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: R.U.R
Credits: Ken Neimand (script), Nicolo Assirelli (art), John Charles (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: This is an odd “Judge Dredd” one shot, as it is nearly hopeful in tone. Dredd meets Roz when he arrives at the scene of several abandoned robots and she seems bright and happy and helpful and pretty much out of place in Mega City-One. She seems to be whole point of this story, as it introduces she and her Universal Robots to Dredd and the Judges. Ken Neimand makes it clear that Roz makes herself an asset to the Judges as she can pull robot memory records that will help their crime solve rate if it involves a robot. It’s a symbiotic relationship as they deliver the salvage bots she used to have to scavenge for right to her door. There is an off-hand comment she makes about creating a robot army, which might be more truth than jest. Only time will tell, but when something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Nicolo Assirelli and John Charles’s pages are bright and colorful reflecting the happy nature of Roz. All their robot designs maintain a kind of atomic age sensibility that is a little antiquated but covers a lot of character. Though the pages are solidly well penciled and colored they seem a bit flat and maybe a little rushed. It doesn’t hurt the storytelling though, as the character are expressive and Roz both visually and in her dialogue pops off the page.
Indigo Prime: Cracked Actors, Part 4
Credits: Kek-W (script), Lee Carter (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Chris Egan: The story continues still in this space adventure setting, but just as the plot continues to march through this setting, other ideas, settings, and characters start to literally bleed over from one realm to another. If nothing else, this story needs to be praised for both the artwork and the mind-bending ideas and concepts that are pulling it all together. What a wild and fun read this has been, and any doubts I may have had last week were quickly pushed aside by the end of last week’s entry, and following it up with this weeks chapter. Fantastic and bizarre stuff. Even if a bit of the ideas waiver, the overall project really moves ahead in some great ways. Truly a blast from start to finish and I have no idea where this is going next.
Full Tilt Boogie: Book 2, Part Seven
Credits: Alex De Campi (script), Eduardo Ocanna (art), Eve De La Cruz (colours), Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: After the traumatic events of the last strip Alex De Campi rightly switches perspective to the rest of our cast. We pick up on Granny after she’s cleaned up with space Mahjong and Nix after she’s stabilized. To a degree these two sequences help to reestablish some plot stakes and reiterate some wider lore for the series, but mostly what shines through is Eduardo Ocanna’s art in capturing the little moments. As well as solid comedic timing.
I would be here for a Granny spin off strip. Not some sorta complex narrative, just give me a series of one off strips of her on misadventures. That’s the basic energy of her narrative as her former tablemates send an assassin to collect on their lost funds. Granny for her part pays them no mind and uses guile and good timing to thwart them at various points. Ocanna’s comedic timing and overall good page construction shines in these moments. They have to highlight the minor element, like a lucky penny that gets Granny bending over, with the overall layout of the space so that we as a reader see the danger. Granny’s adventures might not be the biting dark humor of Dreddverse, but it was a nice fitting tone within this prog.
Continued belowOur other main checkin was with Nix and the rest of the cast at the hospital. There’s not a nice way to put it, the dialog in this section is crunchy and expository. It just is what it is. De Campi doesn’t sound inherently bad (or like George Lucas wrote it) but that’s what the function of this scene was supposed to do. The galactic queen is the lost seventh Titan! While the dialog is plotty once again Ocanna’s figure work and character acting shine through as everyone reunites. The girls joking about not being the subject to paparazzi or the forced fashion and beauty standards is very human and gives the moment the core necessary to make the exposition have some verve to it. It reminds us the reader why we should care about this titan business.
Given the night time setting for this strip it seems like we won’t be away from Tee that long considering her ride said he’d pick up in the morning. After her experiences talking about it would seem to be necessary but how the creative team naturalizes such an experience will be tricky.
All of it building to a pitch perfect final splash page. By the end I felt out of breath just like she was. Only I’m not stranded in the middle of the desert.
The Fall of Deadworld: Retribution, Part 11
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: As “Retribution” stumbles towards the finish line, we get a rare moment of reprieve from what is an endless onslaught of gunfire and threats of destruction. We see a child freed from the spell of the possessors, even though there are still aftershocks from their influence. This moment gives a small sliver of hope in a story that has felt like it is determined to remind the reader each and every week that things are toppling towards disaster at every turn.
I mean, it is right in the title: this story is about destruction and failure. But what makes the story continue to struggle is that there’s no real stakes at play here. Sure, the world is a stake, but unless we care for the people who inhabit that world, there’s limited sympathy to be had for it. Between the stilted art, the underdeveloped characters, and the unceasing tone, this story’s conclusion (next week) can’t come soon enough.
Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 10
Credits: T.C Eglington (script), Simon Davis (art) Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: The fallout of the disastrous film continues as everything seems to be wrapping up. Sure, not everyone is happy about it, but they gave it their best effort and they tried doing something that most people will never be able to achieve in their lifetime.
At least, that’s how this story WOULD end if we were talking about normal, sane, and well adjusted people, but it seems that the powers that be might have…other plans.
Writer T.C Eglington continues taking a seemingly normal narrative path in “Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 10” and it’s actually kind of pleasant. Most of the characters understand what needs to be done, and there’s even a bit where the writer of the film gets to reconcile with his friend from a few issues back. The only one who is really suffering is the director, who seems to have crawled into a bottle and is refusing to come out. Here’s where most of the unease comes in, since Eglington is probably setting something up that will be a big, bombastic, and nasty payoff, but for now it’s just a group of actors and film crew packing things up and helmed by a director who is just desperate to finish his creation. It’s all relatable and understandable.
Just like the previous part of the story “Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 10” is a relatively mundane bit of plot development and artist Shane Davis does a fine job showing the emotion on people’s faces, especially the despair of the director. It does get interesting near the end of the story where Davis shows the film crew getting ready for the wrap party, and they seem to be taking the job a bit too seriously. The supernatural elements are definitely there, but they’re just props and silly looking things to makes sure everyone has a fun time.
Right?
“Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 10” is the end of the road for this film that was already a long shot. After everything going so wrong so consistently, after all the fights with the locals and tension, and after putting a lot of the actresses in harm’s way, it’s all over. Just, not before one final bang where I’m sure everything will turn out fine.
