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: A Penitent Man Part 4
Credits: Ken Niemand (Script), Tom Foster (Art), Chris Blythe (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Keeping in tone with last week’s chapter, part 4 picks up with the shooting of Asher. We learn that a rookie Judge is the one that took the shot at him, claiming it to be a clean kill shot. However, the first Judges on site let Dredd know that Asher is alive with med units on the way. There is conflicting information and orders going around. Dredd goes after Asher, but it seems something fishy is going on.
Niemand makes sure this chapter is fast paced, with an emphasis not so much on action, but characters taking action. Dredd is determined to get a ahold of Asher for questioning, hoping the man won’t die from his wounds. At times it feels like there could be a conspiracy within the Judges’s ranks, as the mystery as to where Asher is going begins to open up. The truth comes out as the pages turn, but we are still left with a ton of questions by the time we reach the end of the chapter.
Foster gives us a lot of details, a lot of characters, and plenty of exciting moments fully drawn out, but Blythe uses his colors and shading to set the mood, and to hide a lot of those finer details. It adds a darker, unsettling tone to the entire thing that works very well in that regard, as well as hiding certain moments the way the raising of questions muddies our full understanding of where the story is headed. The entire creative team really leans in the neo-noir style and it mostly works from start to finish.
‘A Penitent Man’ Part 4 really leaves you impatiently waiting the next Prog.
Thistlebone: Poison Roots, Part 8
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Simon Davis (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: “Thistlebone” continues to shift its focus from the cult to Malcolm Kinniburgh, and how those two entities meet in the middle. Despite presenting evidence of both a troubled life, this is the first time that eve ‘flashback’ Malcolm is shown as a potentially evil presence. This is done through the now expected, though no less lovely, flashback sequence by Simon Davis. The difference between this and prior flashbacks, however, is that Davis lets, for just one panel, some of the artifice to drop and reveal not a cartoonish image but a terrifyingly real one. This presents questions about the flashback – is the image presented in a lighter style because its impact has been dulled by time? – but ultimately continues to ask questions of Malcolm and his intentions.
As has been the case through all of ‘Poison Roots,’ the structure of the story is set by Seema’s journey researching her book. Her editor hooks her up with Robert Whitbeam, someone who was on the flashback camping trip with Malcolm. Unlike the broken people who seem unwilling or unable to detach themselves from their Thistlebone experience, Whitbeam seem relieved to give up his experience; handing it off, if you will, to Seema, so that he is free of it. Though we only get the first piece of it, the combination of T.C. Eglington’s script and Davis’s artwork establishes the story’s import in Whitbeam’s life, despite its brevity.
As “Thistlebone: Poison Roots” marches on, we are getting a broader sense of how this cult has effected not just the lives of the people in its immediate vicinity, but how the effects have rippled out, over time, to poison people’s lives, in part or in toto, since its initial contact.
Sláine: Dragontamer Part 10
Credits: Pat Mills (Script), Leonardo Manco (Art), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Jeremy Hachat: The final chapter of ‘Dragontamer’ is a fast paced one that ends pretty abruptly. Sláine has defeated the dragon Rathrach and now faces off against Prince Alban, who he easily defeats. Brutus starts to realize his plans are falling apart as Sláine makes it clear, with the help of a giant dragon as well some Druid Magic, that Brutania is not welcome in his homeland.
Continued belowFrom the beginning, ‘Dragontamer’ felt like it existed mostly to let artist Leonardo Manco flex. This chapter is no different; the very first page smacks you in the face with Sláine standing over the dragon he just defeated. And a few pages later, we get a great image of Sláine riding into battle on another fire breathing beast. It’s really great work all capped off on the final page with a beautiful montage of Sláine and his ancestors
‘Dragontamer’ is supposedly the final Sláine story from Pat Mills and it doesn’t disappoint. Mills put together an interesting and exciting story that really lets Manco shine. In this final chapter, Mills reminds us once again that Sláine is “eminently severe in the work of violence.”
Tharg’s 3rillers: Chorus and the Ring Part 3
Credits: James Peaty (script), Mike Collins (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: The thing about “Tharg’s 3Rillers” is that you know going in that part three is the finale and this ending was, oddly, kind of a surprise. James Peaty continues his riff on recognizably gothic science fiction games with the showdown in these pages and throws in some distinctly “Metabarons” feels too. The finale leaves two really district impressions; while reading it, the story feels very hard to predict, but once you have finished, it feels as if the end should have been predictable. Somehow the path the creators took to the end, though foreshadowed, was still a bit of a surprise. Evangelista’s final acts, once she eliminated the villain, come as a surprise. It is refreshing to feel surprise, even if after reading it you realize that was probably the only end it could have been working toward.
The fight in these pages is well executed by Mike Collins and Dylan Teague. They do a fine job of using visual callbacks to the first chapter with the battle against the two robots. The panels are dynamic and the fight is well staged against the bloated papal figure. Even recognizing that the art is well executed, it still falls a bit flat. There is nothing concrete about the art that feels lacking, and it continues the standard they have set. Perhaps its the hopeful ending moment feeling a little unfulfilled and unfinished; it leaves you wanting more, even when there is really no more it can give in this moment.
Feral and Foe II: Part 5
Credits: Dan Abnett (script) Richard Elson (art) Jim Campbell (lettering)
Matthew Blair: “Feral or Foe II: Part 5” brings the reader to another round of bargaining, negotiation, and a new side quest that realigns their needs and what they have to do. It really is the DnD party from hell.
Dan Abnett continues to show off his character development and genre deconstruction skills in “Part 5”. The highlight of this particular section of the story is the realignment and negotiation skills between the main party and the necromancer. The group demonstrates that they’re less noble heroes and more like self serving realpolitik cowards who will do anything to fulfill their selfish desires while the necromancer is less evil villain and more of a shrewd business person who just wants to be left alone and would prefer to not be hunted down and killed by the party’s former employers. Abnett’s dialogue is snappy, effective, funny, and does a great job of making the character feel realistic and sympathetic.
Since “Feral and Foe II: Part 5” is a very dialogue heavy part of the story, there isn’t that much of an opportunity for Richard Elson to show off his fantastic artwork. It’s a part of the story that focuses more on close ups of the characters as they banter back and forth, and while this isn’t the best use of Elson’s talents, he does a pretty good job on the close ups of the characters and gets to show some great emotional nuance.
“Feral or Foe II: Part 5” lets the true colors of all the characters fly as we see a dramatic realignment of everyone’s priorities and end goal. We’re off on a new mission that promises to take us to more interesting places and people.
