Prog 2372 - Escape Pod!

[Colin YNWA]

Wow what a trippy Prog.

Dredd - is just about the only straightforward thing in this one and there's a bit to unpick. In and of itself it provides a well structured, satisfying epilogue to this brilliant story. Its just not quite brave enough with what might have been, or at least the questions I created in my mind for what it could be. Plays things with a straight bat in the end. The answers are all pretty well handled with just 2 extra pages again. This one plays it straight though and maybe it might have twisted to more dramatic interesting places. As it is it sets up the sequels nicely, but they are the sequels we could have predicted. Still very good, but I was wondering if this could have been as exceptional as last week. Best thing is the questions it leaves over Logan. I wonder what Dredd's relationship with him is building to.

The rest is quite the trip. Indigo Prime is superb as it plays at being complex and trippy but when you strip away the nice bright lights isn't as complex as it seems but still a very good way to present action and adventure shrouded in corporate schenanigans.

Thistlebone is the scariest of trips, opening things you don't want to see yet somehow you don't want it to end. In part as you not quite sure you'll enjoy what you find and the come down might be harsh. As scary as it might be your having such a fantastic time.

Deadworld is a trip thats lost any sense of what you wanted it to be and you just want it to be over now. Shame as when it started it was a blast.

Full Tilt Boogie reminds you trips aren't for kids! Damn has this come a long way from its Regened roots. As it is we knew this was going to get to be a wonderful mindf**k in that ship and it was. But here the trip ends, not necessarily nicely but it was fun while it lasted, even if I don't really know what it was about while it was going!

Fun Prog on the whole.

[Richard]

I'm very impressed with that cover by Alex Ronald; I hope Tharg gets him in a story soon.

I think I liked Dredd this week more than you did!

Thistlebone is good, I think this third series is the strongest of them.

In Deadworld I can't even remember who Jessica is. Maybe that's my own fault, although it has been four years since the last full series of this thrill. Still fantastic art though.

SPOILER: In Full Tilt Boogie, I'm not sure how Tee got out of that predicament, it feels a bit like "... and in a single bound he was free" territory to me. I like this series though so I'll just assume I'm being dense and go with it.

Four and a half out of five for me this week.

[broodblik]

Cover by Alex Ronald:

[scrotnig]

Just time to say, so far:
Brilliant cover
Dredd - this story has, for me, been the strongest for many years and the ending was great too.
Thistlebone - wow, again.

[JimmyNailz]

Enjoyed the 'ending' of this Dredd tale. Looking forward to where it goes in the future (though to be honest, when it foes return to these threads I'll have forgotten what they're all about coz I'm a bad at remembling).

Thistlebone is always a creepy highlight.

Everything else confused me...

Never know what's going on in Indigo Prime. Deadworld flits between so many threads I lose track and Full Tilt Boogie had too much
AAAAHHHHH SHAAAAA AHHHHHH SHAAAAA for me to care, which is a shame because I've like previous stories. I think it works best with the whole crew.

Now this Dredd story is done, I'm not particularly thrilled about the current thrills.

[Barrington Boots]

Dredd What to say about this one? It wraps up one of the strongest and most impactful Dredds for a while - between this and Poison we've had a couple of real good ones lately - although after last week it all felt slightly anticlimatic. The board is set for the next series of plots with Hernandez, Glenn, Logan and this reporter dude all set up for more, plus potentially Domo as well (would have preferred him killed here, as he doesn't add much).
Moodwise, it's all the more depressing for the real world analogies, which gives it more impact but sure doesn't make for a cheery read!
I remember first reading Dredd as a teenager in the late 80s and finding a lot of stories ran with downbeat endings that I found powerful for being a real downer and I got that feeling again here. It all feels a bit hopeless doesn't it? Hernandez and Glenn will get theirs at some point but nothings going to get better.
Brilliant final page.

I was a little muddled by Indigo Prime this week but only because I'd completey forgotten who some of these characters are. That aside this was perfectly fine. I have to say I'm not a fan of Kek's style of writing where he sets up a cliffhanger and then jumps elsewhere, only to later return and resolve that cliffhanger when you've got invested in a different plot. This happens a lot on Deadworld, and it happened here (I wanted to see what happened next with Bateman)

Thistlebone amazing again. There seems to one 'omg' page almost every week from this and that page with the tree is magnificent. I agree that this is, for me, the strongest series of Thistlebone so far.

Deadworld I actually feel this episode was getting back on track. I want the story to focus on these characters. Nails all the creepy / grotesque beats, stick with it please!

Full Tilt Boogie Have to admit I found this one a bit hard to follow storytelling-wise and I'm not really sure what happened. It did seem like a claustrophobic, chaotic rush and perhaps that was the idea - Tee escapes and we don't really know how in a flash of crazy images?
I'm enjoying reading this but as someone said the other week, the pacing is starting to make it feel a bit lightweight.

[IndigoPrime]

So much thrill power it ends up even on the back cover. In all, a good Prog, I thought, despite some oddities.

Dredd: Ends on a massive downer. Sets the board up for the next round. I still think it a pity that one of the very few prominent women in the strip was killed, and all the blokes are mostly OK. Perhaps that will be temporary. I don't know.

Questions: Dredd has felt ineffectual to some degree. "We can never do enough." Well, sure, Dredd, but you did fuck all. Perhaps Maitland wouldn't be alive if you'd done more, but you could have done something. But also in his confrontation with Hernandez, that doesn't feel like a Dredd with stature – this feels more like a Dredd marginalised. And, frankly, given that he repeatedly refuses to take up a position of authority, what right does he have to keep trying to steer Justice Department?

Elsewhere: who is the woman looking pissed off next to Glenn? Is Mr Shooty Pants fucked? And, frankly, are Williams/Wyatt sitting the stage for a lone journo to somehow fight the good fight against the power of a megacorp publisher? Because if so, that in itself might be the least realistic thing in years of the fantastical and often bonkers world of Dredd. (I don't remember Roth. Has he been in the strip before?)

Oh, and Beeny. Really, where does she go? Also marginalised and surrounded by aggressive and power-hungry men. The Williams iteration of Dredd got angry about Hershey being ambitious. Quite why he's not going apeshit over the current council and yelling he doesn't recognise their authority, I'm not sure.

Anyway, lots to ponder. I do hope it goes somewhere. I'm angry Maitland is gone. But also this is one of the best Dredd strips in ages.

Indigo Prime: On the right side of making sense. But did Kek-W come up with a really oddball way of dealing with Tyranny's changes – multiple clones of her from distinct points in her past – only to wipe that all out in an explosion?

Thistlebone: Bit on the nose for me this week, to be honest. Still very good, mind, and blimey does Simon Davis do some fantastic horror painting word. "Yes, I can make a tree look terrifying." "Sure, mate." "No, look." "Fucking hell."

Deadworld: Not bad, in part because there's no Sidney and there's some proper horror. That bone... thing was nasty. I'm hoping this series as a whole reads better compiled though. Echoing Colin, though, I kind of wish this was done now, sadly.

Full Tilt Boogie: Erm. I mean, I guess you can't always have something that's fully coherent as a standalone episode. It looked great and was heavy on the terror (although I wasn't keen on those pink comic lettering AAAAAAAH SFX), but it did feel very slight.  A strip that in this case could have done with more space. But I'm sure it's going to read great when collected, given how pacey it is.

So this week, it was varying degrees of liking everything. A good mix, which is ideal territory for an anthology. But a few questions here and there about the nature of some elements.

Dredd > Indigo Prime > Thistlebone > Full Tilt Boogie > Deadworld

[Barrington Boots]

Can't agree more on Dredd. Mrs. Boots read the Prog yesterday and said something along the lines of why doesn't Dredd become Chief Judge then, and if there isn't a good reason, why does he keep moaning about Hershey, the council etc?
There's no satisfactory answer to that I think, beyond 'it's the story setup'.

[Funt Solo]

The Fall of Deadworld - Jessica is actually the main protagonist (ha ha concept for this story, I know), sometimes referred to as The Judge Child of this dimension - and potentially a threat to the Sisters (if anything is).

She hasn't really been a regular character since 2019's Doomed, but there was a sort of whatever happened to Jessica? one-off in 2021.

I did an entire series re-read before tackling last year's Retribution. Big fan.

[broodblik]

A good prog with some minor bumps on the road.

Dredd – The epilogue rather than just wrapping up the current storyline it opens new threats and possibilities. Even the chief judge does not look safe as we are entering a new phase where the thrust has been broken. This was an excellent run with Flint taking center stage.

Indigo Prime – Not always the most coherent story for me and the new series continues in that vein. For some time now I felt like do we really need this to continue or is it best to sunset this. I will keep judgment for later.

Thistlebone – The creepiest continue and again some really create imagery by Simon Davis.

Deadworld – see Indigo Prime for a similar take. I do not have  any issues with the art and it works excellent with the atmosphere of the story.

Full Tilt Boogie – This new series has heavily focused on using art as a way of telling the story and this last episode continues that trend. This is a very enjoyable series with some top-notch art.

[IndigoPrime]

As a concept, Indigo Prime has a lot going for it. But some strips are so intertwined with their creators that they don't always work when handed over to someone else. With John Smith, that's doubly problematic, due to his very distinct voice. I thought Kek-W did a solid job of finishing off the strip Smith had started, but I'm not entirely convinced by some of the decisions made, and, frankly, just miss Smith being in the Prog. (Conversely, Devlin Waugh under Kot in particular has been working very well, as far as I'm concerned. And I'm sure there are plenty of readers who'd flip or change those viewpoints.)

[broodblik]

I agree Kot worked for me when he took Devlin over. My problem or my feeling about Indigo Prime was always divided, I am not sure if I like or not (so currently I am leading more to the later).

PS - In a perfect world we would have John Smit still writing for the prog. I also misses his distinct voice 

[Vector14]

I'm enjoying being back on board 2000AD. I stopped reading in the early 2000s and just took out the digital sub a couple of weeks ago. The only bad part is waiting until Wednesday to read it when I can see people on here have their physical progs already.

Dredd, Thistlebone and Full Tilt Boogie are all excellent. With Indigo Prime and especially Deadworld I'm being dropped in the middle of stories where I have no idea what's going on so it's hard to judge.

Actually I haven't read any previous series of Thistlebone or FTB either so maybe that's no excuse.

[IndigoPrime]

Each Thistlebone has been smartly self-contained within the wider mythos. (In short: scary weird shit happens in the woods.) FTB... a lot happened in the first series, but the storytelling is such that it doesn't impact on your enjoyment if you've not read it.

But, yeah: Deadworld is borderline impenetrable at times for me, and I have all the Progs and the collections. And Indigo Prime even under John Smith wasn't a forgiving strip if you rocked up in the middle of it. But in the past it was at least relatively self-contained per series, whereas now it's drawing in threads (and, seemingly, then immediately abandoning some) from the strip's entire history, along with that of a spin-off.

[The Monarch]

i still love me some indigo prime.