1462 - School Daze

[DavidXBrunt]

The cover is simple and striking and I rather like it. That's all I have to say on that.

Dredd - Best cliffhanger in ages, I was on tenterhooks waiting to see how it played out and so the leap forwards in narrative is painfully good. I want to know what happened between Dredd but am prepared to wait for it. This is a great story.

Red Seas - For what was esentially a talking head exposition episode this was a lot of fun and builds nicely on the previous episodes. I'm delighted that this story seems to be even more enjoyable than the first story. Hurrah for the art too. Steve Yeowell remains the bestest artist ever.

Leatherjack - Tharg revels that after this episode there's another 5 to go, making this the longest story in a long time and the epic that the promo art promised. For me it's picking up after a lull and after three months I'm still not tired of it. Still wish Leviathon had had this amount of trust placed in it.

Sinister Dexter - Plot threads begin to entwine and it all looks to be rather exciting. Sin Dex steps up another gear.

Rogue Trooper or There is a Thrill and it never goes out for long enough for you to miss it. As good as, if not better, than any post F.D. Rogue you could care to mention but let down by artwork that I simply don't like. I'm glad others do but it just doesn't engage me at all.

General huzzahs all over for a strong prog that contains Dredd on fine form, with Rogue Trooper we have a cast iron classic series  being brought doing what it does best, in Sin Dex we have an established story rejuvenated, in Red Seas we have a recent series proving exactly why Tharg was right to recommision it, and in Leatherjack we've got Tharg picking an established team to create somehting new and giving it space to breathe. That's a practically perfect mix if you ask me.

[Max Kon]

I'm guessing it'll be Kal who slays the ferry man

[DavidXBrunt]

No, it's Who that kills the ferryman. Didn't you read the next up blurb? The only question now reamins which Who will it be? Kenny? Doctor? The?

[Eck]

The first Leatherjack episode I've so far found interesting and meaningful. I hope it continues like this, but it's a shame we had to wait 12 weeks for it.

[Byron Virgo]

I would like to see The Who cameo as a group of ugly degenerate gun sharks on a mission of vengeance and justice in Sinister Dexter.

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Who knows!"

[James]

I didn't realise Rogue was back this week (did I miss something), but always a pleasure to see Coleby's work. His recent stuff anyway.

And anyway, Rogue's top.

Dredd is excellent. Best Dredd we've had in a long time.

Leatherjack is just a bit John Smithy. I'll have to do a re-read in one go once it's finished.

Sin Dex is crap. Again.

Haven't read Red Seas yet but I love Yeowell's art and it's enjoyable stuff so far.

I wish Zenith would come back.

[The Amstor Computer]

The new Rogue's OK-ish, and Coleby's art is as gorgeous as ever, but Rogue's appearance at the end of this episode just hammered home how much better GRennie's mooted Nu Earth series, "The 86ers", would be than this.

There's just nowhere left for the GI to go and all of the interesting stories that I feel Gordon wants to tell about Nu Earth have to have Rogue shoehorned into them, often to the detriment of the story being told.

...oh, and when did the game slip back into 2006? I thought it was due for an autumn/winter release this year. Have there been any more screens/vids/previews since E3?

[Funt Solo]

Summary: a mediochre cartoon cover belying the most zarjaz thrillingness within.

Mandroid: I think the decision to replace Judge Dredd with Mandroid was an excellent one. This strip is far more interesting.  I knew Kitty was coming back, but I didn't know when - shock horror!  And Nate's a big battle-bot now - groovy!  And Dredd remained within the law, whilst still letting Mandroid loose on a suspected perp - Comissioner Gordon!

The Red Seas: Hollow World.  (The plot is drawing me in and the art is excellent.)

Leatherjack: What's it been?  10 episodes of cartoon nonsense and now it gets serious?  It's like I'm reading a totally different strip.

Spinster Dextrose: enjoying a mixed pace, this episode.  More pillow-talk, less gun-slinging.

Rogue Trooper: excellent surprise.  I really enjoyed this opening episode, and the return of that GI lassie from a previous Rogue episode (when was that?)  I sort of agree that you could tell this story without Rogue in it, but I have nothing against him being there (although the plot requires that we have a chem-immune agent to save the southers from the norts, so the story still needs a GI).  Tis the fence-sitting for me - although this plot is already a million times better than the "norts-under-water", "norts-under-sand" guff we were getting a while ago.  It was excellent to see Nu Earth madness again - love the art.

[The Amstor Computer]

re: the GI pilot -- that's possibly the only bit in Rennie's revamp that really grated. I was never keen on Venus Bluegenes or the reborn biochips, as I felt it took away a little of the "last of his kind" feel that contributed much to the atmosphere of the original.

In an alternate world, I'd quite like Rogue Trooper to have concluded just after the death of the Traitor General, with the biochips destroyed or damaged & Rogue walking off into Nu Earth to fight his endless war.

[Funt Solo]

The original Venus Bluegenes was just GI tits 'n' ass, and stuck into the plot to try and liven up things with...Helm, was it?

Then, in her own series, she was just a female version of Rogue (much in the same vein as Samantha Slade.)

But this GI Pilot (name?) and her computer Gabe, I'm finding a welcome addition to the pantheon.  Given the hi-tech nature of the war, it would be stretching it a bit to suggest that Rogue could be so unique as to be "the last GI" (despite the poetry of it).  What's to stop the scientists making more?

As it is, she provides an interesting character as both an in to Milli-Com and an unofficial ally to Rogue.  Plus, she's kick-ass.

[Bolt-01]

She also featured in Gordons Rogue Novel, and played quite a decent part in that too. Bland & Brass wanted her body! (Not in that way though).

Top Prog all round.

Bolt-01

[The Amstor Computer]

The GI pilot is called Rafaella Blue, IIRC.

I see your point about the slight contortions that kept Rogue the last of his kind, but I don't think it's too far-fetched to assume that - given the catastrophic failure of the first GI units - resources and energies may have been diverted elesewhere, leaving the GI project to wither on the vine.

After all, I don't think it was ever clear in the original run that the Southers were aware that the GIs had been betrayed - as far as they knew, they'd simply been wiped out in their first engagement.

...or have I spent a little too long thinking about this?

;-)

[The Amstor Computer]

Not in that way though

I should think not, given Gordon's take on their relationship in one of his Bile Duct columns...

;-)

[Funt Solo]

Erm...only if I have as well.

It's true, and I think I've used (or stolen) the idea before about the diversion of resources after the initial failure at the Quartz Zone.

Let's face it, we can use logic to twist the story any which way - and I agree that ending the Rogue Trooper strip at the point where the Traitor General dies would have been a natural and satisfactory end point for the character and the story.

I never could remember why Venus Bluegenes existed.  Were the female GIs non-combatants?  Why didn't they all die in the Quartz Zone Massacre?  In Rennie's Rogue-iverse, are female GIs exclusively pilots?  Is Rafe from a new batch, created after Milli-Com debriefed Rogue?  Or is this all an alternity Rogue, similar to the original but not beholden to any of it's continuity?

Should I just shut up and enjoy the story?*







* rhetorical

[The Amstor Computer]

IIRC, the GI Dolls were - to put it crudely - relief for the GI troopers. No idea what the setup is with the new female GI though - or why, when they're presumably gened to resist poisons, chem weapons etc. in the same way as Rogue, they're used as pilots.

I think the new series is supposed to take place during the "classic" Rogue series, but simply offering "snapshot" adventures from different periods of that series, rather than trying to run an ongoing story that slots into Rogue continuity, as with the last outing.