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!
Prog 2314
Judge Dredd: The Night Shift Part 2
Credits: Ken Neimand (script), Nicolo Assirelli (art), Peter Doherty (colors), Jim Campbell (letters)
Greg Lincoln: ‘The Night Shifter Part 2′ takes us both to familiar police procedural territory and somewhere a bit new. The new is the outright humor with which this strip opens. Dredd getting a hottie is an odd thing to see and to think about but his no frills approach and his reaction is laugh out loud funny. His take on the cart’s advertising and his punishment for his feeling it’s misleading it pure, literal Dredd. Unlike the expectation that came out of last week’s opening chapter, Joe Dredd does his job and actually investigates the Hottie cook that is clearly who Luna Aguerra fears he was. Spurred on by his disappointing hottie, Dredd has the Justice Department dig into both immigrants in the case. The remainder of the story follows Luna as she tries to remain safe, and after a day of fear, calls the Judges again in an all too happy looking kiosk. Surprising her, they tell her to remain there as Judges will help. She’s scooped up by the people she most fears as we might have predicted and things look bleak until the get-away goes awry and a certain Judge shows up. Jack booted law dog that he is, we are happy he arrived.
Nicolo Assirelli has a real flair for pacing. This week’s chapter feels much more expansive than its spare five pages. The humor beats on the opening page work really well, and the terror that follows on the shadow and tension filled pages that follow Luna do as well. Peter Doherty’s colors and use of a duller, darker palette build the despair that looms over Luna as she tries to remain safe. The use of light on those pages reinforce just how dark and depressing her life is.
The Out: Book Three, Part Three
Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: In a few ways, Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison are telling a portion of Cyd’s story backwards. When she was integrated into the Tankinar, she really had no idea what was happening or why. In that moment, it felt like a bold storytelling moment for Abnett and Harrison: tell the story, regardless if the participants really understand it. By taking the first few chapters of ‘Book Three’ to somewhat fill in those gaps is both somewhat satisfying and also a little bit of a backslide into more conventional storytelling.
In their defense, they are doing so in an unconventional way, but what has been so remarkable about “The Out” so far is how the story is Cyd’s alone, and we get to see how she reacts to the insanity of the Out and its wars, medicine, and culture. By focusing instead on the Tanikar right now, it is relegating Cyd to supporting character status. Don’t get me wrong, she’s still the ‘star’ of the strip, but this is very much about the Tankinar at this point. And, while the Tankinar are interesting, we’re here because of Cyd. I hope that once this first piece of ‘Book Three’ is over, we can get back to Cyd being the driver of the story. With each chapter of “The Out,” Cyd should be more known to us. The only new information here is that she loves donuts and, duh, she’s human.
Thankfully, Harrison is still drawing the strip, and his art can never really saddle up to the expected. While still somewhat handcuffed by the limited setting, Harrison gets to draw not just delicious pastries but Cyd’s near orgasmic reaction to taking a bite of one. And Harrison acts as visualizer of Ruzl’s words, allowing the reader to get a sense of the scope being discussed, and in those moments, Harrison always goes all out. Again, this is not bad at all, but it still feels a little claustrophobic for what “The Out” has tended to be.
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Joe Pineapples Tin Man 03
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Beasley (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: Joe Pineapples and his good friend Ro Jaws are currently engaged in the fight for their survival against a group of monsters who are determined to become so evil and murderous that their lord and savior will descend to this plane of existence and take them to paradise. The monsters in turn have decided to show the robots their greatest fears, which involves Pineapples being love with a lady sniper robot, because of course there’s a lady sniper robot.
“Joe Pineapples Tin Man 03” is something of a conclusion to the high octane action scene that started this story and it allows writer Pat Mills to provide a bit of backstory and emotional nuance to the main characters. It’s very clear that a robot designed to kill isn’t used to a whole lot of emotional complexity and it’s clear that the thoughts of his lady love are freaking him out a bit, as opposed to the monsters they are currently fighting. Still, the job is done reasonably well, but it opens the door to another mystery that should be intriguing.
“Joe Pineapples Tin Man 03” continues the string of fantastic art by Simon Beasley, but there are some issues that are starting to show and make it less than ideal. To be clear, each of the individual panels continue to be great with awesome imagery in its classic Heavy Metal painted style (seriously, this art looks like it would be more at home on a prog rock album cover or a really fun acid trip), but in a way that’s what is holding it back. Beasley likes to get creative with the panel layouts and narrative flow of the comic, which can make the story difficult to follow at times. It’s still fun to read, but for new comic book readers it might be a struggle.
“Joe Pineapples Tin Man 03” is the conclusion to a great action scene and introduces some emotional depth into the story, which sets up future progs quite nicely.
Hope: In the Shadows – Reel Two – Part Eleven
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Chris Egan: Demon BDSM party is a SMASHING success. Brutal, nasty violence. As these characters kill each other, Hope is able to remove himself for the carnage using a bit of blood magic. This may be the quickest bit of storytelling out of the entire run. Adams keeps the script to a bare minimum of one-liners, brief revelations, and sound effects. It’s the final bridging act before the finale and it is a quick way to jump in and out of this chapter before the end. There is a lot of gore and pain on nearly every page, if it weren’t for the quick pacing this entry would be a much tougher one to get through. None of the violence gets too much of a lingering moment before the next attack or conversation is put before us. Mean, ugly horror can be a real treat and it is handled extremely well this week.
Proteus Vex: Crawl Space Part 3
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell(Colours), Simon Bowland(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: “Vex” is setting up some kind of prison break! It’s the promise of more, at least after we discover that Vex has allowed himself to be arrested by the Imperium. But for what reason is yet to become clear.
The retrospective quasi-historical narration as a framing device is starting to become more effective. Carroll highlights the gaps in the historical record and in doing so creates interesting moments of tension where a character the record says would likely act one way and goes in a different direction. History is overall foregrounded in this strip as Vex commiserates with Marshall, one of their former colleagues. Marshall’s fiery desire for the “old” Vex to come back, the mythic warrior, is justified through personal experience and memory. Which is an interesting counterweight to the documentary-based record that the narrative framing device uses. Jim Boswell’s color palette also helps to visually juxtapose the two types of history. In prior strips, the discovery of the titular Crawl Space documents was shown in full color. Marshall’s recollection of the mythic Vex is done through sepia.
Continued belowOverall the sci-fi aesthetic Jake Lynch employs continues to be an effective homage to European sci-fi comics of its genre. The page design is perhaps a bit stiff and overly complicated for my liking, with all of its blocky shapes.
Prog 2315
Judge Dredd: The Night Shift Part 3
Credits: Ken Neimand (script), Nicolo Assirelli (art), Peter Doherty (colors), Jim Campbell (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Things go from bad to worse for everyone in part three of ‘The Night Shift.’ Sure, Joe Dredd saved Luna Aguerra and has her in protective custody, but for her that is a mixed bag. It is a reminder of being in the custody of a repressive regime that tortured her, her friends, and family. She thinks that her hope laid with Dredd, who she believes is a “good man,” and which is true after a fashion. We get more twists and turns with the story as some realistic political wrinkles arrive from a Judge named Keller. He doesn’t pull the case from Dredd, but he orders our “hero” to slow the case until trade agreements are secure. I doesn’t sit well with Dredd and pushes his buttons the wrong way. The rest of the story brings us back to Frank Formosa and the tightening web around him. Its solid police procedural work, but it’s sad how many more bodies stacked up this week including Petey the robot owner of the Hottie stand.
Nicolo Assirelli’s art tells the tale quite well for how loose and flowing his line work is. It was not noticeable in the earlier chapters, but here more of the action and story is told with little more than just deep shadows and dark backgrounds. His skill with suggesting structure and motion with just a few lines gives this part real flow to it. Peter Doherty’s colors and their nod classic comics color palettes carry a lot of the feeling in this story and complement the animated feeling of the line work.
The Out: Book Three, Part Four
Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: This installment finally gets Cyd out of the interrogation room and onto the capital world of the Unanima, and instantly, Mark Harrison is able to let loose a bit. The setting, somewhere not too far visually from Tattooine with grosser aliens, instantly blows out the walls of the book a little. This is humorously paired with the reintroduction of Cyd’s bag, which is a BOTI – bigger on the inside – and so as the scope opens up, so does the bag.
It is nice to see Cyd have a true ally again, and we instantly are brought back into the patter between the two, specifically the questioning of what exactly it means to be human and why Cyd thinks that aliens that have never heard of Earth will know one outfit of hers as more fitting than another. It’s a fun reminder of the smallness of humans in the Out, but it is also a portent of dread. Cyd’s actions make sense to humans, but will the Unanima get them? Or has Cyd’s taste of freedom been a cruelly short one?
Joe Pineapples Tin Man 04
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Beasley (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: The fight is over and now Joe Pineapples and Ro-Jaws have a new enemy to face, the crushing weight of isolation and loneliness. Meanwhile, the bad guys they had been fighting are now on their master’s ship looking forward to their eternal reward. We don’t know where the bad guys are headed, but we do know that the two robots are headed towards the asteroid we saw them on at the beginning.
Since the action is over in “Joe Pineapples Tin Man 04” it seems that writer Pat Mills is a bit lost on what to do next. The bad guys are taken care of in a quick and fairly anti-climatic manner which isn’t made super clear, and the end of the prog sort of just fizzles out with the two robots bantering between each other. Granted, the dialogue is well written and the chemistry between the two robots is great, but it feels like the end of this part of the story could have been drawn out a bit more.
Continued belowEverything said about Simon Beasley’s artwork being too confusing to follow does ring true in “Joe Pineapples: Tin Man 04” is still true, but it is getting better. Beasley is allowed to return to big images that use a lot of page space and it works really well. The art is allowed to breathe properly, which gives Beasley a chance to impress readers with the double page spreads, gorgeous imagery and colors that are hallmarks of his style. It’s great to see and hopefully the story will allow him to continue playing to his strengths.
“Joe Pineapples Tin Man 04” is a bit of an awkward transition to a new part of the story, but it still has its merits and gorgeous artwork. Since the two robots are now stranded in the middle of space with no rescue in sight, we get to learn about their backstories.
Hope: In the Shadows – Reel Two – Part Twelve
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Chris Egan: The end is nigh! All paths have led to this moment. The magic, the metaphysical, the old Hollywood spookery, the creature feature war flick: all of it, here and now. Our characters must face the end, and it very much is the end. The human race has allowed itself to sit on the sidelines while the supernatural world begun to bring about its destruction, but we have pulled the final trigger. We must end, the world must end, and only those who have already passed on, or are using rare magics, are safe from this new suffering. Adams, Broxton, and Campbell bring this fantastic horror series to a close with chapter 12, and no punches are pulled.
If you ever thought this might have a happy, or even safe ending, you were sorely mistaken. With imagery not unlike Dr. Strangelove or “Twin Peaks: The Return,” as well as any number of world hopping horror tales, this final entry is one that should keep you up and thinking about it long after you’ve turned the page. Haunting is the perfect word to describe it. This team, especially Jimmy Broxton, truly out did themselves nearly every week. And while it seems like this series couldn’t continue after this point, never say never.
Proteus Vex: Crawl Space Part 4
Credits Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell(Colours), Simon Bowland(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The overlapping and non-linear structure of ‘Crawl Space’ has been a bit of a mixed bag for me thus far, and this strip helps to explain why. On one hand the strip finally gets some action going, a well-done space race with Vex, Marshall, and his crew. On the other hand, it made me go back and double check I somehow hadn’t missed the part where Vex and Marshall got out of jail in the last strip. The non-linear structure is purposely disorienting, like the gaps in any historical record, forcing the reader to quickly try and piece it back together. But there’s a difference between disorienting and confusing, and this strip was pushing more toward confusion.
The end is sort of the beginning with this strip as we see Agent Naday’s conversation with the Emperor, which sets up the whole escape sequence. It effectively teases more with the promise of a slave revolt in the coming weeks too. Of the first month or so worth of strips, this is the first strip that does feel like it is beginning to move like an actual Prog strip versus something in the Megazine.
The space escape itself is a well-done moment that finally stretches and loosens up Jake Lynch’s art. Pages in this strip are no longer shackled to hard geometric boundaries and instead flow together.The Farrago zooming through space and panels beautifully guides the reader’s eye as the crew makes their escape. The way this balletic movement is contrasted with Carroll’s literature review of popular theories of Vex’s actions is a good bit of page design by the entire creative team.
