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2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

Started by Molch-R, 27 February, 2017, 06:03:27 PM

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Jade Falcon

I can't say I'm looking forward to reading this.  I wish there had been a way to do a standing order at my newsagents and skip the Slaine books, but I held out thinking I might get to like it.  Of course I might like this one.  Nikolai Dante started out a bit middling if still decent and in the last book has really shot up in quality.
When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies. - Valery Legasov

TordelBack

It's fair to say that in marked contrast to Dante the quality in Slaine is heavily frontloaded - if you don't like Warrior's Dawn, The Horned God and this volume, and maybe some of the next one, I wouldn't be too optimistic about enjoying the next 8-or-whatever.

Personally I think there's at least some good stuff in all of them, but I'd consider myself a huge fan of Pat and his Slaine in particular (remarkably it's the only long-running 2000AD series for which I have bought all the collections, barring the most recent,  which I'll get to when circumstances permit). The less ardent, or forgiving, reader may not feel the same way.

IndigoPrime

Sláine is very variable. Although the Tomb stuff was middling for me, I thought it was mostly a run of greatness through Horned God. When we got Sláine and his grassy TARDIS, the strips were all over the place, culminating in some fairly poor content. The Books of Invasions, though, were a big step up, despite a few moments that I could have done without (such as [spoiler]Niamh's fate, which was basically a fridging moment that trampled all over the character in a hideous way that made me feel sick that 2000 AD had gone down that route[/spoiler]). Brutania didn't really work for me, though, bar the excellent and bonkers first book.

Bolt-01

I'm prepared to be told I'm wrong on this but I recall an interview with Pat where he referenced that the details of Niamh's fate were dictated by Cyber-Matt. A rare mis-step IMO.

TordelBack

#2584
Pat says a lot of things!  I'd be more inclined to believe Pat's innocence if a similar device wasn't used in Savage with [spoiler]the rape of Bill's niece[/spoiler] a few years later.  It was a disastrous move whoever was responsible, because otherwise BoI really stands out as a fantastically sustained piece of work. [spoiler]Niamh's fate[/spoiler] just sits there like a stain on the whole thing.

IP – spoiler tags added

Dark Jimbo

It wasn't Pat who said it - it was Cyber-Matt himself, on this very forum -

https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=3957.0

I'd cut and paste the relevant bit, but I can't spoiler-tag the quoted post for some reason and this is HUGE spoiler territory. Speaking of which, can a Mod perhaps spoiler Tord's post...?
@jamesfeistdraws

TordelBack

#2586
Oops,  yeah,  sorry double apology due from me!  Good on Matt for putting his hand up to that one, I'm very sorry for doubting Pat. And apologies to all for the spoiler - at 15 years remove it's hard to remember that some squaxx will be reading this for the first time in the Mega Collection next year.

EDIT: That wasn't a very edifying thread back there in 2003, was it? Surprised to find I wasn't in there making it even worse,  TBH.

Dark Jimbo

Aaaaaanyway... to get back on track, it's hard to disagree with Tordelback here -

Quote from: TordelBack on 08 November, 2018, 08:52:34 AM
It's fair to say that in marked contrast to Dante the quality in Slaine is heavily frontloaded - if you don't like Warrior's Dawn, The Horned God and this volume, and maybe some of the next one, I wouldn't be too optimistic about enjoying the next 8-or-whatever.

Arguably Slaine's best stuff is in volume 1, 3 and 4. We then get a very divisive/variable period until more or less getting back on track with the Books of Invasion (which we'll see in something like volumes 8-10 I think?) which ties up pretty much every loose end and subplot and give the series a wonderful, and rather elegiac, ending. Except of course that it didn't end there but carried on, with variable quality once again.
@jamesfeistdraws

abelardsnazz

Is there enough space in 13 volumes to collect all of Slaine to date, including The Brutania Chronicles?

IndigoPrime

Well, we know so far that we've had four books that takes us through to the end of Horned God, and Matt said the ideal page counts for this series are 200–250 per volume – so space for under (given issues with spreads, etc.) 1800–2250 pages of strip. Rebellion's existing books are: Demon Killler (160); Lord of Misrule (128); Treasures of Britain (128); Grail War (192); Lord of the Beasts (256); Books of Invasions 1–3 + The Wanderer (112; 112; 128; 128); Scars (~45 pages of strip); Brutania 1–4 (~112ea).

That lot clocks in at just over 1800 pages. So there is technically space within the format for everything we've seen to date. Quite which versions we will get, who knows? After all the Rebellion hardbacks were kind of director's cuts, rather than the original Prog content. Remove those extras and you claw back some double-page spreads that might be necessary for a coherent running order (rather than slicing series in half, like with Black Hole in the ABC Warriors books).

robert_ellis

I've failed you all. I can't go on. It's not you, it's me. Thirty issues in I've stopped subscribing to the Ultimate Collection. I'll always have the Nemesis statuette and the surprisingly nice metal bookends. I bought all 90 issues of the MegaCollection but this can't go on. I thought the pairing of DR & Quinch with Skizz was inspired, but my heart's not in it anymore. Where would the new shelf go? Like the old shelf would it need to be extended after 80? Think of the Marvel collection, what if this series never ends? Maybe I'll be back. I'll still pick up the 4th Nemesis volume, and Dante of course. The complete Durham Red as well. Maybe it's a reflection on the stunning quality of the weekly. New thrills that's the thing. I've just ordered the signed "Hope" from Gosh comics. Tharg is going to get my cash, but I'll save it for the newer stuff.

abelardsnazz

Thanks for the Slaine breakdown. I was wondering about the first two Books of Invasion I have, it looks possible there'll be material in those which will be omitted from the UC. We will see.

Tomwe


IndigoPrime

Quote from: robert_ellis on 08 November, 2018, 03:39:57 PMI've stopped subscribing to the Ultimate Collection
I lasted about three months. It'll be interesting to see if you stick this out. (Mind you, nowhere nearby sells the bloody things, which is why I resubscribed. I'm now offloading the volumes I don't want on eBay, and know full well I'll end up keeping more than planned. _Sigh_.)

karlos

Think the way forward for me is to cherry pick and pre-order the volumes I want from Forbidden Planet.