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Prog 1865: Greetings From the Grey Area

Started by JamesC, 18 January, 2014, 09:39:46 AM

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Mabs

Quote from: JUDGE BURNS on 19 January, 2014, 09:51:00 PM
DREDD hits on all the right notes this week. Nice surprise at the end....I had forgotten all about that one.

ABC warriors and Strontium Dog  were okay this week.

The other 2 still not doing anything for me.

Oh and my letter is published  :D   with a Brit-Cit Judge to add to my wee collection.

Congratulations Judge Burns! I also have a Brit-Cit Judge too - looks so cool!
My Blog: http://nexuswookie.wordpress.com/

My Twitter @nexuswookie

ChickenStu

Still loving Judge Dredd, but for some reason ABC Warriors and Strontium Dog are losing me. Sweet doing nothing for me at all. Although I'm really getting drawn into Grey Area...
Ma Ma's not the law... (you know the rest)

House of Usher

The end of 2013 saw the conclusion to several strips I had not been enjoying for weeks, Prog 2014 was really superb, and I was impressed with the New year line-up. Now, however, Ulysses Sweet has started to pall very quickly, Grey Area is thoroughly well realized and professionally written but doesn't excite me - it's an episodic TV drama like Casualty, Cagney & Lacey or CSI, but less gritty. In ABC Warriors it seems that all the work has gone into continuity: the action and dialogue seem improvised. Strontium Dog is definitely the highlight of the Prog.

Judge Dredd has taken a long time to come to the boil. Week after week he was falling through space, so that by the time he hit the ground I had lost interest, and I'm not making that up! There's an awful lot of standard SF plotting whereby the fortress has futuristic electronic security but there's a secret back way hardly anybody knows, which was overlooked at the last security upgrade, and that kind of Warhammer 40K approach of WWI military tactics to fight WW10. This Prog's instalment started badly for me with 'lead' given as the past tense of the verb 'to lead' instead of 'led.' That put me in a bad mood, so I was a bit cross to see [spoiler]Dredd caught unawares and handcuffed to a rail[/spoiler] - because he's such a weakling and his reactions are so slow! Why doesn't he retire to teach in the academy? - and when [spoiler]Aimee Nixon[/spoiler] turned out to be the villain my reaction was [spoiler]"Dear God, no...." - she's not my favourite, as it happens.[/spoiler]

Back to Ulysses Sweet - to see the character again being all psycho and not caring about consequences was quite funny and exhilarating, but week after week of killing dolphins and beating up hippies is just... old. It's got too much of an eighties vibe, and this was done to death by Lobo in the nineties (except he loved dolphins). This kind of mayhem was done comprehensively and with more wit in the adventures of D.R. & Quinch. Why is it funny in 2014 to immolate people who meditate? Are New Agers really so threatening to rationality and materialism? Does their worldview represent such an orthodoxy it needs to be challenged, ballistically? Is it funnier because they don't fight back, and if so, what does that say about the reader?
STRIKE !!!

Colin YNWA

Well since I had to purchase Prog 1864 from the shops on Monday as my sub-copy still hasn't turned up (didn't hassle Denise with this as since we've had the house undergoing work its in chaos and there's every chance the Prog will show up somewhere when get around to sorting things out - so it was my impatience and desire not to have Progs stacking up which led to me buying 'another' copy) I've only just read both.

Kinda nice to only do one review for both as the Prog is on such steady fantastic form at the moment that reviewing every week can get a bit like 'well what I said last week'.

I think I'll go in reverse order.

Ulysses Sweet I am still enjoying this, but its only just keeping its head above water. I got the impression from 1863's episode that new elements and plotting thickening was starting to occur and frankly it hasn't. Ulysses Sweet as a character is fine but isn't strong enough to hold eight parts (I think its scheduled as) together. Its a fun throw away strip, which always has a place in 2000ad, but needs to up the ante a little if its too have legs. People have been comparing it to Zombo and I understand why BUT Zombo as a character is more interesting and the world he inhabits and the anarchic characters and ideas that drive his adventures forward are much richer, which gives the series legs. Ulysses Sweet as a strip really has to work on that if its to be enjoyable not only beyond its current run but to even sustain the present one.

ABC Warriors Again its great fun and I'm enjoying it but cracks are beginning to show and this retrospective story telling does toy with becoming naval gazing. Still its keeping just on the right side of the line at the moment so all good.

Grey Area Is fantastic. Love the way the fun short form stories continue to move forward a larger plot. Prog's 1864 ending developed the larger picture while this week life returns to 'normal' its a delicate balance to maintain but as a fan of Sinister Dexter its one that I think Mr Abnett is a master of.

Strontium Dog really should be my favourite strip as its quite superb. Dark Johnny is becoming such an intriguing character and harsh orders and [spoiler]throttling of the thug[/spoiler] chilling in the extreme. The extent to which terrible circumstance are pushing our led into continually darker territory makes for compelling reading. We've seen Johnny go this way in the past, Rage being a perfect example but the scale of this and the seemingly less personal nature of nuJohnny is just supremely realised. 

Dredd Only a Dredd this strong could prevent Strontium Dog being Thrill of the (two) weeks, I'm absolutely loving Titan. From Mr Flints quite brilliant art to the slowly churning plot. For me the pacing has been exquisite and one of the stories real strengths. I expect the pace to be ratcheted right up now, but am intrigued to see what actually comes to light. Quite, quite brilliant.

Apestrife

I'm a bit lost on Ulysses Sweet and ABC, but Grey area was quite fun with the cavity search huhu.

But Dredd and Alpha rules.

Love Nixon's comeback in Dredd Titan, which should mean that a Mega city undercover vol. 3 could be released soon right? Just hopping there's some story behind her arm being back.

Alpha's "Maybe it's the mute that you can't hold down?" was fittingly cold! The man is on a serious hate in what feels like a good war comic!

judgerufian

Overall a better prog than last weeks.

Cover - really like this for its humour and solid image and Predator-esque alien. Good job from the Goddard droid!

Dredd - Just as well its at the beginning of the prog as it would the first strip to head to for a good read. Good instalment though the suddenly dwiddling oxygen tanks seem to have emptied fast, how long have they been walking underground? Whats the best explanation for Dredd not working out the [spoiler]handcuffs[/spoiler]? Old man dodderness or lack of oxygen? And as for the big reveal at the end of the episode? Good but not AMAZING, thinking of all the judges sent to Titan over the years this was a bit of a let down. Saying this it was still head and shoulders above the rest of the prog.

Ulysses Sweet - yep, starting to get a bit boring now as there is less happening in a sci-fi world that is pretty plain. Its so long ago that it was shown why he has to go through all four 'worlds' that I've forgotten and dont care so much anymore.

ABC Warriors - Pretty much the same as above! I second the idea that the art looks like fleshed out rough layouts!

Grey Area - Think Goddard is a real good art 'fit' for this story, like the set up, not a massively original idea and guessable a mile off but solid storytelling (in the dark for one page ha ha) done very well. Almost Babylon 5-ish!

Strontium Dog - Johnny undercover is again an old staple of the strip and it amazes me that noone recognises his hair or wonders why he is wearing sunglasses at night (its not a rappers barbecue) so the fact that for some reason I enjoyed this weeks instalment more than the last months output surprised me. Maybe it was the derring do of being undercover and seeing the scope of the war? I dont know but Im glad that I am enjoying Stront more now. As for Johnny's actions this week with the redneck in the woods? Seemed a bit harsh so I am awaiting a big rabble rousing speech a la 'Portrait of a Mutant' to see how changed a character he is.

Proudhuff

No sorted the subbie yet so its a Wednesday thrill for me,

Dredd is excellent, obviously [spoiler]there isn't a sneeky way in - its a trap![/spoiler] Gret too to see [spoiler]Nixon [/spoiler] back, as said elsewhere not to sure about which [spoiler]arm she lost[/spoiler]
Artwork top notch except that airlock bit which a full reread was needed.

Dolphin hat: skipped

ABC, skipped

Grey area: read, but slighty unmoved by it all.

Johnny's got a boomboom: Great Stronty stuff, the top tag team deliver, as always.

Not my favourite line up of stories so a humble six out of ten, Dredd and Alpha lifting the whole thing.
DDT did a job on me

Spikes

So the big reveal comes, and I've no real idea who [spoiler]Aimee Nixon[/spoiler] is!



Batman's Superior Cousin

I can't help but feel that Godpleton's avatar/icon gets more appropriate everyday... - TordelBack
Texts from Last Night

Spikes

Cheers BSC!

I shall peruse the content of those links forthwith.

Batman's Superior Cousin

I can't help but feel that Godpleton's avatar/icon gets more appropriate everyday... - TordelBack
Texts from Last Night

Frank

Quote from: House of Usher on 22 January, 2014, 11:01:24 AM
[spoiler]There's an awful lot of standard SF plotting whereby the fortress has futuristic electronic security but there's a secret back way hardly anybody knows, which was overlooked at the last security upgrade,[/spoiler]

[spoiler]McIntosh [/spoiler] is lying about everything else; there's no reason he couldn't also be lying when he insists [spoiler]that airlock isn't part of the main system. [/spoiler]


House of Usher

Quote from: sauchie on 22 January, 2014, 07:55:56 PM
[spoiler]McIntosh [/spoiler] is lying about everything else; there's no reason he couldn't also be lying when he insists [spoiler]that airlock isn't part of the main system. [/spoiler]

Agreed. However, then you've got Dredd and all his little friends falling for a ruse that [spoiler]McIntosh has based on a standard adventure plot device whereby the fortress has futuristic electronic security but there's a secret back way hardly anybody knows, which was overlooked at the last security upgrade.[/spoiler]
STRIKE !!!

sheldipez

I feel both ABC and Sweet have outlasted their stay, ready for these two to move along but I thought everything else was really strong to make up for it.

Usually not a big Stront fan (still never read any of the "classic" outings, yet) but this part was really good! Maybe I just like him sneaking about [spoiler]ninja'ing drunken hillbillies[/spoiler] off :D

IndigoPrime

Quote from: sheldipez on 23 January, 2014, 09:33:05 AMstill never read any of the "classic" outings, yet
You should rectify that immediately by at the very least buying volumes 2 and 3 of the Search/Destroy Agency Files. That's some of the best ever 2000 AD material.