Prog 1298 - BLOODY BIG SPOILERS

[Matt]

Jesus, I think I want to nominate this weeks prog as one of the best issues ever. First off 13, what a surprise package this series has turned out to be. It's being nothing short of fantastic. Consistently good, brilliant artwork & great storyline. Can't wait for the final episode. Oh, and this weeks episode featured the first pair of female breasts in a comic to look real. Great to see an artist that doesn't draw all his females with proportions that would give Jordan a run for her money.

Wagner has pulled another classic out of the bag. This is the type of Dredd strip that I love. Cleverly written, plot twists & a few surprises. I love the way Wagner can write a huge Dredd series without having to include Dredd too much. This run has had a great supporting cast, with Dredd taking on more of a back seat role. But perhaps the best thing about Sin City is the way in which it slips in a major plot development through the back door. Wagner dummies his audience into taking one direction before delivering the sucker punch. On first appearance Sin City looked as though Danser was the lead villain with Muerte thrown in for a good punch-up along the way. Next minute Orloks back & Sin City has become a plague city. Doesn't look like Dredd's going to be leaving anytime soon. Hopefully the run of Dredd after Sin City will still be set on the floating city itself with Dredd acting as Sheriff. Wonder what all this has in store for Mega City One? And whilst Dredd is quarantined on Sin City can we expect someone to take advantage for a pre-emptive strike on MC-1? Step forward Nero Narcos perhaps? Wagner is easily the best writer that 2K has ever enjoyed.

I'll skip over Sin/Dex. This isn't the best story I've ever read, more like a string of jokes held together by a week plot.

Tor Cyan. I'm not sure what I make of this latest development. I expected Tor to be a regened Rogue, I didn't expect it to be the Rogue we last saw getting blown to pieces in that shite Friday story arc. So this weeks episode ties all the loose ends together. We finally know how Rogue, Friday & Tor Cyan are all related. I get a sense of closure in this weeks episode, almost as though Tor is going to die next week & Rebellion will have finally brought the curtain down on one of the worst editorial decisions since someone came up with the great idea of killing Johnny Alpha. It really does feel as though the board is been cleared to make way for the old Rogue. R.I.P Tor Cyan? Hello Rogue?

[Oddboy]

Pretty much agree with everything said there.
But I missed a lot of 2Ks when Fr1day was in it & I still don't get how Rogue became Fr1day?  I thought it was Rogue who was the dead-in-space one, and that the whole thing just didn't mention the Fr1day fiasco!  How are Rogue/Fr1day actually related?

[Mudcrab]

IIRC, Friday was part of a similar experiment, but on a different planet. I thought Tor Cyan was superb this week, definitely the best yet. Has anyone noticed the biochip on Rogue's helmet having different numbers. this week it was 3. I'm sure it was 1 last week???

13 - Best new story in ages.
Sin City - Best Dredd errrr, since Doomsday.

[Matt]

The incident where Rogue was killed in space actually happened when the series was about Friday. Friday ran across Rogue & a regened Bagman, Gunnar & Helm. All bar Gunnar were blown up in space. So the the events involving Rahab took place after the Friday storyline, which places all 3 versions of Rogue in the same continuity. It did get really messy.

[El Spurioso]

My big problem with 13 is this....


The big nasty bald blokes have been the 'baddies' all along, right?  and the skimpy where's-my-clothes-luv ninja woman has been the slightly unlikeable good guy.  This week's twist is SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER:


  Aha! If you throw your lot-in with the skimpy bitch your planet will drop back through the hole in space and you'll all die!  She was the baddie all along!


Now, call me stupid here, but why didn't the bald bloke simply explain everything to our two human heroes from the very beginning, rather than attempting to kill them with monsters, gribblies, unfeasibly large robots and buildings with elevator shafts underneath?  Even Joe "Wrinkly Face" Bulmer isn't daft enough to run around doing the samurai wumman's dirty-work if he knows it'll get him and the entire human race dead.

[Wake]

The way I see it, many stories (even true ones)seems to have stuff in it where you wonder why someone didn't do which seems obvious.

I'm prepared to accept that the baldy guys didn't try to be nice, because they aren't, and they thought they could stop Bulmer on their own terms.

Anyway, if they'd tried to tell him, would he have believed them?

I think 13 is the best new thrill in ages, with great art to match (apart from the overuse of wrinkles)....it makes far more sense than Carver Hale.

Wake

[davidbishop]

Carey wisely acknowledges the logic flaw in the captions before getting to it, a flaunt the imperfection policy...

Bizarre factoid I never knew but discovered this week during research for Thrill-Power Overload - Carey's first work was in... Toxic!

DB

[Oddboy]

By sheer coincidence &/or luck, your Megazine articles have been keeping the same pace as my personal quest of reading all the progs (from my newly gained massive selection).  At present I'm going through the likes of The Filby Case, Fungus, All Hell on the Dix-I Front, Too Many Bams, and carefully skipping Mean Arena (I kept with it for a long time, but it it rubbish!).  It's brilliant to get the editorial comment running alongside my mission, and for that I thank you David.  

[Art]

Carey wisely acknowledges the logic flaw in the captions before getting to it, a flaunt the imperfection policy...

I quite like that bit. It certainly makes more sense than Avatar, since Bulmer has spent the entire story on the run from Aliens rather than riding around in spaceships with them while they fail to brief him properly.

[Art]

Jesus, I think I want to nominate this weeks prog as one of the best issues ever

I would happily second that.

[DavidXBrunt]

Yeah, not a bad one. The only shame being that Sin Dex ended so quickly.

[Slippery PD]

And Id happily third it.  Altho I think that Sin Dex is the week link.

Agree that Sin City is a great epic.  Is dredd ever gonna get off that island???  maybe this is Rico's chance.

13 just goes from strength to strength.  I for one am gonna be sorry when it finishes.

Tor Cyan has at last proved good.  I thought it was confusing in an earlier thread.  Now all is almost expalined.  good we can get back to the old RT.

[paulvonscott]

I nearly blew a fuse reading Sin City, but I have to say the rest of the prog wasn't fit to serve up to a dog.  if this is really what people think is a good prog, then grud help us, each and every one of us.

Just because the writer pointed out how lame 13's plot is, doesn't make it okay.  You could have told this whole series in a five page future shock.  I can't bellliiiieeeeeve that this is what people want from new thrills.  It's like I've woken up and everyone's a pod person.

Tor Cyan, a messy colliding ragabag of ideas that for me hopefully heralds the setting sun on one of the worst pieces of reinvention I have ever witnessed.  Poor bloody rogue trooper.  Goodbye Friday, goodbye tor cyan.  Close the door on your way out.

Sin Dex.  Abandon hope all ye who funting enter.  the cover was an abomination, contender for worst cover ever and worst famyard cover ever.

I would have nominated this prog one of the worst issues ever if it wasn't for sin city.  Look at Sin City then the rest, compare them, do you not see the differene, the cosmic gulf between them?

Ah well, I sentence you all to twenty years in a tibetan monestary till you've found enlightenment.

[Tex Hex]

Durant doesnt really give them much reason to trust him though. As the head of that psychic institute thing he just wants to imprison joe.