The Moses Incident V Incident on Mayger Minor - Bolt-01 Cup - Qualifying - Long: Game 03
The titanic struggles that will shape the toughest qualifying region continue as we get Games 3 and 4 in the 'Long' Region, these from Group 2
All you need do is vote for your favourite between:
The Moses Incident - more info (https://2000ad.wordpress.com/2018/01/30/strontium-dog-a-potted-history-part-2-johnny-wulf-hunt-sabs-holy-moses-valhalla-beckons/)
Vs
Incident on Mayger Minor - more info (https://www.comics.org/issue/46155/)
Just reply in this thread naming your favourite of these two stories at the beginning of your post (or use Bold tags so I can spot it easy) and say what you like about these wonderful stories after that.
Match ends early on the morning of Friday 30th July and the winner (I'll count up who gets the most votes basically) gets 3 points towards qualifying... huh...
... there's a spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F3W5KkY37ZcH39J93nq5hR5_RhPIvaOapv7sZ0EmvUQ/edit?usp=sharing) to make following easier... if you fancy. If not, don't worry just VOTE!!!!
What on Earth is all this? (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47697.msg1064493#msg1064493)
Why (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47696.0) on Tharg's Earth head are we doing this?
Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN!
The Moses Incident
The Moses Incident - for one of my favourite 'Tooth villains: Malak Brood.
This one's my hill to die on, because Incident on Mayger Minor is my absolute favourite SD story.
I've always enjoyed the Western elements of SD and this is I think the most Western-y tale: mysterious gunfighter shows up at a ranch needing a place to sleep and ends up helping a poor rancher in trouble. On one level it sounds quite generic, but's got enough sci-fi twists and dark 2000ad humour to make it a classic.
It's very low stakes, which is one of the things I really like about it: everything has room to breathe. The plot is a slow build towards an inevitable climax. Mrs. Froggett is a beautifully written character with her initial hostility to Alpha slowly turning to admiration and attraction. She's also a brave single mother and not a 'sexy' femme fatale or a damsel in distress, which I think is something we don't see enough of. She's constantly denigrated by the villains throughout for her appearance so her attempt to flirt Alpha is a brave move and the scene where she asks him to stay with her and he can't is a heartbreaker.
Chinky Goober is also a great villain - he's a classic bully, completely inept, outclassed by Alpha at every point and given enough chances to redeem himself before he meets his unremarkable end. His threat comes from being greedy and stupid rather than superpowered and he and his family are believable antagonists. I also really love his dubious sounding name coming from his stupid coin-jingling habit - "Damn! Just can't chink proper with my left hand!" - it's the right combination of serious and outright stupid that I love in 2000ad (pecial mention to his brother being called Whippy because he carries a whip) Sy Goober is also great as the cunning patriach.
Alpha himself is in full Clint Eastwood mode, polite but surly, and totally menacing, utterly in control of the situation, gives his word and means it. The scene at the end where he mercilessly guns down all the Goobers at once is very Spaghetti Western; just great. I think this is the first post-Rage story and whilst he's pretty grim, he's unreservedly a good guy.
It also ends on a terrible joke.
I suppose if there's a criticism of it there isn't really enough sci-fi here, but I think it's an overlooked gem in the SD archives. I believe Moses Incident is very highly regarded here (it's a good story, but I've never really been big on supernatural elements in the strip) so this may well be the last time I can enthuse about this particular story, which is why I've done so at small length. No apologies! I love it.
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 27 July, 2021, 09:27:53 AM
This one's my hill to die on, because Incident on Mayger Minor is my absolute favourite SD story.
I'll be fighting right there with you.
I love you Colin!
Mayger Minor's good and all, but the Moses Quest Quest was my introduction to Johnny and Wulf, so The Moses Incident gets my vote.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 27 July, 2021, 09:29:20 AM
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 27 July, 2021, 09:27:53 AM
This one's my hill to die on, because Incident on Mayger Minor is my absolute favourite SD story.
I'll be fighting right there with you.
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 27 July, 2021, 09:30:17 AM
I love you Colin!
I feel a sense of dissidents with the party-line not strictly adhered too. We might need to call in the official clean-up team
It'll be interesting to see if all those who voted against Blood Moon because they prefer happy endings follow that same logic here, because The Moses Incident is pretty bleak! It's an absolute classic - and having Wulf in it nearly gives it the edge - but I think I have to go Incident on Mayger Minor here. I wish we'd had more Stront tales like this. I love that it's just Johnny on his lonesome; I love that it's so relatively low-stakes; I love the Froggits (BB is right, she's probably one of the better female characters Tooth has ever had); I love it when Johnny bellows 'Goobers!' on that final cliffhanger and you can feel their hearts sink into their boots.
Barrington says everythingthat needs saying about how brilliant Incident is, but my heart belongs to "The Moses Incident".
Partly because I dont have a problem with the supernatural elements (well, until The Final Solution, and thats because of how they are handled) but also because it is more ambitious - you can argue it goes a bit far (How does Alpha not end up on the wrong end of the law when he hijacks that space ship?) , but the fact it pushes the character further than Incident (and most other Stront strips) has also made this a winner for me
Add in what a great villain Malak Brood is (compare and contrast to Sabbat!) and the way the theme of guilt is so well integrated into the set up and the resolution.... masterly story telling
Incident on Mayger Minor, partly because of Barrington's impassioned promotion. I also preferred the stories with fewer magical elements.
The Moses Incident for me (Is it a false memory that this is also known as 'The Moses Quest'? Is his name Moses Quest, is that it?!).
I do like 'Incident' and did fancy the frog lady but woke points lost for the character 'Chinky'. I know he chinks but why focus on that?
I genuinely can't decide. Malak Brood is one of the best 2000AD villains ever and Incident Mayger Minor has a nice charm to it. And B Boots has made a very good case for it.
Hmmm.
So let's go with Boots. I prefer Western Stront to space wizards Stront, so Incident gets my vote.
Incident on Mayger Minor
Incident on Mayger Minor. I'd agree this is one of the best there is. A lone stranger astride a mork rides into a town to help a widow deal with an evil land baron...pure western!
Also, I much prefer the Western & War SD stories over the magic/supernatural elements. I do prefer the Moses Incident over other supernatural stories like Journey into Hell, the Final Solution etc.
I'm with Magnetica on this- really difficult choice and I'm switherin. Both Boots and Leigh S make good arguments for each.
I'm going with The Moses Incident edging it though, I recall being genuinely concerned for Alpha at the time and wondering if he would ever be the same again. I also rate Mayger highly for all the 'memorable villains' and 'SF/ Western mash-up' reasons already mentioned- against another tale it might have prevailed. I don't have any distaste for magic & supernatural elements in SD- it's a big/ wide/ deep, multi-dimensional and bad Universe... shit happens, as well it should.
Only today folks so get ya votes in and I'll tote this one up in the morning. From a quick eye scan its surprisingly close so your votes could make a big different.
As might mine and really I have nothing to say as Barrington Boots has expressed my view perfectly. I love The Moses Incident its classic stuff and almost definitive Strontium Dog. However its as simply as this Incident on Mayer Minor is possibly my favourite ever Johnny story as it perfectly captures Strontium Dog as a Western, lets be honest its Shane. On that basis:
Incident on Mayger Minor
Incident on Mayjer Minor all the way! Nothing to say that hasn't already been said, it's just a perfect SciFi western with great characters.
Both of these are great, with some serious gut punches to the feels. On balance, Incident on Mayger Minor takes it for me. I love the way the strip is written and its pace, along with the perfect twists throughout.
Holy... MOSES.
The first Strontium Dog story I read was The Moses Incident and that twisted middle has stayed with me.
VOTING CLOSED
Well my oh my, that I did not see coming. I was of the view that The Moses Incident was one of the favourites, not just in this region but for the tourney overall. I thought it was seen as nailed on classic and definitive 2000ad.... and to be fair it is. Incident on Mayger Minor was a thrill I have always loved, but thought in the minds of other it was just solid Strontium Dog. Then we all read Barrington Boot's analysis and I though - You know what a few of us will stand alongside that....
The story went head to head with Moses, after a shakey start came back and matched the classic head to head AND THEN took a lead - it held!!! Oh my word this is a shock but by the slimest of margins this one goes to:
Incident on Mayger Minor
Incident on Mayger Minor 3 1
No-Go Job 0 0
The Rammy 0 0
The Moses Incident 0 -1
I've been away, and missed this, so I'm so pleased that IOMM has won this round. It was the perfect post-Rage story, wonderfully atmospheric and beautifully understated. It was absolutely the right story to follow Rage.
I missed this one closing, and tbh I also thought that the Moses Incident would sweep this. I'm so glad that so many other boarders share my love for IoMM.
Hmmmm....
(https://i.imgur.com/61eKdJk.png)
Holy... Moses Incident