Prog 1867 - Fight The Power

[Judge Olde]

Henry Flint ‏@henryflintzombo: Cocked up shoulder pads in today's 2000ad sub. Not twice, 3 times! If Titan is to be collected MUST make changes. (Don't tell Mek-Quake.)

Happens to the best:

That's not an Eagle, that's a large sparrow!

[JUDGE BURNS]

The only thing i didn't enjoy about this weeks prog is Ulysses Sweet...the rest is fine, but DREDD is firing on all guns as usual ( even if he is sitting back a bit ).  Really enjoying the Titan storyline.

[Kudos]

Sorry. Meant to say that is a tweet from Mr Flint himself. I presume he is referring to the eagle on Gerhart's left shoulder which I hadn't noticed until he pointed it out.

Don't the SJS normally have their eagle on the oposite shoulder to regular judges? The error I spotted was the fourth panel on page one where Gerhart's got the regular eagle on the right shoulder then the SJS style left shoulder eagle in the next panel.

[Frank]

Don't the SJS normally have their eagle on the oposite shoulder to regular judges?

Yep:

[judgerufian]

Correctly guessed who was going to be on the cover this week!

Cover: Nice pic if a little disjointed due to the strange empty spaces and random muties (Johnny and Middenface are recognisable but thats about it, who are the others?)

Judge Dredd: Finally Nixon Arm-gate is answered! A good episode with Dredd looking as done in as I've seen him (he looks worse even than the end of City of the Damned pic by Ron Smith) and some of the reasons why have been revealed which puts some things into perspective. Though it seems like a big risk by the prisoners, be [spoiler]recognised as an independant state[/spoiler] or be blown up into oblivion. Fingers crossed this will not be solved by a big explosion countdown in two weeks time and Dredd suddenly cured of all his ills by [spoiler]a bottle of Nixon's Fiji water[/spoiler]. High hopes for a good conclusion.

Ulysses Sweet: You know a strip is in trouble when a Rupert the Bear format is the highlight of the last few weeks. Also did he even move this week?

Grey Area: A very interesting 2nd part to this story, I'm really intrigued as to how and why these aliens [spoiler]killed their own god/s[/spoiler].

Future Shock: Great art and better than average story but could have done with 1 more page as it wrapped up way too quick for a cool idea.

Strontium Dog: The war carries on hotting up but there is no way that Dad Nabett was that evil a bad guy that he needs a whole page to pray witness[spoiler]to his death by gunfire on board his firey barge[/spoiler] not even Nelson Bunker Kreelman [spoiler]got that when he was killed off.[/spoiler] Anyone else finds Kid Knee a little grating considering the situation the muties are in? Curious to see where this will conclude and even if it will finish this 'chapter'. A welcome turnaround for SD.

Mrs Judgerufians cover comment: Why does Strontium Dog have turtle shells on his helmet, he looks like the evil guy from Sonic....

[Dark Jimbo]

Great cover from Harrison. I'm enjoying seeing more of him in the prog lately.

Dredd is still the meat in the prog sandwich, the other strips all feeling a bit lightweight this week. Have to admit that the Gerhart bit didn't quite make sense to me - 'I took a missile in the line of duty.' Er, yes? So? How does that allow you to survive a sudden lack of head? I'm assuming it means he had a lot of parts replaced with bionics, but it's not clear - hopefully clarified next week.

Ulysses Sweet, much like the titular character, is in a bit of a lull this week. Loved the Rupert bit though. Bit hard to find much to say this week, except that (much as I'm enjoying it) I definately think this strip has been a bit too long for its own good.

Grey Area goes abruptly from 'inoffensive filler' to 'cliched and annoying.' It's mainly - and I think I've said this before - the dialogue of the characters that grates on this strip. Not a one of them talk like soliders, but characters from an 'edgy' US teen drama. It's all ludicrously and needlessly macho; case in point, this week we have 'back the hell off' when a simple 'back off' would have done just as well. On the next page we do indeed have a 'back off', but it's followed by another 'back the hell off' and then yet another 'back the hell off.' Then comes 'freaked them the hell out' and 'What the hell you on about?' It's a way to artificially contrive a greater sense of drama and it sounds very immature. Abnett's capable of better - but I hate to moan without throwing some positives into the mix, and thankfully Goddard's art is still utterly superb.

What a great Future Shock! My respect for anyone who can craft a good one of these has increased tenfold since the format shrunk from five to four pages. This did everything right, and it's always a bonus when I don't see the ending coming (not that it was a 'shock' per se, but a satisfying way to round off the narrative.)

Strontium Dog shows the way forward for Grey Area - not a word wasted. The characters say exactly what needs to be said, and no more, and at no point do I hear the writer talking, as opposed to the characters. Otherwise this is a hard episode to review in isolation as it's very much just a small part of an ongoing story (does that make sense? Wagner seems to be writing more for the trade than anything else here.) Sad to say, quite a long way from Ezquerra's best, but love his colours.

[Skullmo]

A nice cover - but I would really like to see Carlos back on cover duties if it is going to be his characters.

[Trout]

I loved Dredd and Stront. That page of SD with the explosion in classic Carlos. It doesn't get better than that!

[Apestrife]

Read it first thing this morning on my phone. The day got a good start may I say.

DREDD won me over as usual, and Titan is starting to feel like it's wrapping up MC Undercover in a way, at least Nixon. The bomb Nixon mentions goes back when she worked the docks? Cool that Dredd is stuck between the SJS wanting to blow the prison up and those wanting to make it a colony!

Strontinum Dog also did well. Continues feeling equally hopeless and badass with each page thick with blood and fire. Love it.

I only eyed area and sweet for a bit, and I'm saving the future shock for later.

But this prog felt like business as usual lately. Gold!

[Verence]

I'm a little bit confused with the Dredd story at the moment....

Sinfield says to Hershey 

"Three hundred and eighty-six inmates decided they want no part of us"

"They elected meas their leader. I want no part of this"

By "no part of us" is Sinfield saying he still thinks of himself as part of MC-1??

By "I want no part of this" is he saying he's not in cahoots with Nixon??

[Spaceghost]

I'm a little bit confused with the Dredd story at the moment....

Sinfield says to Hershey 

"Three hundred and eighty-six inmates decided they want no part of us"

"They elected meas their leader. I want no part of this"

By "no part of us" is Sinfield saying he still thinks of himself as part of MC-1??

By "I want no part of this" is he saying he's not in cahoots with Nixon??

This confused me as well but it seems you've deciphered it there.

Although, how you can be elected leader of a cause you don't agree with and want no part of, I don't know.

[ChickenStu]

Cover - OK!

Dredd -Titan (part six) - Explanatory!

Ulysses Sweet, Maniac for Hire - Centred (part seven) - Bo-ring!

Grey Area - All God's Children (part two) - Intelligent!

Future Shocks - Family Business - Smart!

Strontium Dog - The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha - Chapter Four: Dogs of War (part seven) - Yup!

Yep, couldn't have said it better myself.

[Proudhuff]

Sorry. Meant to say that is a tweet from Mr Flint himself. I presume he is referring to the eagle on Gerhart's left shoulder which I hadn't noticed until he pointed it out.

I'm looking forward to A Doctor writes about those SJS wounds... 

[Verence]

This confused me as well but it seems you've deciphered it there.

Although, how you can be elected leader of a cause you don't agree with and want no part of, I don't know.

I suppose Sinfield could have told the prisoners that he didn't want to be their leader but they went ahead and  voted for him anyway.

Presumably Nixon is the real power but forcing Sinfield to act as her spokesman because he's good at politics??

[DrJomster]

Read mine on my phone as well. Very nice read it was too. Four out of five excellent thrills for me, same as last week. Top stuff from the galaxy's greatest anthology!