2000 AD Prog 2266 Featured Columns 

Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2266 – Power Surge!

By , , , and | January 26th, 2022
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 Leigh Gallagher

THIS WEEK IN 2000AD

Judge Dredd Working Girl: Part 4
Credits: Ken Niemand (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (lettering)

Matthew Blair: Mega City One is a rough place to live and even rougher to work. All it takes is one tiny little slip up and suddenly you’re in an impossible life or death situation with a painful and gruesome dismemberment on one hand and the cold, uncompromising fist of the law on the other. The worst part is that, even if you somehow manage to survive like our hero in the finale of our little story here, you’re still in deep with no way out and the only way to survive is by embracing the criminal lifestyle.

Writer Kevin Niemand delivers a surprisingly poignant and intelligent meditation on the nature of crime and what makes a criminal in “Judge Dredd Working Girl: Part 4”. Niemand has taken great pains to show that our protagonist isn’t a bad person or a hardened criminal, she’s just an ordinary person trying to live their life that made a few bad choices. What’s interesting is that Monica Plankhurst is brutal enough to make the kind of choices that ultimately allow for her survival in an impossible situation, but keeps her human enough to regret what she’s done and make the reader sympathetic to her plight. It’s a fantastic piece of writing and a great case study for other writers to learn how to write sympathetic protagonists.

The world of Judge Dredd has always been a mix of high tech futurism mixed with low brow settings and morals, and Goddard’s artwork in “Judge Dredd Working Girl: Part 4” is a beautiful example of this when it’s taken seriously. Goddard does a beautiful job of showing high tech robots and glittering skyscrapers juxtaposed with ruined buildings and jerry rigged equipment that’s falling apart. On top of that, Goddard delivers a final bit of action that is clear, concise, and very well drawn. Coupled with Teague’s colors, the story ends on a perfect note of bright and shiny futurism amid grim and gritty squalor.

“Judge Dredd Working Girl Part 4” is a heartfelt, deep, and incredibly depressing ending to a great story that shows yet another tragedy of Mega City One and proves that no matter how good you are or how your intentions may be, you’re just one bad choice away from ruining your life.

Proteus Vex: Desire Paths, Part 5
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

Greg Lincoln: Jake Lynch killed it with the storytelling this week. If your not stopping to check out some of the little details of the art, you’re missing out on some continuity and clues that Vex and Ko are doing more than it appears. With all the visual and storytelling glory, the genesis thread of the little robot carrying away the claw from last week might get missed. It’s not a big thing, but that little inclusion ties this week’s story into last week’s. The other bit that might slip by is something Ko does with no narration that will almost certainly come back to bite someone.

Mike Carroll moves the plot along with the narration adding more mystery to this tale as we go. He’s always willing to add more to the horrors of Chancellor Bayron’s past deeds. We still don’t get to know what Vex is after other than it’s among the corpses of the race he was instrumental in the destruction of. The Count, it seems, never intended to do much more than collect the bounty in Vex, something that clearly was expected. It’s a fun chapter, if a bit text heavy and revelation light.

The Order: Fantastic Voyage, Part 5
Credits Kek-W (script) John Burns(art) Simon Bowland(letters)

Michael Mazzacane: After several strips of lots of action, writer Kek-W and artist John Burns slow things down a bit and allow readers and characters like Cassiopeia to experience something approaching calm and serenity. A tranquil idea juxtaposed by Burns muted earth tones and decaying greens in this dimension on the edge of time. It’s an act of juxtaposition that threatens to be too much, and yet, Cassiopeia’s moment of wonder at all the stars lands and feels earned. There’s something just nice about seeing this gang of adventurers riding atop wind whales as they traverse the planes.

Continued below

That feeling of juxtaposition is established from the first page as Burns divides the page vertically down the middle. On the left hand is the sunsetting of the dead world, washing everything in a wonderful orange-red-yellow, as this pod of Nommo comes closer to our adventures. On the left is the technical, weird, history of “The Order” and Armored Gideon/Clara Weitz as the narrator. Burns uses a mixture of deep blue and light grays on this page, giving everything a cold technical sheen. It’s a breathtakingly weird page.

There isn’t that much conflict in this strip, surprisingly. The Nommo want to help them evacuate this plane of existence before it gives way to entropy and chaos, and so the Nommo let them jump on for a ride! The final couple of pages “conflict” of falling debris is marginal, Burns takes advantage of the immense scale afforded to him but it never feels like real danger. The falling debris serves more as an ominous foreshadow of the future that is currently unknown.

“The Order” is a weird strip as it veers into alt-history and quantum dynamics, but there’s also a sort of classiness to it all. Not too high classed, this is an adventure strip, but one that just wants to be an excellent strip and do the job well instead of mindlessly setting about making thrills and cliffhangers.

Kingmaker: Falls the Shadow, Part 5
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Jim Campbell (letters)

Christopher Egan: In what feels like a rushed opening, Crixus decides to take on the hoard of enemies on his own. Knowing its going to be probably the hardest thing he’s ever done and that he will probably die, he heads out of the cave determined to at least ‘thin the herd.” Even with the build-up of the previous chapters, it still feels like a short-sighted and too quick a turn in the story. This chapter goes full on into action scenes and as the Wraith King watches from his safe perch in orbit, even he knows that Crixus is going to be a real threat, even though he still believes that his forces will be victorious.

Although it physically isn’t, part five feels like the shortest chapter yet, and gives those looking for action and battle sequences just a taste of that kind of release, but just as the narrative begins to take an up-swing in both speed and action, it’s over. It will definitely be the one that has readers itching for next week’s issue the most. In terms of moving the story ahead it’s fine, there is nothing overly interesting or groundbreaking. While the blend of sci-fi and fantasy has done a lot of the heavy lifting, this chapter goes back to that “Warcraft” sensibility with just a few bits of sci-fi tech sprinkled in. If you’ve seen any fantasy film with a war scene this chapter will be very familiar to you. The one thing that’s only slightly fresh is seeing a lone hero take on these hoards.

This chapter flies by and will absolutely keep readers jumping to the next part and scratching their heads as to where this goes next.

Saphir 2: Liaisons Dangereuses, Part 2
Credits: Kek-W (script), David Roach (art), Peter Doherty (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Brian Salvatore: “Saphir,” by setting its story of inter-dimensional travel and attempted murder against the backdrop of 1800s France, gives the book a truly unusual, an not unpleasant, tone. Half period piece, half hard sci-fi, Kek-W is telling his story in nice broad strokes, not bogged down in minutia, moving things along at a furious pace, while still giving the reader enough of a leg up in terms of figuring out exactly what is happening.

David Roach gets to play the same game, drawing beautiful women dressed as if they are right out of Masterpiece Theatre, but also having giant dogs and aliens dressed like Lex Luthor. This chapter can almost give you whiplash with how quickly between two worlds it seems to pinball around, but the frantic pace is helpful to keep the strip interesting and moving along. Instead of being uninformed, I instead feel excited to see what’s happening next, both because I want more information, and also because the story is a lot of fun right now.


//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

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

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

Michael Mazzacane

Your Friendly Neighborhood Media & Cultural Studies-Man Twitter

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