Prog 1805: Master of His Own Universe

[Zarjazzer]

Found some of the Dredd panels a bit confusing but needed another quick read. Brass Sun turned into the huge info dump but ABC was impressive although how do you kill an ABC robot? Anyway Low Life was tops with some fabulous digs at the uber rich. Simping was good but not quite so atmospheric as the first episode.

[Frank]

What's the significance of Hilda Ogden's flying porcelain ducks, a recurring motif in both Low Life and The Simping Detective this week? Were editorial running a competion, like when we had to spot the X-wing in every story?

[vark]

ABCDEFGH... - Did I miss a prog about how that Stenhammer be statue?

I was a bit confused too, so I re read prog 1804 and it is all in here (the war memorial, the white paint and the deactivation).

For my part 9/11 and 7/7 references really don't bother me. Pat Mills is always straightforward when he wants to refer to something, and let's not forget these references are not intended to a "near future" readership.

[Beaker]

ABCDEFGH... - Did I miss a prog about how that Stenhammer be statue?

I was a bit confused too, so I re read prog 1804 and it is all in here (the war memorial, the white paint and the deactivation).

Yep, another one confuddled here. It wasn't made very clear what was happening though. Just a mention from 'Stein as to what would happen and then the final panel.

Still enjoying the story though.

[Frank]

... and the ducks? Come to think of it, the judge in Frank's dream reminded me of Alan Bennett; it's all very 'Northern', and now I think the biscuit dunking from a few weeks ago might have been a reference to A Cream Cracker Under the Sofa. Is Tharg sowing the seeds of a crossover with the Bennett-verse?

[A.Cow]

we still refer to the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day some 95 years on ...

That's rather mnemonic in its nature, anyway.  If it'd been a different date I doubt it would still be in use.

I'd suggest that few people other than historians (or pub quiz experts) could name -- off the top of their head -- the actual date when Armstrong landed on the moon, or WWII broke out, or even VE day.

... and to the 7th December 70 years on.

Nope, genuinely haven't got a clue what that's about.  Will have to look it up.

Looked it up.  I doubt that more than 1% of any population outside the US would know that was the date of Pearl Harbor.

[TordelBack]

we still refer to the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day some 95 years on ...

That's rather mnemonic in its nature, anyway.  If it'd been a different date I doubt it would still be in use.

And there's othing mnemonic at all about 9/11 (the phone number for the emergency services) or 7/7?  As to Pearl Harbour... really? "A date which will live in infamy"?  No-one remembers that?

[WhitBloke]

7th of December?  I thought that was the last night Lennon brushed his teeth in pyjamas.  Pearl Harbour?  What's that when it's at home, then?

[Pete Wells]

Just a little note about Dredd, this coulda been a contender! The recent tension between Dredd and Heshey could have been ramped up. A curt comment from Joe after saving Hershey would have served as a thorny reminder to the Chief Judge how infallible his judgement generally is.

It was an okay script that could have been elevated with a couple of minor tweaks...

[TordelBack]

It was an okay script that could have been elevated with a couple of minor tweaks...

I'd agree with that.  It's a lot to ask that the current pool of (excellent) writers synchronise their scripts to reflect ongoing characterisation and minor events as well as the foundation-shattering DoC, especially when we're actually talking about a non-Wagner development in the first place, but it is striking how off the treatment of the final Hershey scenes seemed. 

I suppose that's what happens when your characters are no longer one-dimensional placeholders (Hershey: vulnerable target; Dredd: cunning warhorse) - they actively resist the writer's intentions for them. 

If the scene had played out with either Hershey confirming that she's not to be messed with by gaining the upper hand on the perp, or Dredd taking the opportunity to put the boot in, it would have all been great - as it was, submissive Hershey, all-business Dredd, it fell a bit flat.  Which is not to say it wasn't an entertaining tale, well told - just, as Pete says, it could have been great.

[Dark Jimbo]

Why would somebody in the year 206x refer to 9/11 like it was a recent memory?  Even worse, how many even think of 7/7 today?

Well whaddya know? On my way to the shops today I witnessed a near-miss traffic accident, and my genuinely involuntary cry was 'Bigod, sirrah! 'Tis like unto Naseby and that terrible June of '45, when perfidious Cromwell did smash Good King Charlie's cavaleros!'

Seems Pat knows what he's talking about, after all.

[Beaker]

It could of course be referring to a disaster on the 7th of July in our future.......

[Professor Bear]

Dredd felt a bit flat to me.  It ended and I just went "what" for a bit.  I did find the absence of Hershey's massive balls to be a bit disappointing as her chewing Dredd out for his quitting every fart's end has been the best scene in the strip for ages and I'd expect it to be followed up in some way rather than ignored to the point that I could believe this script came out of a drawer to capitalise on the writer's growing profile in the US and had one or two dialog edits to make it fit into current continuity.  She is pretty much useless here, and the closest she comes to being remotely effective is when she saves herself from a grenade - by abandoning her men to die.  The ending made no sense in the context of the story, and while I know the intent was likely to create a Butch and Sundance moment, there wasn't enough of fatty's character to give such a scene any emotional resonance, and taking his family - whom he apparently loves - into a firefight in which he will be killed seems... a bit thick of him.  Also, ending a strip with a a famous ending from a movie not only seems a little cheap, it's arguably lazy because I can think of at least three Dredd tales that have ended this way already.  If it helps, one of them was some bikers jumping at Dredd and the caption was "The good times are over" and it was drawn by Simon Coleby when we apparantly hated his lovely chunky, gritty art style.  If you name the exact strip, I will give you a special prize of [spoiler]fuck all.[/spoiler]

Brass Sun was as usual the best thing in the prog for me, and this episode didn't seem to suffer as much as previous installments did in terms of backgrounds, establishing shots or detail, though there is the ongoing issues with a satisfactory sense of the scale of things - at least for me, anyway.  Still the best thing in the prog.

I try not to apply logic to Low Life as I find it to be at it's enjoyably stupid best when it's trying to be random and logic doesn't even apply to characters that aren't Dirty Frank.  I found it dull when it was just a sci-fi riff on Miller's Sin City and have liked DF's outings as the central character much, much more than I would if it was that cyber woman with the steam-powered wanking gauntlet whining on about her first world problems of the future.  Enjoyably daft stuff that wants to be Dr McNinja when it grows up, and that is probably why I and sensible persons everywhere like it.

What is ABC Warriors even about right now?  It's been a few episodes and I don't know what Hammerstein is up to, where he's going or how he ends up in some situations beyond that he just seems to stumble across stuff happening that allows him to stick the boot into capitalism via his infodump first person narration - who is he even explaining things to?  He's in a park this week not moving for some reason and I get the impression he's programmed himself to not move rather than just not moving which I think would be the more sensible approach, but I don't understand why he couldn't just hide in a scrapyard or a sewer or somewhere with no large crowds of people or easy access for tanks.  Looks nice, though.

I hate Simping Detective but try to like it because I've paid for it even when it's hard to understand some stuff as it relies so heavily on continuity from elsewhere, like whatever story it was where we establish DeMarco is a total chump who hangs out with a gorilla now.  Fair play, though, to the story for not playing along with the tiresome "monkeys are awesome" bollocks by shooting the gorilla through his stupid monkey head so I don't have to look at him do anything at all, but isn't this DeMarco's first appearance in the prog since she was an actual judge or something?  I'm not sure I like the inference that people who haven't been buying the Meg for at least 10 years can go fuck themselves - I've been reading it for years now and some of this is news to me and just looks like lazy writing by substituting an easier-to-write personality for what has already been established (and in very high-profile Dredd stories like The Pit, to boot).

Also not sure why some people have issues with the Visible Man.  We won't know if its any good until we've had a butchers at the strip as Mills can be hit or miss - it's worth the gamble.

[TordelBack]

What is ABC Warriors even about right now?  It's been a few episodes and I don't know what Hammerstein is up to, where he's going or how he ends up in some situations beyond that he just seems to stumble across stuff happening that allows him to stick the boot into capitalism via his infodump first person narration - who is he even explaining things to? 

I never know if the Prof is just Byah-baiting (it's not that he's subtle, just that I'm dim), but I'm knackered from a night of costume-manufacturing, so I'll bite rather than commence wrestling the childers into the car. 

The story is framed as Hammerstein telling Mongrol, Zippo and Joe the tale of how he ended up in Ro-Busters, while they repair their craft on Mars.  He's been sent to Earth by secret factions (in the UN, I think), most likely to assassinate the PotUS but it could be another of Pat's Awful Things, thus turning mankind against the whole notion of War Droids and the devastating wars they facilitate.  He's in a park because his cover is to be an immobilised, white painted war-droid as part of a Volgan War memorial in DC. 

[Colin Zeal]

Prof: that Dredd story would be Koole Killers. From around prog 780 or so.