Reviewer William Cooling
Editor: Alan Barnes
Judge Dredd
Title: Master Moves
Writer: Gordon Rennie
Artist: D’Israeli
Letterer: Tom Frame
In this comedy 11pager we D’Israeli make his Dredd debut in conjunction with Wagner’s premier understudy Gordon Rennie. Strangely and sadly Rennie does not take the opportunity to create a surreal and anarchic story that having D’Israeli’s idiosyncratic and atmospheric work presents. Instead we get a generic future-sport Dredd story as we join him on security duty for the World Chess Championships, as (shock, horror, surprise) the contestants are being killed by a mystery sniper. Now while Rennie writes this story very well it cannot but be overlooked that much of this is a straight rip off of such classic future sport stories as Wagner/Bolland “Lunar Olympicsâ€. Now whether this is laziness or just an elaborate joke when tied in with his column about writers ripping each other off I’ll leave for you to decide but it still remains a disappointment despite the presence of some excellent sequences. Of course the main pull for this story is the (colour) art of D’Israeli who on the whole does an excellent job with some excellent panels such as the deaths of Hector Francisco and the Kim Jong Dong Twins where his garish colour schemes mixed with some striking effects create a satisfying picture. Where he does slightly fail is in his drawing of Dredd with his Dredd actually smiling (tut, tut) and sometimes his anatomy doesn’t look right. Still this is visually an excellent story and while Rennie’s script lacks originality its still a fine read.
Whatever happened to…?
Title: …Cookie
Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist: Roger Langridge
Letterer: Roger Langridge
In this continuing series of catching up with C-List Dredd stars we found out what happened to Cookie, a homicidal robotic chef who last time we saw him was cast into the ocean by a young skysurfer named Chopper. However Cookie survived and now in an interview with the Meg’s version of Jay Leno Vinnie Bland we get a chance to see what he has been doing with himself. Spurrier writes an excellent tale here with almost everything being sport on, with the most impressive of all his feats being his very effective and quick introduction of Cookie who isn’t even C-List. Due to this the chat show setting is genius as it gives a reason for him to recap Cookie’s career but also a chance to satirise the naff side of chat shows with Vinnie Bland being an excellent character. However, nothing compares to Cookie who throughout the course of the script is shown to be ever so slightly paranoid and it’s this paranoia that builds to a great joke ending. The art of Langridge is very good also with his cartooney and OTT approach to characterisation being a joy to read, especially in relation to Cookie. An enjoyable read that marks an excellent Meg debut for Spurrier who is one of 2000AD’s rising stars.
Charley’s War
Title: Untitled Pt. 22-28
Writer: Pat Mills
Artist: Joe Colquhoun
Letterer: N/A
I must admit that I have been tiring of this script in recent months with its anti-WW1 message becoming way too prominent with a dip in characterisation and accessibility being the result. Thankfully this month marks a return to form as the tale of how Charley, Ginger and Lonely try and escape the poison gas after being caught in no man’s land being a far more engaging story. This is primarily because it deals not with caricatures designed to further the writer’s point of view but with fully rounded, naturalistic characters that Mills expertly manipulates and places to maximise our empathy, with particularly Lonely’s quest for redemption being a masterful piece of writing. The art also improves this issue not because Colquhoun’s standards have been slipping, his detailed and traditional linework is incredibly consistent but because the poison gas clouds and the Calvary charges contained make for a more satisfying visual spectacle than previous month’s instalments. Overall a welcome return to form for what is politics aside shaping up to be a brutal, bloody and grimily realistic look at life in the trenches.
Judge Dredd
Titles: Ladies’ Night & In John Brown’s Body
Writer: John Wagner
Artists: Bryan Talbot & Carlos Ezquerra
Letterer: Tom Frame & N/A
We get our dose of classic Dredd this month in a pair of comedy one-offs both of which place Dredd squarely in the background. Of the two, In John Brown’s Body is by far the best as we follow the terrifying ordeal of perp after being left cuffed to a rail by a Rookie Judge in the worst street in the Meg. Wagner shows in a gloriously black comedic style how everyone on and including John Brown’s person is eventually stolen. Ladies’ Night isn’t so good concerning as it does a masculine male Judge (called Macho for crying out loud) being forced by Dredd to dress up as a women to go undercover to get catch some muggers preying on prostitutes; he then in a hilarious twist fail due to the bloody high heels! Now maybe I’m a bit sensitive to such issues but personally I found the homophobic tone of the whole issue off putting and not something I really want to read in 2004. In addition the story is nothing special with very poor characterisation and logic with only Judge Massey (a women Judge assigned with Macho undercover) coming across as having anything like an attractive personality. Where Ladies’ Night is rescued is the fantastic art of Bryan Talbot who gives it a really eighties breezy quality and has obviously has a lot of fun of glaming up the judges with Massey in particular having great, big…eighties hair. And of course Inside John Brown’s Body has Carlos Ezquerra on art duties so it goes without saying that it looks excellent. Overall one good and one bad Dredd reprint makes for a fairly good average.
Tharg’s Future Shocks
Title: N/A
Writer: Nick Tufnell
Artist: John Cooper
Letterer: Peter Knight
In a diabolical and simplistic reprint, which better be emergency filler we see an alien conspiracy at the heart of the major powers being uncovered by lower level government officials. This really is truly awful with poor, lifeless art that matches a cliché and hammy script that (for crying out loud) manages to get the residence of the American President wrong (here’s a hint-its not the f’ing Pentagon)! Why they are reprinting such dated nonsense when having access to 27 years of 2000AD Group materials is beyond me.
Judge Dredd
Title: Blood of Satanus II ~ Dark Matters Pt 4
Writer: Pat Mills
Artist: Duke Mighten
Letterer: Parkhouse/De Ville
Last month the transformation of the Chosen One into Satanus was completed just before Dredd could arrive to stop it. In this climatic episode we see Dredd forced to fight not only Satanus in a rematch some 25 years in the making but also the forces of the Church of Satanus. And something’s blows in Mills’ head as the nicely chunky dialogue gives way to horribly stilted lines that are worthy of Claremont; including as they do Claremont’ favourite technique of having characters give a running commentary of their action with particular groan inducing lines being Jazz telling the women congregation of to “Subdue him with our SAURIAN COMBAT (Mills’ emphasis)†and there’s an even worse towards the end. More worryingly still are the further hints that Mills despite his eccentric leftist tendencies is showing his age and background in regards to his attitudes towards homosexuality as we get the lead villain queenly outing himself as gay before being despatched by Dredd. Now I’m not saying that no villains should be gay but the way Mills does it does irk quite a bit. Still on the plus side Mills shows that he can still writer dinosaur destroys stuff quite effectively and Mighten delivers some excellent action shots in what is despite the dodgy dialogue and socio-politics an enjoying and visually exciting climax to the story.
Anderson, PSI Division
Writers: Alan Grant & Tony Luke
Artist: Arthur Ranson
Letterer: Annie Parkhouse
Last month Anderson led the resistance in an attempt to rescue a group of PSI active kids only for the Judges to be waiting, with Anderson and a few survivors only just escaping. At the end of last month Anderson realised that the way to stop Death was to kill the Sisters of Death, as it is they who transform Sidney into the monster that can lead planetary genocide. This month they lay a trap for them only for things to go wrong as Death makes his appearance. Grant and Luke have delivered an excellent story with Anderson’s trip on Deathworld doubling as a trip down memory lane but also as atonement for a character that had lost her way in recent years. In this climatic part they manage to weave any effect end to the plots and in an imaginative (if slightly rushed ending) reveal to us why Death didn’t just kill Cassandra at the end of My Name is Death. However the star of the show has to be Death with his entrance being perfectly realised with the writers giving him that sense of icy, calculated savagery whilst Ranson just comes up with a fantastic depiction of Death as his detailed and subtle paints imbue Death with a genuine sense of terror. This has been a welcome return to form for Anderson as we get to see her in the type of occult horror story that she was designed to do.
