THIS WEEK IN 2000AD
Judge Dredd: The Musical, Part 3
Credits: Rob Williams (Script), Chris Weston (Art), Gary Caldwell (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: In the finale of “Judge Dredd: The Musical,” we get our best look at the show overall. Klegg has somehow managed to make the entire thing work, even with the silly politics and financial strain going on behind the scenes. The tone of those moments is funny, but the dialogue is pretty dense and the humor, dark and campy, just doesn’t flow the way it does in the rest of the strip. As the show plods along, we see that it is mostly a greatest hits reel of many of Dredd’s most famous stories and foes. As funny as it is to see a giant Alligator man earnestly portraying the titular character all while making it a musical, that silly side of things is cut with cold slices of danger as a sniper is poised to kill Klegg.
The entire chapter is a calamity of nonsense and tension. It’s all quite funny, but it really leans into the sad vibe as well, that was most prevalent in the first chapter. Laughing at Klegg and the entire situation is somewhat easy to do, but you can’t help but feel bad for him. He’s simply too naive to ever make it in Mega City One. Between problems with the show, a deadly sniper taking aim, villains in high-rise offices, and Judges, including Dredd, about to bust in to shut down the musical, it all just feels pathetic. And I guess that’s the point. Williams has created yet another goofy, but darkly funny satire within this world. It smartly makes something so stupid you can’t help but laugh and at the same time, simply feel bad for the unguarded protagonist at the center. For something that looks like it should be a chuckle inducing good time, I’m shocked at how uncertain I feel at the story’s close.
The Out: Book Two, Part 11
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: “Part 11” ends with an action that has been telegraphed for this entire Book thus far, but felt no less natural or satisfactory when it actually happened. Unfortunately, that was the only moment in this chapter that felt like a new development. This very much feels like it could’ve been trimmed considerably down, but was stretched out to allow the strip to end on a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is fun and worthwhile, but perhaps not at the cost of the strip’s forward momentum.
The rest of this chapter continues the escape plan, looking for safety on the planet Hurang from the invading Tankinar. While I respect what Dan Abnett is doing in creating an enemy that is totally foreign to Cyd, it hurts the story a bit in that Cyd seems so immune to the situation. She’s such a detached, eye-rolling Gen-Xer that even when running for her life, she has to comment on it. The cliffhanger works, in part, because it is the first time we’ve seen Cyd have to do something frantically. Seeing her sweat is what makes the action land.
Mark Harrison gets to go a little nutty, creating both a hulking mech and ‘carnivorous weeds’ on the surface of Hurang. Because the story is in somewhat of a holding pattern, the best way to engage with this chapter is just to marvel at Harrison’s art, which continues to be wild. As cool as Cyd’s attitude is, Harrison’s art gets turned up. So while the plot may have stalled a bit, the art more than makes up the distance to make the chapter a worthwhile one. But hopefully, the strip can snap back into one that feeds the imagination on both sides of the creative team.
Scarlet Traces: Storm Front – Part Eleven
Continued below
Credits Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: And so this round of “Scarlet Traces” comes to a satisfying conclusion in a way that only really works in an issue of “2000 AD”. The weekly release schedule modifies, at least in the US context, our typical interaction with printed comics. The frequency and outlay of pages is actually closer to webcomic, but “Traces” doesn’t have the sort of hyper serialized flow of a webcomic. It is still a fundamentally episodic product. That episodic structure allows writer Ian Edginton to just jump ahead 25 years after the latest War to End All Wars concluded to find an idyllic peace for not just Earth but the solar system. You get the idea of a burgeoning United Federation of Planets in these opening pages as they send the aptly named Argo off on its maiden intergalactic voyage.
D’Israeli art as it is wont to do takes another stylistic shift, notably in the painterly application of pastels for the god eye view of Earth and its pastoral landscape. The mediums and techniques are similar to what D’Israeli’s been doing this entire time but the subject matter and dramatic context make it feel entirely new and fresh. His art takes another shift after the Argo engages its quantum drive and comes across a mysterious planet that looks nothing readers have seen before. The art takes a shit to a harder digital look as well. That mysterious planet is where “Scarlet Traces” teases its next great adventure and maybe a shift to something more like John Carter of Mars.
The coloring technique of D’Israeli has always been front and center but his panel compositions are also worth noting in this episode. He has a bit of fun with the Argo’s cylindrical design and the nature of zero gravity by flipping panel content, with the help of letterer Simon Bowland. These panels aren’t the easiest to read, but that is the point and help to model the shift in perspective that has occurred in the off panel interregnum between episodes.
Dexter – Bulletopia Chapter Seven: Lordy Jordy King of Everything, Part 4
Credits: Dan Abnett(script) Tazio Bettin (art) Matt Sofie (colors) Simon Bowland (lettering)
Matthew Blair: In the review of the previous installment of Sinister Dexter I said that someone was going to die as the group was being hounded by a pack of bio-weapon dinosaurs. The good news is that I was right. The bad news is that it doesn’t play out how I was expecting.
Without too many spoilers, let’s just say that the old adage “man is the most dangerous animal there is” certainly rings true here.
“Bulletopia” Part 4 is the payoff to the last three installments of the story and writer Dan Abnett has one heck of a payoff for the readers. While the last couple of installments were a bit boring, Abnett makes up for lost time in spades by having everything happen very quickly and all at once. It’s a complex web of alliances, counter alliances, divided loyalties, and enough backstabbing to make George R.R Martin jealous. It’s expertly done and definitively proves that Abnett is one of the best writers working in comics today.
Emotions run high in “Bulletopia” Part 4 and when emotions run high in a comic book, it requires an artist who is really good at showing emotion. Tazio Bettin gets to show off a whole range of emotions ranging from anger, to fear, to stoic acceptance as the characters plot, scheme, and make split second decisions that determine whether they live or die. It’s a great compliment to the script and goes a long way towards making the story the best it can be.
“Bulletopia” Part 4 is an amazing conclusion to this particular arc with more violence and action than the last three installments of the story combined. It’s fascinating to read and winds up being the best possible ending for most of the characters involved.
