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: Now That’s What I Call Justice!, Part 6
Credits: John Wagner (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Christopher Egan: Judge Dredd closes in on his suspect. Wagner uses the final chapter to showcase Dredd making his way back into the field for this final confrontation. The set pieces range from what cold and solemn to outlandish and filled with nuclear fire and lightning. Higgins and Hurst continue their strong and multifaceted styles compliment the story. Their talent boosts the strip over-all making for a more interesting and enjoyable read through, but it’s still ultimately disappointing.
What started as an equally strong and absurd premise as fizzled out into a drawn out plot that never fully achieved the potential that the first two chapters promised.
Outside of the strong artwork, this final chapter feels more like an abrupt end than a successful finale. If we ever see the return to Justice Watch, or something similar it will hopefully make for a more satisfying mystery, or at the very least, an exciting action piece.
Skip Tracer Eden: Part 9
Credits: James Peaty (script) Paul Marshall (art) Dylan Teague (colors) Jim Campbell (lettering)
Matthew Blair: Nimrod was a mighty hunter from antiquity, and “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 9” continues that tradition. It turns out that the mercenary paid to find and kidnap Skip’s daughter had his own agenda all along, and now it’s time to enact his plan. Fortunately for the baby, Skip is in full blown father mode and has other plans to protect his daughter.
Writer James Peaty has a lot of very big things happen very quickly in “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 9”. All the pieces that were set up and put in place in the previous stories are paying off, and it all happens with a literal bang. It’s fascinating to see how a seemingly minor piece of the puzzle like Nimrod can be turned into the main villain, and it’s also pretty satisfying to watch the supposed villains of the story realize that they aren’t as in control as they thought and suffer the consequences. Now that the chaff is out of the way, there is nothing standing in the way of a desperate and ugly final battle between Nimrod and Skip.
The following battle between Nimrod and Skip can also be framed as a battle between light and dark, which is a theme that artist Paul Marshall really takes to heart in “Skip Tracer Eden: Part 9”. Marshall surrounds the villains in heavy shadow, always placing faces at a downward angle so they look dark and menacing. It’s very effective at enhancing Nimrod’s character and driving home just how evil he really is. Meanwhile, Skip is constantly radiating light and is always well lit and bright, whether that light is coming from his powers or some external source making him look bright and heroic. It’s a great use of color and lighting that really enhances the story and shows how art can be used to enhance character.
“Skip Tracer Eden: Part 8” is the payoff to a massive build up of tension, and it does not disappoint. The characters are ready for the final showdown, and it promises to be brutal.
Dexter: Somewhere, Beyond the Sea – Part Three
Credits Dan Abnett (script), Tazio Bettin (art), John Charles (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: Taizo Bettin knows how to get the most out of a page without turning it into an unnecessary spread. As Finn and his compatriot attack Planktown, Bates mobilizes her forces for battle. This isn’t a battle, it’s a massacre. With simple page designs built around cutting the page into thirds, Bettin captures the scale and incongruity of what is happening. Generally, these pages are built around a sandwich of large singular panels that just show destruction and chaos. It doesn’t make strict geographic sense, but it doesn’t have to the point of the image is the display of raw power by. Finn and the A.I. John Charles’ sparse color palette comes alive with explosive yellow-orange encased with heavy blacks that give the dimensions of the explosion.
Continued belowThose chaotic pages are contrasted by the more procedural escape sequence by Dex, Billi and Carrie. The 9 panel grid has been a strong structuring element in previous strips and Bettin employs a variant here as Billi lives up to her streat name. The page is smack dab in the middle of the strip, the calm eye of the storm. Because as soon as they and the reader get to the next page it’s back to incomprehensible, but still readable chaos.
It hasn’t always been exciting, but Abnett has done this enough that he knows how to structure a Prog strip. This series will be going on hiatus for a couple of weeks and ends things on a tantalizing tease. It’s not a classic cliffhanger more like a promise of what is to come.
Tharg’s Terror Tales: The Torturer’s Apprentice
Credits: Paul Starkey (script), James Newell (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: A simple Faustian deal is exploited by both a crooked cop and the Lord of Lies himself in this week’s black and white one-shot. Like the best of the “Terror Tales,” this is a simple, unadorned story that goes right for the jugular. Paul Starkey’s script wastes almost no time with preamble, allowing Moira’s tale to start almost instantly. The twist in the script is not entirely unexpected, but once it begins, it unfolds like a familiar tale.
James Newell’s art perfectly conjures up old school horror; though Hammer is referenced in the script, Newell’s characters are straight out of Universal Horror from the 1940s, even if the setting is more Hammer London than Universal Transylvania. Newell’s characters are twitchy and nervous, uncomfortable in their own skin and without hesitation looking to break their deal with the devil. It’s a well-constructed tale that, visually, builds the suspense, even when the script, perhaps, could’ve ratcheted it up a little faster.
The story does not overstay its welcome, and is in and out shortly, with only Moira’s fear and anticipation sticking with us as the strip fades into the ether.
Aquila: Rivers of Hades Book 1, Part 10
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln “Aquila: The Rivers of Hades Books 1” had some very solid storytelling moments, but Gordon Rennie saved the best for this final chapter. This final chapter finds Aquila, his allies with the maggot emperor Caligula in tow, fighting a pitched battle against a flock of harpies. The banter between them is as blunt and as fun as it has been throughout. The real highpoint comes when someone arrives to save them, or to be precise, to save Aquila. In addition to making their lives easier, their arrival sparks a conversation that highlights one of the more vicious practices of Rome, crucifixion. We get to see the maggot emperor get slapped and get a few sarcastic laughs along the way in addition an Aquila origin story.
It may be a bit unfair comparing the art of Patrick Goddard and Dylan Teague to the “Wonder Woman” art of George Perez or Phil Jimenez, but it’s hard not to. The strapping woman leading the army that saves the Nubian and his friends calls to mind “Wonder Woman” in feeling and in stature. Their line work, their colors, and their approach to the art itself all recall those classic eras of the DC title and they could have flowed right out of it. The entire chapter is pretty glorious to look at, but it’s the army’s appearance in the grizzly scene of the Appian way that stick in the mind. I suspect the next arc will star a much enlarged diverse cast as they cross the landscape of Hades.
