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 09
Credits: John Wagner (script) Dan Cornwall (art) Dylan Teague (colors) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: In the last review of this series, I wrote that the idea of revealing that Dredd had a clone wouldn’t be that intriguing since the idea of cloning Mega City One’s greatest lawman has been done before and that the creative team was just trying to get some cheap shocks and intrigue into the story.
And now we have “Judge Dredd: The Citadel 09” and…boy was I mistaken.
“Judge Dredd: The Citadel 09” is a firm reminder that writer John Wagner has been creating stories for a very long time, and knows how to subvert audience expectations, especially when it comes to his greatest character. In the ninth segment of this story Wagner makes three things very clear. First, he shows that Dredd can actually be a pretty decent person, provided that you’re on his side and you’re willing to fight through hell and back for him. Second, Dredd is too smart and capable to be fooled or even rattled by a clone of himself and knows exactly how to deal with him and third: this is a story being told by a crazy man who is clearly mentally unwell. It’s a segment that puts a lot of intrigue back into the story and proves that Wagner is very good at his job.
While “Judge Dredd: the Citadel 09” opens at the tail end of the brutally violent chase scene, this part of the story is a comparatively quiet moment where everyone can figure out what is going on and what to do about it. Dan Cornwall has an interesting challenge, trying to differentiate two Dredd’s who don’t take their helmets off and trying to make them look as different as possible while still looking the same. It’s a quiet moment with some great emotional work, but still plenty of space for incredible violence.
“Judge Dredd: The Citadel 09” shifts the intrigue away from the brutal violence and back towards mind games, something that Dredd has no time or patience for. While the intrigue may have been solved quickly, it’s still a fascinating bit of storytelling.
Hope: In The Shadows – Reel One, Part Three
Credits: Guy Davis (Script), Jimmy Broxton (Art), Jim Campbell (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Part 3 puts the noir-ish narration on the back burner and allows for the characters to really delve into in-scene dialogue. Adams focuses on drama and mystery thrown onto the set of the film within the story. Tempers and questions rise with each panel as Hope invades the set to learn more about this case. There isn’t much new to discuss in terms of style or tone with this chapter, other than its focus on the immediate story events, rather than discussing what has happened or what could happen.
Broxton’s art continues to be the absolute highlight of the strip. As interesting and entertaining as Adams’s script is, and it is an intriguing plot, but the stunning renderings of these characters, some of which who were real people, it becomes engaging all over again. This strip does have a shocking cliffhanger that feels a bit rushed because we are only on the third chapter, but it could be perfectly placed after we see where this story goes next week. This story continues to be fascinating and a must for fans of old Hollywood and detective noirs and has yet to disappoint. Hopefully this keeps up the quality for the entirety of the strip.
Intestinauts: Rise of the Impactors Pt 4
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (Script), Pye Parr (Art and Letters)
Greg Lincoln: The Bowel Bots attack! Most of the chapter is a struggle against an overwhelming charge of oddly personality filled, faceless enemies. The Intestinauts make a heroic stand to protect the Tummy Pals that they met last week, even though they occupied the equipment they needed to get recalled. Arthur Wyatt and Pye Parr continued to build a story that feels deep and expansive, with the acute level of both art and narration. Their attention to the necessary detail to hook us to the story is pretty masterful. The moment the Intestinauts launch one of their own into the fray has that X-Men ‘fastball special’ kind of feel. The Tummy Pals may not have names, but the moment when they they join the fight you really want to cheer for them.
Continued belowThe art from Parr bolsters so much of the story. The way the panels are constructed and the Bowel Bots drawn gives the impression of their superior numbers without having to show them in detail. The distant silhouettes with designations was a clever way to open the story that implied threat carried through without having to really show it. The high neon color contrast uses its really appealing to look. Parr’s Intestinauts are so full of personality that when a couple of them fall to the Bowel Bots, the loss is palpable.
Fiends of the Eastern Front: 1963, Part 6
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Tiernen Trevallion (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: “Fiends of the Eastern Front” takes a little bit of a breather and gets into the comedic gutter with this strip. Both of which are necessary as the arc enters its next act. It also lets the creative team do something different from the last 3 strips. For Edginton that means writing some decently witty dialogue and crafting some low brow jabs. For Trevallion that means drawing sequences that are closer to physical comedy than the horrifying gore and action.
After the spectre gets out of Constanta’s body, in a bit of comedic body horror, Trevallion gets to do some physical humor gag work as our vampire just falls like a stone. While the diagonal trajectory in the concluding panels of the first page set up a sense of speed, the change in perspective on the page turn presents some interesting challenges. Trevallion has the reader looking up at a falling Constanta, that angle doesn’t have the strong angular lines that create a sense of motion. Without the narrative context it’s entirely probable you could read the panel as him flying upwards – if awkwardly. Trevallion’s use of grey tones to create a barrier between the foregrounded Constanta and his quickly moving environment do a good job of creating that sense of distance. Which allows the physical comedy of his “fwump” to come through in the following three panels. It was a smart choice in a tricky situation.
Edginton just gets to write some onery one liners as Constanta is having none of this partnership stuff. He has no patience or respect. These aren’t all time gags, but they are effective jabs. This is also a strip that features some lowbrow body humor that is effectively done. The comedy in this strip is just a nice breath of cold winter air. It’s bracing and a little painful, but necessary.
There’s bigger players than Baba Yaga who want Constanta and we are introduced to our new big bad and it is a doozy. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes going forward.
Brink: Mercury Retrograde Part 9
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: Demystification is a classic trope that allows the reader to recontextualize what they’ve been seeing and get a greater understanding of the situation. ‘Mercury Retrograde’ Part 9 attempts to do just that; through Bardot, Maz is able to see the unions and their customs through a more sympathetic and, key to this story, understandable lens. Some of the mysticism is stripped away, and what is left is plainly explainable.
Of course, this forces the reader to either question, ignore, or pause judgment on the costumes and rituals we’ve seen earlier in this story from one of the unions. While there may be explanations for most of what we’ve seen from the unions, their behavior is still unusual and dangerous. Bardot’s allegiance/sanity is still somewhat in question as well here. INJ Culbard does a great job of taking the information from Dan Abnett’s script and presenting it in a way that looks straightforward, but always has a hint and a wink in it that makes the reader question what they’re seeing. Abnett’s script presents Bardot as a reliable narrator; Culbard’s art isn’t so sure.
While the story’s recent focus on Bardot and Maz has given some clarity, the absence of the union activities acts as purposeful misdirection, which seems poised to be a distraction from what is coming. When the action shifts back to the unions, it seems like some of Bardot’s words may be revealed as either not true, or chosen so carefully as to obscure the truth.
