PROG 1810: RoBusters The Disaster Squad of Distinction - Assemble

[TordelBack]

No pissing around this week: this Prog is straight into my all time Top Ten, probably somewhere around No. 5 or 6.  Out of 1810.  Beware, this gushing review is just one superlative after another, though none of them are intended to be hyperbolic: just the facts, man.

Any one of these episodes could not only be the best strip in any given 'standard' week, but the among the strongest of any standard year.  The Dredd alone is possibly the best ever episode not written by John Wagner, and places highly in the best ever episodes, its two companion strips each soaring away on their own merits and all three still gelling beautifully.  And this in what must be one of the strongest years ever for the character.

Incredibly even that is topped by a Ro-Busters ABC Warriors[/b] so improbably perfect that I wasn't sure if I was dreaming it even while I was reading it, and as if that wasn't enough it nestles under Langley's personal-best-ever cover.   

The sorbet in this incredible banquet, the bloody sorbet mind, is Brass Sun, a strip which itself is the best new story of the year, and an episode which delivers both on a broad canvass and in exquisite details - the panel of Conductor 17 gripping the back of Wren's jacket is as gobsmackingly brilliant as the shot of him holding her sleeve, and not her hand, as they run through the grass three weeks back. Stunning work.

The whole damn thing is just too good for words.  Other comics only exist to provide a bar that 2000AD can soar over with metres to spare*.


* Okay, maybe that one was hyperbole.  But just that one.

[Robert Frazer]

And that last panel, well - unless Dredd is Mr invincible...

The shots are on the right side of his body, which means that his heart is intact - he'll pull through. Alas, my cynicism deadens me to drama - sorry, Tharg.   

If nothing else, Dred'll be around long enough to tell Hershey "I told you so!" at least.

[Colin YNWA]

And that last panel, well - unless Dredd is Mr invincible...

The shots are on the right side of his body, which means that his heart is intact - he'll pull through. Alas, my cynicism deadens me to drama - sorry, Tharg.   

If nothing else, Dred'll be around long enough to tell Hershey "I told you so!" at least.

I have to say in this case I agree. That's not to say its not a great episode, or that the end isn't exciting but we've seen this type of thing often enough.

[IndigoPrime]

Dredd got shot through the head in the Cal saga. I'm sure next issue he'll be channelling Python: "Tis but a flesh wound!"

[Richmond Clements]

Yeah - I don't think it ever crossed my min that Dredd would actually die. The shock comes from the fact she actually shot him.
This story is so good at wrong footing, part of me is wondering if this is part of Dredd's plan too..!

[paddykafka]

I reckon that the Dredd and SJS cannon fodder shot by Bachmann and Co were actually robots, sent in as decoys on a sting operation. The real Dredd then teleports into the room and arrests her. (But then, I'm sneaky that way - Mwa! Ha! Ha! Ha!)

[Colin YNWA]

I reckon that the Dredd and SJS cannon fodder shot by Bachmann and Co were actually robots, sent in as decoys on a sting operation. The real Dredd then teleports into the room and arrests her. (But then, I'm sneaky that way - Mwa! Ha! Ha! Ha!)

If that was the case I think they'd have made the wounds more obviously fatal in the last panel this week. I think the way they are placed means they count as 'Sinister Dexter shoulder wounds'...

... mind I bet in real life getting shot there (where Dredd was) would be pretty damned fault most the time! (?)

[Goaty]

And Dredd was shoot in gut weeks ago by Sov sleeper!!

[Dark Jimbo]

The shots are on the right side of his body, which means that his heart is intact - he'll pull through. Alas, my cynicism deadens me to drama - sorry, Tharg.   

Well, obviously he'll pull through. Like Rich says, I don't think a single one of us expects Dredd to die next prog, but that doesn't mean it can't be a shocking moment.

First there's the mere fact that it happened, out of the blue. Then there's the fun of speculation regarding how he'll pull through; what the reprucussions will be; what Bachman's going to do next, etc.

[Dominic O'Rourke]

I can't get my 'I Told You So' T-Shirt out of the wash just yet, but those rockets causing Mr Overdrives lunar city to take off at the end of Low Life, ....

I'm re-reading all my old progs at the moment, just finished the Judge Child story, and came across a one shot with the Nightmare gun, the self referencing over the last six months has been tremendous and I'm still picking up on stuff on the second read through.

[Steve Green]

As for the teleport thing - I think it all came about from the Dark Judges D-Jump tech, as they also teleported from block to block.

The Judda also had it, as did Trapper Hag, and turning up in a story where there were teleport booths with citizens disappearing.

So it's fairly common by now.

[Jim_Campbell]

There were teleporters in all the sector houses in City of the Damned, whose dateline has come and gone...

Cheers

Jim

[Frank]

I can't get my 'I Told You So' T-Shirt out of the wash just yet, but those rockets causing Mr Overdrives lunar city to take off at the end of Low Life, ....

Smell; I cried when you caught Shaun shagging that posh actress and you split up. If at the end of the current crossover, we're left with a perfectly functional drag-and-drop city just going spare, where do you think they'll stick it? I suppose Justice Department could commandeer the mobile metropolis to save themselves (and the writers) the effort of rebuilding the ruined sectors of MC1, but isn't the former location of MC2 still effectively a shovel-ready brownfield site, just ripe for development?

[Dark Jimbo]

The problem isn't really that there's nowhere to live, though. Most of the city is still intact. The problem is that almost everyone's dead.*


*And thinking about that now, couldn't Chaos Day prove to be a blessing in disguise? With such a drastically reduced population, the Meg has a realistic shot at reaching full employment levels for the first time in living memory.

[Proudhuff]

You are a Tory Cabinet Minister and I claim my five pounds