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Prog 2106 - End Times

Started by Tjm86, 03 November, 2018, 11:40:12 AM

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Tjm86

Just finished reading Dredd and simply had to stop dead.  Even after last week's WTF moment, this week takes it up a step.  I reckon Flint's perfectly captured the majority of readers'  response to Dredd's words to Hershey.

This Dredd looks like it might be shaping up to be a serious game changer.  I can't see a way to discuss this without spoiling it for folks but I reckon it needs it.

Geoff

It's not really a surprise, given the way things have been heading, but still packs quite a punch!

Richard

This thread is about this week's prog. If people want to avoid spoilers, then they shouldn't come here until they've read it.

SPOILERS AHOY!






Magnetica

Yeah I deliberately didn't even look at this thread before reading the Prog.

There is only one place to start this week and that is Dredd.  Oh my! Yes it has been building for a while now, years in fact. I particularly remember Dredd openly questioning Hersey and her telling him to at least respect the office of the Chief Judge during Trifecta, but for it to come to actual mutiny is still something. I am just surprised she did have him arrested, but I guess she was just so shocked.

Good to see Frank has been brain washed by Smiley rather than being a double agent for him all along.

I certainly get the feeling things won't ever be the same again after this. Forget wiping out half the city, this is shaking Dredd's world to its core.

Everything else in the Prog pales by comparison, but actually there are also fantastic episodes of Brink (but every episode of Brink is fantastic) and Kingdom. Kingdom seems to be now to be accelerating towards its end game. I am in the middle of a complete reread of the whole thing at present and it is really a fantastic series that has added layer upon layer of its world as it has gone along.

Oh yes, almost forgot there is also Skip Tracer and a follow up to a previous Future Shock (Intestinauts are Go!) in the shape of 3Thriller Infestinauts are Go!. It took me a while to stop the difference in the names. Anyway, given the other three strips, these two really failed to make much impression on me this week. Which is possibly a bit unfair on them, but given what they are up against...

Richard

Should we take that Dredd scene at face value, or is Dredd just playing Smiley, killing him into a false sense that his plan (whatever it is) is working?

Magnetica

Well if so then Hersey is a good actor. She really seemed to have that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Which was fantastically rendered by Mr Flint, as was the sheer scornfulness of Dredd's delivery.


Tjm86

Quote from: Magnetica on 03 November, 2018, 02:52:50 PM
Yeah I deliberately didn't even look at this thread before reading the Prog.
....
Good to see there is an ulterior motive for Frank's actions.
....

I'm mindful as well of the fact that you can accidentally read this thread through the 'Recent Posts' thread which is why I'm being obtuse.

I'm also wondering if perhaps I'm reading too much into Frank's vision as he stares into the teacup.  Wondering about the link to the snowflake.

Richard

There's more about the snow in the prog 2105 thread, page 4.

Leigh S

Glad most are enjoying the Dredd, but I find it whizzes above my head and hard to get behind.  The basic concept of Smiley raises more questions than it answers (just reading Necropolis this weekend - where was Smiley then, surviving on his rich tea digestives?  He is like Moffatt's Clara - a figure whose presence has been inserted into all the previous stories retrospectively  - if you can buy into that, fine, but neither concept works for me.  Doesn't help that Justice Dept conspiracies are not my cup of (rich) tea.  [spoiler] If Smiley has control over Frank, why not (hob) nobble him when he was in Sino-Cit? [/spoiler]

Also cant see the fuss over Skip Tracer, which feels like a slightly more competent, but still dull and cliched mid 90s strip - theres an energy source! When isn't there? All it is proving to me is that MacNeil could draw the phone book and make it look exciting, but I'd rather he was elsewhere employed.

All that said, 3 out of 5 is not bad for a prog, and Brink is the best new thrill in years by far




Woolly

Yeah, i'm undecided on Dredd.
On the one hand I'm rushing to read each episode, just waiting for the precious bit of exposition thats going to explain just what exactly is going on.

On the other hand I'm just not buying it. Dredd's continuing distrust of Hershey doesnt ring true to me. He's coming across as a bit of a prick.
And the idea that he's acting on hunches and information that haven't been made clear to the reader just makes me feel like this entire run is an extended lesson in dangling carrots.

Hope it wraps up soon, to be honest.

Frank

Quote from: Leigh S on 04 November, 2018, 09:26:51 AM
Skip Tracer ... feels like a slightly more competent, but still dull and cliched mid 90s strip

Yeah, but it's the inoffensive Mambo, Trash or RAM Raiders, rather than the godawful Robohunter reboot or Fr1day.

Like Skip Tracer, those stories passed through my eyeballs and out the hole in the back of my head, but I'd rather see Tharg trying something new than demonstrating yet again that ideas have sell-by dates.



Richard

[off topic]In fairness, the first Fr1day story was very good.[/off topic]

Skip Tracer isn't great, but it's not 90s rubbish either (the second series that is).

I agree with some of the criticism of The Small House, but I'm confident that it's heading somewhere, and it's already given us some twists and shocks along the way, so it's forgiven. Also I don't think it's entirely unreasonable of the writer to hold some info back and keep us guessing, to create a sense of mystery, as long as it's all explained eventually.

(However if Dredd's magic horse turns up again to save the day, I'll be disappointed. That was the most ridiculous deux ex machina ever.)

Magnetica

Quote from: Richard on 04 November, 2018, 11:18:52 AM
Also I don't think it's entirely unreasonable of the writer to hold some info back and keep us guessing, to create a sense of mystery, as long as it's all explained eventually.

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't that how mysteries / thrillers work?

BTW I meant to say "I am just surprised (Hershey) she didn't have him (Dredd) arrested" in my first post.

Frank

Quote from: Richard on 04 November, 2018, 11:18:52 AM
Dredd's magic horse ... was the most ridiculous deus ex machina ever

Heurs ex machina.

The nineties story Skip Diver feels most like to me is that series of Shimura MacNeil drew in black and white. The art was fantastic, Robbie Morrison's Ts were all dotted and his Is crossed, but I found myself drifting off as I read each episode.

I suppose Skip Tracer's only different to the nineties reboots I mentioned above in that the character names and fictional worlds are new, even if the ideas, dramatic scenarios and character types are from Cash Converters.

Which is why John Smith was so important to 2000ad.


[off topic] War Mach1ne was great fun, but it's a self-contained story. Gibbons condensed the entire original run of Rogue Trooper into one book; confronting Clavell, the bastard responsible for the loss of Fr1day's clone-brothers, was the dramatic equivalent of hunting down the Traitor General.

Gibbo ends the story as if he's perfectly teed up his successor to tell more stories in the world he's created, but what else is there for Fr1day to do, really? Odd jobs? Gibbons, who seems like a diamond geezer and talks more knowledgeably and entertainingly about comics than anyone other than the hairy wizard who refuses to speak to him anymore, sees Rogue as a drifter like Kwai Chang Caine, but it appears he's more like Richard Kimble
[off topic]