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 Three
Credits: Ken Niemand (script), PJ Holden (art), Quinton Winter (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Rowan Grover: I’m enjoying the way that Niemand is opening these parts of the “Captain Cookies” stories. Building the emotional connection between Chimpsky and Captain Cookies continues to make me want to root for our monkey friend as we follow him through the story. These opening pages show a lot of how Chimpsky has developed a lot of his moral and emotional code, through really snappy and smart dialogue. As we move through the prog, I’m still feeling nothing for our newly named villain Zonny, whose real name is ridiculous and who ticks all the boxes for cardboard cutout maniacal mob boss bad guy. What I do really appreciate is Chimpsky’s methodical takedown of Zonny’s men and infiltration of his base through the use of potent hallucinogenic gases. It’s a fun sequence and leaves a lot open for the progs to come.
Holden still does some great work in this book, working well at creating believable and emotional characters. The first page works well at highlighting Captain Cookies as the relatable heart of this book, especially by having his face be the focal point amidst a bright, white panel at the center of the page. There’s a slightly awkward shot of Chimpsky on the next page, who’s looking dynamic but with a very generic and almost soulless facial expression. However it’s really the only misstep of the chapter, and we get some real highlights towards the end with the hallucinogenic gas and the Chimptor shot. Winter highlights this well with some hyper-vibrant purples that make Chimptor stand out (taking a page from the book of classic comics with the color purple and villainous apes), and uses some great smudgy shading to make the cloud look really dense and textured.
This is another solid entry in the “Captain Cookies” saga, and I’m glad that this kinder side of the Mega-City universe is still being highlighted so well.
“Tharg’s 3rillers: Nakka of the S.T.A.R.S.” Part 2
Credits: Roger Langridge (Script), Brendan McCarthy (Art), Len O’Grady/McCarthy (Colours), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: As the clues from the insane and somehow grisly murders stack up, Nakka and his Android companion are taken down a path that is, all at once, harrowing, and goofy.
Leaning into the detective yarn, Langridge knows when to take Nakka and his experiences seriously and when to play up the absurdity. While the subject matter is mostly played straight, the use of the robots is played up to both action-packed and humorous effect.
As for the art, McCarthy and O’Grady are still at the top of their game, blending psychedelic and sci-fi noir styles to make another bizarrely wild chapter.
The pace is break neck, giving plenty of plot and answers while setting up next week’s final chapter. Parts 1 and 2 were nothing short of intriguing so the there’s a high probability the end will be just as enjoyable as this was.
Thistlebone: Poison Roots, Part 3
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Simon Davis (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: As Seema continues to do research, attempting to make some sense of both the history of the cult and her experiences with them, someone sends her an old newspaper clipping that may be connected. There’s a serious shift in tone for the page that recounts the events of that clipping. In the flashback to an ill-fated scouting trip from 1984, Simon Davis illustrates the page as if it were a kids’ comic, with more cartoonish illustrations, all exaggerated features and bright colors. This page, which is as interesting and drafted as carefully as any other in the strip, adds a different sense of dread to the story, as the ambiguity of the page doesn’t tell us why the six people were hospitalized. The presumption is that there’s a connection to the cult, but the lack of confirmation makes it somehow scarier.
Continued belowThis strip also gives confirmation of the skeletons inside the tree that were discovered in Part 1 having a connection to the Thistlebone cult, as we see a deer bone mask in the tree, which is hundreds of years old. This continues T.C. Eglington’s expanding of the cult’s mythology backwards in time; many organizations can claim hundreds or thousands of years of history, but it is another thing to be presented evidence of it. Robertson, the archeologist, so far is just the audience proxy, but it will be interesting to see how his character grows over time.
Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor Part 11
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln Sometimes the conclusions come fast and furious with 2000 AD stories, and this is one of those times. Mike Carroll wraps things up very neatly in just this one chapter, but in a way that was surprising. We know from the narration that the story about the Silent does come out, but when Vex is told the cost to having it broadcast there is a moment that we are left wondering if he takes the Citheronian deal. The way it all plays out is sadly all a bit of a shock. We learn the fates of Vex and Midnight in the wake of the decision and are left with a story at a very different place. It’s uncertain if we’ll see these characters again, but there is ample room in the implied stories that clearly says it’s all set up for a bigger tale.
Cleverly, Lynch and Boswell seem to step back from the storytelling in this part of the arc. Until Proteus Vex is given a decision to make the art is focused in the characters, but once he’s decided, everything is in the distance, like history. It’s decided, and we are only distant viewers trying to figure out what happens from further and further away. It’s a very deft play and creates a very clear feeling for the last pages of the arc, leaving all the players at a new place. There are some hints in the art that Vex didn’t leave the station alone if you look closely. It all makes you want to know what happens next, to everyone.
Durham Red: Served Cold 11
Credits Alec Worley (script) Ben Willsher (art) Jim Cambell(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: “Served Cold” comes to an end on something of a contemplative and ambiguous ending centered on the nature of justice. To get to that point Alec Worley and Willsher throw a wrench into their previously established fight between Red and the Brain. It’s a sudden, unexpected, turn of events that is equal parts brutal and comical. With that out of the way the strip is allowed to turn to weightier issues.
Red is given a chance to exact even more, some would say justified violence, and ultimately chooses not too. There is a simplicity to that moment, five panels, that manages to allow it to hang and create an effective page turn. Willsher and Worley use the same basic setup to repeat a similar moment of choice a few pages later to good effect. These formal qualities do a lot to set the strip up, but as a reader I am not entirely sold on the sudden emphasis on Durham Red fleshed out character. Looking back it seems like this 12 part strip used a lot of pages for solid action that ultimately feels disconnected from the decisions and journey Red went on. Maybe this is one of those elements that would read as more effective when taken as a whole.
Worley leaves Durham in an interesting liminal space. She isn’t like Johnny Alpha, but faces similar hardships, and has a powerset that could open up to continued adventures. I might not have bought her character journey as thoroughly this time, but it sets the character up for me to buy it in the future.
