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: The Musical, Part 2
Credits: Rob Williams (Script), Chris Weston (Art), Gary Caldwell (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Now that Klegg’s dream of making a Judge Dredd musical is beginning to really come together, down to dress rehearsals, Williams turns the story into a on-the-nose satire of pre-show problems and stresses. Klegg is having a problem with the size of his helmet, his producer, the shady Acton, is coming to him with money woes saying the show’s funding could get pulled altogether. It’s a funny and obvious satire of show business without any subtlety.
We get more comparisons to “Hamilton,” which works, but the joke is starting to wear thin as the story continues to interrogate the idea of a rap-centric musical getting made about a stoic and violent officer of the law, and what sort of audience, if any, it would draw in. Klegg continues to be written sweetly and naively, which is another easy route to humor juxtaposed by his outward appearance.
The art by Chris Weston continues to be extremely well done and beautifully detailed. It is nice to see such an effort put into this silly plot line. The same can be said about Caldwell’s color work. The use of a wide-ranging palette and light really gives the story an incredible sense of depth, and accentuates the line work done by Weston. It helps lift the story, that while funny and cute, is ultimately on the thin side. The entire team really comes together to give something more substantial than one might expect.
This strip continues to be a fun read that will leave most readers with a smirk with each turn of the page. Hopefully it keeps this level of quality until the end.
The Diaboliks: London Calling Part 4
Credits: Gordon Rennie (Script), Dom Reardon (Art), Jim Campbell (Letters)
Greg Lincoln: ‘London Calling’ introduced a lot of new characters, ideas and twists to the ongoing story of Solomon and his not so goody goody group of heroes, but it suffered from the constraints of space. This arc has been at times funny, revealing, enjoyable, and action packed, but seems unnaturally abrupt. The enemy confronting Solomon with his inglorious past, Ich Ben Seiben, all too quickly releases Solomon, defeats the remaining enemies, and delivers an ominous threat before vanishing into blackness. It’s an interesting ending, leaving a lot of strings to follow up on, but it feels just a bit too rushed, pat, and tell over show.
The art from Dom Reardon most definitely illustrates the story as well as ever. Solomon seems every bit as confused and disoriented as the ending of this conflict as the reader. Reardon crated an ominous feeling in the last pages of the story as Ich Bin Seiben fades to black and with his introduction of the next big bad on the final page. Though things feel a little rushed, Reardon sets the hook to make you anticipate the next story.
Scarlet Traces: Storm Front – Part Ten
Credits Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Simon Bowland(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: This round of “Scarlet Traces” has been surprisingly focused on a single set of protagonists, Ahron and his crew, as they make a last ditch gambit to get the Venusians to help and just maybe end this war. From a structural point of view this condensing makes sense as the series hurtles to a conclusion. As it hurtles towards that conclusion however I couldn’t help but feel like some of that scope has been lacking, even if the last month or so has been dedicated to a battle above the planet that puts the opera in space opera. What Ian Edginton and D’Israeli have done with “Scarlet Traces” is build out an engaging society and culture, a funhouse mirror-critique of Cold War era paranoia and Victorian sensibilities, by showing the effects of the war from as many perspectives as possible.
Continued belowThose perspectives appeared lost in ‘Storm Front’ until this strip as they all come rushing back. All appears lost as the Maritans make their final push on earth, an event we see from Maia and her husbands. The government agent in the bunker with the woman who was there at the start. Iykarus and their partner. Returning to these POV characters even for just a single page returns that epic scope to “Scarlet Traces” and makes effective use of the strip structure as the drama continually builds and builds. It also allows D’Israeli to return to some of the harsh color pallets and weirdly effective color combinations that initially drew me to this series.
Until suddenly, silence … the fighting Martians have suddenly stopped. Ahron’s gambit has worked and with a simple plea maybe they should all try giving peace a chance. What that peace looks like though is still unknown. The ending of this strip has a real Matrix Revolutions vibe to it.
Dexter – Bulletopia Chapter Seven: Lordy Jordy King of Everything, Part 3
Credits: Dan Abnett(script) Tazio Bettin (art) Matt Sofie (colors) Simon Bowland (lettering)
Matthew Blair: Things are not going well for our heroes. They are cut off from any help, the plan they had in mind has completely fallen apart, and now they are in unfamiliar territory being chased by an army of genetically engineered attack dinos. It’s the kind of situation where nobody is safe and someone is going to die.
Dan Abnett’s writing has taken us to a part of the story in “Sinister Dexter” Part 3 where there isn’t going to be a whole lot of important revelations or character moments. The whole thing is one extended action sequence, which has a different set of requirements than slower or more important parts of the story. Despite all of this, Abnett makes sure to give all the characters something to do, keeps the action going at a solid clip, and gives the readers some dialogue that is very in character and very snappy. It’s not the best part of the story, but it’s a solid transition to better things.
Tazio Bettin’s artwork shares similar challenges to the writing in “Sinster Dexter” Part 3, and like the writing it accomplishes it beautifully. Bettin’s goal is to ensure that the reader knows exactly what’s going on and where the characters are in relation to the geography of the scene and to each other. The artwork does a fine job of giving the story a sense of momentum, energy, and danger as the now familiar threats and characters move to protect each other and fight off the horde of angry dinosaurs. Momentum is a hard thing to pull off in a static medium, but the artwork does manage it beautifully.
“Sinister Dexter” Part 3 is a solid action sequence that serves as an important and well created moment of transition. It doesn’t have any meaty story moments or awesome artwork, but it gets the job done and gets it done well.
The Out: Book Two, Part 10
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: After last week’s emotional punch to the gut, this week sees Cyd doing what Cyd does best: surviving, cracking wise, and taking photos. Something, physically, is wrong with her. Her bag thinks she’s pregnant, but unless gestation time is changed by being that far out in orbit, she shouldn’t be feeling the effects of last night’s sex just yet. But she has no time to figure it out: her ship, on which she was placed and housed in the VIP suite by Lustre, is crashing.
Mark Harrison’s artwork continues to be a singular experience, unlike anything he’s done before, or much else in comics in general. He doesn’t have any interest in making Cyd look conventionally beautiful or especially ‘normal’ looking. I don’t mean that as a slight; instead of using her as the magnetic north of normalcy to judge the weirdness of outer space against, she has blended in, and is every bit as bizarre and alien as any creature or planet she sets foot on.
This chapter is a little slight in terms of the script, but has an important role. This chapter shepherds Cyd from one crisis to another. If the events of her tryst with Lustre hadn’t occurred, we would’ve likely picked up in Part 11, with her in the bunkers of Hurang. But Cyd, and the reader, needs to digest what happened to her: her experience with Lustre, her ‘conversation’ with her daughter, all of it. While not a ton of ground was broken here, “The Out” gives us a pause to collect our thoughts, take a deep breath, and walk towards the next crisis.
