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 Relic Part 3
Credits Kenneth Niemand (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colours), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The creative team in this strip has done a good job of playing into the cynicism masquerading as dark humor that can pop up in “Dredd” from time to time. All throughout this final segment I was expecting Oggl to be mercilessly shot down by Dredd, perhaps recalling some US specific imagery. That’s what Dredd and the rest of the Judges were trying, as they were trained to, do. So when the moment came on page 4, perfectly timed, I wasn’t surprised and just a little bummed out by it. But Oggl isn’t gunned down outside a City Block, he manages to pull an E.T. and get home. By the end of ‘The Relic’ the creative team have shown the banal lawful evil that underpins “Dredd” and skewered them for their lack of imagination.
Artistically Jake Lynch takes the opposite approach of the previous strip. In Prog 2172, Lynch’s art work was all open with pseudo panels interspersed with real ones. This strip is firmly set in the material realm as Oggl goes on a rescue-revenge mission to get the rest of the imprisoned artifacts off world. This necessitates a more panel based page composition that communicates a stricter spatial relationship between Oggle and the Judges.
The treatment of violence is worth noting in this strip. We see the after effets of the ninty and nine years sleep move Oggl used last strip. The art team create an interesting dissonance between the non-leathal-ish actions Oggl takes, he isn’t killing them but that dosen’t mean he can’t kick their butts, and how it is presented as body horror. Oggl can sprout plant life with a thought, which leads to some good Dredd one liners, but that also means he turns people (rightly) into tree people! That sort of horrifying but not deadly action helps to raise the tension on if Oggl will be able to make it off planet alive.
Overall ‘The Relic’ was a well one three part strip that wouldn’t be a bad thing to show people interested in the world of Dredd and think reading a complete case file is intemedating.
The Zaucer of Zilk: Part 11 – A Zaucerful of Zecrets
Peter Hogan (Script), Brendan McCarthy (Art, Colors, & Story), Len O’Grady (Colors), Jim Campbell (Letters)
Christopher Egan: The Zaucer plans to trade in his broken wand for a brand new one. Upon turning over his old wand, it begins to fizz and fly around, throwing its power around endangering everyone in the vicinity. Adult Tutu (TutuTwo) gets little Tutu out of harm’s way. The Zaucer once again calls for the aid of Cragganknock. Good ol’ Craggy is always ready for a fight and he helps the heroes destroy the faulty wand.
It is at this point that the time paradox comes to close, leaving TutuTwo in the present day, but putting an end to the definite death of her father. Leaving the future clear and bright, and unknown. With the mystery solved, the Zaucer decides to lay down his power and be the family man he always was at heart. Offering up the role of the Zaucer to any of the other heroes that will have it, the whole group sits down to a meal; where the matters of the future are discussed.
Our happy family and their allies decide to travel the world and see where fate takes them. The end of this story leaves things open for future stories and gives us a nice wrap up on this adventure. Hogan and McCarthy wrote a fun and exciting adventure that never took itself seriously. While it had its own highs and lows in quality, as most stories do, it was rarely boring. Overall this series had wonderful, and wild artwork. McCarthy and O’Grady kept things consistent throughout. This creative team accomplished what they set out to do; whether or not it always works. The next big question is whether or not the Zaucer of Zilk will return.
Continued below
Sinister Dexter, The Frighteners, part 3
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Steve Yeowell (art), John Charles (colors) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: Readers returning to “Sinister Dexter” will find the usual balance of crime noir, asimovian sci-fi, and a twisted sense of humor on these pages. Ablett, Yeowell, and Charles are at home with this new adventure, having more fun than in previous stories.
Perhaps the biggest contributor to that is the nature of this investigation, which separates the two protagonists to their own part of the tale. The sheer absurdity of what is going on, involving a rogue artificial intelligence, a crime-filled theme park apartment, and an antagonist who is as much of a foil as a mystery, the sense of surprise is present on every page.
A lot of credit has to go to Yeowell on art, particularly on the timing of some of the visual gags that dominate the latter half of this issue. There is plenty of physical humor to be found on the latest “Sinister Dexter” and that might steal a couple of laugh-out-loud moments for its audience.
All in all, ‘The Frighteners’ is less of a scare, and more of a good laugh, told within the confines of the “Sinister Dexter” universe. Readers will feel right at home with the art style and characters, but be taken on a far more amusing ride than previous installments.
Skip Tracer: Nimrod, Part 3
Credits: James Peaty (script), Paul Marshall (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: This installment eschews the flashback device from the first two chapters and, instead, delivers the most succinct and effective chapter yet, despite it not featuring a protagonist. If this arc weren’t entitled “Nimrod,” nor did we spend the first two chapters hearing about the evils of Nimrod, it would’ve been quite easy to see Nimrod as the hero of this strip for the first 3/4 of it.
Peaty does a nice job setting the reader up to align themselves with Nimrod, and there’s ‘hope’ for the character up until he ultimately reveals his ‘mission,’ and is revealed to be a different, but equally murderous, bastard than the folks he’s attacking. Marshall really knows how to draw a character who has been through the ringer, and his Mr. Exty wears every embarrassment and bruise he’s received. The character is already sympathetic due to his circumstances, and so the visuals just turn that up to 11.
Ultimately, this story is still a somewhat vague one, with three chapters under its belt and not all that clear of a picture thus far. But each chapter has worked in isolation; hopefully they begin to work in concert with each other soon enough.
Feral & Foe: Part Eleven
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Elson (art), Richard & Joe Elson (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Christa Harader: Bode comes through with some deep-fried magic, we lose a few more people and the crew is seriously #^%!ed. Again. Always?
“Feral & Foe” is interesting, but it’s gone on for too long. It’s funny and not what you’d expect from a fantasy strip, but it’s become flat in terms of tension and mood. The dialect doesn’t always work, and the 1:1 military tactic language feels a little hokey. The team clearly has the space to pace this comic well, and it’s not happening. We’re boomeranged from scenario to scenario in such a way that feels too self-contained and episodic to matter, so when we dig a little deeper into character development it feels out of place.
As with last week’s work, daytime battle scenes make for more clarity in “Feral & Foe,” and this week’s story has some nice magic from Bode to add texture to the backgrounds. Parkhouse’s lettering is up to snuff, as usual, especially considering Abnett & Ellson’s tactical fantasy warfare dump in some of the dialogue.
Unfortunately, “Feral & Foe” continues to meander, and the shine’s worn off, officially. There’ve been too many ups and downs at this point, and too many contractions and expansions from week to week to merit sustained interest.
