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 Pitch
Credits: Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt (script), Boo Cook (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Judge Maitland has been involved in some really big Dredd stories since her appearance right after ‘Chaos Day.’ It is so intriguing what Williams and Wyatt introduce through her with her thoughts in ‘The Pitch.’ The Justice Department has been fighting this same war on crime for so many decades, even in real time, with as much lasting effect as Batman has in Gotham. Proposing a change to usual pattern of force and escalation flies in the face of the usual conventions of the Justice Department. What she says about the cyclical failures of the Justice Department and the costs to their society really track, and you can see that patterns looking back, even just to last week’s strip. The way this one shot ends makes it for sure the set up for something, whether it’s a Dredd spinoff or a story arc upcoming only time will tell.
Boo Cook makes this very talk-y strip visually interesting and compelling. Their art is well done and always filled with depth and feeling. The block of Mechanismo Judges in the center of the first page really draw the eye and are truly menacing. Cook has a very idiosyncratic style that looks pretty dynamic even if it’s motion caught in amber and their colors make the talking heads scenes very atmospheric. There is almost more tension in those discussion scenes than in the violence and enemy lineups that partner with the narration. Cook also makes the difference in power between the leaders and Maitland clear in the way they play with perspective, and even Dredd seems super imposing the way Cooks draws him.
Chimpskey’s Law: A Terrifically Disturbing Adventure, Part 2
Credits: Ken Niemand (script), PJ Holden (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: Things are going well for everyone involved in this twisted little story of ours. The Twins have found their new home and are happily forcing everyone around them to become one big happy family, whether they want to or not. At the same time, Chimpsky and his loyal crew are hard at work doing what they do best: doing good things without anyone knowing they did them in the first place. It’s a relatively pleasant status quo (at least as pleasant as a place like Mega City One will allow) that is soon to be ended when the Twins see Chimpsky in action…and decide that they want a pet.
Writer Ken Niemand has introduced the players in this little story, and now in “Chimpsky’s Law Part 2” he does a good job setting them on a collision course against each other. This part of the story showcases the skills of both Chimpsky and the Twins: Chimpsky has impressive physical skills and great planning abilities, while the Twins are incredibly powerful and insidious telepaths who can puppet people into doing whatever they want. While Niemand does focus on the horror that is the Twins more than Chimpsky, we still get a great idea of what both sides are capable of and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
PJ Holden’s cartoon style is well suited to a story like “Chimsky’s Law Part 2” in that it gives off a pretty light and comedic vibe, but can be creepy when it wants to be. The way Holden draws his character’s faces can be a bit of an acquired taste, but the wide and exaggerated features come in handy when he wants to show people straining against their telepathic puppet masters. However, Holden’s greatest strength is in how he draws the environment of Mega City One, which is a fun combination of sci-fi, punk rock, and classic suburban living. It’s crazy, zany, and epitomizes everything that makes this universe fun.
Continued below“Chimpsky’s Law: A Terrifically Disturbing Adventure Part 2” lays the foundation for the main conflict of the story and does a great job of showcasing how capable both sides are and wets the reader’s appetite for the coming violence.
Enemy Earth: Book One: Part Two
Credits: Cavan Scott (script), Luke Horsman (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: There’s a moment n Avatar: The Last Airbender when Zuko and Sokka share past traumatic experiences. Sometimes your tyrannical Father drives your mom to the point of madness and she just disappears afterwhile. Other times your girlfriend turns into the Moon! The only response Zuko has to that is “that’s rough, buddy”. Writer Cavan Scott channels that sort of energy as Zoe reacts to seeing the remains of Jules’ Mother, “that’s intense”. Unlike the moment of Avatar this is a moment that doesn’t modify the sincere recognition that is occurring with a comedic twist (the recurring joke is Zuko is so arrested in their development that they have no good or proper way to respond). Instead Cavan and Horsman play this as a moment of recognition for Zoe who sees something of herself in Jules.
The remainder of the strip centers on Jules day when the event occurred. Luke Horsman gets to flex with excellent action compositions. The feeling that this is a slightly elevated YA comic continues to come through as other than the blood, and one moment of clear bodily gore, the action in this strip is clearly action not violence. The creeping tendrils thrust around and provide the page with so many lines that the shadows as speed lines feel unnecessary – but still help to balance the image and page overall. There is a sense of danger in these images and with the image of the skeleton in the present we understand it as mortal danger. Also to Horsman’s credit they seed all the outcomes and show you moments of physical trauma without making the entire page about them. It’s good subtle storytelling in a cacophonous moment.
The fourth page is one of the coolest pages I’ve read in 2000 AD in a while, as Jules robotic protector, his Nanny Bot is activated and it begins its duty. The bottom half of the page is a tri-force of angles and energy. The image could be read as a singular image or up to four panels in one. It’s just a fantastic composition that uses recurring geometric patterns to organize and display the destructive power of the bot.
Jumping back to the present Cavan does a subtle thing he doesn’t let Jules be a dumb kid, which is a trope I’ve never understood in this particular genre. Jules is aware enough to understand that their Nanny is just a robot with definite programing limits which is why they didn’t bury their mother or anyone else’s remains. But Zoe could do that, and most of all entering them is what Jules is after. Plus Zoe owes them after she blew open the hatch and now all the killer plants are coming to eat them.
Hope: In the Shadows Reel Two, Part One
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Christopher Egan: The next chapter of “Hope” comes with both a whimper and a bang. Adams starts of the latest installment as a quiet and moody inner monologue, takes it to an intimate, conversational character study, and ends it with an explosive metaphysical body horror finale to wrap up this week and blow things wide open moving forward. The script is nicely paced, giving us simple chatter that never moves beyond just that. It’s people filling the void with conversation until the void takes them.
Broxton’s art is as stellar as ever putting us right into a 1950s roadside diner smack in the middle of the sweltering American desert. Even in black and white you feel every bit of the heat of the sun and squeak of the pleather diner seats. The characters are impeccably designed and truly look like real humans in an old horror film. You feel their weight, body heat, everything. Every panel is stunning.
In the final two pages the horror is upon us once again as everything around our protagonist is being torn down to the atoms by her will. Morphing, exploding, twisting, disintegrating, the world is becoming a hodge-podge of terrifying imagery that is equal parts Cronenberg and Thanos’s SNAP. An excellent kicking off point to pull readers back into the bizarre horror of “Hope.”
Continued belowIt’s a familiar look for this strip, but the tone and type of horror is changing to keep things fresh. Hopefully it continues to do so with shocking imagery and compelling writing.
Hershey: The Cold in the Bones: Book One, Part Two
Credits: Rob Williams (script), Simon Fraser (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: ‘Joy’ is not the most clever name for a street drug that produces euphoria, but it will do here. But first, we are given a flashback on Judge Hershey’s days as a cadet, as well as a fast forward to today, further enlightening new readers to Hershey’s considerable backstory. As I said last week, there isn’t too much given at a time, just little morsels to help job your memory, or give you enough of a skeletal backstory that you can follow without too much issue.
Hershey was a good Judge, which might mean that she’s not a great person, but she’s at least protecting human life in Antarctic City, even if her companions think that her compassion will give her profession away. That’s a take that anyone who has ever read an issue of 2000 AD will quibble with, but I get the sentiment. Again, the sparing use of color really works here, with the bloody lip jumping off the page and giving itself more important and focus than might be needed, but works for dramatic effect.
Simon Fraser’s art undergoes some serious transformations across the time periods and settings, from a cleaner, more buttoned up flashback to the shaggy modern day. He and Rob Williams do an effective job connecting two stories that, on their surface, couldn’t be more different, while keeping everything both jarring and followable. There’s a real gift to making a jump of decades feel seamless, but also do the narrative trick of snapping you back into place with a jolt. Williams and Fraser pull it off nicely.
