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: Carry the Nine, Part 4
Credits: Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt (script), Boo Cook (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Noel Thorne: The Council of Five has rejected Maitland’s proposal for education/social funding so she’s decided to send a tell-all email to the press – but it’s only saved to draft; she’s going to get Dredd’s advice first. Meanwhile Dredd’s taking on da yoof gang leader Jojo who’s busted into the judges’ Sector 34 armoury for… Reasons?
This is the fourth and final part of “Carry the Nine” and all I can say is thank Grudd this rubbish is over. “Are we here to police the citizens or help them?” asks Maitland in her email. Isn’t the answer obvious? The judges should be there to police and there should be a government to help them! Is everyone in the future astoopid!? We have this figured out now in the present! Having the judges run everything is lunacy – no wonder everything sucks in the future!
The Special Judicial Squad turn out to be a red herring as they do literally nothing but watch a screen. Maitland’s entire storyline is also a red herring: she talks to Dredd, he says he’ll have a word with the Council – AND THAT’S ALL, FOLKS! What?! All that for nothing? Worse is the Jojo storyline. She was a nobody and Dredd deals with her instantly. What was the point? She was just a punk gang leader who was raiding the local sector house for no reason other than to do crime. She’s the flimsiest of antagonists – no motive, no character, no point. Horrible writing.
At the polar opposite of Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt’s dismal script is Boo Cook’s art which has been excellent throughout this barely-readable nonsense. The wide shot of the damaged sea wall that opens “Part 4” is dramatic, reminding us visually why there’s more chaos than usual going on in MC-1, and the action scenes are very kinetic from Dredd kicking down the door, to the perp Jayden getting his face incinerated by the malfunctioning judge-bot.
Dredd himself looks fantastic, particularly the close up showing his scarred, grizzled mug, and the mix of long and close-shots during his and Maitland’s rooftop discussion looked wonderfully stirring and emotive – it’s a shame that the scene turned out to be so anticlimactic. The colours are really something too with bright oranges and reds for the action, to highlight danger, switching to placid blues and soft lighting for the peaceful aftermath.
Cook deserves better writers for his art. As it is, “Carry the Nine” as a whole was easily among the most drokking drekkiest Dredd stories I’ve had the misfortune to read and “Part Four” was especially egregious, underlining how pointless and dumb this entire outing was – it’s basically just filler. Dredd fans can at least be consoled – with quality this low, the only way is up, so the next Dredd comic will probably be better!
Stickleback: New Jerusalem, Part Four
Credits Ian Edginton (script) D’Israeli (art) Jim Cambell(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: With actors like Henry Cavill or a rejuvenated Robert Downey Jr., the figure of Sherlock Holmes has taken on the appearance of and been treated as a man of action. With the setup from the previous strip it seemed like Edginton and D’Israeli’s Stickleback-Holmes was set to become another man of action and take on the mythic Green Knight. However, if you know anything about the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight you know how bouts against the titular Knight tend to end.
D’Israeli’s page design for this batch of pages is wonderfully restrained with a majority of pages operating on a simple 2×3 grid design or other rule of third designs. After the slight bit of friction with their art last week, this strip shows how important page design is when dealing with so much of the quasi negative space. It also allows him to reuse the same pose for the Green Knight in one instance that contrary to popular imagination isn’t “lazy,” it serves to show the speed at which the Knight moves.
Continued belowWith the Green Knight taken care of the gang is pulled back to dreary reality, and a heavy dose of charcoal grey tones, to find an intruder in their midst. It’s an effective if somewhat sudden cliffhanger. It isn’t the sign of a poor script so much as just how page economies can make for a real pinch from time to time. The fourth part of ‘New Jerusalem’ continues to move “Stickleback” along at an enjoyable pace that doesn’t seem to have the elliptical sort of pacing their previous work in “Scarlet Traces” did.
Skip Tracer: Hyperballad Part Four
Credits: James Peaty (script), Paul Marshall (art), Dylan Teague (colours) Simon Bowland (letters)
Ryan Pond: The previous story left Nolan and India in The Underneath, surrounded by Splices. Nolan does what he can with his psy ability to knock them back, and when one of the “Children of Fury” steps in they are temporarily safe. It doesn’t take long for the environment to catch up to India and she develops a cough, as does Nolan who realizes that something isn’t right in The Underneath.
Peaty does a great job of weaving in some of the Skip Tracer lore and history while keeping the reader up to date without having to go back and look up what the splicers are, where these characters are coming from, and how Nolan is caught up in all of this.
Marshall does great line work, and the character design for Nerin Tan is awesome. Nolan’s expression of his ability is always consistent and it helps clarify what is happening in each panel, but there is also plenty of space left to draw some really nasty, intimidating shots of the Splices.
The standout, in this Prog especially, is the colour work by Teague. The Underneath is a very warm place, and that is colored very well with orange-red backgrounds. But you also have Nolan’s psy ability that expresses in a shade of green, and Nerin Tan has a lot of cool colors like greens and blues but with a warm, orange skin color. This is a great use of the color spectrum without creating any clashes. All the warm and cool colors mix on the page perfectly, and bring even more clarity to each panel.
Nolan and India hold their own for a moment, but it is an unlikely ally that saves them from the Splices. But not everything in The Underneath is as it should be and it may be, at least in part, Nolan Blake’s fault.
“Fiends of the Eastern Front: Constanta Part 3”
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Tiernen Trevallion (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: The Priest continues his tale of the origins of the Constanta, and it takes some very interesting and unexpected turns. Though the story is no less dark and tinged with horror Edginton and Trevallion takes us into fame fairytale like moments along the way. The introduction of a woman who changes into a hare brings such joy and whimsy into the story, particularly visually. It explains the Constantas mother ability to speak with animals and creates a connection to older folklore as we go forward.
Edginton also weaves in a deep feeling of live and caring as he tells the story of the boy being raised by wolves. Somewhere between the familiar western folklore and the sacrifices made by the boys mother they create a very warm and loving feeling in this story that now feels like it is more then just a standard tale of horror and vengeance. Somehow it is very unexpected and refreshing to find a story so fills with love, caring, sacrifice, and overcoming one’s baser instincts after last week’s fall to greed, treachery, and violence.
Hook-Jaw: Four
Credits: Alex Worley (Writer), Leigh Gallagher (Art), Simon Bowland (Letters)
Jacob Cordas: Most of my reviews for “Hook-Jaw” have leaned into the inherent silliness of monster stories. There is something gleeful to be found in monsters ripping people apart in outlandish ways but, as “Hook-Jaw” slows down in this chapter, it’s important to remember there is another thing underlining the best monster story telling: class.
Over the course of this series, there has been a consistent reference to the economic situation the characters find themselves in. The restaurant/bar that the series started in was derelict and falling apart, the heighday of its gimmick long past. The city was a place where economic success was directly linked to crime or intensely dangerous work. Here Worley takes that running through line and puts it front and center.
Continued belowOur hero is being interrogated by a cop who refuses to believe the reality of the situation. The cop is explicitly stated to have seen footage of the monster. He knows this is happening. But when the poor Jack (an archetypal working class name) expresses that to the cop, an enforcer of the state, it is rejected. It is clear that the cop needs it to be interpersonal conflict, the poors killing the poors. Our heroes race becomes necessary as the white cop refuses to believe the video-ed proof of the Black man when he can just accuse that Black man of that same murder.
The ugliness the art has used becomes an even more important choice as this issue features a few moments that break the style. It normally functions as a tension heightening mechanism – the ugliness reminding you of the grit. Here though, Gallagher’s art goes so far as to remind you that there is still beauty in the world. But only if you can afford it.
And when he goes fully psychedelic in a glorious sequence, we see the monster from a new angle. It’s belly is filled with the working class, those lost that the state clearly couldn’t give less of a shit about. There are rows of blue corpses and we need to accept how long this has been going on. It should’ve been taken seriously but instead it was allowed to fester. The problem grew. The shark-monster devoured more and more until it’s embedded inside you.
You cannot escape the ugliness of the world, until you’re dead or you fight back against the very thing chaining you down. Gallagher has found a perfect style for a story that makes that message starkly apparent.
This is exactly what I’m looking for in my brief moments of reprise. It’s just as horrifying if not more so than the previous issues. It’s easily more visually arresting. Lets just hope that Jack can find a way to save the situation before any more of the proletariat is taken out.
