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: A Better Class of Criminal Part 1
Credits Rory McConville (script), Leonardo Manco (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: ‘A Better Class Of Criminal’ dumps us into the middle of an escalating situation in Mega-City One’s Sector 11 as Judges rush in as backup with some surprises in store. Rory McConville introduces some sopped up gang members to Mega-City One, criminals, one time simple gang bang-ers, that clearly have superpowers for this story. Aided by the talented art team of Leonardo Manco, Chris Blythe and Annie Parkhouse the opening sequence establishes the gang members ability to shrug off heavy Justice Department artillery not proscribed for city use before going on to toss those Judges and their crushed weapons van for distance. The explosive opening sequence well sets the scene for the growing struggle going on in sector 11 between the Judges and the now more then human Azure Skeleton Gang. It also manages to serve as the catalyst that spurs Chief Judge Hershey to bring in the iconic Judge Dredd to sort out the mess cause by the Sector Chief in his use of “Quantum Cannons” in his attempts to police the situation. This part is clearly mere setup, much of it is in medias res action scenes giving us little if any feeling for the characters, but it’s effective even if it’s blunt in its delivery. McConville establishes in the exposition that the Sector Chief has been hiding the situation from his superiors and plants the seed for distrust in the story as well as questioning where these smaller criminals received these anomalous powers. Though there was a lot of action little has actually happened yet in the story.
Leonardo Manco and Chris Blythe created some richly detailed panels for this action heavy chapter. The opening sequence with the Justice Department heavy weapons vehicle has so much detail it almost calls for digital viewing so you can zoom in to appreciate it all as the wagon articles and people scatter. The detail heavy style they are using is somewhat static so despite a few panels that are confusing it’s impressive how much motion their work coneys. Marco and Blythe create very convincing translucent holographic effects together in the conference scene between Dredd and Chief Judge Hershey. Their pages more then the script create a feeling for the heavies as they capture the glee on the souped up criminals faces as they revel in their wanton violence. Manco shows off his grasp on perspective to dramatic effect panel after panel this week particularly with the attempted getaway before then Quantum Cannon attack. Blythe’s colors and use of light sold moments throughout that could have fallen flat, the fires that under light the opening fight for instance. When it comes to the exposition Annie Parkhouse fits it all in without obstructing the art and managing clarity in the space she has it occupy. A solidly visually compelling opening for a story that what hopefully will last a few weeks this time.
The Order ‘The New World’ Part 5
Credits Kek-W (script) John Burns (art) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: In the last strip, things went off the preverbally rails as Calhoun begins his plot to assassinate President John Adams. It only goes down hill from there, in the best way.
Burns artwork in this strip has been fine, but it tends to be very segmented with how defined he makes panel gutters. This strip features several occasions of spill over and they add a pleasant new dimension to the art. At the start of the strip, in the aftermath of the gyrocopter attack, de Bergerac and Anna attempt to flee the chaos and Anna is drawn spilling over into the next panel. These panel are in no way linked geographically and depict their own scenes, however, sewing them together with Anna makes the sense of chaos come through stronger. It creates a Guernica like sense of tension and anxiety, which is exactly what fuels this chaotic strip.
Continued belowOh yeah, John Adams and George Washington also tongue tie as the Wyrm within Adams transfers hosts.
Another really nice artistic choice is how Burns draws the Iron Knight from a low angle, emphasize the disparity in height between him and Calhoun. This use of perspective makes for a nice horizontal series of relatively thin and tall panels as the Iron Knight and Calhoun do battle. The use of action lines also help give the Knight a sense of heft the character hasn’t really displayed in prior strips due to him being relatively sedentary.
Burns page design in this strip are a bit of a shift in how they are read. Previous strips were fairly normal right to left affairs. In the chaos of this strip, pages have a spiral like quality as panels revolve around one another. This more free flowing design helps create a real sense of energy as things just go bananas.
There is one short coming to all that orchestrated chaos, tracking the various character beats and their motivations is a bit muddied. These moments seem to happen at the spur of a moment within a panel. Everyone seems to be turning on each other until they aren’t, and decide to hide away in a Wyrm portal. It’s here that the nature of the 5 page strip forces concentration even if it might not be the clearest storytelling.
Terror Tales: Quilli
Credits: Laura Bailey (script), David Hitchcock (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Kent Falkenberg: With these sort of one-shot, quick jabs of story, there’s a sense that if you don’t initially jive with the premise, you might as well move along. So any enjoyment of Laura Bailey and David Hitchock’s ‘Quilli’ is contingent on how much time you have for possessed, malevolent ventriloquist dummies.
Bailey’s script is serviceable as it follows a huckster and his doll towards their inevitable downfall. Over the course of the strip, Hitchock’s art frequently peers behind the curtain to show just how the main character is gaming his audience. At the same time, Bailey’s narration lays it out incredibly thick over just how much Jez is starting to believe in his own act. It’s a playful juxtaposition that builds substantial tension in the way that he’s so clearly lying to himself and his own family.
Hitchcock’s black and white art has a smoky, cross-hatched aesthetic that helps to reinforce the different layers of obfuscation at play between the characters. Quilli, the titular dummy, has quite a simple design. And the squinted scowl is the perfect mix of uncanniness and malevolence.
There’s an inherent creepiness to a ventriloquist’s act – in much the same way that clowns are unsettling. In ‘Quilli,’Bailey and Hitchcock stir up that pot to an entertainingly, uneasy effect.
Grey Area: K.I.A, Part 2
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Tom Shapira: Two chapters in and I’m afraid the storytelling is not getting any better. It’s not so much that it’s impossible to tell what is happening, there’s lot of narration and dialogue explaining exactly who is shooting at whom and with what, it’s simply that is happening is badly rendered. There’s a lot of use of overlapping images and panels and tons of added effects of fire for the sake of sturm und drang which might meant by the artist to create an idea of civil chaos, but all it does is obscure basic facts of the story – the spatial relations are unclear and I am still not sure how big is this monster the team are facing.
In terms of story it seems clear to me that Dan Abnett is going for a misdirect of some sort with the early deaths of some team members from the first serial (especially as this strip establishes that they ‘never found the bodies’). It’s nothing revelatory but he has always shown to ability to take overused ideas and find an interesting angle in re-presenting them. There’s a nice interplay here between the usual action cliché of tough dudes with heavy blasters and the recognition of political interplay that keeps the whole system somewhat afloat.
“Grey Area” remains an interesting story – I just wish it was a better looking one.
Continued below
Damned: The Fall Of Deadworld, Part Eleven
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Rowan Grover: This prog might just be one of the most intense, twisted and somehow ridiculous of all those in “Damned: The Fall of Deadworld” so far. Kek-W brings Judge Death front and centre, showing his insanity stricken mind as he narrates a chess game with his father’s corpse. It’s a little on the nose, but for a character like Judge Death, it fits right in and makes sense. I love the morbid sense of humour that Kek-W injects him with, too. The sequence when Destyny confronts him is perfectly punctuated by his quip “I WOULD SSSPIT ON YOU, BUT – NO SSSALIVARY GLANDS”. But then Kek-W brings back a healthy dose of the tense, dark mood when Death plucks Destyny’s heart from her chest. The narrative slows right down as Death realises his power, revelling in his actions as he holds the bloodied organ above his head in victory. And the ending? Suffice to say, Kek-W knows how to catch me off guard, but I’m glad Casey’s back on the scene in the most ridiculous way possible.
I’m also glad to say that the good, the fantastic Dave Kendall is back for the last few rounds. You can tell from the first sequence that Kendall has a lot of fun rendering Judge Death in also his decaying glory. He’s a tough one to nail, with no visible eyes and a mostly unmoving facial expression, but Kendall manages to subtly convey emotion through small mouth movements, and head angles. The second panel, Death’s head is tilted backwards with a thinly ajar mouth, somehow conveying that he is contemplating. We also get a sinister downward angle and a mouth bent in anger and opened wider when addressing the corpse of his father. But what makes this prog so much better than the last few is that the action is fluid and frenetic once again. The duel between Death and Destyny is slick, with Kendall giving the latter seamless kung-fu choreography as she dances all around the awkward and slow moving Death. When Casey comes onto the scene once again, it’s also with bombast and quick, stylish movements. Kendall uses his painterly style to convey atmosphere well, and it’s combined perfectly with the well-paced action of the story.
“Damned” continues towards its conclusion with bombast and sinister absurdity here in the eleventh chapter. Kek-W and Dave Kendall are pulling out all the stops and keeping you guessing all the way to the ending, making the ride all the more enjoyable.
