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: Machine Law, Part Eight
Credits: John Wagner (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Rowan Grover: Big spoilers! The conclusion to “Machine Law” comes in part eight of this prog, and Wagner nails the pacing. What feels like a saga that could have been dragged out what ended briefly and neatly, with some heavy emotional beats. Dredd’s redemption arc to Chief Judge Logan is refreshing, having Dredd and Logan speak as equals once again is sorely missed, and Harvey’s sacrifice is one of the most tear-jerking moments in recent “Judge Dredd” history. Like with the arc as a whole, Wagner keeps it brief – often showdowns like this do take place in little time, and yet each word feels purposeful, each moment building up to Harvey proving his place and earning Logan’s redemption. The reveal as to what actually happened in the moment from looking at Harvey’s regained data hits even more heavy emotional beats, showing that Harvey really just wanted the best to help Logan. It’s a unexpected but well-executed and heartfelt end to a socially relevant story arc.
MacNeil works mostly with character action here, using silhouettes and vague cityscapes as backdrops. The lack of a concrete setting throughout the issue does make it hard to place moments at times, but it gives moments like Harvey’s sacrifice an ethereal quality. MacNeil handles Harvey’s body language best. Harvey’s hulking mass gives him a generally intimidating aura, making him look like he is threatening the rioter, but look closer at his outstretched hands and we see Harvey’s position as one of understanding and protection, for the outward masses. Blythe uses a lot of textured blues to convey melancholy successfully in this issue, which fade to a more triumphant orange and gold in the aftermath of the riot. Harvey’s explosion looks particularly beautiful as it offsets the harsh orange, smudged textures of the fire and infuses the same aggressive look into the air around it. It’s powerful coloring work that deserves attention.
“Machine Law” wraps up cleanly and emotively in this prog, and Wagner couldn’t have nailed it better. The twist is punchy and tear-wrenching, and the art is emotive and visceral.
Skip Tracer: Louder than Bombs, Part 12
Credits: James Peaty (script), Paul Marshall (art), Quinton Winter (colors), Ellie De Ville (letters).
Tom Shapira It’s probably fitting that ”Skip Tracer” ends its current serial with the threat of suicide bombing, one page after the current “Judge Dredd” storyline closes in a similar fashion. ‘Fitting’ not because the stories are of a similar quality, but because it illustrates the different between a good 2000AD story and a bad one: the recent Judge Dredd stories are not only very plot-heavy but also engage in quite a lot of political heavy-lifting, trying to struggle with the nature of ongoing life in an obviously dystopic future. “Skip Tracer” is not only slight in comparison, it also chooses the easy way out – the black and white good, guys vs. bad guys way out.
As a result the ending of this serial, which is very much of ‘the adventure continues’ vibe, feels false: the creators can’t quite synch-up to the fact that the Skip Tracer operates in a broken system; that his victory should feel somewhat hollow. “Skip Tracer” ends being the kind of strip I dislike the most. Not because it’s bad, the art’s decent (and this week’s choice of superimposing the countdown on the action is one of the most visually interesting moment so far) throughout and the writing avoids making the characters stupid or the plot incoherent, but because it’s mediocre. Bad stories can at least be interesting to think about, but there’s no grappling with mediocrity.
For all the sturm und drang of the plot, hover-bike cases, explosions, assassins in the shadows, there’s very little of the much vaunted ‘thrill power.’ The best of 2000Ad is all about the forward momentum, the sense of restlessness and willingness to kick at the establishment; “Louder than Bomb” feels like it is sleepwalking. The strip had all this explosive potential, corporate control, engineered terrorism, fake news, but chooses to go not with a bang but with a whimper.
Continued below
Credits: Andi Ewington(script), Staz Johnson (art), Abigail Bulmer (colors, Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Kudos to Andi Ewington for playing at least this readers assumptions in this story. The hostage turns out to be the Assassin Nail after all and a turn that was actually both mundane and unexpected. You don’t really question the narration about the assassin appearing, dragging the poor “Mr. Ho” into the confrontation for no apparent reason. It’s so easy to just assume that the story were being told is the truth when what were really getting is a play on the story told in the Usual Suspects. It’s a bit unfair but he never established that Nail was an unreliable narrator but in the end it was a solidly good noir story. Ewington didn’t define what was going on with the dog, possibly Tooth?, both through visual context perhaps the dog wasn’t there at all.
Staz Johnson and Abigail Bulmer again delivered with the visuals. They did an excellent job at showing the subtle transformation between the hapless hostage and the assassin Nail. His stature didn’t change but his body language certainly did. They created some competent action sequences too particularly where they established the timing with the falling shot glass as reference. Their visual clues about the nature of the dog were a bit heavy handed and because of that a bit unclear.
Altogether a very well told tale. It leaves some lingering questions about the dog and how everything wraps up even though this incident is clearly over for now. ‘Tooth & Nail’ created somehow investment in its anti-hero and that is hard to do with so little to work with.
Grey Area: Shoot to Kill
Credits Dan Abnett (script) Mark Harrison (art) Ellie De Ville (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: After a couple of weeks’ worth of strips that are action backed, ‘Shoot to Kill,’ ironically takes a breath as Bullit and Lyra catch each other up over some good o’ll biscuits and gravy. I gotta admit reading it made me a bit anxious, waiting for there to be some tell of sudden violence. There was none. Overall it’s a nice come down strip that sets the table for the next batch.
Mark Harrison keeps things simple between Bullit and Lyra. Bullit gets to be the expressive and comedic one. Lyra is the stone cold straight woman, composed of about four or five different poses repeated over the course of the strip. It’s an effective dynamic that lets a moment like Bullit insisting on their meeting at Bernie’s Biscuits and Gravy is about, well, biscuits and gravy.
The other thing that helps this straightforward face to face be visually interesting is how everything is done in a 4×4 grid with different patterns made from only placing the background in certain panels. It makes for a nice macro image and inform the reader of the overall grid architecture. Those patterns mixed with the differing body language help this strip be an enjoyable effective read.
There are some moments of friction, however, mostly in the form of Ellie De Ville’s lettering for Abnett’s script. Simply put there are balloons that are hard to read at certain points with too many words and font plays. De Ville’s lettering is actually key to some of the minor moments of comedy landing when Bullit’s loquacious mood drags on into a series of panels and Lyra is repeated, stone face, in front of them. The lettering issues aren’t major but they make things a harder. Making comics is about finding the right alchemy to densely back information into as efficient a space as possible. Sometimes that alchemy isn’t so pretty.
Jaegir: Bonegrinder, Part 6
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Simon Coleby (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Kent Falkenberg: Sometimes a single installment in a long running strip just feels necessary, if not necessarily interesting. Pieces shift, the plot inches forward, and we’re left simply waiting for another one to come along. That’s the issue that Gordon Rennie and Simon Coleby come up against this week.
It’s not even that ‘Bonegrinder, Part 6’ is bad; it’s just bland. And maybe that’s just due to the nature of the story being told. Because of Jaegir’s surrender last week, Rennie has to flare the narrative out in several different directions. One of her allies seduces and coerces the assistance of a high-ranking officer; another goes in search of an army for hire. When we finally check back in with the Kapiten, she’s being forced to endure penance for more of her father’s sins. It’s the first time this arc that the story has broken wider like this. But since Rennie can devote only a little time to each of these threads, it feels like the momentum of the whole has slowed to a crawl.
And unfortunately, Coleby’s art doesn’t do much to elevate things either. His figure-work feels forced and stiff. There’s an over-reliance on characters tilting their heads slightly upward towards the corner of their panels. And while, sparingly, this can be an effective tool to lead one’s eye across the page, it feels like there are too many of these crowding the page. Coleby is still able to capture an effectively murky and grimy atmosphere to the strip, but there’s is very little of the motion and fluidity he’s so adept at.
They can’t all blow the doors off, I guess. And while nothing really stands out here, for now, ‘Bonegrinder, Part 6’ does have an inkling that it’s building to bolder, more bombastic things.
