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: In the Event of my Untimely Demise: Part 6
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Paul Marshall (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Mike Carroll’s script returns to the complexity of the Kindred’s inner workings and politics. The barrage of names, relations, infighting – implied and overt – and threats all add up to confusion in this turbulent chapter. Story issues aside, the character designs and the pages of action and intrigue that Jake Lynch created are pretty magnificent. Among the Kindred shown in this story many, if not all of them, look like they have an interesting life beyond the page. The action in the burning wreckage of the stadium was deftly delivered, too; you can practically nearly hear the revving of the Lawmasters as the Judges roll through. It’s all so intriguing to look at that it’s a shame there isn’t clarity when it comes to the narration.
Across the story, there have been introduces to multiple crime families and various Kindred and Judges. The names of people, both in and out of panel, have flown fast and furious. It’s pretty entertaining to know that the Kindred own the stadium and it’s insured and that insurance still works the way we know it to. But keeping all the names strait across the intervening weeks can be tricky as some come and go in just a few panels. It’s a good story ,and there are aspects that are gripping, like Dredd’s cabal and the Kindred themselves. There are just a few too many bits of complexity for it to hang together comfortably.
Void Runners: Part 4
Credits: David Hine (script), Boo Cook (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: The issue with a lot of 2000 AD stories is that the format means that reveals and twists are often telegraphed or rushed, based on how the format of the series is being laid out. For “Void Runners,” the conflict between what is ‘right’ and ‘profitable’ has been teased since the first chapter, and when that conflict finally rears its head in ‘Part 4,’ it feels expected and underwhelming. Now, this is helped considerably by Boo Cook’s art, which takes on some new focus and detail in these pages, specifically in one page where Moondog and the Captain are breeching the Pleroma. The larger canvas size allows Cook to give real attention to both characters’ designs, and the page really stands out from the rest of the story thus far.
Unfortunately, David Hine’s script never quite lives up to the level that Cook’s art places it. The story is still feeling like it is lagging in almost every way. The motivations of all the characters have been clear since the start, but Hine keeps insinuating that there are new revelations afoot. There aren’t, the script is pretty generic, and everything has been laid out plainly. That’s not to say that this is a bad or unenjoyable strip thus far. It’s been ok, but the story needs to do something to goose the interest level up from where it has lived since the start.
Durham Red: Mad Dogs 11
Credits: Alec Worley (script) Ben Willsher (art) Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: ‘Mad Dogs’ concludes and wonders; maybe this mad dog can learn new tricks. Durham shows her wit and finds a third way and achieves both of her goals: kill Kanaka and not die! Ben Willsher’s art does a good job of playing the tension of the moment as Durham rains ground and pound on her victim. You’re just waiting for his face to split like a watermelon. And then it doesn’t, she hits something else instead. The mind-saving halo that Kanaka used on her from the previous episodes pops up out of nowhere. I need to go back and see if that had been foreshadowed a bit stronger, the staging and everything in Willsher’s art earns the moment, but it is a little convenient she just so happens to be punching him right next to it. Durham understands what the G.I.C. really want to with him and with her. They don’t care about their body and soul, only what they can do for them. It’s all fascism remember? In that schema, Durham might be able to do some good and get some of that red ink off her ledger.
Continued belowKanaka being ripped to shreds is a very satisfying panel. Making it a double-page splash would be too excessive, but Willsher does the most with the space allowed.
After we see Durham’s dark, sadistic side, Willsher makes a formal choice only to show us her “good” side. Durham had been made two faced earlier, which nicely captures her bisected identity. By only showing us her good, non-burned, and vampiric side, the story visually tells us she has turned over a new leaf. Functionally he plays it more like a scar, the sign of something that cannot heal to the state it was previously, resulting in scar tissue. Feminine scaring is typically located on the face and tied to a loss of beauty, but here it plays more like a threat that the other side could come out and break free. I’m curious if Alec Worley’s script had that in there or if Willsher did it on their own. Either way it’s the right storytelling choice to leave this story on with more missions in the future.
Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 2
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Tazio Bettin (art), Matt Soffe (colors) Jim Campbell (letters)
Matthew Blair: Suzie has a job now. She didn’t have one, she needed one, and now she has one. Her task is simple: the Cray Cray Twins want her to travel to the other Sophtware Lords and find out if they have data that they don’t possess. Suzie has the tools, the abilities, and the determination to get it done, so now it’s time for a walking tour of Azimuth and all its wonders.
It should be a simple and easy job…right?
Dan Abnett continues to do quite a bit of world building in “Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 2”, and for the most part he does a good job. This part of the story is pretty exposition heavy and filled with all sorts of made up words. Fortunately, Abnett is very good at making sense of this strange world, and while the reader may not know what half of the captions mean, Abnett does a very good job of using the tone and implications of the text to show the reader that Azimuth is just as dirty, dangerous, and violent as any stereotypical detective story setting, just with more science fiction elements. If the story has a problem, it’s that Abnett relies a bit too much on words in this comic to set the scene, but the whole thing has a fun beat poetry vibe to it that elicits old school noir stories.
The artwork of “Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 2” has a very distinct East Asia appearance and artist Tazio Bettin continues to create a city that looks like something out of a gorgeous fantasy. In fact, if it wasn’t for the text telling us that this place is dangerous, it would look like a very pretty place to live. But the real highlight of the artwork here are the action scenes. Bettin makes the interesting and necessary artistic choice to cram entire fight scenes in a single panel, which gives the action a sense of chaos and cluttered energy that is very effective at creating narrative tension. It’s a world that feels both alien and familiar, which is a difficult task to pull off, but it works.
“Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 2” relies more on telling than showing, but it’s still a fun world filled with lots of interesting things and mysteries to explore.
Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley, Part Twelve
Credits: Garth Ennis (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Rob Steen (letters)
Chris Egan: The penultimate chapter of “Blighty Valley” is horrific. In so many of the ways that war is horrific. Close proximity it violence and grand scale attacks like nuclear explosions and starship battles raging in the vastness of space. It’s a perfect blend of real-world terror and violence paired with some wild sci-fi details, but it all comes from the same place, the destruction of lives, minds, and the comforts of reality and everyday life.
It’s a great reveal and message that does some work dampening my misgivings of some of the previous entries, but I’m not sure all of it was necessary to get to this point. It does give me hopes that Ennis and Co will stick the landing next time. That said, even with some of my criticisms, this strip hasn’t been a bad read by any means. It, at times, has just felt stretched a bit thin. I look forward to how it all comes together in its final moments.
