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 2
John Wagner(script), Colin McNeil(art), Chis Blythe(colors), Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Greg Lincoln: The Guatamala that we encounter as Dredd and his small entourage including Harry the Mechanismo Judge is not a safe place for fleshy types. On landing they witness what could be called human trafficking in another place and another time and get hints that organ-legging is another hinted practice of the robot run third world country. ‘Guatemala Part 2” is a solid second act. John Wagner spends little time introducing the new players in this drama and of them Coronel Dos leaves the greatest impression. He’s ever bit a stereotypical thug of a tin pot dictator and he leaves a bad taste in your mouth as much as he does to Dredd. We also meet the local resistance and their leader Angelita. It’s a hopeful moment both for us, as readers, and perhaps for the Mega City Judges who perhaps might have an ally here. Wether the Humanistas will ultimately be allies or not the stage is set for a potentially interesting conflict.
McNeil and Blythe did great job setting the scenes for this chapter. McNeil is so good at defining character he plays a lot with long shots this week, allowing the silhouettes define character and doing so brilliantly. Keeping the characters in the distance gave a sense of expanse and open space to the setting. They pay with lots of images that are iconic to 2000AD, the revolutionary robots are old, clunky and barely humanoid like so many classic 2000AD robots. What really shines though is the use of the hover boards for the revolutionaries, the guerrilla fighters skybound arrival is reminiscent of the classic Chopper strip. Though little really happens other then set up it’s one done with style and panache.
Defoe: The Divisor Part 2
Credits Pat Mills(script) S.K. Moore(art) Ellie De Ville(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: “Defoe” vexes me with this strip as is becomes apparent certain issues with the readability of S.K. Moore’s art will be persistent, though for slightly different reasons compared to the previous strip. Mr. Defoe is on the way to the New Bethlehem Hospital for a chat with the institutes most infamous prisoner in hopes of cracking the case of these high profile, targeted, murders. This opening page is the most immediately readable pages of the strip, with Moore’s use of heavy black at the top of the page in contrast to the large amount of white on the bottom and the overall grid layout. It narrates to readers the right kind of creepy tone a mental hospital in the world of “Defoe” should have, especially when the manager has a freighting doll like expression.
With a turn of the page things begin to get muddled as Defoe finds the prisoner they’re looking for in treatment. The masked staff are trying to make the demon that is causing the mental illnesses understand the equivalent of “it puts the lotion on its skin or it get the hose again.” For their part, Pat Mills, does a good job of scripting some creepy, somewhat humorous, macabre dialog about this thoroughly modern institution. The use of grey wash by Moore on this page also helps give a semblance dimension to the figure work.
The second part of “The Divisor” becomes barley legible on the next page as Moore overwhelms everything with an over abundant black and panels crammed right next to each other. Sticking these six panels, in a 2×3 grid, so close together makes sense, it allows them to dedicate the final third of the page to a single grotesque image. Except, the impact of that grotesque imagery, the mad inmate weirdly posed in an almost Spider-man like squat with a freshly ripped out human heart in hand doesn’t land nearly as hard as intended due to page construction. The quick actions that setup the final panel are hard to make out due to their size and use of lighting. The final panel itself just bleeds together resulting in a confusing and thoroughly hard page to read. Not every page needs to be read at a glance but Moore does it no favors with how it is composed.
Continued belowThe strip does manage to go out on a mostly strong note as Defoe and his aide find themselves suddenly overrun by zombies. Mills has set a good pace and isn’t trying to hide what all this mysterious mumbojumbo means for the plot and narrative going forward.
Brink: Hate Box, Part Two
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Inj Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: Part two of “Hate Box” continues to be mostly introductory and meandering, with even less tension than the first chapter of this new “Brink” story. We get more from the new recruit, Weyowa, who seems to be investigating more into the nature of his position at the office, comes off as having a lot of his agenda spoken for and feels a little hollow in this issue. I do enjoy Lisa Onofre’s constant sass and cutting down of Weyowa’s intrigue, however, especially when she seems determined to make sure he knows how miserable he’s making the workplace. However, the issue doesn’t progress much further than this banter between workers. We are introduced to Bridget Kurtis, the new Head of MCD, but she doesn’t feel like she has a purpose yet as interesting and darkly glib as she is.
Culbard’s art here is solid and handles busier scenes pretty well without making the whole comic feel overstuffed. I love the descending sequence from the satellite to the desks in the opening page, it echoes a scrawling Star Wars opening text yet the descent into the desks is a witty way to offset that. The character work and emotions are a bit of a mixed bag. The best example here might be Onofre, who’s standoffish look perfectly suits her character. However, a lot of the faces here, especially Weyowa’s, seem to have this otherworldly goldfish-like quality to them, which doesn’t help with the relatable, everyday dialogue that’s narrated to us. I do love Culbard’s attention to detail with countless ads in the backgrounds and fun little details that keep readers eyes’ busy, however.
“Brink: Hate Box” is a little less exciting than last time, and feels like it’s dropping the ball somewhat. However, new characters are seeded well here, and I hope they bring the story back to a higher quality in later installments.
Hope, Under Fire Part 2
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: The same level of quality on the art from its first issue remains a strong selling point for “Hope, Under Fire” the second time around. On this chapter, Broxton pushes even a bit further by including more imaginative page layouts, particularly when showcasing the effects of a fictional drug in this world. Panels slide more diagonally, imagines escape pre-determined borders, not that different from what a mind hallucinating would perceive.
This is a mostly quiet issue, with the focus on two men discussing their differences and objectives in a local bar, so the success on facial expressions, nuances, and richly rendered backgrounds was key. Braxton manages to instills a sense of realism and photo-quality to his characters, but without losing a sense of movement nd fluidity needed in comic book form.
Adams continues to peel his narrative gradually, explaining the differences of this post-World War II Earth, with hints of urban magic, to the regular one. All of that is done through dialogue, with just a quantum of exposition, that does not feel like an invasion of the flow.
The interaction between the corrupt and morally ambiguous lead characters is very interesting to seeing unravel, with sharp dialogue doing most of the heavy lifting. The few flashback scenes are used to provide context, but do not overstay their welcome either.
“Hope, Under Fire” remains a gorgeous and compelling series to follow. Readers should be curious to what is coming up next.
The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 2
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall(art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: Now that the setting of the Deadworld has been established, we get to meet some of the players in this tragic last stand, and while the final victory of the Dark Judges is all but inevitable, there’s still some dissension in the ranks that promises to provide some juicy drama.
Continued belowThe problem with writing a story about how the Dark Judges took over their world is that we already know how it ends. However, this hasn’t stopped writer Kek-W from injecting a healthy bit of drama into the proceedings.
On one hand, we have the rag tag resistance group that is somehow managing to fight off the advances of the Dark Judges and their forces thanks to the presence of mutants and a handful of Judges that have managed to resist the effects of whatever the Dark Judges have done to turn the Justice Department to their side.
On the other hand, it turns out that the Dark Judges aren’t as in control as they might have thought, since the former Chief Justice has been killed and replaced by the sarcastic and utterly insane Judge Casey Tweed. It will be interesting to see Tweed’s agenda unfold, and what will happen to her when the Dark Judges have had enough of her crap and decide to take her down.
As per the last issue, the artwork continues to be gorgeous and the highlight of the entire story. Artist Dave Kendall continues to showcase his borderline insane talents at drawing gross and disgusting creatures and manages to make the grey and pallid setting of Deadworld interesting. While the action and story is a little more direct and generic in this issue, there is a pretty imaginative moment where Kendall shows his interpretation of what a psi attack would look like on the undead, in the form of their skulls glowing green and crumbling to dust.
“The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 2” is a solid story with fantastic artwork that manages to accomplish the difficult task of being highly entertaining and capable of surprising audiences even when we all know how this unfortunate story ends.
