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: End of Days, Part Three
Credits: Rob Williams (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Chris Blythe (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: ‘End of Days’ continues as the Williams-MacNeil story takes a necessary, if somewhat awkward, turn. While Judge Dredd is at the center of the strip, he can’t really be at the center of the strip. His character is not capable of being compelling at this point in the strip. He is a blunt instrument. Colin MacNeil continues to draw Dredd in very iconic fashion. Which is effective, their page designs in general are well done, but you don’t get much of a sense for Dredd as an emotive character in these pages. He’s just the faceless indefatigable lawman on a mission (maybe from God) to go kill the four horseman.
As such Williams and MacNeil spend a fair amount of time looking at the world around Mega City One tearing itself to pieces. There is a nice visual gag as two protestors argue. One wields an End is Nigh sign. The other holds one proclaiming the End is Nigher. For their part MacNeil and Blythe do a good job of packing these pages with detail and images, a perfect balance of chaos and readability. Those pages also highlight some potentially less than efficient plotting and use of page budget by Williams. As a mood piece they are effective, but it makes the core plot function of the strip seem slight as Dredd assembles a team to go hunt the four. That is the core plot of this strip, Dredd gets a team together and goes hunting for the four horseman, Famine. Also the horse talks. It isn’t much.
This sort of strip is necessary just to move pieces around and work through plot. The ability of the art team and Williams to keep fitting in some mood pieces helps to smooth out the plottiness of it all but it isn’t exactly the most exciting episodic entry ever.
Sinister Dexter: Bulletopia – ‘Boys in the HUD’
Credits: Dan Abnett (Script), Steve Yeowell (Art), John Charles (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: With armored soldiers rushing in, Hosanna’s Mek assistant Polly rushes at them, brandishing arm knives and a liquid metal shielding that would make the T-1000 jealous. Bullets and explosive rounds fly as she engages the intruders. Ray, Finn, and Hosanna get behind some tables and start firing at the intruders as Polly makes shredded cheese out of them. Blood and gore are all over these panels as things continue to get worse. Deaths on both sides occur and the action is non-stop from front to back of this chapter.
Abnett’s scripting is cut down significantly from the last two chapters, allowing for quick lines between gunfire and giving us just enough information to keep the action moving. We get all the emotion we need throughout the entire strip. Yeowell’s art is consistent with the previous entries, but he allows himself to get a bit wacky and cartoonish for certain moments of fighting, especially with Polly’s key panels. Because she is an A.I. herself, she is allowed to leave the constraints of reality here and there without it getting ridiculous.
‘Boys in the HUD’ Part Three is a solid action sequence from top to bottom bridging the much needed set-up and the larger story at hand.
Full Tilt Boogie, Chapter 2
Credits: Alex De Campi (script) Eduardo Ocana (art) Simon Bowland (lettering)
Matthew Blair: “Full Tilt Boogie” #2 opens with the forces of good preparing for some sort of ritual that will give them the soldiers they need to fight the forces of evil. However, things are not as they are supposed to be, and the father of a princess is upset that his son isn’t present to do what needs to be done, which means someone is going to have to suffer.
Continued belowWriter Alex de Campi continues her rapid pace in the storytelling department, rationing the few pages she has in this part of the story towards fleshing out the previously established characters while continuing to pile on more new information. On the bright side, it makes for a very fast paced and efficient story. The downside to this choice is that certain character moments don’t get the emotional weight they should have. There’s a scene at the very end where the father of one of the characters does something bad, and we don’t know whether to hate him or feel sorry for him.
Eduardo Ocana’s artwork continues to be great and fascinating to look at. There’s a lot of science fiction stores out there and Ocana’s artwork does a fantastic job of making “Full Tilt Boogie” #2 look unique and engaging. It’s a fascinating blend of old world grandeur mixed with sci fi tech along with Eastern robes and iconography blended with Western aristocracy and battle armor.
“Full Tilt Boogie” #2 is a rapid fire story that gets a lot of stuff out of the way for more interesting stuff to follow in later issues, and while it’s a story that could have probably benefited from some more exposition and explaining how everyone feels about each other, it’s good enough to get the point across.
The Order: Land Of The Free, Part Three
Credits: KEK-W (script), John Burns (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: “The Order” gets into some interesting politics in the light of current events, and handles them pretty well whilst moving the story forwards. KEK-W doesn’t shy away from the fact that Benjamin Franklin, our de facto hero of the story, was also a slave owner despite holding abolitionist views. Captain Belair holds Franklin accountable for this, making him uncomfortable in the most deserving way, and I almost wish that the rest of the issue reminded him more of this rather than trying to rebuild him up as the hero that they need. Regardless, there’s some good identity and sense of self themes that are being looked at here. I like the fact that they need Franklin not because he’s super smart, but because he also is fallible and human. I also love KEK-W’s characterization of Cassi as she owns her agency whilst talking to Franklin, saying “Don’t recall givin’ you permission to patronise me” to his pretty name comment.
Burns’ art is much more consistent in style on this prog, sticking largely to the painterly art which works for a much moodier story. From the first page, we can see a great usage of panel real estate. Burns is able to fit seven different characters into a panel that’s a quarter of the size of the full page, giving each character a distinct style and expression. There’s also inventive panel usage on the following page, as Belair reaches across a panel border to grab Franklin by the collar, showing him that she’s not messing around. Then there are little details too, like the fact that Mr. Calhoun’s hair is starkly orange and stands out almost artificially, which makes sense considering he has a ‘machine intelligence’. There are also some great subtle facial details between Cassi and Franklin on the last page, especially with Cassi fading between hopeful and skeptical with the slight movement of an eyebrow.
“The Order” moves into dealing with some heavier content this chapter and does pretty well with it whilst also navigating the story. I’d love to see it deal with more of these themes in the future, and what other mysteries the story has to unfold.
The Diaboliks: La Vita Malvagia Part 3
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Don Reardon (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Greg Lincoln: With the inclusion of Brother Liam in this week’s chapter, “The Diaboliks” has taken on a very British flavor of horror. It’s taken on the tone of the caper-ish opening chapter again. Solomon and Jenny are humorously irreverent, their playing with Liam as they approach this first mission is tongue in cheek, a little salacious and a good introduction to the dynamics of this trio. Really, the best bits in this entertaining chapter of demon(?)hunting come from their interactions. From the opening where the careless disregard that Jenny shows in her driving their new car to the use of the ”Brother” to guide and Devine for them, which comes off as a joking lark on Solomon’s part, all has a loving camp send of Hammer Horror films right down to the rising of the dead in the final scene in the crypt.
I had not made the Hammer Horror connection till seeing Don Reardon’s ink heavy slightly jagged art in this chapter. Black and white comics very much have a classic horror comics magazine feel to them and Reardon has that craggy lined look down. These pages are somewhere between Bernie Wrightson and Steve Yeowell in terms of look feel and pacing. The expressions he carves in the shadow ladened faces carry either horror or humor depending, and he does then very deftly. Just as much as Jenny’s face seems to be there to relive sneers, jeers and snide sidelong glances, Brother Liam seems to be there to deliver both the shock and the horror of the moments.
