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: Easy Money Part 2
Credits: Mike Carroll (Script), Simon Fraser (Art), Gary Caldwell (Colours), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: The second half of Easy Money picks up with Aldalisa grieving at her parents’s funeral and coming to terms with taking on their criminal empire, neither of which she is capable of handling or wanting. As a wrap up to this mini-series, Mike Carroll puts together a break-neck script to delve into Aldalisa’s emotions and motivations. It’s a fascinating character study for such a small span of time and pages. It also goes in directions and resolves in a manner rare and unexpected for a story set within Mega City One.
This felt like a strip that could have gone on for the typical five to six chapters, but to wrap it in two, and have it end up fully satisfying in nearly every way is a hard feat, but Carroll pulls it off seemingly easy. The art team of Fraser and Caldwell return for this finale.
Fraser going in some interesting directions with a more fluid look at settings. The emotions of the story look to have an effect on how things look in various panels. This isn’t just for the environments either. His character designs are fantastic ranging from a more realistic style in more stoic scenes, to exaggerated and flashy in times of heightened discussion and action was a great move for this story. Caldwell’s color work is stunning as always. Bright and vibrant, every panel jumps off the page. And again, it all comes down to the emotions on display.
‘Easy Money’ Part 2 is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying endings I have seen in a “Judge Dredd” strip in quite a while. It could have been longer, but a prolonged execution would have muddied the point of the story.
Intestinauts: Symbiotic Love Triangle, Part Three
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Pye Parr (art and letters)
Rowan Grover: “Intestinauts” wraps up in probably the most structurally satisfying way that it can, given the elements that it has developed over the last few progs. That doesn’t necessarily mean it ends in a meaningful or interesting manner, however. The devices that are tied up in a bow here are done in the most bare-bones manner possible, for example, the potential for dramas/romance hijinks with V-3-0M and its original host is resolved within a pop-up panel that leans heavily into stereotypical romance/drama. The possibility for a heartfelt and powerful ending is undermined by how quickly our Symbiote host literally fizzles out of existence within the last few pages of the comic. The narrative twists itself into a dark-humored twist by the final page, which almost discredits the genuine emotion that was evoked in the progs previous to this, which suggests to me that too much was built up in a short time for a single-prog ending to properly wrap up.
At the very least, Parr’s art is still a joy to take in. The symbiotic combo of our two heroes still has the bounding dynamism of a Jack Kirby creation, especially from its three-quarter splash on the debut page of this prog. The next few pages do decent service to the voice of the plot but don’t try to elevate it beyond that: yes we get an accurate depiction of the Bot policing force taking down our tragic hero, but it feels very paint-by-the-numbers. The most meaningful page takes place when we get a zoom-in on our heroic symbiote as they are dying in a very emotional and literal way, with the camera taking us down to the microscopic level to show how V-3-0M is fighting for life. It’s a great shot but ultimately finishes too quickly, and while the rat swarm on the final page is a great creature study, it ultimately feels pointless in light of what came before.
Continued below“Intestinauts” wraps up all its threads in its final prog, but to no great game-changing effect. It’s harkened by its structure, having built too much in too little time
Feral and Foe II: Part 9
Credits: Dan Abnett (script) Richard Elson (art) Jim Campbell (lettering)
Matthew Blair: We’re finally at the gates of the once evil long dead necromancer and the end of the quest is in sight. Unfortunately, there’s always someone or something guarding the gate in these sorts of scenarios so let’s see how our group manages to cope with this new challenge.
Writer Dan Abnett is back with the humor in “Feral and Foe II: Part 9” and to put it simply, it’s fantastic. The gate to the castle is guarded by a giant rock monster who is bound to guard the castle. Unfortunately, since the necromancer has been dead for a while, nobody has come to visit in years and the rock monster is apocalyptically bored. That boredom, coupled with the sense of calm and ease that can only be nurtured when you know you can kill everyone in a heartbeat, gives the monsters a wonderful sense of dry and tired sarcasm that Abnett writes very well. It’s fun, hilarious, and continues the long tradition of brilliant high fantasy satire.
Richard Elson’s fantastic creature design is back with “Feral and Foe II: Part 9” and this time it’s the giant rock demon. Elson does a fantastic job of giving the creature a tremendous sense of scale, devoting an entire page of precious comic real estate to its reveal. Not only does it look properly menacing and dangerous, it also feels a bit relaxed and informal, like it wants to crush you but it’s more curious and interested in the affairs of the tiny creatures talking to him than anything else. It’s a wonderful use of art to convey character and personally I would love to see more of it.
“Feral and Foe II: Part 9” returns to form with fun, dry, witty humor coming from the most unexpected source: a giant boulder demon who just wants to have a purpose again.
Tharg’s Terror Tales: Dry Spell
Credits: John Tomlinson (script), Steven Austin (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: John Tomlinson reaches right back into recent memory and tells a tale about a group of predator developers who profited during the housing scandals and booms of just a little more than a decade ago. None of the handful victims in this tale of greed are in any way sympathetic, and that is ok. Carla Solis is the only one we meet alive and a state of severe dehydration and near “death.” She is presented as demanding, ill tempered, and essentially very rude to the “EMT” who is there to help her. When things turn sour and the EMT reveals her real intent we feel no sympathy. It’s an interesting tale of supernatural pacts and curses that come home to roost and it’s oddly satisfying even tough none of the characters reveal much of their depth.
The stark black and white art by Steven Austin suits this grim and gritty tale of a fulfilled curse. The name ‘Dry Spell’ really suits the art as the characters seems parched and starved of water. His inks are rich with detail and he manages to communicate the dryness of Solis home and heart with great blocks of black and the way he created light and shadow on the page. Though we learn little about most of the characters his art defines them in the ways he shows them, mostly as corpses as few of the characters we meet are still breathing when they are on the stage.
Thistlebone: Poison Roots, Part 12
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Simon Davis (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: The end of ‘Poison Roots’ comes as quite the shock, and leaves so many questions that it seems almost unfair that this is the final installment, at least for now.
In what can only be described as a heel turn, Seema not only harnesses the Thistlebone mask, but kills the three members of the cult that took out Malcolm last week, and performs the sacrificial rites herself, and the strip ends with her face, smeared with blood, intensity pouring from her eyes, chanting the words.
Continued belowIt cannot be overstated how much of the heavy lifting that Davis does for this final chapter. While the scripting, like last chapter, seems incredibly rushed, Davis takes that chaotic energy to give the strip a frenetic pace that (somewhat) allows the shortcomings of the writing to fall to the wayside. Davis’s color choices are particularly interesting here, going with the brightest blood red we’ve seen yet, almost reminiscent of the color of blood that Hammer Horror films used in their earliest films.
The biggest issue with the last two chapters is just how rushed it has all felt. It is implied that the mask is the one influencing her, and so she had no inclination to do this before the mask was in her possession. While that’s a fine story beat, it could’ve been shown so much more clearly if she appeared to struggle at all, or be confused, or anything resembling a total, instant brainwashing. Or, if T.C. Eglington had intended that point to be seeded earlier, it didn’t necessarily come through in the text. The shame of this is that the first 10 chapters of this volume moved at a slow, but satisfactory pace. If those stories had been paced just a little bit quicker, the last two chapters, stretched to four, would’ve allowed for a more natural and pleasing pace.
While the story’s ending is interesting, and leads to lots of questions for when/if this returns, it isn’t satisfactory. Just because something is shocking, it does not make it good, and this chapter relies far too heavily on the surprise elements. I hope this series returns, and when it does, it can shed some light on Seema’s actions here.
