of the Boneman, does some great work with negative space and distancing. The main panel featuring the character uses lots of negative space around the distant bonehills to convey a complete devastation and lack of life, and the way that the Boneman himself slowly creeps up on the reader without the warning of a panel border makes the experience feel more tense and real.
The whole team unite here to reintroduce readers to this desolate yet decidedly brimming apocalyptic landscape, in a chapter light on story content but rock solid on character arcs. Kendall proves he is also a great fit for the series, making this a prog to keep an eye on.
Strontium Dog: The Son, Part 9
Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Tom Shapira: Well…. That was over a lot faster than I thought it would; by the end of the last chapter I was sure the creative team got a few more twists and turns waiting for us, but instead they wrap everything up in the quickest manner possible. While this has the upside of keeping the story going, and never slowing down enough to bore the readers, we also get the downside – this end of the story feels rushed through.
Continued belowIt seems we just barley over Kenton nearly dying, and Johnny not really trusting him, and now the two of them are such a well oiled machine. Likewise, the idea that the robot hanchmen of the new bad guy, which we were only introduced to in the last page of the previous chapter, are the miracle solution to the lack of police on this alien planet (which was the reason the Strontium Dogs got there in the first place) is a bit too comfortable. A deus ex machina only with robots instead of god, so I guess machinas ex machina.
I like the idea of the new bad guy, Silverman, and the Ezquerra design, with a super-hero cape draped over a clunky massive robot, is really fun. But he’s pretty much introduced and then done away with. The final fight is a bit obvious, of course there is a giant magnet nearby, but it is well-choreographed – Carlos Ezquerra knows of to do a full action set-piece is just a single page while keeping everything clear.
Is it a bad story then? Of course not! In this stage of their career I’m not sure Wagner, Ezquerra and De Ville are capable of delivering a bad story, each of them is too good, too professional, in his/her field to foul up. “The Son” is a fun story, with all right character bits and a lot of action, which does manage to set up a new status quo for the “Strontium Dog” strip moving forward; but for the first few chapters it seems like it could have been more than that. Maybe in the future we’ll get something extra from the foundations this story has built.
