Prog 2324 - The Law Enforcer

[Barrington Boots]

Monday Prog! I eagerly went through it on my tea break. I wasn't a fan of the cover when I saw it on FB last week, but it's got some cool details and has really grown on me, aside from the font on the tagline.

Dredd Wraps up neatly. I wasn't hugely into this Dredd story and the ending didn't change that. Neatly done with the spin on execs having 'killer instinct' and all that corporate jargon but it wasn't really a funny or exciting tale overall.
That said, the end reveal did feel very old school and I didn't think this was a bad Dredd, just not one I was into.
As various forumites have commented each week, the art is both good and a bit jarring with it's contemporary depictions of things (this week, the manor house). I did like the little medi-droids. Also was the axe guy using Slaines axe?

The Out provides a very wordy and very excellent episode. Stuff is revealed. The art is incredible. The Cheerio bit fell a bit flat, as he was a pretty unlikeable character, but the rest is tremendous.

I enjoyed this Future Shock - it was concise, snappy and had a suitably grim twist at the end, even though thinking about it now the whole thing doesn't really stand up: I'm not actually 100% sure what the deal was with the pheromones or why Hans or Zoe would act as they did. Great art, shows a little of Dave Roach in places? Promising stuff from two new Droids anyway.

The Order is... alright. It manages to be all action and a bit of a muddle all at once - it definitely feels like it's cramming stuff into each episode as it strives to reach a conclusion. "H-How's this possible?" says Clara at one point before saying something pseudo-nonsensical and I'm right there with her: This isn't the best series of the The Order and I find myself hoping it's got a bit more in it after this. You can tell Burns doesn't like drawing the big robots.

Vex ends in a crazy, apocalyptic and very dramatic manner. Tharg seems to imply this isn't the end of the series as a whole, which is good as for me this has been one of the finest things in the Prog for a while. I'm looking forward to going back and reading this as a whole - it's been an epic storyline brilliantly realised.

Regened next week, ho hum.

[broodblik]

Cover by Leonardo Manco:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[broodblik]

A good prog before the regen struck again and the promise of new thrills after that


Dredd – So all this violence for one person's echo and selfishness. It was not Niemand's best but still highly enjoyable.

The Out – Some more secrets revealed and Cyd's journey will take another turn (but for the worse). Pity that this will now take an extended break.

Shock – Well not a bad one-shot and the last few shockers has not been bad at all. Great to give new talent a shot.

The Order – The madcap caper continues its relentless roller-coaster ride to the end. I love Burns painted work.

Proteus Vex – The ending almost felt like an anti-climax with everything building up to the grand showdown and just like that it ends. This was a wonderful grant-scale space opera tale. Hopefully we will see more in the future.

[broodblik]

I see that K. Niemand comment on his twitter that the Dredd would have been 6 parts but it looks like a clash with the artist

[Colin YNWA]

I see that K. Niemand comment on his twitter that the Dredd would have been 6 parts but it looks like a clash with the artist

That does explain a lot as the Dredd this issue while it ends fine does feel like some of the ideas and themes were a little under developed. The AccounT Dept Judge and his role in particular. Shame as it makes for one of the weaker Dredd's in Niemand's entry, but then under par Niemand is still fine, fine JD.

Elsewhere the Future Shock is fine. The twist feels a little explained and nailed on a bit roughly but its works well enough.

There is nothing hammered together for The Out which remains simply magnificently. The cartoon fate of Cheerio raises chuckles for the rug to then be pulled with a really well played reaction and impact on Cyd which gives it real impact.... as opposed to the cartoon impact. The flip is quite wonderful. Perfectly crafted onto that is some thrilling plot development and a glorious cliffhanger as we go into a break. Breathtaking stuff.

The Order similarly drives the story forward with fun and thrilling momentum. I mean its not as good as The Out, but then what is! Great stuff though.

Proteus Vex ends really well. I mean the heroic sacrifice to conclude the conflicit could be cliche but the played wonderfully as the Tsellest [spelling - haven't got the comic in front of me] speculates on how all of Vex's clever plans have been accounted for to contrast the rather simple and robust action taken. The end is designed to feel like it is an end but everything else suggests there's more to come. Please there is more to come as this is epic high concept sci-fi at its best.

Another winning prog. We all get a breather next week as the first Regened of the year pops up, the line-up there doesn't thrill me as much as other Regene's but let's see how it lands. Nor does the Thrill of the Future with a clunky title and a writer whose Future Shocks (etc) haven't been well craft, maybe having more space will serve John Tomlinson well? Who knows, but rather than speculate in things I don't know, which could well be fine I should just revel in how good the now is. Great prog.

[broodblik]

.........Nor does the Thrill of the Future with a clunky title and a writer whose Future Shocks (etc) haven't been well craft, maybe having more space will serve John Tomlinson well? Who knows, but rather than speculate in things I don't know, which could well be fine I should just revel in how good the now is. Great prog.

Well I think a lot of us is in agreement but that might be a 3riller as well

[Colin YNWA]

.........Nor does the Thrill of the Future with a clunky title and a writer whose Future Shocks (etc) haven't been well craft, maybe having more space will serve John Tomlinson well? Who knows, but rather than speculate in things I don't know, which could well be fine I should just revel in how good the now is. Great prog.

Well I think a lot of us is in agreement but that might be a 3riller as well

We've not had a 3riller for a while have we... have we... they certainly don't seem as frequent as they used to be, which is a shame as I really like the format... or I could just be old and forgeting how many there's been recently???

[IndigoPrime]

Odd cover with illustrated damage. Dredd wraps up. It's fine. Niemand, as noted, mentioned on Twitter that this was a slog. The art still feels slightly alien to Dredd, like a take from an artist who isn't entirely familiar with the subject. The colouring was really good (although I now note that's Chris Blythe, so probably to be expected).

The Out does a rug-pull with Cheerio. And with a single leap, he was... killed off. The character was an arse, but felt real. And then it ends on that cliffhanger and the note that book III will continue soon. ARGH!

Another Future Shock, which I mostly liked right up until the last word balloon and a half, which felt really icky. I'm not sure what the insulation is with completing the mating process. Either way, I'm not sure it needed anything beyond "I am a horrible, horrible man, and tricked my wife into running off into the wilderness with a terrifying giant bird, so I don't have to pay out for a divorce". But there you go/

The Order kind of continues to exist for me. The stuff I was complaining about with Joe Pineapples is in somewhat similar territory here, in that it feels like stuff is just happening. The difference with The Order is that the threads likely mean something when you read it though. And, yeah, Burns is clearly not a fan of robots, which is a pity when he's tasked with illustrating one of the finest robot designs in 2000 AD's history. Still, the rest of his art is spot-on.

And then Vex wraps up. It does feel a like quick, but I reckon this will be a breezy and rollocking read when collected. As for the finality of the arc, it would surely be ludicrous to end the strip here. Vex feels like a strip that could run and run a la Rogue Trooper or Usage Yojimbo – or at least be mapped out to some kind of conclusion, in the same way Nikolai Dante was. I just hope that hasn't already happened.

In all, a kind of middling Prog for me. Nothing was outright bad, but only two of the five strips fully landed.

[AlexF]

A rare week where I am caught up with the Prog! And it seems I'm at oddas with fellow boarders - I really enjoyed this latest Dredd. Hadn't occured to me while reading it but I can totally see that the character designs could've been more future-ish and less 'today', but the basic gist of the story falls right in that sweet spot of mid-80s Wagner/Grant lunacy. If Manco and Niemand had to force it into existence, it still came out well.

I can agree that The Order feels rushed but it's still the main event for me in terms of throwing out a mix of weird ideas I wouldn't ever dream up myself, coupled with outrageous imagery - and that's what I keep coming ot 2000AD for. That panel with our angry Black heroine holding up the decapitated head of villainous George Washington, while going on to (perhaps implausubly) unite races in an alternate history America, that's the stuff I want to read!

Proteus Vex continues to look gorgeous and Tsellest continues to be the cleverest villain name in all space opera, but I find it really hard to care about what's going on - to be fair to this final epsiode, it did generate some emotion in me but that's been a long time coming. I do miss the time when it was more about the personal, lower-stakes shenanigans of Proteus and his Citheronian buddy (whose name I can never remember).

[Richard]

Midnight Indicating Shame!

[Link Prime]

Midnight Indicating Shame!

You should have posted that 63 minutes earlier.

[norton canes]

A great wrap for Proteus Vex was this week's highlight, pulling the 'hero takes adversary with him into the abyss' trope with great aplomb. Though he gets a (virtual) reunion with Midnight Indicating Shame first, where the usual twist is that fate contrives to have the long-separated companions just miss each other before the protagonist's sacrifice.

Looking forward to the Midnight Indicating Shame mini-series (oh come on!)

Must admit I thought 'Succession' wrapped pretty well - at least, it wasn't obvious that it'd been curtailed. That's some pretty candid opinion on the Niemand droid's Twitter! Hoping Manco can continue in TMO's retinue, would be a shame to lose such a talent.

If ever a Future Shock deserved a big purple exclamation mark, it's 'Love Birds'.  Not so much twist in the tale as tryst in the tale. Shades of Gary Leach and Alan Davis in the art, I thought.

Tsellest continues to be the cleverest villain name in all space opera

One for the 'over my head' thread, I'm afraid. It's a palindrome, but..?

[Link Prime]

Hoping Manco can continue in TMO's retinue, would be a shame to lose such a talent.

Absolutely.
Manco is an Omega Level artist, who, as luck would have it, seems to be a fan of 2000AD.

TMO one should offer him a high tier project without time sensitivity.
The outcome would be worth it for all of us in a few years.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm not sure there are projects without time sensitivity. You just end up with projects that don't get completed and need someone else to take over – think about Joe Pineapples, or Die Laughing. And when you're presumably paying per episode, it's not great if your budget is sitting with content that might never see the light of day.

It sounds like Manco was having fun digging into the details. But when you're doing your debut Dredd and there are deadlines, you... probably don't need to redesign the Lawmaster for that first strip. But, yeah, maybe there are ways Tharg can figure out how to keep him around that don't negatively impact on the Prog's running.