Swings and roundabouts I think and theoretically thats good - the Prog got to do something a bit different to the Meg. If we had had two publicatons doing the same thing it would have got a bit tedious - to be honest, while I found this more cohesive, I did find it suffered more from repetitiveness -whether that was due to being the second half or more due to the rinse repeat of finding a "team member" then hopping to the next one.
The ending also made a lot of the previous actions to save a few individuals a bit redundant, but that comes with the territory I suppose.
The thing I found most interesting here was a couple of new and newish names here -I'll always applaud Tharg trying out new writers as thats the biggest problem 2000AD faces going forward - new voices that might enthuse me in the same way Al Ewing and Niemand did/have in recent years (though both mostly impressed working on Dredd rather than their own stuff, Zombo excepted, so still not the "Saviour" I think the prog needs)
Honor Vincent's Anderson isnt setting the world on fire, but it does tell the story clearly, as does Liam Johnsons Devlin Waugh.
However, the writing also remains my big issue elsewhere, where the thing just hits a wall.
Two glaring examples:
The Kill Dozer section assumes you read it as Alpha driving the Dozer, then being far away from it and blowing it up - theres a missing panel establishing Alpha as the driver or Alpha exiting the vehicle. Otherwise it is a muddied sequence that should ahve been rejiggered
Worse is the flashback(?) sections of the Armitage story, which I still dont really get - whats happening on the first page? When is that happening? They are holed up in MacHarrods which is a "facility" for state secrets? They have the ability to "see" who is teleporting in - its a stream you can reject? I think Mike Carroll is "the loveliest man in comics" TM, but this suffers from the same mangled storytelling that keeps shaking me off Proteus Vex. I've read it a few times now and I still cannot make head nor tail of the time line and the events or motivations... now they have the numbers on page 4... Anderson, Cain and Alpha, presuably? To get somewhere else, where tehy will be safe - Its clear to Anderson Armitages "people need him more"... but his people are gong to be wiped off the face of the earth with everyone else in short order - theres no bigger need than succeeding in their mission if that's the path they have decided is the only one left. Preacher Cain prays for their safety... for the next couple of days presumably?
Sorry to be a grinch on this one, but it was like a real roadblock in the narrative.
It doesnt help that I really am not a fan of the "Marvelisation" of 2000AD "IP" - so every writer has a go at every character, and this is designed to make full use of the ability to do just that. I prefer creatives to create their own new stuff and I like to see the old stuff written by their creators - call me a simple man!
It's an interesting exercise, certainly worked better than the SCi-Fi Special, but fundamentally, this isnt for me.
Looking forward to next months Meg for more Surfer and (to be a hypocrite) Waugh, if its more Kot, who has done the very rare thing for me and made someone elses creation interesting to me.
Over in the prog, it looks very Dredd world heavy - Hershey & Chimpsky and launching with Future Shocks, so only one other ongoing none Dredd story?
