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2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

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

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karlos

Wagner's hatred of Feral is quite staggering!

AlanProut

.y issue of The Life And Death Of Johnny Alpha was perfect, there was no blurred text in it, and it was a very enjoyable issue.

TordelBack

#3857
I was delighted to find the whole of Life & Death in one fat volume, and then surprised that I didn't really enjoy it much.

There are just too many threads that go absolutely nowhere, and the mean-spirited atmosphere of the Feral stuff just seems to pervade the whole when it's all in one book. It's Wagner and Ezquerra, so of course there are plenty of good bits along the way, but the whole is less than the parts.

sheridan

Quote from: TordelBack on 14 February, 2020, 11:00:00 PM
I was delighted to find the whole of Life & Death in one fat volume, and then surprised that I didn't really enjoy it much.

There are just too many threads that go absolutely nowhere, and the mean-spirited atmosphere of the Feral stuff just seems to pervade the whole when it's all in one book. It's Wagner and Ezquerra, so of course there are plenty of good bits along the way, but the whole is less than the parts.

That's about how I feel - in the time I've been reading 2000AD the treatment of Feral was one of two low points from Wagner (the other being that resurrection of the Angels which went nowhere).  I'm thinking if he didn't like the character then just don't write him?

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: TordelBack on 14 February, 2020, 11:00:00 PM
There are just too many threads that go absolutely nowhere...

Yeah, the bugaboo in Johnny's head for one. Felt as if that was really building to something - who/what's it going to be? How does it know so much about 'the project'? What's it leading Johnny towards?

It's eventually jettisoned with none of these questions answered and never mentioned again, without ever getting a name, or even a species classification/explanation. Ultimately feels like a lot of time spent on a thread that turns out to impact absolutely nothing.
@jamesfeistdraws

sheridan

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 17 February, 2020, 01:05:07 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 14 February, 2020, 11:00:00 PM
There are just too many threads that go absolutely nowhere...

Yeah, the bugaboo in Johnny's head for one. Felt as if that was really building to something - who/what's it going to be? How does it know so much about 'the project'? What's it leading Johnny towards?

It's eventually jettisoned with none of these questions answered and never mentioned again, without ever getting a name, or even a species classification/explanation. Ultimately feels like a lot of time spent on a thread that turns out to impact absolutely nothing.

Maybe it's related to the deathly voice in PJ Maybe?'s head in that last storyline...

Magnetica

I assumed it was there as a price Johnny had to pay for getting resurrected and yes it just got quietly dropped.

Guess we will never find out what it was now.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Magnetica on 17 February, 2020, 11:45:28 PM
I assumed it was there as a price Johnny had to pay for getting resurrected and yes it just got quietly dropped.

It does get properly written out rather than disappear; I just meant that, narratively speaking, it's a bit abrupt, and never mentioned again.
@jamesfeistdraws

Jade Falcon

I've been suffering from some major depression for some time now and had fallen behind in reading some of the books as I find it hard to focus, it took me over a month to read a Peter May crime novel.

Anyway, I've said before I'm not a Slaine fan, but I found myself enjoying the book before Book of Invasions (haven't started that yet), the book with the Tale of the Swan Children in it.

Hewligans Haircut though, I'm only a short bit into it.  Does this thing get any better because to be frank, at this stage it seems like almost unintelligible nonsense and I'm not sure I can be bothered finishing it.  I realise the early stuff is essentially a one page strip but it seems totally nonsensical.  I know by the blurb at the front that's partly intentional.

Still to read the newest Nikolai Dante, have read Invasion and ABC Warriors Volgan War Volume 2, and Life and Death of Johnny Alpha.  I'm happy it's not a Harrison art book as I just couldn't gel with his art style but the story does seem a bit of a balls up and jumps around a lot without explaining much.
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

karlos

I've got my copy of Hewligan's Haircut but still not re-read it.

I'm intrigued as I wonder how/if it'll hold up after all these years.

Keep your head up, Jade Falcon!

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Jade Falcon on 18 February, 2020, 10:45:08 PM
...Life and Death of Johnny Alpha.  I'm happy it's not a Harrison art book as I just couldn't gel with his art style but the story does seem a bit of a balls up and jumps around a lot without explaining much.

Really? I'm surprised, I didn't really find that. Think it builds really well from the mystery of Johnny's missing body, to the mystery surrounding 'the project', and then the explosion of all-out no-holds-barred war.

It does become a bit of a bleak read at times, probably not helped by your current mindset - it reads better in retrospect, with the following stories going some way to redeem the new darker Johnny and reinjecting some classic Stronty Dog humour. Fingers crossed for that final book in the extension!
@jamesfeistdraws

TordelBack

#3866
Quote from: Jade Falcon on 18 February, 2020, 10:45:08 PM
... I find it hard to focus, it took me over a month to read a Peter May crime novel.

Could be worse, could be a Peter James mystery  - at least half the pages in one of his are just Chapter headings!  I hear ya though, I can almost chart a descent into depression by the length of the cobwebs on the to-read-pile beside my bed. In fact, I know I'm close to rock bottom when the wife says 'are you still reading that?'.  Keep those feet moving forward one at a time Jade Falcon, you'll make it through this.

I agree that the Beastie in Johnny's head is explained  (just about - it's a spawn of the Lyran demon planted in his head, and presumably the reason he was only mostly dead) and resolved (sort of), but it also amounts to essentially nothing. The Ikans go the same way, myaterious regenerating aliens with time-weapons working for the Agency: quick explanation of Sir Pelham's involvement, and they're gone.

Ditto the Second Mutant War - we start with Johnny telling muties not to take out their anger on the Muti-Care workers, and then rapidly escalating to  a call to genocide, then there are some ambushes and tanks and a big explosion and it stops. Nothing really in the way of development or resolution of Johnny's situation.

I wasn't ever expecting a happy ending, but I would have hoped for something in the way of characters or twists or really anything to justify such a nihilistic, destructive tale.

But like I say, there are plenty of good bits (even Feral's miserable fate is so utterly hideous as to be impressive), I just don't like it as a story.

Jade Falcon

I found the pacing of the Alpha story a bit off at times, Kid Knee Jr was certainly an asshole though.  It did seem to suddenly end with little explanation of the Ikons or what was the future (if any) of the Mutants, after all how many are left, was there truly no cure etc.

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

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Jade Falcon on 19 February, 2020, 10:53:59 PM
I found the pacing of the Alpha story a bit off at times, Kid Knee Jr was certainly an asshole though.  It did seem to suddenly end with little explanation of the Ikans or what was the future (if any) of the Mutants, after all how many are left, was there truly no cure etc.

As I say, it reads better in conjunction with the following stories, which see a gradual return to humorous bounty-hunting hijinks. We never see the Ikans again (the Doghouse is closed down after the War) but [spoiler]there really is no cure. The mutants of Britain are sterile. Kid Jr, Evans, and Middenface are all arrested and thrown into maximum security pokey. So is Johnny, who used his second time bomb to escape the destruction of the Great Hall (as you probably guessed)... [/spoiler]
@jamesfeistdraws

TordelBack

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 20 February, 2020, 08:55:45 AM
As I say, it reads better in conjunction with the following stories, which see a gradual return to humorous bounty-hunting hijinks.

Unfortunately that return to form kicks off with the misjudged Jing Jang Job, aka The Stix Fix, so the dissonance doesn't really resolve any time soon. Happily by the time we get to the end of The Son, and thus of Strontium Dog as we have known it, we have a Johnny we can recognise again.