Reviewer: Will Cooling
Written by: various
Art by: various
Editor: Matt Smith
Publisher: Rebellion
(Btw, this is late because my computer hates me)
I’ve always thought that Wrestlemania 13 has been unfairly criticised. I mean many of its matches are better than the matches from the early ‘manias and in Bret Hart vs Steve Austin it has one of the most brutal and legendary matches in wrestling history. So why doesn’t it get the credit it deserves? Well because it lacks that special Wrestlemania feeling, the glitz and the glamour that makes Wrestlemania the most iconic wrestling show on earth was sorely absent.
Which brings us nicely onto Prog 2005.
Now as you should all know by now this is 2000AD bumper end of year/beginning of year (a strange paradox only Tharg could pull off) special. These usually promise us superlative adventures of established thrills plus the return of thrills and creators long gone from the Galaxy Greatest Comic. Sadly this year something seems to have gone wrong in the mix as the glamour, that special feeling is absent. Now that’s not to say this is a bad comic…its actually a bloody brilliant comic but its not got the aces that we’ve been brought to expect from the PROGs.
The main cause of this lack of glamour and pizzazz is the strange lack of returning superstars/thrills in the one off stories. The only one that could be seen as a surprise is the return of the nautical horror series Leviathan for an entertainingly gruesome and ghoulish prequel by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli. Other than that we get our annual Sinister Dexter Christmas story, this time an entertaining comic story by Abnett and Davis that sees the guys and Kal in a bar laughing about the dumb guys they’ve killed. We also get an entertainingly silly Robo-Hunter story even if Ian Gibson has disappointingly lessen the T&A the thrill was previous bringing to the table. Both are entertaining but neither are a “big deal” and Sinister Dexter really suffers from me having re-read their previous adventures in the new TPB Gunshark Vacation that highlights the sense of staleness that pervades the strip.
However, nowhere is the sense of anti-climax more obvious than the Christmas Dredd story by Wagner and Andrew Currie. Firstly the lack of recognisable superstar artist is a big shame and a departure from a PROG practice that has seen Mike McMahon, Greg Staples and Jim Murray all make their return to the character after an absence. That said Wagner does pull out all the stops to give us a big time story with another showdown between Dredd and the euthanasia serial killer Oola “Angel of Mercy” Blint having followed her and her husband to Brit-Cit. The story is a great throwaway confrontation between Dredd and the Blints even if Currie’s strangely top heavy Oola does prove slightly distracting. Still it does seem to be lacking something…probably just the superstar artist that we’ve been led to expect.
The other four stories that will be gracing 2000AD after the New Year are also guilty of the sense of anti-climax. Three are excellent returns of much loved thrills in Caballistics Inc., Slaine and Nikolai Dante however all are predictably excellent. They are rock our world in the way they always rock it, which is fine and dandy if it wasn’t for the fact that nothing unpredictable or out of leftfield has happened with the other strips. Nor does it happen (sadly) with the new thrill Second City Blues, which threatens to stink up the joint for the length of its run. Written by Kek-W with art by Darren Pleece its set in a futuristic dystopian Britain where the youth (including horses) escape the boredom by playing XTREME SPORTS!!! Sorry but that’s BOOOOOOOOOOOORING!!! I mean Jesus Christ how generic is this? And as for the art, well it has a nice enough but similar to the writing it lacks imagination and that spark that elevates art above the merely proficient.
I feel I’m being harsh on this PROG; it is after all on any objective scale excellent with four classic stories (Leviathan, Slaine, Caballistics Inc. and Nikolai Dante) whilst all the other stories (Second City Blues withstanding) provide thrills aplenty. Its just all lacking that oomph that usually makes these specials…er…well…special.
