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Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2254 – Photo Bomb!

By , , , and | October 20th, 2021
Posted in Columns | % Comments

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!

Cover by Mark Harrison

THIS WEEK IN 2000AD

Judge Dredd The Hard Way: Part 5
Credits: Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Matthew Blair: So far, the story has mostly been fast paced action, a deadly chess match between the gang of assassins and their prey. The thing is that while the prey has been very good at staying one step ahead of their would be killers, it’s only a matter of time before luck and skill run out. So what does Dredd do when his back is against the wall and he’s staring death in the face?

Grit his teeth, square his shoulders, and give an epic one liner in a way that only Dredd can deliver.

The writing talents and love for the setting of Judge Dredd that writers Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt display in this series is well documented, and in “Judge Dredd The Hard Way: Part 5” it all comes to a culmination. Williams and Wyatt do a great job of allowing the characters to exhaust all possible options before they’re cornered and all the action has done a marvelous job of building a tremendous amount of tension. Now, the writers get to show how much of a badass Judge Dredd really is, unleashing his classic catchphrase in a way that inspires awe and fear while still making sense in the story.

Jake Lynch’s artwork continues to be perfect for a story like “Judge Dredd the Hard Way: Part 5”. While the frantic pace of the action is maintained, the story does require the artwork to slow down a bit and allow the reader to take in what is happening. Lynch clearly understands how the art can enhance the story by allowing the slower and bigger moments to have slower action and bigger panels, although like the writing it is hampered a little bit by the limitations of the page count. This story deserves a lot more space for the creative team to work their magic and allow the readers to appreciate just how good it is.

“Judge Dredd The Hard Way: Part 5” is an awesome climax to all the frantic action and desperate struggle for survival that our heroes have been going through. When the only problem is that it needs to be longer, you know something is going right.

The Diaboliks: Arrivederci Roma Part Five
Credits: Gordon Rennie (Script), Antonio Fuso (Art), Jim Campbell (Letters)

Christopher Egan: Rennie brings the action to a head in part five. He leans into the absurdist B horror movie style that works best in a story like this. The Pope is held captive by the mad demon, actions, thoughts, and dialogue are heightened. And in the midst of all of it, all the Vatican SWAT members and nuns trying their best to bring an end to the situation, and so on, Salvatore’s want to help and need to save and then protect the children, as he identifies with and understands them, is the quiet, yet urgent heartbeat at the center of this chapter. It’s a nice bit of writing that focuses on a kindness in the middle of the madness.

Fuso’s art is just as deliberate and hectic as the previous chapters. There are a few moments where details get a little lost, and a repeated pass was needed, but over-all the visual storytelling is just as clear, and as wild as the script itself. The black inks of every page work wonderfully with a story like this. It all has a vibe of religious and spiritual horror ranging from the 70s to today. It straddles both the scary and the silly in a great way. There’s even a nice nod to the 1958 version of The Fly.

It’s a wild, fast paced chapter that will leave you wanting more, while having a feeling of both knowing where it’s going and scratching your head wonder if you actually know at all.

Continued below

Pandora Perfect: Mystery Moon Part Five
Credits: Rodger Langridge (script), Brett Parson (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Greg Lincoln: As the week opens, Pandora muses in the narration about Spugg mass-producing her partner Gort. It’s clear that is what he has done, but the reason stands out more. The idea of mining sausage is so damn odd and out of left field, it’s surprising that it takes her so long to consider this. The creative team of this strip give us an amusing musical number and a clever search for the sloppy weld from part one.

Brett Parson so clearly tells the tale in his art that you could interpret the story without reading the dialogue or narration boxes. It’s clear in Pandora’s expressions, her flashbacks, and her choreography what the thrust of the tale is. Parsons communicates movement in his art so well that “Pandora Perfect” almost seems an animated piece rather than a comic. Eyelines and motions carry you along to the next fun and funny panel to the next until you hit the twist ending. It’s gloriously gory and disturbing in a way that is a mirror echo of the tranquility of the Moon vision shown in part one.

Scarlet Traces: Storm Front – Part Five
Credits Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Simon Bowland(letters)

Michael Mazzacane: After last week’s thrilling issue “Scarlet Traces” has itself in a bit of a bind. How to make epic space battles visually interesting? In the previous strip that presence was done through reveals and sound staging but now the battle is pitched, and everything is chaos.

All these issues compound the largest one, which is how to emotionally ground it so that the reader can be attached to it. Edginton and D’Israeli easily fix this problem by returning the focus to our main characters who join a last-ditch demolition team to punch a hole in the Martian defenses. In effect this strip becomes like a mini Star Wars: A New Hope but in reverse. Our crew punches a whole in the shield first and now are going into the belly of the beast. This is an overall effective solution that is classic “Scarlet Traces” the creative team know how to make epic battles readable by focusing on the micro protagonists and their small journeys within the much larger one.

D’Israeli’s color design continues to be the best kind of unhinged as they lean into psychedelic and the strangeness of having multiple light sources all at once. All of that color doesn’t distract from their figure work and panel construction, which continues to be plainly functional and good. That functional craft is what allows the excessive style of their coloring to be effective. It is a bit much but it is the skin attached to a coherent visual skeleton. Of all the battle strips in “Scarlet Traces” this might be among the better ones between its mixture of figure work and color.

The Out: Book Two, Part 5
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Brian Salvatore: This week’s strip is a direct continuation from last week’s story of Cyd’s stolen bag. But where last week saw Cyd being in a bad spot and not at her full strength, personality wise, this week sees the Cyd we’ve all fallen in love with return. Instead of letting the situation get her down, Cyd takes it all in stride: being kidnapped, almost killed, and then cornered (again) by her captors. Through sheer pluck, luck, and something about her that spooked the aliens, Cyd winds up getting out of the situation scot free.

While every chapter of “The Out” is a visual feast, Mark Harrison gets to do a bunch of new stuff here, from a volcano to giant cyclops creatures meeting in combat, and does so without taking the focus off of Cyd. That’s one of Harrison’s most unexpected talents that’s been uncovered on this story: he can create amazing worlds, full of all sorts of creatures, that somehow aren’t as dynamic or interesting as Cyd, an ordinary human of little to no stature.


//TAGS | Multiver-City One

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Greg Lincoln

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Christopher Egan

Chris lives in New Jersey with his wife, daughter, two cats, and ever-growing comic book and film collection. He is an occasional guest on various podcasts, writes movie reviews on his own time, and enjoys trying new foods. He can be found on Instagram. if you want to see pictures of all that and more!

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Matthew Blair

Matthew Blair hails from Portland, Oregon by way of Attleboro, Massachusetts. He loves everything comic related, and will talk about it for hours if asked. He also writes a web comic about a family of super villains which can be found here: https://tapas.io/series/The-Secret-Lives-of-Villains

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Michael Mazzacane

Your Friendly Neighborhood Media & Cultural Studies-Man Twitter

EMAIL | ARTICLES


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