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: Rend and Tear with Tooth and Claw, Part 3
Credits: Rob Williams (script), RM Guera (art), Giulia Brusco (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Due to the tattooed stranger who first threatened and then saved them, Dredd and Moon learn they are not out of the woods yet. The Bear apparently doesn’t let it’s prey go and, as we see, will persue them until the end of the hunt. Dredd and Moon are lead by the man into the mountains to a cache of snow vehicles and on a race through the mountainous landscape ensues throughout this chapter. They learn little as they cross the landscape other then he was truthful about the nature of the giant bear. All in all, it’s a fun chase scene and leads to a possible finale for the current dilemma, only next week will tell if this is the end or if the bear is more like the Terminator and won’t give up until killed somehow.
R.M. Guerra is the storytelling star this week as his skills must tell most of the story as the Judges and their guide cross the terrain. He paces the chase really well as he gives a sense of urgency to the characters’ plight and communicates a sense of speed through the panels. The limited color pallet Giulia Brusco makes the most of the snowy landscape making the contrasting colors of the Judges’ outfits and the bright snow-mobiles jump off the page as they speed across the landscape.
Brink: Consumer, Part 1
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Inj Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The opening page of this latest edition of “Brink” offers up some of the quintessential elements of the series and a surprising twist. Culbard centers the page on four full page width horizontal panels from a low angle. The environment is essential brink the massification of stuff and its monotony. These parcels that look as much like luggage as they do slabs of meat just hanging around. That monotony is quickly broken up by Abnett’s script, please for help, and the sudden appearance of a space vampire set to drain. Culbar in this series has done, and continues to do, a great job of using very limited colors on their palette. Here everything is a shade of blue with some purple thrown in to act as shadow. The parcels highlight the page with their pink. This subtle play in tone creates surprising depth and helps to sell the POV shot nature of these strips. With the cluttered nature of Brink’s environs everything is still readable going into the horizon.
Monotony cares through into the other two scenes that compose this strip. First a survivor’s support group after the events of the previous arc. Second as our lead Bridget and her partner arrive for a layover. The subjects in these two scenes come at monotony very differently. In the support group it’s all so ritualized and sterile even as members discuss their fears. Culbard’s line work is looser in this page as Raymond attempts to speak the unspeakable, a bit of visual irony.
Bridget and her partner Bonner have taken the monotony of space travel very differently. Bonner now fantasies about justifiably homociding Bridget after spending weeks of space travel with her and not gaining any real insight into her. Abnett writes a good back and forth between these two, the humor is funny but not too funny. Bonner isn’t trying to be funny, he’s frustrated which is just funny to us as the reader. Culbard plays with the limited space well, using considered blocking early on to reveal the third member of their party, Lind, for a comedic beat. While not every scene can operate in this way, it establishes the buddy cop routine very well.
Continued belowThey are laying over in Bellholme for a bit until they can get to Luna base. They could use this time to relax, center themselves, and play golf. Or more likely it is all going to go to shit and the game will be afoot.
Aquila: River of Hades Book 2, Part 2
Credits: Gordon Rennie(script), Patrick Goddard (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: In the depths of Hades the drums of war beat as former slave and master gather their armies and prepare to end the other once and for all.
Also, we get introduced to Hannobal Barca, the general who fought in the Second Punic War and who killed more Romans than lead poisoning.
It seems that we’re on a tour of Rome’s most infamous enemies and I am here for it.
One of the biggest problems with the last part of the story was how inaccesible it was to new readers and unfortunately “Aquila: River of Hades Book 2 part 2” continues the trend. Writer Gordon Rennie has created a story where you really have to have read the earlier parts (although I certainly do want to go back ajd read them now, which isn’t a bad thing) and it can be a little bit daunting. However, what Rennie lacks in macro storytelling, he makes up for in the details. Traditionally, a place like Hades is for punishment for the wicked and reflection for the not so bad, and the story delivers that in spades. There is some great character work on this short section of story and Rennie does a great job of setting up a very human conflict of duty to others versus personal desires and attachments and it’s not necessarily clear which one Aquila will choose.
The artwork for “Aquila: River of Hades Book 2 part 2” continues to be solid and starts heading towards the more fantastic and dark. Artist Patrick Goddard does a great job of expanding the look and aesthetic of this version of Hades, even if some of the places and creatures look a bit out of place. Speaking of looking out of place, the introduction of Hannibal Barca is…interesting. He is presented as a monster and almost demon which makes him look intimidating and cool, but Goddard makes the choice to give him a heavy metal barbarian chic look. It’s an interesting choice that looks cool on its own, but history buffs might be a bit confused as to why a North African nobleman looks like a warlord out of a Fran Frazetta painting. Again, it’s not bad, just different.
“Aquila: River of Hades Book 2 part 2” shows armies gathering and the main characters preparing for a showdown that promises to shake the realm of the Underworld to the core. It will be interesting to see if Hades and Persephone have anything to say about it.
Indigo Prime: Black Monday, Part 8
Credits: Kek-W (script), Lee Carter (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Chris Egan: A mix of genres is what “Indigo Prime” has been throwing out each chapter, for the last seven weeks, and with part eight, we get an absolute storm of story blending. Landing on some new material while also circling back to some of the previous settings, like the intergalactic war, a bleak western, or the alternate version of American Psycho and whatever “Johnny Deep” is up to.
As this story has continued to grow it has given readers equal parts cleverness, word salad, and a whole lot of “Huh?” And for the most part, the talent at hand has kept things interesting enough to overlook most qualms one might have with this story. And while my criticism has been light throughout, I am starting to reach the point of wanting to move on from this strip. It’s a problem I find with a lot of the stories in the Prog magazine, that by trying to fill up ten or more weeks’ worth of content, they tend to lose focus, which means I lose focus and interest in the story at hand. Highlights from this week include the character to actor likenesses, some very silly sci-fi rhetoric, and some gross out gore! So, that’s fun.
Continued belowSo, while this week’s chapter had a lot going on and for the most part kept me entertained, and of course interested in where this is all going; I am beginning to hit that wall of fatigue with “Indigo Prime: Black Monday.”
Proteus Vex: Devious, Part Four
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: The shape of this arc continues to remain ‘tell us about the world around Proteus Vex,’ but this week gets the reader two steps closer to actually reuniting with Vex: his ship’s location has been found, as has his former first in command. While each of these stories has been effective, this one had an extra sense of urgency. That’s achieved in two different ways: by threatening innocents and by the promise of actually seeing Vex sometime soon.
That isn’t to say that the format still feels as fresh as it did in the earlier chapters, but the additional drama helped move the needle more this week. It is also helped by Jake Lynch’s continued excellent character designs and Mike Carroll’s script having a sort of circuitous path to the important information this week. The motives are clear as ever, but there’s something about the way that this chapter is structured that adds a little extra payoff when the information that was clearly going to get revealed actually got revealed. Of course, there’s also a reveal in the last panel that matters quite a bit, but even before that reveal, this chapter felt a little meatier than others.
