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
Credits: John Wagner (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Christopher Egan: This week we get another grisly entry into this strip and possibly the bleakest so far. Judges Dredd and Park continue their investigation gathering clues, insights, and eyewitness accounts; as well as reviewing forensic evidence. They’re moving in the right direction, but not quickly enough. Things are feeling hopeless and new clues may point to a copycat killer following the M.O. of the Justice Watch murders.
Wagner keeps to a tight script really only delving into deeper conversations within Dredd and Park’s investigative moments. Otherwise we get quick and to the point conversational moments between other characters or the spooky info drops from the Justice Watch host.
Higgins once again does a fantastic job of switching up his illustration styles depending on when and where a part of the chapter is set. There’s a distinctive shift in style and tone depending on what kind of story telling is on display. Same with the line work, Hurst’s colors reflect the mood, time, and physical settings within the chapter. We get an excellent grasp on what is present day, what is a flashback, and what’s an assumed memory. She plays with bright and muted palettes as well as shadows to fully perfect the visual storytelling.
This week gives us a truly harrowing chapter that should leave readers scrambling for the next part of the story.
Skip Tracer Eden: Part 6
Credits: James Peaty (script) Paul Marshall (art) Dylan Teague (colors) Jim Campbell (lettering)
Matthew Blair: The climactic showdown in a lot of movies tends to be a pretty drawn out affair, filled with long, pregnant pauses broken up by bursts of violent action that brings about massive and terrifying change and deaths that haunt the characters long after it’s over. The climactic showdown in “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 6” is a lot faster and high energy, but no less brutal and life changing.
Writer James Peaty packs a lot of stuff into a small amount of space in “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 6” with three different threads competing for time and attention and paying off in various ways. First, we get a clearer look at the bigger picture of the people and forces working to capture and exploit Skip’s powers for some unknown reason. Second, we get a much more personal look at Skip’s relationship with his baby’s mother, which unfortunately is resolved in a very quick and violent fashion. And finally, we get hints at future issues with the relationship between Skip and his new daughter which will be interesting to see in future stories. It all flows very well together and blends just the right amount of closure and mystery.
Artist Paul Marshall gets to draw a massive and frantic action scene in “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 6” and although the story is only five pages, it feels a lot bigger. Despite the bullets flying, swords being thrown, people yelling, and psychic powers being unleashed Marshall manages to keep everything clear and understandable, which is the best thing he could do for a story like this. The art compliments the writing beautifully, showing the destruction of the past in a brutal run of violence coupled with laying the foundation for future mysteries.
“Skip Tracer Eden: Part 6” is a moment of transition between the themes and plot of the previous sections and what’s to come in the future, and while it’s sad to see people go, it keeps the momentum and energy going for the future.
Department K: Cosmic Chaos, Part 9
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Dan Cornwell (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Simon Bowlnad (letters)
Brian Salvatore: Last week’s strip offered a nice reprieve from the churn of ‘cliffhanger resolution, directly into the next cliffhanger’ pattern that “Department K: Cosmic Chaos” has been in since the third or so chapter. This week also bucks that trend, but does so by offering almost nothing of note in its five pages. Sure, there is technically a cliffhanger for next chapter, but it is essentially the same as Part 8’s, but with slightly more specificity.
Continued belowIt is one thing for a comic to be decompressed and left to breathe a bit, but we’re in a reading iron lung, forced to breathe alongside the pace set by Rory McConville’s script, which is at a snail’s pace. Each week that passes makes it more and more clear that this was not intended to be as long of a strip as it is, and so a lot of padding had to be added. This chapter could literally be condensed to one page and nothing of storytelling value would be lost.
What would get lost is Dan Cornwell’s continued fun at getting to draw cosmic fun. Cornwell and Len O’Grady are clearly having a ball with the Jack Kirby apes throughout, and Cornwell manages to keep the action moving, even when it very much feels like placeholder action. The strip’s aforementioned cliffhanger involves the egg that’s been the center of the action for a few weeks now hatching a giant brain, and this is where the art team really has a lot of fun. What’s unfortunate is that the action that leads to this hatching is rendered unclear by the panel design. It appears that Kirby (the character, not the inspiration) takes a shot that leads to its hatching, but there’s more time spent on meaningless tussles and little spent on telling the most important piece of this chapter’s story.
Sinister: Its Own Devices – Part Two
Credits Dan Abnett (script) Steve Yeowell(art) John Charles(colours) Simon Bowland(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The creative team lean into the irony of the title of this arc, ‘Its Own Devices,’ as Sinister and Tracy get their marching orders. Unlike their egotistical AI master who was left up to its own devices, Sinister and Tracy do not have such freedoms. Any attempt at deviation is met with a neuro rewrite that will force compliance. The creative team do a good job of creating the mood and threat the AI possesses as they promise to make all the trains run on time. Their maneuvering isn’t flashy, but that is the point the point is that it can and has decided to.
As far as an exposition strip Abnett’s scripting makes the best of it with a few gags and one liner but the art team with their grey backgrounds and similar character designs highlight the tedium of getting a mission brief. The liveliest images in this strip are when Sinister and Tracy’s targets: Carri Hosanna, Billi Octavo, and Dex, are projected. Their images in full color and standing out against the all-consuming grey. It isn’t the flashiest, but Steve Yeowell effectively draws out the shifting moods of Sinsiter before and after his rewrite. John Charles monolithic grey’s also are a subtle gradient that help to build a sense of scale and lighting in the void. There are little artistic flourishes that make it clear the art team isn’t phoning it in, but that appreciation only goes so far as a reader.
With the mission debrief over, Sinister and Tracy are off to Mangapore to stop the city state from realizing it’s in a cyber war and maybe kill everyone who gets in their way. I’m curious to see how the next batch of strips play out with the table setting out of the way.
Aquila: Rivers of Hades Book 1, Part 5
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: The first four parts of “Aquila: Rivers of Hades” feel like they set the pattern for this tale and part five follows right along. Gordon Rennie ended part four with the rising of Chronosthe, father of the gods from the ground of Hades. It’s an impressive and daunting sight, and rightly drives off the centaurs that shepherded across the plain of battle that was their hast hurdle. But like a video game set on easy, this new obstacle seems to be little impediment to Aquila, who nearly singlehandedly defeats this new challenge. Not only does he defeat Chronos in a way that is pretty bloody and kind of obvious, but the Titan falls across the next river that they have to cross. I hate to be dismissive of writing of any kind but this story is beginning to take on a Mary Sue sort or quality, for lack of a better term.
I really can’t fault the artistic team as the pages created by Patrick Goddard, Dylan Teague, and Annie Parkhouse are pretty stunning and tell a convincing tale of a questionable defeat of a god. The scenes are bloody, dramatic, imposing, and well composed. It’s the narrative that falls short, as it’s feeling a little pat and rushed at this point. Perhaps the journey will be worth the telling and I’m willing to go with it, but I wish the player would be playing the game one a level above easy.
