Thrill-Coma 2010: Best of the Meg

[jabish]

Well if there was ever going to be a last page of Dredd this would do. It had me in tatters when I read it first...

[TordelBack]

In many ways that is the final page of Judge Dredd (and one of my favourite single pages, and central image, of any comic ever) - but it didn't need to be.  The next episode, The Days After, set up a new world, with a humbled and broken Dredd and Justice Dept struggling to just keep going, to do what they can and to make amends. 

It could have been a radically new direction, effectively watching the remaking of the Judge system in an even grimmer post-apoc environment than before, but it would also have represented the killing of Rebellion's golden goose, just as the movie seemed to be promising renewed popularity.  Without a single enormously productive and creative writer (or cohesive team) to shape a new direction, everything just fell back into the old rut.

Wagner's sporadic post-Chaos strips are included in that, despite generally being excellent stories - does the cameras-in-the-walls scenario, or Block Judge, PJ Maybe and Dark Justice, or even Harvey, really continue the story that he left us at the end of DoC?

[Dark Jimbo]

...everything just fell back into the old rut.

Right down to Hershey jumping back into the CJ's chair, like nothing had ever happened...!

[broodblik]

As the meg is currently setup we might only get continuity issues when there is mega epics running in the prog. There was a stage when they tried the cross-over story line and people complained about it. The only story recently that I can recall started in the prog and continued in the meg was done by Mile Carroll. The Grindstone Cowboys (Prog 1973-1977, Meg 371-373) started in the prog and ended in the meg as well the story reclamation (Prog 1986-1990, Meg 374) story.

[Colin YNWA]

In many ways that is the final page of Judge Dredd (and one of my favourite single pages, and central image, of any comic ever) - but it didn't need to be....
It could have been a radically new direction, effectively watching the remaking of the Judge system in an even grimmer post-apoc environment than before, but it would also have represented the killing of Rebellion's golden goose, just as the movie seemed to be promising renewed popularity.  Without a single enormously productive and creative writer (or cohesive team) to shape a new direction, everything just fell back into the old rut...

Yes all this really. Its such an astonishing image and could quite happily have been the end of Dredd.

As it is, while I wouldn't say current Dredd is 'in a rut' as that underplays what I think are some fantastic storylines in the same fantastic formula, it does feel a shame that a bolder world building line wasn't taken.

[Dark Jimbo]

There was a stage when they tried the cross-over story line and people complained about it. The only story recently that I can recall started in the prog and continued in the meg was done by Mike Carroll...

'More crossovers' is not really what Funt was advocating...

[broodblik]

'More crossovers' is not really what Funt was advocating...

I was only trying to point out an alternative to keep a degree of continuity. I believe this will not be a popular choice. Personally I don't mind it since I am getting both

[Magnetica]

It's interesting.  One feeling I get on my mass-read is that the Megazine has to play an odd game.  It's the Judge Dredd Megazine, so nearly everything it does is set in the Dredd-verse.  But then it can't really change Mega-City One: it's more like it's the poor cousin that only gets scraps from the table.

Over in 2000AD, for example, we had the Chaos Day arc, which decimated the entire city.  In the Megazine at the same time: nothing happened.  As the city burns (say, around, prog 1784), in Megazine 324 we get The Adjudicators, a joke story by Simon Spurrier about a justice department PR wing.

So, the Megazine has a problem.  The MC-1 in 2000AD isn't the same MC-1 in the Megazine.  With so much Dredd content, and so many writers with so many angles: it's just impossible to hold it together as a believable, consistent fiction. 

I tend to agree. I have always considered the Meg as an accompaniment of the Prog and that if anything major was going to happen to Dredd or Mega City One it was going to happen in the Prog, not the Meg. So whilst I read it every month, it has never been “essential” Dredd.

It is though perfectly possible to have fantastic stories set in the Dredd-verse that don’t need to impact on Dredd or MC1 continuity. Prime examples being Insurrection and Lawless, which I would argue are as good, of not better than anything in the Prog. But those two do benefit from brillant writing and art.

[Frank]

It's interesting.  One feeling I get on my mass-read is that the Megazine has to play an odd game.  It's the Judge Dredd Megazine, so nearly everything it does is set in the Dredd-verse.  But then it can't really change Mega-City One

I tend to agree. I have always considered the Meg as an accompaniment of the Prog and that if anything major was going to happen to Dredd or Mega City One it was going to happen in the Prog, not the Meg. So whilst I read it every month, it has never been “essential” Dredd

Even during the brief period when Wagner was only writing for the Megazine^*, the one story he wrote that moved The Big Story forward was the very end of the final Mechanismo - and that was so it could dovetail into his taking up the reins at 2000ad once more with Wilderlands.

Next time Eamonn's interviewing Dave Bishop, he should ask whether it was explicit policy that only the 2000ad stories were allowed to kill characters off and change the status quo.<sup>**


*</sup> 1992-1994

** Unless Megazine stories were tying into 2000ad epics, like Volt eating a bullet during Doomsday

[Funt Solo]

Judge Dredd: Great Executions
(2012: megs 325-327)
Script: Robbie Morrison
Art: Dave Taylor
Letters: Annie Parkhouse

A disturbing futuristic re-imagining of Great Expectations with beautifully evocative art.  It's a complex, tragic morality tale about the danger of obsession.

There's a misogynistic streak to the main character: he forms a lifelong obsession with his first sexual partner even though she's always been remote and cold with him and shown not even the remotest interest in anything beyond an initial dalliance of her youth.

There's a sense that the story wants us to have a concrete reason to accept that perhaps she deserves her ultimate fate, and yet it seems a steep price for someone to pay for being self-serving.

Certainly, there are no heroes here: only a doomed romanticism.

[Funt Solo]

Some of the best of the Meg from my catch-up read...

Snapshot
(2012: megs 322-330)
Script: Andy Diggle
Art: Jock
Letters: Clem Robins

Beautifully set in San Francisco, this is a movie-like action thriller fueled by fast-pacing and dynamic framing.  It's a fish out of water tale, in which a comic shop worker accidentally finds himself embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a shadowy killer.



Jock's art is superb and the setting well researched - that's definitely San Fran we're seeing - although there's a clear British sensibility sneaking in with references to Axel Pressbutton and Zenith.



The narrative drive is frenetic and the puzzle-pieces come together fast enough to keep our interest without explaining everything.  Ultimately, though, like many movies, this has a tricky third act and at one point it drives off the rails with a metaphysical (and terribly coincidentally located) endless corridor of somehow non-rotten severed body parts.  The end is ultimately ambiguous but getting there is still a wild and worthwhile ride.


Anderson, Psi-Division: Stone Voices
(2012: megs 327-331)
Script: Alan Grant
Art: Boo Cook
Letters: Ellie De Ville

There's often been a sense that Anderson's judgement is flawed: as far back as her accidentally releasing the dark judges by transporting herself to Deadworld (progs 416-427, 1985) without bothering to tell anyone.  The other narrative sometimes explored is that the emotional detriments of the job drive her to seek escape, as in Postcards From the Edge (M2.50-M2.60, 1994). 



This tale brings both those threads to the fore as Anderson (beautifully rendered by Boo Cook) tries to solve a spate of grisly yet mysterious decapitations whilst being hamstrung by an administration that doesn't fully trust her.



Ultimately, Anderson wins out over the immediate threat but the suggestion during the denouement is that she may once again seek to leave the Justice Department.


Hondo City Justice: Revenge of the 47 Ronin
(2013: megs 332-334)
Script: Robbie Morrison
Pencils: Mike Collins
Inks: Cliff Robinson
Colours: Len O'Grady
Letters: Ellie De Ville

Judge Inaba and Cadet Asahara investigate a supernatural threat to Hondo City that begins with a flashback to the ancient legend of the titular 47 ronin.  The flashback sequences are beautifully framed and styled and give a sense of depth to the setting.



In classic runaway zombie style, each person killed by the resurrected ronin rises as a new threat and so the story becomes a race against time to stop them before their numbers grow too large.  The early scenes of peace here foreshadow the later threat:



Ultimately, our heroes prevail, but we end on a cliffhanger that informs us that the ronin's puppet-master has a familial connection to Inaba, and for reasons unknown wishes her demise.

[Funt Solo]

The best of the Megazine from 2013, in order of publication:

American Reaper [II]
(2013: megs 332-337)
Script: Pat Mills
Art: Fay Dalton, Clint Langley
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Ostensibly a second series, this is narratively a continuation. Detective John Slaine is a Reaper: tasked with tracking identity thieves who are stealing young peoples' bodies to use as their own (a one-way switch of consciousness in which the "donor" is erased). 

Slaine	Reaper

It's sort of sits between gritty noir thriller and gaudy soap opera in terms of styling, and (like series one) causes marmite-like audience reactions with its photo-story style art.  Whatever you think of that, you can't deny the level of commitment on offer here as you don't just get 79 pages of body-theft action (and gala dinners), but you also get world-building extras (ads & movie reviews) and even an entire spin-off strip (Reaper Files).




Insurrection III
(2013: megs 334-342)
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: Colin MacNeil
Letters: Simon Bowland
With two series behind it with a narrow focus this wisely expands our universe and becomes somewhat the story of a new character in a new insurrection.  I don't want to spoil the plot any, just in case, but suffice to say it's grim, with the merest hint of hope.



I think the series does reach a natural conclusion here and whilst it would be great to see more of Abnett and MacNeil's galactic Justice Department, it's also wise to end strong.  This is hands down the best space Judge stuff that's been done, with The Corps & Maelstrom (back in '94) being the main contenders (and to some extent having laid some groundwork).


The Streets of Dan Francisco
(2013: megs 335-339)
Script: Arthur Wyatt
Art: Paul Marshall
Colours: Chris Blythe
Letters: Elle De Ville



An intro like that deserves to be applauded: it's just madly beautiful.  Post-Chaos Day Mega-City One turns out to be a great place for a redemptive tale about the media savvy ex Chief Judge.  He stalks the ruins but is in turn stalked by gang violence that is in the ascendant.  There's this brewing feeling that Judges have become far more vulnerable.


Dredd: Underbelly
(2013: megs 340-342)
Script: Arthur Wyatt
Art: Henry Flint
Colours: Chris Blythe
Letters: Ellie De Ville
Movie Dredd (the good one) in an action procedural that blends in some of the mutie themes presented in the comics that spawned the movie that spawned this comic.  The only double whammy here is from bone-breaking action blended with the bleak realities of futuristic organized crime. 

Check out the bravura framing of this double page raid:

[Funt Solo]

The best of the Megazine from October 2013 to July 2014, in order of publication:

Ordinary
(2013-2014: megs 340-345)
Script: Rob Williams
Art: D'Israeli
Lettering: HV Derci

Instead of a zombie apocalypse, here we get a superhero pandemic: everyone on the planet suddenly develops superpowers (with predictably disastrous results) - except for Michael Fisher, who's just too ordinary.  Really, this is a story of hope for someone who can't even get a break in his fantasies: in the opening scene he's dreaming of dating Scarlet Johansson but gets put into the friend zone, and meekly accepts his lot.

As the world goes mad around him, he sets out on a quest to help his disjointed immediate family: but his value as the only immune human on the planet sets him up as a target for various powerful factions.  It's a great tale with lots of bleak humor, dark characters and pathos. 

D'Israeli does an amazing job of bringing it all to vibrant life: whether its talking bears, baseball collusi or presidents whose thought bubbles are visible to everyone around them.




DeMarco P.I. - The Whisper
(2014: megs 343-347)
Script: Michael Carroll
Art: Steve Yeowell
Lettering: Ellie De Ville

DeMarco last had her own series in 2002 scripted by Robbie Morrison.  Here, Michael Carroll does a good job of creating a murder mystery for her to solve and wisely chooses neutral ground to do it.  Instead of basing the adventure in Mega-City One, we get relocated to SovSec (in MC-2), where Mega-City citizens with Sov heritage have been relocated post Chaos Day in order that they didn't get lynched.

There's a bit of repetitiveness where we get DeMarco pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior but getting let off because she's an ex-Judge.  Lots of "I'll let this go this once, but try it again and it's the cubes", but then she keeps bending the rules and it doesn't result in any problems: shooting a guys leg off as part of an interrogation is perhaps the most egregious example.

Yeowell's art is at turns sublime and confusing (as a character with unique facial protrusions is tackled by a guy with ... unique facial protusions).

We don't get a neat resolution regarding the origins of the key antagonist, which is problematic in terms of understanding the potential threat. As with "Creep" (1993-94), it's a point of confusion for the reader to have magical villains whose power-limitations seem based on the whimsy of the author. 




Anderson Psi-Division - Dead End
(2014: megs 343-349)
Script: Alan Grant
Art: Michael Dowling
Lettering: Simon Bowland

There's stupendous art (dynamic gun fights and panoramic cityscapes) from Michael Dowling in this mysterious tale as Judge Anderson (hard hit by the depressing and repetitive nature of her work) starts to contemplate suicide. 

At around the mid-point we get a major reveal (her suicidal feelings are being planted in her mind) and the focus of the narrative naturally shifts.

This is some of the best Anderson in what seems like a good while: a long-form procedural in which the character seems to grow.

[Funt Solo]

The second half of 2014 stands out with four strong series running concurrently.  In order of publication:

The Man from the Ministry
(megs 348-353)
Script: Gordon Rennie
Art: Kev Hopgood
Lettering: Simon Bowland

I'm ignorant of the actual influences behind this story, but it seems filled with nostalgia for a very British kind of yarn. A bit like the setting for Ministry of Space (Ellis & Weston 2005), this is set in a Britain that developed more advanced space travel sometime after World War II.

The once well equipped E.T. department (tasked with defeating hostile flying saucers in near space) is in the present day poorly funded and chronically understaffed (at two) and deals with only sporadic outbreaks of dangerous xenomorphic life that makes it to the surface (hinting at Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Day of the Triffids). 

But the past pays a visit and we're launched (also: literally) into a battle against the alien foe in which science, a stiff upper lip and derring do will out. The end leaves the way open for further adventures, and there are some threads dangled about potential alien allies.




Judge Dredd: Dead Zone
(megs 350-355)
Script: John Wagner
Art: Henry Flint
Lettering: Annie Parkhouse

An adventure in two parts: in the first half Dredd solves a murder mystery set in a Chaos Day burial pit memorial centre out in the Cursed Earth.  A downtrodden couple (Yodie and Belle) get caught up in the local brutalities and it's only the chance discovery of a hi-tech bracelet that allows them to escape: to Mega-City One.

That leads us to the second half (subtitled Invisible), where Yodie discovers that with great power comes great Judicial and criminal interest: and we find an answer to the puzzle of the origins of the bracelet.  The resolution leaves some new players for Wagner to return to at a later date.

Something of a shaggy dog story, this holds together really well over six episodes, with layers that keep it from being just a run-of-the-mill procedural.




Lawless: Welcome to Badrock
(megs 350-354)
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: Phil Winslade
Lettering: Ellie De Ville

Dan Abnett's follow up to Insurrection takes us forwards five years after the battle against the Zhind on the planet of 43 Rega.  Asides from that, this is nothing to do with Insurrection and everything to do with Colonial Marshal Metta Lawson: newly arrived in the remote township of Badrock and tasked with keeping the peace between the brewing hostility of various factions.

There's plenty of rope here for a long-running story: with (religious) Meks, Uplifts, muties, settlers, corporate goons and the local Abs to contend with (not to mention Lawson's somewhat mysterious predecessor). 

In order to get around the surface, Lawson disdains a horse, finds a Lawmaster trike too limiting and eventually settles on a refurbished CATT (Combat All-Terrain Transport) that, along with her pulse rifle, give her a distinctive look and (coupled with her pragmatic attitude to peace-keeping) sets her clearly on the periphery of normal Justice Department protocol.




Dredd: Uprise
(megs 350-354)
Script: Arthur Wyatt
Art: Paul Davidson
Colours: Chris Blythe
Lettering: Simon Bowland

Movie Dredd (Karl, not Sly) continues his paginated adventures in the Megazine with another episodic by Arthur Wyatt.  This alternity Dredd is set in a Mega-City One where the Justice Department struggles to maintain order: even moreso in The Spit, where continuuing riots threaten to overwhelm the Judges and threaten a new upper crust* development.

There's a nod to Mechanismo with some robotic law enforcement and an interesting twist that sees corruption from unexpected sources.



*The origins of the phrase "upper crust" are well explained in Modern History TV's Food: How Healthy Was Medieval Food?, which also includes details on the importance of daily piss-tasting and securing your spices.  That this is all co-presented by Rebellion's CEO, Jason Kingsley, is (medieval) gravy.

[BPP]

The page count of the meg went up when American Reaper was in it so ‘it took up too many pages’ arguments are a bit redundant.

Unless you just don’t like it.

I enjoyed it a lot, it was silly but fun and amazing to look at.

Great strips mentioned in the article - wish Frazer could find a way to do more Lilly.