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Surely Devlin rates more intelligence than 1?

It largely depends on which format you like best. But Ultimate will also have some bonus material that probably won't be in the other one, like interviews and character designs and that kind of thing.

P. S.: I meant to say: I'm not offended by it, I just massively disagree with it.

I agree with Sheridan; the issue isn't whether one co-creator's views should take precedence over the other's, or whether artists should always defer to writers, or whose contribution was more important or creative. After all, if Alan Moore had written a misogynist prose story about Halo and Gibson had denounced it, I'd be on Gibson's side in that one. But it was the other way round.

I'm happy to agree that artist and writer co-creators have an equal right to have a say in what happens to their characters. But it doesn't follow that they both must be right, or even that their views are equally valid. For me, this controversy turns on two issues (not necessarily in any order of importance):

1) Rebellion owns Halo Jones. I don't know what the law or what Gibson's contract say about any of this, but legal niceties aside, I think it's a little bit off to unilaterally publish a picture of someone's intellectual property (whatever the circumstances of why they own it and not you) -- expressly labelled as that character -- which looks nothing like how they were depicted throughout the entire body of work for which they are famous (especially given point 2).

2) Halo Jones is a rare example, especially for the 1980s, of a female character in a comic (or any other SF medium) who was portrayed as a strong, resourceful etc heroine without also having to get her kit off. Gratuitous nudity is always a cheap trick, and I'm not being prudish here -- I love nudity, but there's a time and a place for it: porn is fine with me, but Halo with her tits out is a different kettle of fish -- I feel like it undermines the integrity of the character or the work she appeared in. Does that make any sense? Tordelback made a good point about this: Halo isn't asexual, she had a boyfriend in Book Three, but that was shown much more subtly and maturely than the infantile, in-your-face image that looks like something from Zoo or Nuts (if they did paintings instead of photos). This picture is nothing like that, it's completely unlike all previous depictions of the character, and for no good reason at all. I won't presume to speak for female readers, but I think it was a huge error.

I'd have let Gibson off if he'd apologised, if it was just a momentary lapse of judgement, and I'd have forgotten all about it. But he's dug himself in and joined battle, with no recognition of the other point of view and no leg to stand on, so if I want to see his work again I'll re-read Verdus.

I thought Billi had aged a bit, since when we met her she looked about 12. But unlike Dredd and early Strontium Dog, it's never been suggested that time passes in Sinister Dexter at the same rate it does out here.

I've just re-read "Act of Grud" in progs 2004-06 and I echo Magnetica's advice to do so. It's a very helpful reminder of what's going on.

I don't think there's a genuine equivalence between drawing Halo Jones with her tits out and casting a woman as Dr Who.

I'm a little surprised at some of the criticisms of The Booth Conspiracy. It seemed like a perfectly good ending to me. I assume we won't be seeing Linus again, because he's been left to die on his own in one of the most hazardous places on Earth. It's not a lenient sentence, but a cruel one. Also, if he is dead, then I don't have any problem at all with him being (I'm still going to spoiler this despite the recent debate) [spoiler]the son of President Booth[/spoiler], because that isn't just a lame gimmick to make a recurring baddie more interesting (that kind of thing usually has the opposite effect for me), but a genuinely interesting emotional twist in the tale.

It also led directly to the undermining of Linus's credibility, and that's why the film crew was there -- not just to film Linus being arrested or killed, but to film him having a breakdown and offering to inform on all his subordinates. That footage is even more damaging to his movement than the loss of its leader and so many personnel.

Linus's entire plan, not just in this story but in all of his previous appearances, was always about PR -- making Justice Department look stupid or evil. Well, Dredd has finally won the PR battle an out-played Linus at his own game. I don't need to see a follow-up story; I think this is a satisfying conclusion to this whole arc.

As for the title, it works well as a double-meaning, as someone else said: Linus had his conspiracy, and Dredd had a better one. (It reminds me of Death of a Judge in prog 137, one of my all-time favourites.)

[Judge Dredd]

Olivia Thirlby was in a film called The Darkest Hour immediately before she played Anderson in Dredd, so this week's tag-line seems apt.

Anyway... Judge Dredd starts a new story by Rob Williams and Henry Flint, featuring the very welcome returns of both [spoiler]Dirty Frank[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Judge Smiley from Trifecta[/spoiler]. It will be interesting to see where all this goes. There's also an interview with both creators, but I'll read it later.

Brink is back, and gets straight down to business. It feels like the threat level has gone up a bit now.

Skip Tracer has Colin MacNeil on art duties this time, which is good to see. Too early to know what to make of the story yet, but I'm willing to give this series a second chance.

This being an extra-size prog, Anderson has a nine-page one-off story about a Death cult, by Alan Grant and Jake Lynch. Light-hearted fun. And there's a Sinister Dexter one-off too, although it's a continuation of the recent on-going storyline, with more to come in prog 2109. (I assume that means Skip Tracer will be eight episodes.)

But the highlight for me this week -- completely unexpectedly, because I thought it would be Brink or Kingdom -- is Fiends of the Eastern Front. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like this, because the original series was for young children and the sequel a few years ago didn't do anything for me I'm afraid. But I really like this new one, which is set in the Napoleonic Wars. The art by Dave Taylor is beautiful, and while I daresay there will be people who wish Colin McNeill was back on this strip instead of on Skip Tracer, I approve of the choice of artists on both stories. And the script (by Ian Edginton) is an excellent introduction to the series. No prior knowledge required, as this is a prequel and episode one tells you all you need to know. I now have high hopes for this series.

There is news about a classy free gift to annual subscribers to both comics. Looking forward to getting mine.

And finally, Kingdom picks up exactly where it left off last time. It's a ten-page episode, action-packed, and don't turn to the last page until you get to it, because it's an interesting twist. I can't wait to find out what the explanation for this is going to be! (If you're new and you haven't read Kingdom before, there's a detailed synopsis on Wikipedia to get you up to speed.)

Next week's cover is Fiends.

This is a very good prog, with no misfires for me.

I've just re-read John Wagner's interview in Megazine 3.65 (May 2000), and he says quite a lot about all of this.

WR Logan did the interview, and asked about the return of Johnny Alpha in The Kreeler Conspiracy. Wagner said:

Had I gone the way I originally intended the changes would have been more drastic, including the writing out of Wulf. Andy Diggle appealed to me to reconsider, as I would be in danger of upsetting a lot of staunch Stront fans (including him). He was quite right -- I'd miss old Wulf if I knew he was never going to appear again. I'd probably have to stage another miracle resurrection to bring him back. So really all that's changed is the chronology and some of the background of Johnny's world. The Kreeler Conspiracy takes place before Wulf came on the scene and we'll probably have Wulf back for the second series...

As far as making Stront my own again, I've never felt it was anything else. I've not read a Strontium Dog or related story since Johnny's death and don't feel bound by anything that's happened since that point. However as the stories I'll be doing will be taking place during Johnny's lifetime -- never-before-told adventures -- I won't be going out of my way to contradict anything anyone else has done.

I can't remember if I co-wrote Johnny's last story; I think Alan may have done that one on his own... No matter, I must have agreed to it happening. Do I regret it? I don't know, maybe a little, but nobody lives forever. Johnny had to die sometime. It doesn't stop me telling new Strontium Dog stories. Is it only the possibility that the hero might die that makes a story worth reading? Does knowing when and how Johnny will die take away the pleasure of stories that happened earlier in his life? Surely not. You know for a fact when you read a Dredd that he is not going to die, but that doesn't spoil it for you.

If she's a full judge then why does the cover show her in a cadet's uniform?

[Judge Dredd]

I'm not sure I really had to write "400" twice, but I'm a slave to consistency.

I liked the Judge Dredd story, which is a really silly comedy one from Wagner and Flint. It has some great lines of dialogue and some crazy antics, which I enjoyed. As a massive continuity pedant, this story contradicts what we know of the royal family from Armitage, and I prefer Dave Stone's take on that, but as I liked this one so much I didn't mind. And it gives us the opportunity to devise theories of how to reconcile these two different histories with each other.

I'm saving Lawless, Blunt and Storm Warning for later as I don't want to finish both comics in one day. But I'll just mention that I skimmed over Phil Winslade's art and it looks fabulous.

Devlin Waugh by a new writer, Ales Kot, was okay, but may divide opinion. Not as good as last month's story, but okay.

The Torture Garden is off to a promising start. Absolutely superb art from Nick Percival, which is of course to be expected. David Hine is already introducing his own ideas to this strip, which carries in where the last story left off. I have high hopes for this series.

There's a decent Anderson one-off by Alan Grant. Not exactly an original plot, but not boring either.

There are interviews with each of the Megazine's five previous editors (but not the current one), which were interesting and a good way to commemorate this month's milestone. There are also interviews with Ian Gibson and Alan Hebden, but I'm saving those for later.

The floppy is some Judge Dredd stories, haven't read them yet. The theme is artists' first Dredd stories.

Overall I like what I've seen so far.

[Judge Dredd]

Judge Dredd has a very satisfactory ending, contrary to some doom and gloom predictions on this forum over the last two weeks. I don't think anyone will be disappointed with this. It seems like the perfect way to wrap this one ups

Survival Geeks is just great. I have really enjoyed this one.

Mechastopheles: I either didn't notice or had forgotten that this city is the last city in the world that hasn't been overrun by demons. Humanity's future looks rather bleak! This is an action-packed episode.

A highlight this week is an above-par Future Shock, with an evil idea by a new writer and some fabulous art by Adam Brown, whose name I recognise but I can't remember what he's done before. I'd like to see more from both of these droids.

The Order finishes and I'm glad.

There's a very silly Droid Life.

On the whole this has been a very good week.

For me the difference is that Max Bubba and Rage are remembered fondly, whereas The Final Solution isn't really. I have no problem with the latter story turning out to be Feral's version of what happened, because it's a pretty weak story. But if you do the same thing to the death of Wulf, then you miss out on "Because I hate you" and all sorts of other good bits.

Who is the lead character and who is the sidekick is not important to me.

Retconning the Final Solution is one thing; saving Wulf from Max Bubba would totally ruin two of the best stories of the classic series: Max Bubba and Rage. Even if such a story was written by Wagner himself, and even if it was a good tale when judged solely on its own merits, I would still ignore it and prefer to think of the original stories as "canon." I probably wouldn't even read it.

Wulf was a popular character, I get that, but there's not much emotional impact in killing off an unpopular character is there? It's precisely because Wulf is missed that the story of his death was so tragic, and is still so memorable when some (not many) other stories in the same series are not. It would be a terrible idea to pretend that didn't happen.

He came back in the flashback story Roadhouse. Leave him there.