2000 AD Prog 2153 Featured Columns 

Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2153 – All Hail, El Presidente!

By , , , and | October 16th, 2019
Posted in Columns | % Comments

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!

Cover by Dylan Teague

THIS WEEK IN 2000AD

Judge Dredd: Guatamala Part 4
John Wagner(script), Colin McNeil(art), Chis Blythe(colors), Annie Parkhouse(letters)

Greg Lincoln: Judge Dredd takes a covert walk in the woods, well jungle, to meet the Humanistas and talk with their leader. Wagner lets a lot of quiet moments punctuated by Blade Runner like voiceover build a sense of paranoia and suspicion. ‘Guatemala Part 4’ showed just how careful the diverse Humanista group are and Dredd’s acquiescence to their precautions show his commitment to conferring with their leader. Dredd’s meeting with Angelita and her confirming the existence of the claimed nuclear missiles leaves us with a sense that there may be something else going on here. Though John Wagner wrote the story the stars this week are Colin McNeil and Chris Blythe’s and their atmospheric shadow filled execution of his writing.

McNeil and Blythe built the jungles of Guatemala in tones of solid blacks and dark blues lit sparingly by Dredd’s lone flashlight. They created such defined silhouettes that you needs little more then them to follow the flow of the early parts of this story. After a brief flash of a few of the rebels they are all little more then clearly defined forces on hover boards moving though a lush yet surprisingly shadow filled landscape. Their depiction of waterfalls, trees, the vast hideout caves of the rebels and the appealing face of the charismatic leader of the Humanistas all tell a story all their own. Blythe gives Angelita and her rebels a very warm, welcoming pallet against so Nancy cold colors you both want to trust the and yet something feels a bit too good to be true. Light and darkness play a big part of the success of the art and somehow all the text Anne Parkhouse had to include detracts nothing from the overall atmospheric nature of the parlay between Dredd and Angelita.

Defoe: The Divisor Part 4
Credits Pat Mills(script) S.K. Moore(art) Ellie De Ville(letters)

Michael Mazzacane: After several weeks of finding S.K. Moore’s art to be unbalanced and hard to read at times, the fourth part of ‘The Divisor’ is an all around well done and readable strip.

It’s funny how certain narratives make you just go with it, in this case space travel by gunpowder through magical sci-fi realism, but other little things read as laughably absurd. There is a little thing on the first page that reads as laughably absurd, but fitting and just kinda “cool.” What’s better than a gun to shoot zombies with? A gun with 6 barrels to shoot zombies with! The gun design is just so absurd but fits the world it is being deployed in. Now due to page construction I wasn’t sure if Defoe was just quickly firing a gun 6 times or if it was a single object. This confusion isn’t a bad thing since either way the energy in the image makes it readable. Defoe’s hail of bullets forms a white border for the core of the page and its heavy black that coheres the page as a whole and individual panels. The action in this sequence also makes for a fine bit of juxtaposition between the peaceful and intellectual letter and the violent instinctual actions of Defoe.

Ellie De Ville’s lettering helps to get across the sublime nature of the Angels that ask Defoe for assistance. De Ville letters them like they speak in the vertical crawl from the start of a Star Wars film. They don’t say more than what you’d normally find but the presentation of the lettering gives them an otherworldly feel. Their hopeful, cheery, verbiage makes for a nice contrast with Defoe’s increasingly cross expression.

The settings these actions take place in are not ornate or large, they’re simple. That changes in the final scene as Defoe tries to stop the Britannia from launching. Moore fills the page with detail and lines as the ship looms in the background, an emphasis is placed on the cutting edge clockwork design. It is a lot to take in, but due to well done placement of blacks and overall design the page is easily readable without unnecessary moments of confusion.

Continued below

Brink: Hate Box, Part Four
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Inj Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Rowan Grover: I’m assuming that the first three chapters of this story were relevant, but honestly? It feels like Abnett could have started this tale with this chapter, and grabbed my attention much sooner. The relationship here between Bridget and Gibrani finally makes the former seem more human and relatable, and deeper than just being cynical at the systems around her. I love that Abnett also lets her get emotional in this issue, and puts the Hate Box’s swearing fines to good use. The hints about Bridget and Gibrani’s friendship and partnership in the past make each respective character feel more interesting and layered than ever before. The final sequence also gives some nice contrast, bringing back Bridget’s blank cynicism to offset her more emotional side.

The art here is something of a mixed bag. Culbard doesn’t bring much of the messy, urban environment of last prog’s ending to this issue, giving Bridget a much cleaner and odd-fitting apartment. This scene as well also suffers whenever Gibrani shows up on the screen, as often Culbard will give her the same visual emotion whilst the narrative cycles through several different emotions, almost making the video calls look like a stock photograph. Culbard’s take on Bridget is good enough, giving her some emotional range as she explores her predicament and feels nostalgic with her friend, though it feels like Culbard hesitates to take it all the way whenever Abnett is unafraid to with excessive cursing and bad attitude. I do love the scenery on the last page, with eerily perfectly-aligned apartment, with Tron-style lighting to boot.

The prog this time around is much more compelling character-wise, however, the art suffers somewhat in the emotional department. This is still a fine story, but it doesn’t feel as far-reaching or exciting as anything else in the prog at the moment.

The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 4
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall(art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Matthew Blair: The Sov invasion of Deadoworld has arrived, and it’s something that has even the dead scared and running!

“The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 4” delivers a little bit of quiet introspection before the literal hell storm of a nuclear invasion by one of the most prevalent enemies of the Justice Department that seems to be every where no matter what reality the reader visits: the Sovs. Writer Kek-W uses the initial bombardment of the invasion to deliver some solid character moments as the beleaguered living Judges are given a brief moment of respite due to the dead desperately trying to rebuild their forces and prepart\e to respond to the new threat.

As for the Sovs themselves, they aren’t as terrifying and disturbing as the dead, but they are still a very present danger, revealing that they were directly responsible for most of the violence in the story by engineering a civil war through their control of the President, a familiar and somewhat topical power move.

As for the art, it somewhat shameful to say that Dave Kendall is slipping a bit. To be clear, the artwork has only slightly dipped in quality—and a slight dip from fantastic is still very good—but the art feels hazier and there appears to be less care and attention to detail than in the beginning. It’s still gorgeous to look at, the rot and putrid decay of the zombies is contrasted beautifully with some of the best explosions ever drawn in a comic book panel, it’s just a little disappointing to see artwork that could have been better.

“The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 4” gives the reader some small and quiet moments, but promises to deliver one of the biggest and most epic battles ever seen in a Judge Dredd story. It’s the kind of violent, massive, and epic story that long time Dredd readers like myself love, and it’s something you’ll enjoy as well.

Hope, Under Fire Part 2
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)

Gustavo S. Lodi: Last week, for the review of the third chapter of “Hope, Under Fire,” there was a strong indication that the fourth instalment of this war/noir/magic series would take a turn for the bizarre and outlandish, with the promise of even more incredible visuals. And “Hope” has certainly delivered on this promise; what has already been an incredible display of visual storytelling is ranked up to eleven, as the fantastic takes over.

Continued below

There are two aspects to observe that. The most obvious one is some of the character and creature designs, apparent right at the beginning of the issue. A ghoulish cowboy is shown on all of it’s horrific decomposition, bringing back memories of the late master Bernie Wrightson. Like Wrightson, Broxton manages to straddle the line between the clearly out-of-this-world, with an eerie sense of being grounded, real, that only adds to the horror at display.

The second aspect is just as crafty. At one point, the narrative of “Hope” pushes the lead character into a severe drug trip, where his current surroundings of a big metropolis start to give way to the jungles of his warring memories. The pencil strokes are so well-utilized, almost like a fading effect as the two settings transition one into the other. Really incredible work.

Plot-wise, the story advances by going backward, and revealing what actually happened in the past where a certain pact was forged, under specific magical conditions, commonplace to this reality. By taking that route, and using it to pave the way forward, the story connects its background and foreground themes and narrative, indicating that everything will come full circle in an explosive way.

With another solid entry, with perhaps the best art so far, “Hope, Under Fire” remains well worth the price of admission.


//TAGS | Multiver-City One

Michael Mazzacane

Your Friendly Neighborhood Media & Cultural Studies-Man Twitter

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Greg Lincoln

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Gustavo S Lodi

Gustavo comes all the way down from Brazil, reading and writing about comics for decades now. While Marvel and DC started the habit, he will read anything he can get his hands on! Big Nintendo enthusiast as well.

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Rowan Grover

Rowan is from Sydney, Australia! Rowan writes about comics and reads the heck out of them, too. Talk to them on Twitter at @rowan_grover. You might just spur an insightful rant on what they're currently reading, but most likely, you'll just be interrupting a heated and intimate eating session.

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Matthew Blair

Matthew Blair hails from Portland, Oregon by way of Attleboro, Massachusetts. He loves everything comic related, and will talk about it for hours if asked. He also writes a web comic about a family of super villains which can be found here: https://tapas.io/series/The-Secret-Lives-of-Villains

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