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2000AD Thrillshots - Reviewing the Mega and Ultimate Collections

Started by Vernoona, 31 December, 2018, 06:29:01 AM

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IndigoPrime

I could've done without both of these collections, TBH. #26 was a rough ride, and even the classic Dredd tale (Dredd Angel) isn't one of the best. Then Fallen Angels was a pretty awful way to round out the original run. Angelic is pretty good, albeit a short reboot. The rest varied between being just about readable and abject tosh (did anyone really need a run of Harke & Burr in hardback?)

sintec

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 August, 2019, 03:06:18 PM
Then Fallen Angels was a pretty awful way to round out the original run. Angelic is pretty good, albeit a short reboot. The rest varied between being just about readable and abject tosh (did anyone really need a run of Harke & Burr in hardback?)

I hadn't looked at the original release order of these before having acquired my copies via ebay; wow those last half dozen books on the pre-extension Mega Collection run really were a rough ride.  With the exception of Chopper I could have lived without the majority of that.  Stars Of Psi-Division was utter tosh (it's a contender for the worst book in the run imo) and most of Weird Science was pretty forgettable. Mega City Underworld and Armitage are better but were hardly essential reading.  A rough 3 months.

IndigoPrime

I was thinking in terms of the tail end of the volumes rather than the release order. Then again, the suggestion was the Dredd run was initially 60, and later expended to 80, and then 90. But, yeah, even in release order, those final ten books were quite the mix, in terms of quality.

Vernoona

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 05 August, 2019, 02:02:28 PM
Huh! I always assumed that when people mentioned 'Mean Streets' they meant a certain episode of Mean's solo adventures that I read in the Megazine in the early 2000's. Turns out that was actually 'Butt Me Deadly' - a completely different Mean-as-a-noir-gumshoe-with-no-explanation strip...!  :lol:



"Butt Me Deadly" is such a great title!

Vernoona

Quote from: sintec on 05 August, 2019, 04:43:46 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 August, 2019, 03:06:18 PM
Then Fallen Angels was a pretty awful way to round out the original run. Angelic is pretty good, albeit a short reboot. The rest varied between being just about readable and abject tosh (did anyone really need a run of Harke & Burr in hardback?)

I hadn't looked at the original release order of these before having acquired my copies via ebay; wow those last half dozen books on the pre-extension Mega Collection run really were a rough ride.  With the exception of Chopper I could have lived without the majority of that.  Stars Of Psi-Division was utter tosh (it's a contender for the worst book in the run imo) and most of Weird Science was pretty forgettable. Mega City Underworld and Armitage are better but were hardly essential reading.  A rough 3 months.

There's definitely some 'filler', shall we say, material in some blocks of the Collection. I've got about 30 of the 90 I've never read so I'm looking forward to tackling them. My general experience has been that even in Volumes I haven't liked overall there's been a gem hiding in there somewhere.

Yeah, Stars of Psi-Division... I read that last year. I'm already wondering if I can just write the review from memory rather than having to re-read the whole thing! Mind you, even there, I have an abiding love for Adrian Salmon's art so it's not a total loss!

TordelBack

That's some sweet scribbling on that alt.Mean page of-which-I-have-no-memory!  Looks like early Goddard and Teague? 

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: TordelBack on 06 August, 2019, 08:07:18 AM
That's some sweet scribbling on that alt.Mean page of-which-I-have-no-memory!  Looks like early Goddard and Teague?

Goddard pencils and Lee Townsend inks, apparently, although I'd have guessed Teague, too.
@jamesfeistdraws

Vernoona


Vernoona



Don't gnaw the claw, good buddy! It's August 1982, and the crew of the Speedo Ghost are back for their second - and final - set of adventures in Ace Trucking Co.: Volume Two.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/08/19/aces-high-ace-trucking-co-volume-two/

sheridan

Quote from: davidbishop on 05 August, 2019, 01:37:05 PM
IIRC, the Mean Streets tale was from a Dredd Mega-Special themed around alternate versions of characters - think Elseworlds, What If?, Unbound, that kind of thing. Hence the random strangeness!


The Alternity Special?

sheridan

Quote from: sintec on 25 July, 2019, 04:03:20 PM
Seems like you had a similar reaction to Time Killer as me (see my rants in the Ultimate Collection thread on the Announcements if you can be bothered to hunt for them). I felt like he'd run out of ideas for good Slaine plots but didn't want to roll up a new character so hammered them all in here with a crowbar.


The thing is, he clearly hadn't run out of ideas for Sláine as there were all those loose threads that would be continued in Sláine the King and resolved in The Horned God - some of which were begun on the very first page of the first episode in Prog 330.  I think a more accurate explanation for the Cythron diversion could be that Uncle Pat has a tendency to put whatever the latest theories he's been reading about into his current stories.  If Finn had been around a few years earlier then perhaps we'd have had different Sláine stories in between Dragonheist and The Gates of Anwwn (or whatever it's called).  And if Diceman hadn't existed then the Cauldron of Blood may have been introduced in an entirely different way.

Vernoona



It's October 1984. Things get personal for Nemesis and Torquemada as we take a look at Nemesis the Warlock: Volume Two.

https://thrillshots.wordpress.com/2019/08/26/rule-britannia-nemesis-the-warlock-volume-two/

Vernoona

Quote from: sheridan on 25 August, 2019, 11:18:27 AM

The thing is, he clearly hadn't run out of ideas for Sláine as there were all those loose threads that would be continued in Sláine the King and resolved in The Horned God - some of which were begun on the very first page of the first episode in Prog 330.  I think a more accurate explanation for the Cythron diversion could be that Uncle Pat has a tendency to put whatever the latest theories he's been reading about into his current stories.  If Finn had been around a few years earlier then perhaps we'd have had different Sláine stories in between Dragonheist and The Gates of Anwwn (or whatever it's called).  And if Diceman hadn't existed then the Cauldron of Blood may have been introduced in an entirely different way.

Mills certainly displays a certain 'restlessness' with many of his series (ABC Warriors is an even better example of this). If he wants to make a change, he doesn't gradually build to it, but just makes it happen.

sintec

Quote from: sheridan on 25 August, 2019, 11:18:27 AM
I think a more accurate explanation for the Cythron diversion could be that Uncle Pat has a tendency to put whatever the latest theories he's been reading about into his current stories.  If Finn had been around a few years earlier then perhaps we'd have had different Sláine stories in between Dragonheist and The Gates of Anwwn (or whatever it's called).  And if Diceman hadn't existed then the Cauldron of Blood may have been introduced in an entirely different way.

Yeah I think that's probably more accurate.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Vernoona on 26 August, 2019, 08:15:00 AM
This story ends up featuring the ABC Warriors, the return of Mek-Quake from Ro-busters, a Mega-City One Judge and – inevitably – the return of the worst lizard of the them all, Satanus... These are all fun additions to the story, but there's a slight sense that Mills is losing control of the story a bit. "The Vengeance of Thoth" ends up feeling very much like a middle section, getting pieces into place before the next Book – Nemesis and Torquemada forced to be allied, the chase through the time wastes set up, and so on.

I'd never really thought about Book V that way, but you're absolutely right. It's all over the place! So many fun elements but no clear sense of where the overall story's heading. Torquemurder works much better by slowing things down a bit and having a much stronger focus.
@jamesfeistdraws