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 Citadel 05
Credits: John Wagner (script) Dan Cornwall (art) Dylan Teague (colors) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: The journey to the mysterious Citadel continues, and while the scrappy gang of Mega City One resistance fighters may be facing near impossible odds as they descend into the darkest, meanest depths of of the city in order to flee from the vicious Sov invasion they do have one secret and terrifying weapon that would allow them to survive the very depths of Hell itself: the leadership of Judge Dredd.
While writer John Wagner does include a bit of action in “Judge Dredd: The Citadel 05”, most of the story takes place in the silent moments between the violent action that allow for character development and questions about the morality of the group’s actions. Wagner’s understanding of his most popular and enduring character comes to full relief here. On one hand, he has Dredd showing something resembling genuine concern and care for the people under his command. On the other hand, he makes it very clear that there is a war on and that everyone is expendable when it comes to driving the Sovs out of his city, including himself. It’s a weird and fascinating situation where it’s easy to see Dredd as a monster with a complete disregard for human life, but it’s also easy to see that nobody really has any choice in the matter and there is no time for sympathy or coddling.
While Dan Cornwall’s artwork does a great job of showcasing a massive, grandiose, and oppressive setting in “Judge Dredd: The Citadel 05”, the real highlight is his character work. The realistic proportions and highly detailed armor and weapons allow Cornwall to showcase the emotional depth of the characters and compliment the script beautifully. The artwork makes everything clear and concise and there is never any doubt in the reader’s mind as to what is going on and what everyone is thinking at any given time. The artwork may not push any boundaries, but it does its job well and looks gorgeous.
“Judge Dredd: The Citadel 05” is a textbook showcase of Dredd’s leadership style and why he has become such a popular character over the years. He may not be the most inspiring leader, and he makes it very clear that he has very little sympathy for human suffering and doesn’t hold individual lives in high regard, but he will push everyone to be the best soldier they can be and won’t pointlessly waste their lives and that…is certainly something.
Kingmaker: Falls The Shadow. Part Ten
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Christopher Egan: In a not so shocking turn of events, Crixus takes on his new role of Duke. Something that seems to be to his liking almost immediately until he realizes that he is still a cog, just in a more powerful machine. As rules and details of his ruling power are given to him by imperial underlings, he realizes that this isn’t going to be all he expected. While we are given an info dump in the same way that Crixus is with this chapter, it’s a surprisingly interesting and light-hearted entry in the series. Not much happens in the way of set up or foreshadowing, but its time spent showing Crixus the ropes of his new position is a nice change of pace from the characters walking around the planet wondering what is next.
Like the change of pace in the writing, the change in scenery is also wonderful. Gallagher’s ability to create new environments while still feeling tied to the same narrative is exceptional. And the palette of a sunshine filled day with water and land in all directions is a welcome sight after the constant back and forth between muddy battlefields and sterile starships.
Continued belowChapter 11 moves Crixus into a new position both in terms of his status and in terms of the story. By the end he makes an extremely bold and dangerous decision that will only bring trouble to him and his allies, but it is a clearly calculated move that should make for some intriguing storytelling in future chapters.
Proteus Vex: Desire Paths, Part 13
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: ‘Part 13’ beings us back around to the setting of the opening chapter of ‘Destiny Path.’ Mike Carroll returns us to the home world of the Citheronians and the final fate of Midnight indicating Shame. We honestly don’t know if Agent Mayday gave her the water bottle with any intent in mind, but that one kindness has a dramatic fallout. Much of the story is preamble to the carrying out of the death sentence and everything seemed pretty straight forward – until it is not. Carroll’s dialogue keeps the tension level high by tying this chapter into recent events and hints that even the Citheronians likely won’t be safe from the Scorchers if they decide to attack them too. But all of that is secondary to the final fate of Midnight. If this is your first Vex story, you don’t have an emotional attachment to her but the outcome of this is important to those who have read from the first chapter.
Jake Lynch creates a fascinating group of background and one shot characters for this chapter. He shosw us the bizarreness and diversity that is very much a part of the Citheronians. Lynch, with an assist from Jim Boswell, managed to make each Cith individual in shape, posture, expression and decoration. Their art made this chapter worth looking at multiple times to explore the richness in these pages beyond the dialogue.
Fiends of the Eastern Front: 1963, Part 2
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Tiernen Trevallion (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The spy game is afoot! That somewhat anachronistic phrasing is perfectly in keeping with “Fiends of the Eastern Front” style. On one hand we have an occult mid-century spy thriller, but our protagonist (anti-)hero is a Nazi vampire, Captain Constanta. Tiernen Trevallion and Ian Edginton’s art and scripting mostly smooth out the dissonance of all this, until they lean into it. That dissonance helps to round things out and give the strip some edge. Captain Constanta seems more intrigued with the prospect of killing Russians than helping the Uncivil Service. CIA agent and literal spook, Aquinas Salt is more than willing to keep things on the downlow to preserve the god-fearing Americans misplaced sense of patriotism … and saving himself paperwork.
Unlike the introductory strip this one is a bit slower and less plot dense, events occurred that will surely become important later but really it was two scenes: Constanta was in a diner and then he wasn’t and met Mr. Salt. Trevallion does a good job though of making that second sequence have the appearance of a bit of time to it is showing the cat and mouse game between the two in the opening three panels of page three, before the rest of the page is used for relevant dialog. It’s simple storytelling but does a lot to give the strip a sense of length and pace beyond the 5 pages and roughly 38-40 panels. They also work in a little bit of a panel pun on the final page as Constanta flies away, the final three panels come together in the rough shape of a bat shield.
Trevallion’s use of grey tones to create segmentation and also help cohere lots of visual information as Constanta and Salt magically introduce themselves is worth noting. The spectral snakes are contrasted wth the solid black of Constanta and the white negative space snow. It’s a lot of elements that are all nicely balanced in the end.
Brink: Mercury Retrograde Part 5
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: “Brink” is playing a slow game with ‘Mercury Retrograde,’ and while technically a lot happens in this week’s installment, this is also the first issue where it feels like, perhaps, the pace should be picked up a little bit. While this type of story and pacing can shine in other media, the combination of the 2000 AD 5-page format and the visual nature of comics means that, after a certain amount of time, just looking at talking heads can feel a little unnecessary.
Dan Abnett’s script continues to unfold on two fronts, both from Maz’s investigative reporting, and from the union activities that, this week, take an unexpected turn. In fact, Maz’s story goes in a surprising place, too. There is plenty in both stories to latch onto, and INJ Culbard is doing engaging work with limited sets and action pieces. Culbard gets to flex a little bit of his facial expression muscles here, by showing, in the Maz section, a few characters puffing themselves up for show, and does some fine work differentiating between feigned anger and real anger.
The ‘secret society’ aspect which, to me, had been setting up the new recruit as some sort of stooge, takes a turn by threatening his life, seemingly out of nowhere. There has been an undercurrent of danger in this story, but this takes that realization and ramps it up quickly. It makes for an effective cliffhanger that, hopefully, will push things along a little quicker in weeks to come.
