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Prog 2052 - Desert Storm!

Started by Colin YNWA, 07 October, 2017, 09:21:30 PM

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Colin YNWA

So last week was a bit of a mis-step as stories struggled to find the form they had the potential for. This week we see a marked improvement. Its not perfect but its certainly stepping confidently in the right  direction.

We start with Dredd which maintains its fine form as Icons reaches its conclusion, thouhg its more a step along the way as T.C> Eglington has set things up here while providing a perfectly satisfying self contained story all fantastically rendered by Colin MacNeil.

Slaine also basically maintains its form... less of a good thing that though it just feels so stangnant however lushly rendered the epic battle scene is.

Must take it on its own value, must take it on its own value, must take it on its own value.... and so we get to Kek-W's debut on Indigo Prime.... must take it on its own value, must take it on its own value... and you know what taken on its own value its really, really good. There are moments when the writing feels really forced but thats me NOT taking it on its own value and there's no denying there's a massive 'what if' hanging over me as I read this BUT that me NOT... you got it by now haven't you. Lee Carter does his normal fantastic job and the story movies in some very interesting directions. So... you know what... I can call this a win ... for this episode at least.

Sinister Dexter get Steve Yeowell back and along with him its mojo. Last weeks was a little flat, this weeks quite fantastic. Its serves to reintroduce our new main protagonist... in the most supportive and creepy light. There some nice interchange and this really feels like a story that's got legs and is going somewhere. Top stuff.

Finally Grey Area also steps back to form, I mean I'm still not delighted with this new scenario and still feel it has signficent holes in it, but I'm clearly getting more accustomed to it as I found this much more enjoyable, even if the device used to get our heroes out their bind (and into a new one) felt a little contrived.

So while we still not quite up to the level I expect from this line-up its certainly a damned sight closer than last week.


IndigoPrime

I enjoyed most of that. Dredd was a solid end to a solid tale, although I hope it doesn't take too long for the arc to continue (and I hope it does continue). Sin/Dex was fun, and Grey Area kept things going.

Indigo Prime: it worked. The voice is to my mind broadly there, in a manner I didn't feel with the first non-Smith Devlin. As noted, this needs to be taken on its own merits – and probably as a whole later on – but the works nicely for now.

Sláine was a bit 'treadmill' for me. I suppose the strip's just lost me, which is a pity, given that I loved everything through Horned God, enjoyed most of Books of Invasions, and thought the first Brutania Chronicles was pretty great in art and writing.

Geoff

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 09 October, 2017, 02:57:58 PM

Sláine was a bit 'treadmill' for me. I suppose the strip's just lost me,

Oh, is there a story...I didn't realise, I thought it was just a series of beautiful paintings of someone talking whilst fighting...

norton canes

Don't have a review because I haven't read it yet but I did manage to empty a mug of water all over it while it was on my desk, so it had better be good, given that I've now spent £5.50 on it.

Frank

QuoteI haven't read it yet but I did manage to empty a mug of water all over it while it was on my desk, so it had better be good, given that I've now spent £5.50 on it.

Stick it on EBay as a Disaster: 1990 themed special edition.

Grey Area's the team book version of the Quartz Zone massacre*. As the character only introduced in this story, that nice young [spoiler]Major Said[/spoiler] will turn out to be the Traitor General.

Drawing teams of grunts toting impractically huge weaponry is Mark Harrison's happy place. That scene in Aliens, when Vasquez shouts LET'S ROCK(!) and fires off about a thousand rounds, must have triggered the same electrical impulses in Harrison's brain as the opening scene of Barbarella did in my own.


Multiple units dropped into hostile territory, only one survives. Only in this scenario, it's the bushwhackers who're packing body mod technology ... maybe it's a reverse Quartz Zone massacre.

norton canes

I have now read my replacement copy :|

Cover: Just goes to show what I was saying last week about preferring covers by the story's regular artist. This actually feels like part of the strip, like a big bonus panel giving us a new angle on part of the story. Though ironically there are even better panels in the story itself! The font I recognise from my days designing websites years ago, it was a free one we used all the time.

Droid Life: Now that is funny.

Dredd: Turns out to be another set-up story, OK. A bit sort of Democracy-ish, except this time it's the Judges that miscalculate. I'd have maybe liked Hershey to reduce Dredd's street presence even further, maybe leading in to a run of stories where he has to take positions in less prominent Justice departments.

Also, shame we never got to see how the statue would have looked with Dredd's head.

Slaine: Rollicks on like a bizarre Boy's Own adventure peppered with politics, philosophy and religion. Three episodes in and all Slaine and Sinead have really done is continually fight stone giants. We like it, but... give us some plot!

Indigo Prime: Must admit I haven't been following the exchanges in last weeks Prog thread about why John Smith is no longer writing this, but frankly I challenge anyone to see the join. More Kek-W is never a bad thing and hopefully he'll be able to stamp his individuality on the strip in the coming weeks.

(By the way, could the opening dialogue be any more Kek-W than 'Psychosphere accelerating to 7.7 million dream-cycles per second! Oneiroptics on! Inducing superlucidity!')

Sinister Dexter: Great stuff. Loving the hair-flick devil horns.

Grey Area: Man, it'll be a sad day when Dan Abnett is no longer writing for 2000 AD. No-one else 'gets' what kind of stories to write more than him, no-one else gets the tone so spot-on, no-one else quite hits the spot so much with their dialogue. Even in this slightly cliched-ridden installment, his prose is exciting, exhilarating... thrilling

And not everything has to be a pun.


DrJomster

Lots to love this week. The art droids are on particular form across the board! As are the lettering and script droids!

Can I just say, that if the digital Red Seas was ever coloured, that would just be so lovely! Message ends.
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