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: Who Killed Captain Cookies?, Part Two
Credits: Ken Niemand (script), PJ Holden (art), Quinton Winter (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Rowan Grover: Niemand does a sharp U-turn away from the wry and sardonic viewpoints that usually dominate stories within Mega-City One in this prog, exploring the more genuine and gentler people that reside in it and how they are perceived. The first page establishes that sense of pure heart with the flashback interaction with Chimpsky and Captain Cookies. Chimpsky feels like an open book waiting to be imprinted on, but naive and wanting to see the best even in the chaotic city they reside in. Cookies is enough of a hero figure to inspire him, but is grounded enough and gentle to form a kind of kinship with Chimpsky. Building from this, the next page feels like a genuine response to Cookies from the people as they largely sing praises of him and how much of an everyman hero he is. Niemand also drops in fun, biting comments every now and then to keep things tonally correct, like having Dredd’s dialogue “translated from the original fascist”. The ‘Killers’ cult introduced at the end feel a little trite and generic, but seem like an interesting enough opposite to Captain Cookie to merit developing a good story as the progs progress.
Holden is still delivering rock solid artwork here, right from the get-go. The first page’s structure works really well to show a sense of perspective, as the two characters discuss the macro-nature of the city whilst we as readers get a bird’s eye view of the city to look upon without being detailed enough to focus on citizens with. It’s a view and vision in line with the naivety that Chimpsky has in this scene, which is why it works so well. Holden also nails the tonal shift from citizen to citizen as we get the vox pops from each of them about Captain Cookie, with some great fashion choices in the turtle-necked jacket near the end of the page. Praise must be given to Winter on colors too, as he manages to indicate some really crisp, clear tonal shifts throughout the art. The first page is lit up by light, subtly giving us a sense of hope, while the following sequence is more of a vibrant but darker palette for the ground level of the city, indicating a more diverse and realistic but still hopeful mood. The final shift to darker, mudier greens is a great campy villain setting for the Killer’s hideout, and all settings work well in sequence with each other.
“Who Killed Captain Cookies” is still turning out to be a technical showcase and an interesting look into the lighter side of the Mega-City world. Come for the promise of solid storytelling, stay for the Chimpsky antics.
Tharg’s 3rillers – Nakka of the S.T.A.R.S. – Part 1
Creedits: Roger Langridge (Script), Brendan McCarthy (Art & Story), Len O’Grady & Brendan McCarthy (Colours), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Part 1 of the newest Tharg’s 3rillers puts readers right into a fun, classically told detective story that has darkness interlaced into its very fiber. Following Detective Nakrosky on the same day he is given a new robotic assistant, in lieu of a partner, and finds himself at another homicide. This is no ordinary murder, and no ordinary victim, and Nakrosky, Nakka to his colleagues, is quick to jump on the trail of clues. I like this writing duo. McCarthy, having crafted the plot, leaves the dialogue and scripting to Langridge, the creator of this world. Both have created an interesting introduction to this new case, a detective noir, mixed with not only science fiction, a la Blade Runner, but sets it into this insanely bright cheery bubblegum landscape that has a foot in both a futuristic metropolis and English countryside.
Continued belowThe plot may be a typical hard-boiled detective plot with a sci-fi twist, but it also skims some ideas that could never be fully interrogated. Like the autonomy of the robot assistance, for example. As of now these ideas have little-to-no bearing on the story, but are nice to see sprinkled throughout to give a more devoted reader pause and the opportunity to mull things over on their won, even after putting the magazine down.
McCarthy, using his knowledge of the story draws out the world and story progression beautifully. And like the script, gives us all the information we need to truly understand this story, as well as its inhabitants. Not unlike other 2000 AD stories like “Zaucer of Zilk” or many of the “Future Shocks” strips, the bleakness or depravity of the plot is counterbalanced with the insane pop-art of the art and colours. This time the colours are done with McCarthy also teaming up with 2000 AD regular, Len O’Grady. Even with its nearly silly aesthetic, the artwork is full of interesting textures, and a style that is really unique.
Nakka of the S.T.A.R.S. part 1 really lives up to Tharg’s 3rillers. An unbelievable reveal or full out twist is found at the turn of each of its six pages. It’s impossible not be pulled in by its sheer intrigue.
Thistlebone: Poison Roots, Part 2
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Simon Davis (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: One of the more impressive parts of ‘Poison Roots’ thus far is how it is treating trauma through the eyes of Seema. Eglington’s script shows someone who is bearing deep scars from their experiences, but, unlike so many other comics coming from similar places, it doesn’t cripple her. Hobbles, yes, but she’s still able to live a (somewhat) normal life, just one that is haunted by regret and experience.
We learn a little more about Seema’s book, and her reservations about writing about the events of the first “Thistlebone” story in it. Her pivot away from that is what leads her down a road of deeper research, and sets us up for this story, which isn’t really touched by Avril’s experiences with the Hillman cult at all, but is seemingly about the greater mystery of Thistlebone itself, the force that has caused generations of issues in those woods.
Davis’s woods are astounding; each panel in the woods focuses on something else, but never does the tone shift or change. When color and focus change, depending on if we’re looking at a person or a tree, there is always a strand of the woods present, whether it is a thistle-like brim of a hat, or a beard that resembles moss. Davis doesn’t limit the creepiness to just the scenes set in the woods, but puts figures in shadow and mysterious shapes all throughout, helping the reader see the world through Seema’s eyes, allowing her trauma to come to us.
The re-introduction of Malcolm Kinniburgh seems like an obvious choice, as he is a connection to the past that is still alive, and sets up as a foil to Seema. Both are looking for the truth about the woods, but come at it from vastly different ways.
Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor, Part 10
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Secrets are finally unraveled in chapter ten of ‘The Shadow Chancellor,’ and they are not at all what they seemed. The hints that we have been given by Mike Carroll during this chapter told us some of the big story beats of that secret, but the big one is and always was why the Silent can’t communicate. Hell, we have known for a couple chapters that it was deliberate, but the reason why is a bombshell that it will be very interesting to see the fallout from. The other surprise is why we got to hear it. The Citheronians corce the issue when they side with Proteus Vex and somehow force Shrokulin and Tross to let Vex speak.
The art by Lynch and Boswell is nearly all distance shots as Vex and Andrum execute his plan as things go awry. Their visual storytelling is solid in this chapter, but it plays second fiddle to the revelations that come out this week. The escape attempt scene flows really well, but the images and narration leads to it feeling a bit flat and overall lacks some tension. His escape looks and feels a forgone conclusion; the real impact comes with the flashback and the narration about why the Silent were silenced.
Continued below
Durham Red: Served Cold 10
Credits Alec Worley (script) Ben Willsher (art) Jim Cambell(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The tenth edition of “Durham Red: Served Cold” gets to do something most of the previous strips haven’t done: just go for it with the action. After a bit of table setting on the first page, that surprisingly doesn’t go for a Star Wars joke, it’s time for a prison break.
The 4 pages of action are broken into two distinct styles. One is the plainly sudden impactful images of violence. Ben Willsher isn’t interested in staging choreographed moments of violence but capturing their sudden, ugly-beautiful, results. Red on the third page, humorously calls her captors “suckers” and blasts away. The staging of her antagonists makes no spatial sense, a good way. They are being blown away and feature exit wounds that do not make physical sense due to the staging. However the affective value of the blood splatter and how it creates contrasting lines with the bottom panel makes the page as a whole work. The second style is a more choreographed, panel driven, style. This description might be a fancy way of saying it’s like the first but with more panels. Willsher emphasizes the moments of impact between Durham and the floating head as they smash one another. They make good use of contrasting imagery to make effective pages.
The action heavy nature of the strip is interesting. A lot happens, but at the same time not all that much does. Red and Durham are only marginally better off than where they started 5 pages before, but it was an entertaining sprint of a strip.
