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: Guatamala Part 1
John Wagner(script), Colin McNeil(art), Chis Blythe(colors), Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Greg Lincoln: This arc started strong with a touching and fitting tribute to a character that’s been a mainstay of ”Judge Dredd” since 1980. John Wagner wrote a fitting tribute to the powerful female presence in the story that he created nearly forty years ago, both in reality and in the Judge Dredd continuity. Even if you have not seen the breath and scope of her illustrious career that included the third longest stint as Chief Judge, the weight of the loss here is felt. Wagner spends little time and space on exposition and lets the space narration and the dialogue carry the moment. ‘Guatamala’ part one also introduces the next big threat, El Presidente, in a pretty informative yet not info-dump format. Wagner does it in a spare two pages, mostly in dialogue, and in a way that hits home with a palpable feeling if threat. Wagner played everything so well that the moment she calls Dredd, Joe, the moment carries the weight of their long friendship.
The impending loss of Judge Hershey is felt in the quiet effective opening splash page. Colin McNeil and Chris Blyth created a mood with those composition choices that they carried through the issue. It was moody without be morose or melodramatic. McNeil’s pages and layouts and confident linework. Respect has to be given to Annie Parkhouse too for her handling of the amount of dialogue that Wagner wrote for this. She managed to not affect the impact art and still make the letters clear and easily readable. All this came together so well you really might not see all the loving work that went into this week’s memorable Dredd strip.
Hope, Under Fire Part 1
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: There is something eye-catching about “Hope, Under Fire” that captures attention right from the first page. It’s wide page layouts, with smaller panel on top and a broader one dominating most of the space, the brushed feel to the pencils, the fummetti aesthetics of it all.
There is a lot to appreciate about the art alone on this first issue. Braxton borrows some similar phases from actors of the golden age of Hollywood (David Niven is a highlight), so there is a sense of watching a classic feature film, but updated to a far more modern (and brutal) sensibility. Braxton also utilises facial (and something eyes-only) close-ups as part of his transitions, especially when going back from the current day to memories of war time. Very clever and fluid to the narrative.
Adams begins to lay down the foundations for a drama exploring the traumas of war, and the science-fiction of a specific element for this war. Thought balloons have never been scarier, as readers will soon realise. The writer takes his time introducing main characters and situations, easing the audience in to what is set to big a bigger mystery and tale of personal challenge.
At the onset then, “Hope, Under Fire” is an enthralling story of trauma, memories, and wartime, told in a deliberate pace and beautifully illustrated. Well worth your time.
Brink: Hate Box, Part One
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Inj Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: This issue is intriguing, especially at reintroducing the world and setting up the next “Brink” mystery, but be warned: much of this prog is just that. We have one character to focus on in this prog, the rookie yet seemingly capable Tunde Weyowa. We get some good character development, as he seems to be a very by-the-book officer without having the experience to refine his work to be razor-sharp. Weyowa lists off protocols to the unidentified shooters amidst stutters and gasps, and it’s all somewhat wry and witty, with Weyowa sinking into a funk next tot he dead body being the highlight of the prog. There isn’t much of the rest of the prog, as investigator Adrienne Picazo essentially recaps the situation, and makes the whole experience a little duller.
Continued belowInj Culbard supplies the art here, and it pops with vivid blues and simplistic linework. The opening page establishes setting and scopes super efficiently, with a dramatic zoom-in from outer space, panning over a satellite, and the cityscape within it before landing on the crime scene victim painting with his own blood. Culbard does character action nicely from this point, with Weyowa reacting to the situation and shooting with a John Cleese level of elasticity, giving the scene some light-heartedness. The color palette, as mentioned before, is lovely. Blues are predominant here but are offset by occasional oranges and yellows to make everything somewhat distinct. One of the best shots is of Weyowa launching from a wall, which has two different shades of blue that each feels tonally distinct whilst still blending nicely.
“Hate Box” starts off with an interesting premise, but doesn’t do much other than establishing this. There’s some solid character acting, but this prog feels like largely setup, which I hope will payoff in the coming weeks.
Future Shocks: Restructuring
Karl Stock (script), Will Simpson (art), Annie Parkhosue (letters)
Brian Salvatore: “One lesson of history is that slaves revolt.”
This line of dialogue is the crux to this “Future Shocks,” which focuses on the relatively common sci-fi trope of humans being enslaved at the hands of machines. Karl Stock packs a fair amount of information into a small space, establishing a number of elements of this world without too much clunky expositional dialogue. But even without dialogue, the message is clear: humans have been enslaved, and they want to do something about it.
Will Simpson packs a ton of information into each panel, with movement and incredibly expressive faces populating the pages. There are some pretty gruesome cyborg/android creatures with faces full of exposed muscle. The effect is not unlike the aliens in They Live, or some of the early Peter Jackson horror films, and it works to great effect here.
The reality of these “Future Shocks” is that they are exercises in minimalist storytelling, having to get as close to a fully formed story out, without the benefit of prior knowledge. With that in mind, you can’t expect a world-changing story, but rather just a fun few pages, and ‘Restructuring’ delivers.
Anderson: PSI-Division – Judge Death: The Movie
Alan Grant (Script), Jake Lynch (Art), Jim Boswell (Colors), Simon Bowland (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Judge Anderson is investigating multiple murders that were seemingly committed by Judge Death, unfortunately not all of the clues add up, nor do they definitively point to the famed baddie. All Anderson knows for sure is that the latest victim died with his heart ripped out, believing the supernatural villain was his murderer. While following up on leads, she discovers there is a Judge Death movie currently in the works. She looks into the production company and makes an insane discover that even she couldn’t predict with her psychic powers.
Industry legend Alan Grant (“2000AD: Starlord,” “Shadow of the Bat”) pens this whodunit with Anderson scanning minds, kicking ass, and reading brains. Grant throws in plenty of his knowledge of Mega City One, silly humor, and nods to The Mask all in just a few quick pages. Jake Lynch (“Judge Dredd Megazine”) lends his skills to craft an art style that is reminiscent of the surreal sci-fi comics of the late 80s/early 90s, and also gives us a nicely detailed story with clear, open panels that easily tell the story. Jim Boswell’s (“Starship Troopers”) colors are bold and his use of contrast as he uses shadows to make for some of the best panels in this story. With nearly every page being placed in a different setting he was able to play around with tones quite a bit and it keeps things moving while showing off his talent for varied palettes.
This is definitely an entertaining murder mystery with Judge Anderson at the center, with some explosive action and nice spooky moments. There’s nothing new here, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. And who doesn’t love Anderson and Judge Death?
Defoe: The Divisor Part 1
Credits Pat Mills(script) S.K. Moore(art) Ellie De Ville(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The first four pages of the new “Defoe” strip ‘The Divisor’ are excellent conceptually and largely work as comics. They just have a few hiccups to them. Compositionally they tend to follow the same rhythm of slowly revealing something horrifying at the bottom of the page, at the top everything looks normal but as the page progresses things begin to decay and the horrors show up. That patter is beautifully revealed in S.K. Moore’s art on the first page, a quasi-splash with little inset panels slowly getting bigger and revealing the mad Bishop at the helm of the spaceship. It comes through again on the fourth page as a man scribbles his thoughts on the spaceship design that came to him in a dream. The composition is well done contrasting the single large image of the ship with the increasingly tight paneling of the man and his notes. Tight paneling that eventually reveals a creeping zombie ready to devour him by the bottom of the page.
There is just one hiccup on that first page, Ellie De Ville’s lettering and how it mixes with Moore’s art. Moore uses a lot of grey tone in this strip, it gives everything a creepy luminescence and makes everything look like the illustrations from “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” However, all that grey tone throws off the strength of the pure black of space and white of De Ville’s lettering on the first page. It muddies the lettering and I needed to zoom into read it, now part of that is the font is a bit hard to read but mainly it was picking out the lettering from the page. Also the quasi-Buck Rogers or Star Wars lettering crawl looks good and is a nice but is a pain to read. After this page, De Ville uses more traditional boxes for the lettering with a pure white background that makes them far easier to read.
Moore’s art is awash in details, almost too many details in spots. This is black and white line art so it becomes an exercise in using positive and negative space to create one solid image, in some spots he just has so many lines that the details are lost on a macro sense. As Defoe inspects the burning body of a slain zombie, the script points out an identifying marker on the body and it is pointed out in the art. Except the use of flame effects on the body confuses everything and you can’t really see it, the scripting has to tell you it is there. This isn’t so much of a problem in the action sequences due to them taking place in larger panels and having a more surreal, purposefully moody, vibe to them.
Overall a good first entry in this series just one that has a few issues that makes readability an issue.
Sinister Dexter: Waiting in Chairs
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Steve Yeowell (art), John Charles (colors), Ellie DeVille (letters)
Christa Harader: This one shot is a bit of an interlude, and while that’s generally how a one and done is used, there’s far too much, well, waiting in chairs to make this an engaging story. Abnett fills in a lot of the action via dialogue, but the rest of the story is a protracted conversation in a hospital waiting room with almost no dynamic action. Yeowell’s art is serviceable, but there’s only so much visual interest in a static environment. The excitement comes from character reactions and facial expressions, which are a little too loose to really pop. Charles keeps the mood artificially bright with a punchy, antiseptic palette peppered with a few bright details in the costuming, and DeVille’s lettering is clear and the balloons are placed well.
Serial narratives often run the risk of losing narrative threads, but an interlude that’s almost half recap of off-screen antics feels stale and flat. Sinister Dexter’s primed to return shortly in a new adventure, leading us to question why this was necessary as a one shot in the first place. At best, the plot’s treading water, and with a team like this at work it’s a bit of a shame to read filler.
Continued below
The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 1
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall(art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: The world of Judge Dredd is a pit, and his main haunting ground of Mega City One is one of the worst places to live in all of fiction.
And yet, with this new series called ‘The Fall of Deadworld’, the folks over at 2000AD have somehow managed to create a world that makes Mega City One look like a paradise.
“The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed” Part 1 focuses on one of Dredd’s most terrifying adversaries: the Dark Judges. For anyone who might not know, the Dark Judges are a collection of undead law enforcement officers from an alternate dimension who decided that since only the living commit crimes, than life itself is a crime and must be punished with death. ‘The Fall of Deadworld’ is setting itself up to be a sort of origin story for these monsters, detailing the conquest of their homeworld and the extermination of all life.
The story is fine and does just enough to be entertaining for a four page comic. Writer Kek-W delivers some great space action, showcases just how powerful the Dark Judges really are, and introduces the readers to a group of special forces Sov soldiers (the comic’s version of the Soviet Union) that look like they could be fun to learn more about and root for in later stories.
But the writing pales in comparison to the artwork. Artist Dave Kendell seems to have a perverse fascination with disgusting and disturbing imagery, and that fascination is on glorious full display here. While the humans and tech of Deadworld look appropriately faded and worn, Kendell is at his absolute best when drawing the Dark Judges and the effects of their presence and abilities. The hyper realistic gore, blood, and putrid rot are unbelievably nauseating and terrifying, but at the same time absolutely gorgeous and fascinating to look at.
“The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed” Part 1 is a strong opening to an engaging story. The gorgeous artwork is complemented by a solid script that promises to deliver a story about a group of horrifically outmatched humans trying to fight creatures spawned from the depths of their deepest nightmares. If you like horror, blood, terror, and grisly creatures who want to eat your face, you will love this story.
