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 4
Credits: Rob Williams (script), RM Guera (art), Giulia Brusco (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: ‘Rend and Tear’ Part 4 clears up a lot of things as Rob Williams finally slowed down and gave up some story details. It seems Cork, the leader of the thugs that took out the h-wagon, got greedy according to the thug that is leading Dredd and Moon. Cork lead his people into the territory of the giant bear, Arctos, hoping to get in and out before things went pear shaped and the great bear caught their sent. This act clears up that the tattooed guy was one of Cork’s men, Dredd full on threatens him even while he’s still their best way to survive. Dredd also compliments Cadet Moon’s actions.
The art by Guera is as stellar as it has been; it is amazing how much emotion he can communicate with so little of Dredd’s face visible. Dredd’s jaw and body language alone is enough somehow. In this slower paced, quieter chapter, it is the colors that shine on the pages. Giulia Brusco sets the mood with a pallet and makes the subtle transition from day to dusk seem ominous as the chapter ends.
Brink: Consumer, Part 2
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Inj Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The second part of “Consumed” further expands the investigative pool, as the creative team reveal not everyone is going to Belleholme survivors support group for the healing power of therapy. At least, not admittedly. One of the attendees is an investigator, the one who got the second most close attention in the group. Ramonda has been investigating the “Hughes Case” the particulars of that are unknown at this time. She’s been trailing her lead, Raymond Hirsch (the one who spoke at the meeting last episode) for months. Maybe he’s the lead to cracking the case wide open or maybe he’s an excuse for her to deal with the trauma of life on the hab. Whose to say at this point.
Dan Abnett writes a solid banter between her and her tech support, Reece. Much like Kurtis and Bonner they’re not quite on the same page, being behind on paychecks will do that to a person. Abnett writes them like they’re old partners and doesn’t hand hold the reader in expositing the particulars of their relationship. That lack of hand holding helps to make them read naturally with Reece returning time and again to Ramonda’s true reasons for going to group so often.
In contrast to this scene, and our cut away to the murder in progress, Kurtis and Bonner’s sequence feels like the opposite of the previous pages. The opening three pages are all about isolation and limited groups. The lack of a culture and society. Bonner and Kurtis find themselves surrounded by culture and society, packed into the travel way like the main hall at Anime Expo. Inj Culbard does a lot of good subtle color play to give the cartooned minimalist depiction of the crowd a real sense of depth and liveliness. That energy is linked to their use of color in these panes as everyone but our main characters is rendered anonymous, unimportant, civies. Abnett and letter Simon Bowland do a solid job of creating the textual depiction of a crowd. In the strips best comedic beat, Kurtis tells a cult to kindly “Fuck off!”. She didn’t want to rejoice with the sun it seems.
The connection between our main cast and these new investigators or the case of the space vampire is not clear, but surely by next week the planned 10 days of relaxation and golf will be blown sideways and a new case will be afoot.
Continued below
Aquila: River of Hades Book 2, Part 3
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: In this corner, doing his best Leonidas impression from the hit movie 300 and commanding an army of the dead raised in rebellion against the very forces of Hades: Spartacus and his friend Aquilla!
And in this corner, reminding the world of a time when all of Italy trembled in fear and sent their young men to die in droves: Hannibal and his mistress Ammit!
Let’s see which of Rome’s enemies is the better leader and fighter!
“Aquila: River of Hades Book 2 part 3” is a very short story and crams a lot of exposition and other stuff into a very short space. There is a sense that writer Gordon Rennie could have stretched this story out a lot more and offered the reader some very interesting ideas, but whether the book is pressed for space and time or whether or for some other reason, Rennie keeps it short. There isn’t much to say about this part of the story except that Rennie provides some cool symmetry for Spartacus and Hannibal as they stand across form each other, bare their weapons, and prep for the biggest showdown Hades has ever seen.
Chaos is the name of the game in “Aquila: River of Hades Book 2 part 3” and artist Patrick Goodard conveys it very well. The prospect of every soul in Hades revolting against the established order of things seems daunting on all sorts of levels–especially from an artistic standpoint–but Goddard does a great job of showing the scale of it all without spending a crap load of time and energy drawing highly detailed crowds. The artwork takes the reader on a tour of some of the bleakest parts of the underworld and Goodard’s style does come into its own, showing desperate masses fighting against monsters and the chains of their own self loathing. It all culminates in a battle between Ammit and Aquilla, Hannibal and Spartacus, but the comic pulls off a classic trope of ending on a massive cliff hanger, which goes a long way towards making the reader want more story.
“Aquila: River of Hades Book 2 part 3” is the final gathering of forces before the big battle and while it is short, it’s certainly extremely efficient and sets the stage for what is sure to be an amazing finale.
Indigo Prime: Black Monday, Part 9
Credits: Kek-W (script), Lee Carter (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Chris Egan: The serene meets the surreal in part nine. These tones collide just as the various universes do in this continuously strange series. It’s funny that with so much mind-bending insanity (and some big action) playing out within these pages that this chapter ultimately feels so calm overall. There is almost a sense of resignment with both the characters and with what the story seems to be asking of the reader.
I’ve found that while the specifics of this story are just that, specific, the tone and vibes of this strip are equally important to the script, and not just in a storytelling way like most comics. It’s a whole mood.
Proteus Vex: Devious, Part Five
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: After four chapters of hints and rumors, we finally see Proteus Vex at the end of this chapter. Incapacitated, but we see him nonetheless. This is also the first of the chapters to return to a story beat that we saw earlier in ‘Devious.’ In addition, the antagonist of the overarching “Devious” story has been revealed, and we got some really fun horror imagery. It is safe to say that this chapter is easily the most successful of the volume, thus far.
A big part of that is due to Mike Carroll’s script finally starting to join the various threads together into a more cohesive story as opposed to simply having disparate tales that all exist in the periphery of the Vex story. Those individual stories have all been effective, but have somewhat felt disconnected. Here, we begin to see how the entire tapestry is woven together.
Similarly, Jake Lynch continues to do what he’s done all volume long, but here gets to ramp up the intensity and go full on Lovecraft/Dune imagery. Compared to the small, bug-like features of Midnight, her monsterized form is huge and terrifying. Lynch really knows how to thread the needle between terrible creatures and cuteness, and that is on full display here.
