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 2000 AD
Judge Dredd: Down By Law
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Peter Dougherty (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: ‘Down By Law’ presents us with a succinct one and done Dredd strip that hits the some familiar satirical themes for Dredd and intermingles some pretty humorous moments. Ian Edginton’s writing is fine and, though there is really nothing wrong with the story, much of it lands kind of flat. There is an investigation into a mass murder of celebrities at a restaurant; Dredd figures out, based on the location of the anonymous tip within the establishment, that the perp is still on the premises. The best moments in the strip come from the interaction between Dredd and his fellow Judge. It’s humorous to think that a Judge is a foodie, or at least loves too cook. It’s one of the first time in recent memory a Judge’s personal hobbies are ever addressed. The scene showing Dredd’s elevator ride with a growing cast of characters is an entertaining page; it’s even better when he arrested them all for various and sundry reasons, not that we know how he figured those out. All in all, it is a forgettable strip with a good hook and a couple of laughs at best. Possibly the best moment in the story is Dredd’s reaction to his partners revelation that she likes to cook. It is such a good expression that is very much fitting for Dredd.
Leigh Gallagher does an apt job showing the story, creating some pretty colorful characters to populate the restaurant even if the majority are corpses. The group that collects in the elevator is colorful too, both literally due to Peter Dougherty’s deft hand at choosing color palettes and in the range of humanity they span. How all of them are at the swanky establishment stretches the imagination, though. The the pages are a visual treat but one with little spice or substance, beyond the good art.
Durham Red: Mad Dogs 02
Credits: Alec Worley(script) Ben Willsher(art) Simon Bowland(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The second episode of ‘Mad Dogs’ is a plainly functional exposition dump. This strip does everything it needs to do in just the right amount of time. It cuts to the chase and goes through its ABCs as Durham Red finds out just who it is that needs killing. That might make this strip sound a tad dry and boring, but it isn’t. Alec Worley’s script has just enough life and tension to it, with small moments of comedy. Such as the opening panel that places the reader in the point of view of Red’s new handler, who has an offer for them. Sight unseen, Red is all for it doesn’t even care to know who the target is; she is in. That’s all in the first panel and sets up the kind of efficient narrative this strip develops. Worley’s scripting might be a tad dense due to Simon Bowland’s lettering early on, but it never gets too cumbersome and gives the reader just enough texture between Red and the handler.
The rest of the strip takes on a flashback narrative until a final couple of pages as Red is debriefed on what the mission is. Her job is to kill Rudo Kanka, a former associate of hers who seemed harmless enough at the time. Now he’s working with the Oathbreaker Cartel, cooking up something legendary called Apex that threatens to get the middle class addicted. That threat of growing into the middle class is something the fascist State of Dreddverse cannot allow hence Red’s new search and destroy mission. This is a nice bit of texture that echoes real-world policing of drugs and should give the strip something to satirize going forward.
The final image is a splash page, which I rarely find effective. Overall, Ben Willsher’s composition is sound and there’s something to the framing of Red leaping into her next chance at absolution. An avenging angel, she could be a Blood Angel. In this case it’s the right place to end the episode on the wide-open promise of adventure as Red plummets from orbit. Hopefully, her shoot is in working order.
Continued below
The Order: Heart of Darkness Part Ten
Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Chris Egan: The story continues to lean further into the bizarre and I couldn’t help but smirk during the majority of this week’s chapter. Shifting back and forth between steampunk mecha historical fiction and Hammer style Victorian horror, it brings a smackdown of metal and bloody, intimate violence on every page.
At this point the story could very well be completely meaningless drivel and I’d still be on board, but Kek-W continues to bring about interesting, if not flashy, hooks to keep things moving as characters come and go from the strip.
And somehow, John Burns can give us this wacky science fiction blended with hazy painterly illustrations that should not work together, and yet work at every level. It’s all a blend of an old Penny Dreadful and Bronze Age hits like DC’s “House of Secrets.” The work is cheeseball yet surprisingly beautiful. There isn’t enough like it in modern comics. The style is as effective as ever and like the writing, elevates this type of comic.
Enemy Earth Book 2: Part 2
Credits: Cavan Scott (script), Luke Horsman (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: The two main characters have managed to avoid the worst of the deadly flora and fauna that wanted their flesh, but not before one of them was stung and is slowly transforming into a lethal plant. To make matters worse, it seems that the ghosts of the main character’s past aren’t all dead, and have come back to make her life a living hell.
It’s a classic “out of the frying pan and into the fire” scenario.
Cavan Scott’s writing in “Enemy Earth Book 2: Part 2” does a very good job of elevating the stakes and giving the reader a glimpse into the main character’s mind and past doubts. This is a person who knows how lethal the world can be because she’s seen it kill a lot of people she’s known and/or cared about. Scott does a great job of making everyone capable, but not so overpowered that it removes all tension. It does get a bit difficult to follow for anyone who hasn’t read the previous stories, but it’s something you just have to deal with when creating long form stories published in easily digestible chunks.
Luke Horseman continues to showcase some pretty cool artwork in “Enemy Earth Book 2: Part 2” and in this part of the story he gets to focus on showing some great and dynamic action. There’s a great sense of energy and momentum in the story with a high speed chase scene being replaced by an extended stealth scene as the characters sneak around looking for drugs that will help them on their quest. Finally, there’s a bit in the end that allows Horseman to take the feel of the story away from cartoonish violence and more in the direction of full blown body horror, which is an interesting choice to make considering the art style.
“Enemy Earth Book 2: Part 2” is a great blend of action and suspense that sets some pretty high stakes for the rest of the story while introducing some new threats and characters. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley, Part Two
Credits: Garth Ennis (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Rob Steen (letters)
Brian Salvatore: With this chapter, we now have an idea of exactly when/where Rogue has found himself: with the British Army during World War I. Their somewhat simple minded explanation of how a blue man can be walking around seems a little less preposterous when you consider that these men pre-date widely distributed film, international news, or color photography. Again, in lesser hands than Garth Ennis’s, these revelations would feel forced or staged, but Ennis manages to get the reader lots of information without it appearing too coincidental.
Patrick Goddard’s art continues to walk the line between stark and detailed. The lack of color makes his meticulous work pop in a way that color would somewhat muddle. The contrast of the emotionless, hulking Rogue and the very human and frail soldiers is never played for laughs, but is almost comical in just how different these folks seem. Ennis and Goddard do a great job of integrating Rogue as a fish out of water with this collection of soldiers, but there needs to be more to the story than just that hook. I trust it will get there, but hopefully will do so sooner rather than later.
