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13

Started by Colin YNWA, 14 February, 2010, 08:15:30 PM

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Colin YNWA

In many ways '13' defines what's so great about 2000ad for me. It's not that it's the best strip ever; it ain't half good, but not the best ever. Its more what it represents and how it stands out from the crowd.

Let me try to make sense of this but I beg your patience. The story and plot seems to be concocted out of any number of sci-fi or action staples. Down and out loser discovers he's a pawn in a bigger game. He meets beautiful woman and together against incredible odds they battle to over throw world threatening plot. Twists and turns in keeping with so many such stories. They battle against fine, repellent aliens that can imitate the establishment, ending up captured to escape by incredible acts of daring and courage. All this in a base full of robots to blow away. I've picked a few there I'm sure so many more could be pulled out.

Yet for all that, like so many 2000ad strips it does enough, adds enough twists and knots to the clichés to make it feel genuinely original, fresh and compelling. It looks the tropes square in the eyes, gives it a cocky sneer, hugs them with genuine affection but then wonders off in a direction of its own.

Everything from the look of the strip, the design of the characters and the characters themselves is just off centre of the norm. As an example I'll use Joe Bulmer himself, he looks great, like the dodgy loser he's meant to be, he lacks the sheen Hollywood would add. I mean the fact that he's wearing a Dead Kennedy's tee-shirt says it all. He follows a typical path from low life to hero but perfectly for 2000ad his redemption isn't completed by the end as it would be in so many tales in other comics, film, whatever of this type. That parting shot Dakshaben nails it perfectly

"We both know who you'd really be thinking of"

(Well let's be honest she did have magnificent breasts courtesy of Andy Clarkes' simply magnificent art)

That's it, that's it in a nutshell. 2000ad always takes the current trends, the ideas in the zeitgeist, the standards and colours them a shade darker, twists them so they're a little uglier, even polishes them a little more so they give a clearer reflection, exactly as does Joe Bulmers 'character arc' I believe they're called in writing circles. Back to that Dead Kennedy's tee-shirt again.

I bloody loved this.

Genre bending

Jared Katooie

I liked 13 a lot. But one thing always bothered me.

[spoiler]How the hell did they get out of the enemy base in the end? Did they just stay there and starve to death?[/spoiler]

Emperor

I think we have discussed this somewhere but God knows where, so top marks for starting its own dedicated thread here.

13 is the type of story I enjoy (and you might stumble across similar themes in my work from time to time ;) but you'd probably have to blame Star Wars or Lord of the Rings for that), where an unlikely hero manages to stumble into a big adventure which keeps ramping up until it is on a vast cosmic stage and they somehow pull their (and our) asses out of the fire more due to luck than anything else. Throw in some conspiracy theories and a tonne of bonkers concepts and bingo!

While not perfect I did enjoy it, more in the going back and re-reading it than possibly first time around. I'd definitely say it is Mike Carey's best 2000AD work and I'd go out on a limb and say it is Andy Clarke's too (and could have been a factor in the latter's getting a break in American comic books, Carey had already started Lucifer by then so had his feet under the table.
if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

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Colin YNWA

Oh yeah meant to mention. What the heck happened to those handcuffs in the Supermarket????