Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Plunder, Part 3
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Karl Richardson (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Christa Harader: It’s a crustacean conflict aboard the sinking city, and Dredd’s in deep … well, you get it.
Carroll and Richardson shed cast members like they’re going out of style in this final installment, and while the choice is good given my gripe with the previous part, “Plunder” would still be a better story without so many faces. Give up too much real estate to establish all of these factions early on and the denouement feels rushed and haphazard. The battle between Captain Bile and Dredd is more abbreviated than expected, and there’s almost zero exploration of the sunken city proper. A character death feels a bit cheap, as well.
Richardson’s art serves well, though the uneven strips and panel placement still make the story feel unpolished in the wrong way. There’s a nice red background in the panel where Dredd counters Bile’s delusions of impenetrability, and the conflict makes for some good explosive oranges and yellows to temper the steely grey and blue sky and sea backgrounds. There are also plenty of good sound effects as everything goes to hell, and Parkhouse’s lettering is on point, as always. It’s hard to keep a book like this readable with rotating points of view, and a massive crunch to finish out the story means space on the page is precious. Parkhouse makes good use of some longer tails and clever balloon placements to keep everything humming along.
Overall, “Plunder” bogs itself down in too many characters and not enough tension to hold our interest. The first installment was the best, as it set up a good, tense conflict to come, but the story smashed headlong into its ambitions and, ultimately, sunk.
Devin Waugh, A Very Large Splash, Part 3
Credits: Ales Kot (script), Mike Dowling (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: It had been a while since this reviewer had followed a series that changed so quickly as Devin, while still retaining its inherent qualities and consistency. This is not one to be missed.
If the first issue of this arc was focused on reintroducing the main characters, on a very aloof, comedic fashion, and the second issue took it down a horror-tinged seance, this third issue turn the overall engine of the arc to that of a murder mystery, complete with a whodunit suspect profile. Kot seems to be fully comfortable on all three wheelhouses, which speaks tremendously to his ability as a prolific writer. But it is his knack for sharp dialogue and amusing banter that permeates the arc so far, and what keeps it consistent around the bedrock of it all that is the titular hero Devin Waugh.
Art by Dowling is equally impressive. Again, the narrative consistency stays focused on Devin and his demonic friend, the dildo possessed utensils (yes, really). Their visuals are always sharp, and even coloured in a bit more contrast and saturation, making them stand out among the crowd. That said, Dowling revels just as well on the more horrific element, and the sharp twists on more traditional drawing to those footed in horror are a great pace breaker.
All in all, “Devin Waugh” is surely back to full strength on this ‘A Very Large Splash’ arc. Beautiful illustrated, versatile, and of utmost consistency when it comes to its titular character, this series is great fun to follow and admire.
Blunt III, Part Three
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Boo Cook (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: The story continues this month with an investigation from the colonists’ alleged saviors. It’s an interesting way to explore a more investigative tone in the largely weird-sci-fi style book that “Blunt” has always been, and a refreshing change of pace, albeit a little slower than usual. The Colonel’s morally grey scheming to find out what really happened on the planet is done sinisterly by Eglington that, although know he’s just doing his job, you can’t help but despise him. The final shot cements that ideal, as we see him planning the ultimate scare tactic to shock our colonist protagonists into revealing something more. There’s also a great side-plot here with the research droid exploring the planet’s wilderness for ecology samples, with a great build-up once more to some of the predators of the resident flora being agitated to the point of hunting.
Continued belowCook does a great job with character works from the start, as we open with video-journal style shots of the colonists being interviewed and telling seemingly what they know about the planet. A lot is put into each’s body language to make them feel there own, from Blunt’s constant throwing around of his arms to Ilya’s perpetual, reserved sadness. Cook renders the Colonel with a particularly mean visage in response, though his design is so set and stony it makes it hard to read him as anything else, conflicting directly with his more ambiguous role and personality. As usual, however, Cook kills it on the weird alien front, with the droid Conrad witnessing sharp, shocking events before we see the disfigured mutate predator far away, rearing its chest like a lion. It’s uncomfortable but grotesquely beautiful and I love it.
“Blunt III” is moving in a different direction to its predecessor and getting to explore some new ideas, whilst still holding on to the weird alien stuff that made it so much fun in the first place.
Zombie Army: Last Rites Part Two
Credits Chris Roberson (script). Andrea Mutti (art), Matt Soffe (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: Zombie stories are tense, at the best of times they are a neutral battle against an enemy that keeps growing. The second part of ‘Last Rites’ is tense for all but one page as Doctor Scweiger and his team find themselves deep within the land of the dead. Tense is a tricky mood to pull off, too much and it becomes overbearing and too samey, too slack and it plays out like a series of jump scares – which is the wrong kind of horror.
Artist Andrea Mutti creates this tense feeling through a mixture of claustrophobia and constant movement. These two concepts at first appear to be counter to one another, in practice one in forms the other. As the legions of the dead encroach on the team, standing back to back in a circle, the shrinking, untenable, nature of their position comes in spurring an urge to move and find a better place. To maybe survive a little longer. Their rear guard action leads them to a garage that is at least better than what they previously had, nothing. Now instead of an ironic setting, an open space but ever shrinking, they are in a finite but smaller space. The cast is rarely not in motion, even on their one page reprieve team members walk and talk, move up and down levels, or are in the act of shooting more undead.
Mutti and colorist Matt Soffer do a good job with the zombie effects. They are often in the midst of getting their decaying bodies blown apart, but do not devolve into a bland sameness. Some of the images are more visually interesting than others, a head blown apart in a black silhouette with some red highlights is more visually interesting than a three quarter and red spray. Mutti gets a good deal of grime and texture across in their line work without overwhelming the page in ink. I suspect that this aesthetic of cleanly grime is due in no small part of Soffer’s coloring that is largely unobtrusive. They do not try to over render everything but give it just enough for some detail, in particular distinguishing the living from the dead.
“Zombie Army” isn’t a totally new take on a genre or scenario, though it features one twist at the end that should give it some new life. The creative team has executed the core of it well enough that fans of this type of thing should enjoy it, along with non-die hards.
Lawless Boom Town: 03
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Matthew Blair: “Lawless Boom Town: 03” continues to build towards an explosive climax, but now there’s an interesting B-story that does kind of throw a wrench into the flow of the story, but we’ll see what comes of it.
While Dan Abnett’s writing takes some weird turns, “Lawless Boom Town: 03” is still well written, does a good job at generating tension, and acknowledges some of the more ridiculous aspects of the Dredd universe. The looming fight with the alien tribes is brought to the forefront through a chilling radio transmission from a self driving motorcycle that leaves the gore and violence to the reader’s imagination and Abnett does a great job of using creatures like mutants and half ape men to give the town a bit of diversity. On the other hand, there’s a weird storyline involving a young child and a comatose hospital patient that seems to be coming out of nowhere, but it is still very well written and should pan out in later installments.
Phil Winslade’s art continues to be a highlight. This week I’m going to sing the praises of Winslade’s ability to add incredible detail to body hair and clothing. I know it’s a weird detail to focus on, but it’s amazing to see the tiny folds and creases in character’s jackets and pants that give the whole thing an unbelievably realistic and highly detailed texture to the whole story. Even though it’s black and white, it still feels very real. The only place where the comic kind of falls apart is with Campbell’s lettering, which still looks good right up until the end where the bubbles for the radio transmissions look kind of cheap.
“Lawless Boom Town: 03” ramps up the tension and is preparing readers for something loud and violent, along with a strange second story with a boy and a coma patient which is weird, but should pan out to be something interesting.
