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 5
Credits: Ken Niemand (Script), Tom Foster (Art), Chris Blythe (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Ken Niemand’s way of bringing together two characters in ‘A Penitent Man’ has been to shift focus between Asher and Dredd in a way that feels organic. Whether it’s a back and forth on their own situations within a single week’s chapter, or to heavily focus on one or the other for a single chapter. With Part 5, we pretty much fully understand Asher; who he was, is, and where he will most likely end up by the end of this series. His motivations have been fairly clear from the start as we have been living in his head being the ever-omnipresent observer. We know that his troubles, while stemming from his past decisions, are not something he is actively creating. Judge Dredd has had a harder time breaking away from his tunnel vision of the law and those who break it, but he seems to finally be coming around to the idea that Asher is reformed and that he just wants to move on with his life.
Unfortunately, another Judge makes it to Asher’s current location before Dredd can. And the next piece of this story has a great mirroring effect. Asher, alone in the sewers re-unites with some of the droid units he has worked with, while this Judge comes down with his own SJS Robo-Judges to dole out, most likely, a brutal execution. Two human men, with robotic assistance – one looking to just get out alive, the other looking to be the only one left alive. But even their core ideologies regarding this fight are different. Asher doesn’t want to sacrifice his robotic friends. He doesn’t want them there at all, telling them to leave. However, they start to form a plan to help him anyway. Whereas the Judge, without every saying or hinting at it within the text, would clearly not think twice about his robotic partners getting destroyed as long as Asher was taken down. It’s just another clear point at saying the Judges are more robotic and in-human than most other robotic lifeforms.
Tom Foster really puts in a lot of work with the details of facial expressions, the clothing, and setting of the sewer. Even in its grimmest moments this week’s strip is nothing short of gorgeous. He brings out emotions, heightened for sure across the faces of the human characters, but even with Asher’s robo-pals. Through movement or shading, these characters become more real with each panel and we become more emotionally attached as the story progresses. With the masterful Chris Blythe on colors, there is no way that the artwork for this series can lose. Across the board these two artists working together have created a Mega City One that is both familiar and ever changing for modern readers. Like most art teams who have worked in this world, they know what can be modified and what has to stay true to all the characters, the city included. His use of dark shadows amongst the beautiful and surprisingly bright color palette is one of the things that is both a continuity must for this world, and what makes the series look so good.
“Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man” Part 5 is an emotionally gripping and absolutely beautiful buildup to what should be an exciting, and possibly heartbreaking end to this series.
Thistlebone: Poison Roots, Part 9
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Simon Davis (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: After many weeks, we finally get the full presentation of what Malcolm did in the woods as a young scout. By poisoning the food his troop was eating, Malcolm managed to, however briefly, bring the Thistlebone legend to life. Much like Part 8, Simon Davis bridges the art styles of the current timeline and the scouts’ memory, allowing the childlike wonder to rub up against the ancient horror. The juxtaposition works incredibly well and, even when it is expected, can be a jarring sight for the reader.
Continued belowT.C. Eglington’s script continues to walk a fine line with Malcolm. On one hand, he seems like a truly dangerous and potentially evil character, willing to steal and lie to get what he wants. But on the other hand, a lot of what we know about Malcolm is told through others, and those others may have reason to discredit him, or come to him with biases from the past. The strip ends with Malcolm contacting Seema, and it appears that the two divergent stories will come together in part 10, allowing Seema to, perhaps, get some answers from Malcolm.
“Thistlebone,” across its two books thus far, has straddled this line between presenting a cult that brought tragedy upon itself and true evil that infected innocent people. The fact that the line is still blurred is impressive, and shows that Eglington and Davis have done a fantastic job of presenting an unique story without selling out to either side just yet.
Visions of Deadworld: Transpolar (Part 1)
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Simon Bowland(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: Kek-W and Dave Kendall begin a two-part story in this latest “Vision of Deadworld.” ‘Transpolar’ centers on the disputed gas-extraction station Vanaheim in Artica. Everyone from the Sovs to the Justice Department wants a piece. The first entries in two-part stories are rarely the best section, as they are primarily set up and lack payoff. This holds true for Prog 2229, but the creative team do an excellent job efficiently setting the table.
Dave Kendall’s opening sets everything up in a highly readable fashion. The page is split into a series of mirrors that balance establishing panels and characters. It gives us our two main protagonists, engineer Anders and administrator Faraday. Kek-W scripting and Simon Bowland’s lettering fill in the details but everything is carried by Kendall’s art. The second page similarly introduces the three main factions of the story: the workers, the Judges, and the not so hidden Sovs. Kendall creates a surprising amount of color variety given the arctic setting by having the Judge ship emit a luminous magenta that rightly codes the Judges as monstrous and unnatural compared to the rest of the color pallet.
From there everything begins to break down in the following pages. The Judges of Deadworld do what they do. The Sovs attempt to move in. And Anders and Farraday trying to come up with a solution that leads them to survive. The action is fairly spread out, taking place in two to three locations depending on the page. Kendall and Kek-W do a good job of making it all coherent but segmenting it all into distinct panels that function as a pseudo spread on pages 4 and 5. It creates a cross cutting effect that captures all the action simultaneously. Kendall also doesn’t overwhelm the pages in gore, the fittingly named Judge Fenris gets the money shot on page 4 as they rip out someone’s throat. These couple of pages are a good example of having a lot of information and it all being glanceable, but containing a depth that makes you stop and pick through it.
The first part of ‘Transpolar’ is plainly good table setting. Kendall’s page designs are engaging containers that hold this artic standoff in tension for everything to go boom in the next strip.
Future Shock: Regarding Henry
Credits: Mark McCann (script), Glenn Fabry (art), John Charles (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln “Future Shocks” stories work a lot like Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone; at its best, it takes your perceptions and expectations and subverts them. ‘Regarding Henry’ almost gets there, but even with several reads, there is something that feels disconnected. There are good elements, but something feels unconnected and unfinished.
The story is solid and tells a good cautionary tale, one that is unsettling, so it thematically clicks. Stories about rewiring the brain, for better or worse, are usually pretty effective. The art by Glenn Fabry and John Charles features moving expressions even when they are ugly.The short fight is all the more unsettling because of Charles’s colors.
Even the narration is both connected to the art and somehow disconnected. The whole leaves you with that oddly unsettled feeling but it’s also hard to digest. The lack of clarity in the story makes it hard to say what McCann was saying, if anything, about conscience and altering it. ’Reguarding Henry’ lingers in the mind not because it is unsettling but because it’s just a bit unclear, and it ends up being frustrating.
Continued below
Feral and Foe II: Part 6
Credits: Dan Abnett (script) Richard Elson (art) Jim Campbell (lettering)
Matthew Blair Piece of advice for any group of travelers on an important quest: if you’re wandering through some dark and scary woods and magic tree people approach you with offers of food and an invitation to a super special festival that you absolutely must attend…don’t do it.
Dan Abnett provides his own little twist on the classic Tolkein fantasy trope of ancient tree people with his introduction of the Woodwoes in “Feral and Foe II: Part 6”. Abnett does another bit of fantastic and efficient world building by introducing this new group of character quickly, showing the reader enough bits of their culture and way of life for us to understand who they are, and giving them a sense of history and place in the world without being too drawn out or talkative. It’s a great addition to the story that provides just the right amount of familiar ideas to be comfortable while subverting enough fantasy tropes to be interesting.
Richard Elson’s art in “Feral and Foe II: Part 6” continues its fantastic run of quality art while allowing Elson to show off some great character design. While the Woodwoes aren’t very colorful, they have an interesting design that combines classical satyr with dryads and a little bit of Tolkien’s Ents. It’s a fun design, but the real treat comes at the very end where we get to meet the wicked god of the Woodwoes, who looks amazing.
“Feral and Foe II: Part 6” strikes a nice balance between the new and old in the fantasy genre, combining the classic trope of forest people/spirits with a more sinister and slightly humorous bent, an idea that has served the series well so far and should serve them well in the future.
