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: An Honest Man, Part 4
Credits: Ken Neimand (script), Tom Foster (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: ‘An Honest Man Part 4’ expands its character study showing us more of rookie Judge Purcell. Purcell is nearly instantly grating, demanding and unlikeable. Even the robot he deals with at Resyk seem a bit offended at his bad attitude. It’s comment about him being a graduate of the “Law Academy Charm School” is pretty clever and a very apt description. Purcell’s drive to get back at Asher however he can drives him to overstep his authority as he goes after the “Auxie with the face.” He goes as far as to claim to be working “with” Dredd to get his way. That moment feels so much like a big mistake that will bite him back later. It shows his character and quality as a person and a Judge. Neimand equally builds on Ashers tale. The once Judge is doing something sketchy, he and us both know it and that he will likely pay a hefty price for it. His actions ,though criminal, are mostly for someone else’s benefit and to atone for his criminal past. He seems more an honest man for his intent over the viscous attitude of Purcells in the vendetta against him. Dredd getting pulled into Purcells pursuit will likely doom both Him and Asher ultimately. Neimand spins a thought filled, complex crime story, the character study is engrossing enough to forget that Dredd’s case. It is possible there is a bigger story afoot that could spin out of this, but only time will tell.
Foster and Blythe’s art game is very strong this week. The depth and detail on these pages give life even to the robots Purcell accosts. It is obvious that they are robots but it’s likely you’ll look twice to be sure due to the personality in the art. The rich quality of the inks adds to the reality of this week’s story, a lot of effort went into this art. Closeups and subtle expression changes play a big part in how we feel about Asher and Purcell, and Dredd, well, he’s as always inscrutable as ever. The weapon closeups in the final panel up the stakes for next week as Asher is alone and probably unprepared for an ambush. The atmosphere created by the shadows in that final scene add to the mystery and reinforce the crime noir feeling. It’s Megacity one Asher, hope your prepared for the violence that may be coming.
Future Shocks: School Run
Credits: John Tomlinson(script), Steven Austin (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: Welcome to the future, where advances in cloning technology can turn those violent and sociopathic dreams you had about making sure your old bully pay for their crimes into a reality. Fortunately for a seemingly ordinary schlub like Manny Litvak, there are plenty of places that cater to his murderous whims, and he is more than happy to pay to make sure his former bully, a man named Gaz Hockle, pays the price for making his life a living hell.
Unfortunately for Manny, this is a 2000AD Future Shock, which means that things are not necessarily what they seem.
“Future Shock: School Run” is written by John Tomlinson, who has crafted a solid tale about the morality of vengeance and the consequences of holding a grudge. Tomlinson does a very good job of establishing the rules of his story, guiding the reader through this world where revenge can be had for the price of a clone, and gives Manny a solid emotional journey that culminates in a well written epiphany that may be a bit cliche, but it still works. If the story has a problem, it’s with the twist ending, which feels a bit disconnected from the rest of the story with no setup and no hint at the future consequences of Manny’s actions.
Continued belowThe artwork for “Future Shocks: School Run” is provided by Steven Austin, who has created a well drawn and detailed black and white story that evokes the feel of a classic 2000AD story and old school European comics from the late 70’s and early 80’s. Austin draws his characters with highly realistic features and proportions and does a great job of combining them with a great retro futuristic aesthetic that looks like it could be part of a Buck Rodgers story or a dime store pulp novel. It’s some really cool looking art that is a joy to look at and does its job very well.
“Future Shocks: School Run” is a fun little story with pretty artwork and a solid moral lesson about the futility of vengeance. The only weakness is the disconnect between the ending and the rest of the story.
Hope: In The Shadows – Reel One, Part Eight
Credits: Guy Davis (Script), Jimmy Broxton (Art), Jim Campbell (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Probably the most dialogue and text heavy entry yet, part 8 gives us Hope’s return to this mortal realm. Mostly getting talked at with updates and forcibly requested gratitude for his resurrection, Hope has had time to think while dead and begrudgingly plans his next move.
Taking visual cues from a wide swath of genre and eras, this chapter looks like it is pulled from The Twilight Zone or old Paramount and RKO horror films, the schlocky pre-code ones that got away with so much before American puritanical censorship ran wild. It feels dirty and unsafe while still having that jet black streak of humor to keep things slyly poking fun and winking at the reader. Broxton has been having fun with this entire run and it’s always shown.
The script does a nice job of keeping the pace up even with a fairly heavy info dump and plot thickening. A nice violent reveal at the end may come as a shock to some. This chapter is a nice evenly paced thriller that uses its quiet conversations and set pieces to lull you into a false sense of safety.
Brink: Mercury Retrograde Part 14
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: Most of this installment is Maz monologuing, putting the pieces of the story together in the most succinct and clear way thus far. This is undercut when we realize that he is not speaking to anyone, and seemingly has lost his grip on reality. This is exactly what Lauren was afraid would happen and, to Maz’s credit, he seemed to be holding it together reasonably well until she left and the floodgates opened.
The interesting piece is that Dan Abnett is letting us know that Maz has, in fact, figured it out. He basically has cracked the case, but in the process has also cracked him up. Abnett seeded a few hints of this earlier in the strip, like Maz’s sudden obsession with health food. The interesting bit here is that, unlike what you’d expect, Maz actually hasn’t gone far enough with his theories. The end of this chapter shows just how far the unions will go, and Maz hasn’t really seen it through that far yet.
INJ Culbard does a really good job of slowly revealing Maz’s madness, like waiting until the second page to reveal that he’s in his underwear, or revealing just how much of the apartment is covered in his papers. He gets to do the creepy thing a bit too with the final scene, which he hasn’t been able to do for a few weeks now.
Fiends of the Eastern Front: 1963, Part 11
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Tiernen Trevallion (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: While I didn’t expect the fight between Constant and Cain to run at, say the length of a “Jujutsu Kaisen” fight, 5 pages seems a tad brief. It was more like a Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns match, a mad sprint of two big meaty men slappin meat. Tiernen Trevallion’s art shines in this strip in terms of panel content but more importantly how that content is laid out.
This colossal battle of weird titans atop the stormy London skies threatens to rupture the page as the ultimate panel. Tiernen stretches and skews panels laying them over top one another with nary a straight line in sight. These designs are what give the choreography, which is fairly standard and well done, the extra umph. It also allows Tiernen to constantly shift perspective going from super close ups of Constant gripping one of Cain’s eyes to falling into London fog in the next and have it all make continuity and geographic sense for the reader.
Continued belowThese choices also allow for some smart storytelling by what Tiernen doesn’t show us. In particular the final two panels on the third page he shows viewers the after effects of Constanta’s slashes. Annie Parkhouses lettering provides a useful guide to follow the phantom slashes as well.
And then nearly as quickly as it started the fight is over and the page goes back into line. The final page is orderly with plenty of right angles and strong panels that contain the images as opposed to the previous pages.
Curious where things go from here, it’s Cain so I guess he’ll show up again eventually.
