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
Cadet Dredd: Full Throttle
Credits: Liam Johnson (script), Ben Willsher (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: The art and the vibe that hits you on page one of ‘Full Throttle’ is big and bold, full of primary colors and the usual suspects of over the top dialogue and appealing and unchallenging comics designs. Dwayne and Vinnie, bags of cash, large vehicles and an impending high speed chase, could this be anything by a homage to a certain long running over the top film franchise with the initials F and F? Dwayne and and Vinnie, the heavies the strip introduces us to, bear and uncanny resemblance to their namesakes in a way that is pretty much unmistakeable. By the time that cadets Rico and Dredd appear and get their Lasmaster handling from Judge Zand, we know we are off to the races. Liam Johnson’s script is very tongue in cheek and clearly is aware of the “jumped the shark” nature of what he’s referencing. The whole sixth sense thing from the Mo-pad seller Al is smirk-worthy as is the high speed pitched pursuit that Rico and Dredd participate in.
Ben Willsher and Annie Parkhouse do their level best to keep up with the speed with the source material and the storytelling. The art and lettering captures the feeling of the high speed pursuit and pokes fun at the genre in equal measure. ‘Full Throttle’ is well executed and conceived, if just a bit vapid like the popcorn films it’s pulled from.
Scooter and Jinx
Credits: James Peaty(script) Steve Roberts (art) Jim Boswell (colors) Simon Bowland (lettering)
Matthew BlairIt’s a tale as old as time. Cat boy meets girl, girl is a one of a kind death robot working at a sci fi diner, boy and girl fall for each other, boy and girl run afoul of intergalactic criminal syndicate because of something the boy stole, and boy and girl must escape said criminal syndicate together.
It’s a classic.
“Scooter and Jinx” is written by James Peaty, who has crafted a solid little short story that could be expanded in either direction. While Peaty offers plenty of questions for the reader concerning the character’s background and how they got to where they are and where they’re going, he does the right thing and leaves it all up to the reader’s imagination. It’s a solid script with some good action and some nice bits of character work that make the two main characters relatable and fun. The two have very good chemistry and compliment each other nicely, creating a dynamic where it would be nice to see them in more stuff. There is one bit where Peaty does pull a deus ex machina out of almost nowhere to give the story a happy ending, but it’s not too distracting.
The artwork for “Scooter and Jinx” is provided by Steve Roberts and his expressive and dynamic cartoon style is perfect for a children’s story like this. Roberts has an art style that is very reminiscent of a 90’s children’s cartoon with a medium sized budget, which is a very good style for slightly older children. While the action is great and the characters are very expressive, it does require some sacrifices be made in the backgrounds and designs of the characters. While the art doesn’t do anything new, it does its job very well and sometimes, that’s all the reader needs.
“Scooter and Jinx” is a solid little short story that doesn’t waste time with backstories and a lot of exposition. It’s a fun adventure romance with just enough violence and love to make younger readers happy and a happy ending to make the parents happy as well.
Enemy Earth: The Bunker
Credits: Cavan Scott (Script), Luke Horsman (Art), John Charles (Colors), Jim Campbell (Letters)
Christopher Egan: In a future where our own planet has turned against us, young teen Zoe is surviving the best she can in a bunker as the Earth’s plants and animals have mutated into vicious creatures, hell bent on devouring everything in their path. Cavan Scott gives Zoe a decently though out, but typical voice for a character like her. We have gotten scrappy survivalist heroes like her before in all forms of media, but for young readers picking up this issue, she is given a strong enough introduction and characterization to be familiar and interesting at the same time.
Continued belowFor the most part, the set up for Zoe and this mutated Earth are a mixture of things we’ve seen many times over, but Scott keeps the pace fast with elements both spooky and smart enough to keep kids and adults engaged. We all get a bit of the heebie-jeebies seeing giant spiders and rats bearing down on a protagonist with the sole intent of devouring them. It works well. Luke Horsman’s art is mainly action-packed with a fun flair, but the details give us just enough horror to give us a nice balance of peril inside of this fun looking strip. John Charles keeps the palette bright and cheerful, in a “Goosebumps” meets “EC Comics” kind of way. When the sci-fi action comes into play it become all “2000AD.” Robots, kids in jeopardy, and a mutated planet of flora and fauna is bonkers fun.
The entire creative team has given us both a spooky fun adventure, and a solid opening chapter for more “Enemy Earth” adventures in the future. The biggest knock I can give it is that it’s a lot of the same, but at the same time, it’s reorganized in a way to keep things just fresh enough. The cliffhanger ending is equally frustrating and gives promise of some interesting stuff to come. “Enemy Earth” gives us the exact tone needed for an all ages Prog.
Tharg’s Time Twisters: Temporal Tantrum
Credits: Colin Harvey (script), Tom Newell (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: Tales of time travel are often undone by their slavish devotion to logic. If you’re telling a story with a time machine, logic is likely already out the window, but often times, so many trap doors have to be put in place ahead of time to allow stories to be told ‘properly,’ that the stories collapse under their own weight. Luckily, ‘Temporal Tantrum’ doesn’t do that, and allows a silly story that is very relatable to the all-ages audience the book is looking for in this issue.
Tom Newell does an admirable job creating a look that allows the entire book to hang together despite trips across history. Newell doesn’t get bogged down in the exact details, both rather just tries to capture a few key pieces of each time period, whether it is a halfway decent Barack Obama or the Sphinx. Even if some more era-specific coloring from Gary Caldwell would’ve gone a long way to making the eras more distinct, the feel of the story isn’t harmed by it.
The story works, in a way, because the idea behind the time travel is so pure. It’s not a convoluted ‘I need to save someone’s life which starts a chain reaction’ story; it is just an influencer wanting more followers. I was worried on the first page that this was going to be a morality tale about the evils of social media, but luckily it puts the blame on Garzan (and later, Bibbi) instead of their chosen profession. Due to the characters’ greed, the story is straightforward and a perfect story for a kid to enjoy.
Strontium Dug
Credits: David Baillie (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Chris Blythe (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: When I first saw “Strontium Dug” in the table of contents for this YA special, I was intrigued. How would you make a strip about post-apocalyptic racism and bounty hunting a cheerful, comedic, young adult strip? Well it turns out dyslexia really sucks because “dog” and “dug” look very similar, but it works out for the best. “Strontium Dug” takes the basics of “Strontium Dog” and puts a little spin on it, the racist elements to the irradiated bounty hunters are not really remarked upon but still present, and we get an actual dog this time in the form of Dougal IX. “Strontium Dug” is like Watchmen Babies but fully aware.
Writer David Baillie and artist Colin MacNeil turn the strip into a sort of more competent, dog based, Amelia Bedelia as Dougal proves himself to be the best tracker dug this side o’ Cambuslang! Colin Macneil’s page design and digure work do a good job of capturing and highlighting the physical humor-action that goes on as Dug comes across the bounty his owner is looking for. The third page in particular has an effective staircase design with the panels that manages to replicate the sort of up and down sniffing that dug is going through as he searches the casino. There’s a Looney Tunes like energy to their action. The density of action and information in these pages is inherent to the “2000 AD” format, but MacNeil never lets it get too cumbersome. These are just well-designed pages that work on their own and as a strip.
Continued belowChris Blythe’s coloring helps in that regard as they use a heavy number of greens and turquoises to draw the reader’s eye and lead them through the page. Blythe keeps the strip a lively array of colors befitting the sort of poche-gauche casino setting without becoming too excessive and plainly confusing.
Simone Bowland’s lettering continues to be just workman-like and effective. David Baillie’s scripting and the heavy accent work with Dug might be a little harder to read across the pond but it adds a lot of character even if some of it is hard to read at times.
“Strontium Dug” is a fun knowing twist on a well worn property.
