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 Fall of Barbarbara Grimm Part 1
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Nick Dyer (art), Quinton Winter (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: Long time readers of Judge Dredd haven’t really spent a lot of time getting to know the infamous iso block prisons of Mega City One, which is hilarious since it’s probably the most important location in all of Mega City One. “The Fall of Barbarbara Grimm” takes us behind the scenes of these infamous prisons, and the first part of the story looks to be setting up something special.
Writer Mike Carroll shows the readers the world of the Mega City One iso blocks through the eyes of a single character named Barbarbara Grimm. It’s an interesting choice since one of the central themes of the setting is just how insignificant and disposable individuals really are in the massive sprawl. The greatest accomplishment of “The Fall of Barbarbara Grimm” is showing just how personal the world of Mega City One can be by giving the reader a glimpse into the life of a simple prison worker caught between her job working for the Justice Department, and the criminals she helps keep locked up.
Artist Nick Dyer works with colorist Quinton Winter to create an art style that is appropriately dingy, grim, and dirty. Heavy use of shadows and a harsh brown color palate make the characters and surroundings look gaunt, exhausted, and one step away from breaking under the tremendous pressure that life in Mega City One must put them under. It’s the perfect art style for a story set in a prison and elevates the story to something great.
“The Fall of Barbarbara Grimm” continues a fantastic string of great story telling by taking us behind the scenes of one of the most desperate and overlooked places in Mega City One, and sets up a story that promises to be filled with hard choices and great drama.
Sinister Dexter: Dolores 4 Ever, Part 2
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Steve Yeowell (art), John Charles (colors) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: On this second chapter of “Sinister Dexter,” Finnigan continues his search and investigation of the emergence of Dolores, and the implications on the ever changing city landscape. For a story that is part crime-noir, part cyber-punk, “Sinister Dexter” fails to really capture the imagination of it’s readers on a most trivial story.
The art remains as atmospheric as before, painting a gritty and dirty urban area, where few (if any) of it’s denizens have a clear record of their own. It immediately sets the tone to the type of adventure that will happen in there and it is a great example of an efficient design doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of mood.
Finn’s quest leads him to a tattoo parlour for more information, which leads to dialogue that suffers from two issues. First, it over-relies on newly-created jargons and curse words, to the point it becomes hard to follow what is actually being said. Second, because, despite being sharply written, there is too little in terms of background information to make sense of it all.
At the end, “Sinister Dexter” continues poking at a more interesting underbelly, but has it to fully dive in, having this chapter and the one that came before it being a bit of a long setup. Hopefully future entries will balance the pacing better for a strong overall package.
Indigo Prime: Fall of the House of Vista Part Eight
Credits Kek-W(script) Lee Carter (art) Ellie De Ville (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: I’ll admit that ‘Fall of the House of Vista’ hasn’t been the easiest read for me, it layers on so many meta narratives and physics that it feels like Kek-W drank a very large Monster and is letting his writers id run wild. As ‘Fall of the House of Vista’ enters the eighth chapter, Kek-W and Lee Carter show no signs of slowing down and keep this strip weird. Only it is less weird, as in hard to understand, and more weird and absolutely hilarious as the creative team provide 6 pages of non-stop physical comedy.
Continued belowTake the first page for example, composed for four panels where the third panel is just the page and the other panels are overlaid it. You get Kek-W script and De Ville’s lettering another barb from the London Sun, a propaganda world salad that is funny by itself. The core action of the page involves some rebels trying to outrun a helicopter. The jester hat wearing Astrologer talks about that time he took down a harrier with their crossbow. They go driving along until BAM that panel that is the page interjects, and giant mindcontrolled Burroughs unwittingly takes out the helicopter. Page one ends with a fourth wall scratching bit from Astrolger wondering who saw that coming?
Eventually the good Dr. Cotton enters the fray, only everything is out of proportion. He is normal size but his pills are raining from the sky like it’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and you can see where that is going. Meanwhile the boys and Arcana have taken care of their whole lack of corporeal existence problem, leading to more gags as they ride the Christhulu hand like a horse, naked through Parliament.
It isn’t that this strip is non-stop comedy, it’s how each page sets up and lands their joke while still working as a scene unto itself. Other strips, the sojurn on Jekyll Island a while back comes to mind, were structurally and enjoyable reads, but this one has that plus this manic energy that makes all the absurdly weird stuff work. The comedy dosen’t ask you to really think about the mechanics only about the mechanics of the joke, often involving physical humor, and so as a reader you just go with it. When I first read the description for “Indigo Prime” this is more like what I imagined.
Tharg’s 3rillers: Red Road Part One
Andi Ewington (Script), Ben Willsher (Art), Simon Bowland (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Mars. From the endless bounds of man’s hubris, we have begun to settle the red planet. This extension of human civilization will come at a high cost, but who is destined to pick up the tab? The first chapter of “Tharg’s 3rillers: Read Road” is just five pages and is stuffed cover to cover with wild action – off road vehicles speeding across the Martian desert, a high-flying vigilante, and heavy artillery blasting away.
A figure clad head-to-toe in black battle armor and a cape stands on a plateau looking across the desert at a convoy carrying what seems to be a female child. We are unsure if it is a human or alien child, but they are being transported to the human colony. Speaking to an unknown and unseen colleague this masked person jumps on their own quad-like vehicle, attacks the convoy, and destroys one of the vehicles while attempting to set the child free. It is at this moment that this story goes all out with the action. After a quick cut action sequence, the convoy still has the child, which we learn is a species known as a Cy. This mysterious hero, only known to us as Helix, fails to rescue the youngling, but is not giving up in their fight. Just as the men in the convoy train their vehicle mounted Gatling guns at Helix, the issue comes to an end and we are left begging for more.
These opening pages are a tantalizing tease for the coming chapters. As soon as the story opens the setting and dialogue are so intriguing you will be drawn in. Right from the start this feels like Mad Max in space. Ewington’s script is limited, yet fully expresses the tone and inflection of each piece of conversation. What dialogue is written establishes just enough to get you from panel to panel, but overall readers will be left in the dark. This protagonist is an interesting one, like the story itself, leaves you wanting to know as much as you possibly can. Multiple questions arise, but none are answered.
Ben Willsher’s artwork is stunning, moving between clean cut line work and more rugged detailing. His illustrations come up to meet the writing and bring this story together. The colors range from blacks to a palette of warm browns, oranges, reds, and yellows. Between the red-brown hues of the environment and dust covered vehicles, with explosions and weapon blasts dancing across what looks like a late day sky, these are all tones that could get lost together, but he does not allow for even the smallest detail to be lost between the lines. It’s beautiful to look at, all while still conveying the gritty, brutal imagery on each page.
Continued below“Red Road Part One” is a pulse-pounding, and incredibly fun opener that already earns its place as a worthy addition to Tharg’s 3rillers. You will not want to miss out on this one! (Get your ass to Mars.)
Jaegir: Valkyrie, Part Three
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Simon Coleby (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Christa Harader: The team’s poised to rescue Atalia, but it looks like she might have some other ideas – and so does Raksha. Turns out the medic is a deep cover operative bent on getting Atalia to safety, but Atalia’s having none of it. She’s had enough, and she’s more than ready to get out on her own.
Rennie is adept at spotlighting Atalia’s defiant streak even as she cleaves to her ideals, and Coleby does some nice work with heavy shadows on her face and one particularly explosive moment toward the end of this installment. Caldwell keeps the same cool tones except for said moment, and the fiery blast is a welcome spot of brightness, albeit incredibly violent, in the otherwise bleak narrative. There’s also one panel on the last page done entirely in purple, which obscures some of Coleby’s detail but is a nice mood pop as it clarifies Atalia’s intention to leave on her own, no matter what the cost. De Ville’s lettering remains crisp and concise in narrow corridors and escalating action.
It’s unclear if the team will make it to Atalia before Raksha does, or if Atalia will make it out and turn the tables on everyone. That kind of tension makes for a good serial, and it’d be satisfying either way to see her find a way to set her own terms, again, inside the role she must play.
