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 8
John Wagner(script), Colin McNeil(art), Chis Blythe(colors), Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Greg Lincoln: A bit of the writing was on the wall last week reading this story is just about over and and this week actually wraps up the ‘Guatemala’ story arc. It feels premature even though Wagner manages to tie up all the various plot threads pretty neatly. (The Mechanismo invasion was the penultimate chapter as this week is mere cleanup.) He makes this end as satisfying as he can, tiring up all the loose plot threads. He brings in the Humaistas to participate in the revolution but their involvement even to the characters does feel a bit of an afterthought. There were there to provide the info in the missiles, then relegated to being little more then a curiosity. The rescue of most of Judge Hershey’s relatives is pretty much afterthought too despite being the major reason for their presence there to begin with. Though this arc started with emotional impact with Hershey’s death and the end lacks the weight it should have, its all feels perfunctory and sadly rushed. Sadly this is the one critique I commonly have with the Judge Dredd strip, the limited space often necessitates stories ending feeling rushed to the finish.
The art from Colin McNeil and Chris Blythe is stellar as usual. They make the Mechanismo Judges devastatingly impressive… possibly a bit too much so as they do all the heavy lifting against the robot army of Guatemala. They seem unstoppable as they roll through the county and liberate it for the humans. The final image of the grim Joseph Dredd as he refuses to interact with Olivia and her daughter lacks the emotional impact the image desperately is depicting. The rush to the end killed a lot of the feeling in real life so the big beats on the last page falls flat.
Defoe: The Divisor Part 8
Credits Pat Mills(script) S.K. Moore(art) Ellie De Ville(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: There is this sense of grand spectacle to this part of ‘The Divisor’ that the strip has never really achieved. This is partly out of tonal and artistic concerns, as a steampunk-low magic kind of strip it is more interested in horror and moments that elicit a “ew” to “ohhh” reaction than “wow.” The grisly details in Moore’s ink work as the zombies bang on the doors stand in great contrast to the clean line art in other moments. As the Britannia launches into space, it isn’t a moment of horror or satirical punch just a bit awe inspiring.
Part of that sense of spectacle is due to Moore’s page design. The full page splash as the mighty ship takes off is plainly effective. A simple composition that is technically complex with all the shades of grey to capture the smoke and intense heat that threatens to overtake the spectators and blow them away. In previous reviews I’ve noted how Moore has lost control of the black-white balance in some of their designs that leads to pages being hard to read. You’d think that would happen in a page with something like 30 panels. It does not as Moore lays a checker board like pattern with all the panels and weaves others together. It is compositionally amazing.
These pages of excess and spectacle make the moments aboard the ship hurtling through space read with an appropriate amount of claustrophobia. The pages themselves aren’t super dense or anything, but how Moore uses perspective to morph figures and the overall setting makes everything read as cramped. Like they’re all trapped in a small room under a powder keg, it is an uneasy feeling. And then the zombies show up. Unlike in previous strips where their reveal was lacking in effect their reveal in this strip as the cliffhanger was effective, you didn’t see them coming. I guess third times the charm for zombies interrupting space travel.
Continued below
Brink: Hate Box, Part Eight
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Inj Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: Abnett goes deep into the emotional motivations and background for protagonist Bridget in this chapter of “Hate Box”. There’s a big restrain on dialogue throughout this issue, and it adds a somber tone that makes every bit of voice that we do hear even more significant. The wild sexism/derogatory comments from the kids in the opening reminds the readers that this futuristic world still remains pretty terrible. The dialogue from the neighbour across the hall is vague yet generous enough in detail that we’re given an image of what to expect from Bridget’s mother before we see her on the page. Abnett then pulls right back on the dialogue as we see Bridget’s mother Dora completely ignorant of her arrival, and Bridget wordlessly takes in the surroundings that is her family and family’s legacy. It’s moving, and tells a lot about Bridget’s situation whilst growing up, while also revealing a lot about her famed father and mother. Bridget’s comment at the end adds a lot of emotional weight to the scene as she tries to distract from the event in her report, saying “Nothing important, chief.”.
Culbard does a great job in this issue with characters and surroundings to tell a well structured story. The twins that guard the front of the tale both sport futuristic matador-style outfits, which lends a lot to their ideas of self-style grandeur. Even the neighbour has a lot of energy as she bops all around the panels with a worried look and great sense of style with her pink sweater. The real draw here is seeing Culbard bring Dora’s room to life. We pan slowly through the family-significant objects like Bridget’s father’s memorial plaque and several older photos, all the whole cutting back and forth between Bridget’s reactions to set the tone for that particular discovery. The colours also give a hazy nostalgic tone, especially as the oranges and blues are partially muted for the apartment scene.
This prog drops a much more emotional story for “Brink” this time around, and it’s more than welcome. Abnett does a good job letting the art have free reign to tell the story, which Culbard handles super well.
Hope, Under Fire Part 8
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: After a couple of entries that were mostly setup and insinuations at a broader reveal, “Hope” is back in full gear on chapter eight. The plot moves in a far more satisfying manner, the stakes seem to be elevated once again, while the art continues as strong as ever.
Without going into spoilers, the ‘Under Fire’ storyline played with the notion of protagonists and antagonists, on the prettiness that not everyone or everything is what it seems at first glance. This time around, the spotlight is finally shown on this mystery and firmer footing is finally offered to the audience.
Art by Broxton remains as atmospheric as ever, with a bit more action sprinkled this time around, especially towards the final pages. There is a certain occurrence near the end that pushed character and creature design to a new level, combined with a very brutal closing scene. It was all done remarkably well, with each panel serving as a window to a particular confrontation; that way, the more realistic art style did not feel stilted or frozen.
Going forward, one can expect “Hope” to retain this much more balanced pace. There is a lot of promise to what can happen next, so ideally the story won’t take a backseat again to exposition.
The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 8
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall(art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: Remember the Sov commando unit that invaded the city at the beginning of this little adventure? The one that was attacked by the forces of the dead as soon as they landed and were quickly removed from the picture? Well, they’re back now, and even more hopelessly outmatched than before!
“The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 8” continues to build upon better and better writing as writer Kek-W shifts the reader’s attention away from the small band of hopelessly outmatched heroes to hopelessly outmatched quasi antagonists. The Sov commandos have survived and they are determined to carry out their mission of bringing death and destruction to their decadent capitalist opponents. The Sovs get to kind of develop as characters as Kek-W unleashes some of the classic Soviet style disdain and cold bravado that Western comics loved using to portray the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Meanwhile, the dead are shown to be a lot smarter and cleverer than initially thought as Chief Judge Casey Tweed makes good use of mind games to turn the invaders against each other and unleash even more chaos.
As for the art, this is probably the most restrained and realistic section of the story that artist Dave Kendall has had to produce so far. Since most of the story focuses on real living human beings, the artwork doesn’t get to go crazy and unleash anything truly terrifying. However, there is a short little nightmare sequence that is appropriately bloody and terrifying, and the end of the story introduces a large piece of industrial military equipment that promises to unleash even more death and destruction upon an already ruined city.
“The Fall of Deadworld: Doomed Part 8” is a fine display of classic Soviet stereotypes and solid military action that continues to deliver a great story and lay the ground work for even more destruction as we creep ever closer to what is most likely going to be an awesome climax.
