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 8
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Paul Marshall (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: The finale of ‘In the Event of my Untimely Demise’ is as unflinchingly brutal as its penultimate chapter. The corruption of Judge Hart in the opening pages is a clear example of the way Markota works and the long game she plays. Carroll’s storytelling is much clearer as he didn’t info dump information, letting the reader get enlightened as the story progressed. Jake Lynch showed the despair on Hart’s face as he recalls his fall into corruption and thinks about his current dilemma. He’s facing committing not just two murders today, but an attack on the infamous Dredd as well. Lynch’s artistic craftsmanship shows in his panel choices and the tense pacing of the scene. He builds the tension up by forcing the reader’s eyes to see the holdout knife for several beats and then drawing attention to the grenade, it’s all well played as is the swift and calculated reactions Dredd takes. There is a cold, predator-like brutality implicit and explicit in how Dredd handles the situation, his actions make his order to cuff Hart almost superfluous.
The sequence showing the Kindred and Markota’s hostile takeover is beautifully paced and drawn. Despite its brevity, the few panels make a lasting impression. The strip’s other lasting impression has to be the serious bad taste left by Dredd’s cold and predatory actions and comments. This world is uncaring about right, wrong, justice or life; just unrelentingly ugly. It is great commentary about where we are devoid of the ‘nudge nudge wink wink’ satire that otherwise would make light of the implicit darkness.
Portals and Black Goo: Night Shift, Chapter 1
John Tomlinson (script), Eoin Coveney (art), Jim Boswell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Chris Egan: Science Fiction and cosmic horror blend pretty seamlessly in this new prog strip story of food delivery and horror beyond the imagination of the average person. Passageways link Devouroo’s employee Kroy Plemons to his customers. As he calls it, eldritch horror food and those who dare to eat it are equally dangerous, but he’s got to make a living somehow. It has its moments but it isn’t all fun.
Rival companies and angry customers make the nights long and arduous, but Kroy knows it is one of the best and quickest ways to make decent money. Tomlinson’s script is an equal blend of inner monologue and scene by scene conversation giving us a peek at what Kroy has to deal with on the job. The humor and the deeper ideas behind the magic/horror work, hopefully that means we will get into both of those things more as the series progresses.
It’s funny how the tech and magic on display used for food delivery is played as mundane, and yet it’s a form of power that could be used in horrible ways. It’s a world on the verge of something terrifying and it implements it for an everyday use that’s almost meaningless. Whether intentional or not, it’s a solid allegory for the use and advancement of AI in recent months. The and colors by Coveney and Boswell is a near perfect manifestation of the genre blending. There’s a realism to it for the quieter moments of Kroy’s night while keeping this wildly heightened reality almost fully realized with plenty to absorb on each page. I have no idea where this is going to go, but I’m definitely interested and ready to see what happens next.
Void Runners: Part 6
Credits: David Hine (script), Boo Cook (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: For the first time since the strip began, “Void Runners” is more concerned with plot than outrageous dialogue, which is a good thing. However, the decision toe deliver that plot via omniscient narration points to the continued laziness of the story thus far. While that particular narrative trick works here, this chapter can’t help feel like a narrative dump. David Hine’s script is able to just tell you basic information that the prior five installments couldn’t be bothered to dole out through dialogue and inference.
Continued belowBut the rub is, as I said, it works. It’s frustrating to praise bad technique, but this is, perhaps, the most readable issue since the first, in part because Captain Shikari isn’t obnoxiously bouncing around each page. Boo Cook is given the opportunity to do some big, bold imagery – the Big Bang, etc – and doesn’t disappoint at all. The art in this chapter is among the best of Cook’s tenure here, the balance between universe defining phenomena and Shikari’s realization of what exactly is happening is masterfully executed.
Future Shocks: A Temp Problem
Credits Geoffrey D. Wessel(script) Russell M. Olson(art) Simon Bowland(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: “A Temp Problem” by Geoffrey Wessel and Russell Olson puts forward a retro futuristic tale with a core that is very much rooted in the present. After working for the same company for a decade and more than earning them the excess capital that capitalism as a system is built on is fired because of another round of cost-cutting, despite being wildly profitable. All the pieces are there for an obvious critique. Instead of something biting it hits like a sledgehammer to the face. This kind of strip just isn’t great for the page budget it had, it mostly works, but you can feel the strain of having to fit it all in.
On an overall design level, Russell Olson’s art is effective. It has this throwback style to the cartooning of the characters. He makes good use of spotting heavy blacks to help guide the reader on a couple of pages. The inking is maybe a bit too uniform in spots as the page is just crammed with so many lines that it is confusing on the macro level, though individual panels are effective. This sort of macro micro split comes through on the third page as Varma flees; it’s a montage of hallways and corridors that all look the same, which is a design choice but also the kind of sameness that makes the action confusing. That confusion undercuts the fourth page, the strips most effective. On page four, our protagonist falls to their death off panel. Structurally the page is set up around vertical movement; the first panel showing the fall leads you down and next to it are a series of panels in a vertical reading orientation. Despite the various corporate posters, including one about the decline in workplace accidents, and some various textures, the page is the most readable one in the strip because it is organized.
The final page of the strip is your typical sci-fi deus ex machina, wherein the machinery of the corporation is turned against itself. The creative team makes the moment work, and the jokes land, even though you can see them coming. That’s how I would describe the strip overall. You can guess the page structure by the end of the second page. This isn’t a bad thing, but it highlights where the execution comes up a little short.
Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 4
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Tazio Bettin (art), Matt Soffe (colors) Jim Campbell (letters)
Matthew Blair: Don’t you just hate it when you’re clearly suffering and you need a few minutes to recover and process what the hell is happening but your overbearing boss–who could fire you in a heartbeat–still demands you do your job?
Throw in some life threatening violence and you understand exactly what Suzie is currently going through.
It’s been well established that Dan Abnett is a good writer and in “Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 4” he gets to show off two amazing talents. The first is his talent for worldbuilding through the specific point of view of a character. In this comic we see just how small a character like Suzie is and just how powerless she can be in the presence of the true lords and ladies of Azimuth. It’s fascinating to see how beautiful and awe inspiring this place can be, while still being lethal and deadly. The second–and perhaps more important–talent is Abnetts ability to come up with some world class, groan inducing puns, which is a talent that doesn’t need defending.
Speaking of violence amidst awe inspiring beauty, Bettin continues to show off why he was the best artist for “Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 4”. Like the writing there are two things that highlight how good the art is, although these are actually serious. The first is how Bettin uses weird and unique low angles to give the place a sense of scale and make the reader feel small. The second is Bettin’s commitment to creating beautiful and highly detailed backgrounds that show a world with limitless aesthetic and decorative possibilities. It’s a gorgeous world filled with deadly people, and it’s amazing.
“Azimuth: A Job for Suzie Nine Part 4” cranks up the stakes and the stress, showing just how small and helpless the main character really is despite all her skills and determination. It’s a beautiful world, but a cruel one.
