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Prog 2185 - U.S. Marshals!

Started by Colin YNWA, 08 June, 2020, 08:51:37 PM

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Colin YNWA

Well that was an interesting Prog, not the best, but it was interesting in that in that it backs up the idea that a Prog full of second episodes can be a real step back from a first episode barnstormer... even if we have a first episode here... and a third...

Dredd - So we have the shock of last time and this time its all about building the stakes. Its good, the art is a joy, it just feels a little forming, building, without enough meat on the bones yet.

Sinister Dexter - is similar its exposition heavy, without Dabnett's normal guile - so we've quickly established what's what just in time for the baddies to burst in. Functional episode.

Full Tilt Boogie - I really enjoyed this when it first appeared, but here it doesn't give me enough to get my teeth into. I'm sure things will pay off when things develop, but at the moment its all about asking questions and setting intrigue and tone. Oh and speaking of tone it feels very different to the previous episode not at all the light and breezey thrill ride I recall the first one being. Let's see how this develops.

The Order Not one to hang while this is the third episode, I'm happy to count it as second given the first felt so much like an epilogue - here though there is no messing about, no playing with set it up grabs us, thrill use and gets right on track, while setting things up. Fantastic stuff.

Diaboliks does similar it really takes the need to establish by the scruff of the neck and shakes it around so we get quite the exciting ride as its doing it. The problem is its suffers from folks trying to prove quite how they are the nastiest piece of work in play here and it all feels a little harsh as a result. Still its very well done.

So yeah functional - that a good way to describe this Prog, not brilliant in an of itself, though with some highlights - but once we get into this run I'm sure we'll appreciate what it gave us.

Buttonman

Hope this doesn't turn into Dredd's version of the Rogue classic 'The Hit'!


Tomwe

Another excellent prog - really enjoyed Full Tilt Boogie as I expected. Had to go back and re-read the other strip and that made me appreciate it even more. What felt like a whole bunch of stuff thrown together (in good measure) before, it turns out is actually leading somewhere.
Dredd on good form, also liked SinDex. Cabalistics and The Order both look great but were less engaging.

Proudhuff

Got to say the opposite of ColinYMCA  ;)
Cover a nice Dredd, not setting the heather alit but good stuff.
Damage Report: go on read it, great stuff.
Dredd: We've lost Weather control and and world wide nukes are heating up, knowing what Ichabod has done, this is top notch Dredd with top notch art, loving Dredd's visor when he finally appears.
SinDex: finally some sense, a fine episode with some well laid out spreads. Then it goes all shorty again.
FTB: promising 'first' episode, some good layering of the story, nice mashup of styles.
The Order, I must admit lost me years ago, so just along for the(train) ride.
Diaboliks: Great stuff, art cracking, story charging along, more please Tharg!
DDT did a job on me

Jacqusie

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 08 June, 2020, 08:51:37 PM

Dredd - ...this time its all about building the stakes. Its good, the art is a joy, it just feels a little forming, building, without enough meat on the bones yet.

I'm not sure what you've done with Colin, but you must be bodysnatcher & you're rumbled   ;)

I thought Dredd was packed to the gills with action and intrigue, there's the whole global situation going on with the missiles and Weather control lost, Anderson acting and sounding like Anderson (hooray!) working alongside Dredd and thats all before the reveal of the mission at the end (we are after all episode 2 of 15). The dialogue was spot on and the characters all get some great lines, the best going to Dredd and his appraisal of Ichabod. Stellar stuff indeed.

I thought I was reading Brink when casting my eye over Sinister Dexter, it's talky talking heads but not in a good way and I do like the fact we have fully painted strip in the prog alongside a black and white one which gave depth and texture alongside all the computer coloured stuff.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Jacqusie on 09 June, 2020, 07:51:47 PM
I'm not sure what you've done with Colin, but you must be bodysnatcher & you're rumbled   ;)

Quote from: Proudhuff on 09 June, 2020, 05:33:56 PM
Got to say the opposite of ColinYMCA  ;)

Maybe I was just in a grump when I read it???

73north

Finally got my copy late , on Tuesday ( oh how I miss the Saturday delivery )

anyway a very enjoyable Prog - and I even put up with the ORDER and tolerated it !

Dredd - End of Days
  I think the tension is building and the story writing is superb , and the artwork of the very highest order
- I think this is shaping up to be a worthy long saga - and the best is yet to come -
Rob Williams has pt the work into this story and its showing - this will make a great collected volume !

Sinister Dexter

I really enjoyed the next episode and found it well written and engaging .
Look forward to next week !

Full Tilt Bogie - I enjoyed this new series opener - its a bit like Brass Sun - its clear the writer has put a lot of work into it , and I think the best is yet to come - it seems like a good start .

The Order This was actually not bad - and I will tolerate it , and see where it goes .
I am glad others are enjoying it , as for me , I will be glad when it ends , frankly
It was an okay story .

Diaboliks
- another lovely new series from Gordon Rennie ( boy - is this writer on form for 2000ad )
and the next part is a nice set up for the duo to do a little bounty-hunting a bit like Feral and Foe

I really enjoyed the comic this week , and there were not many downsides - I will put up with the ORDER
and just enjoy the ride , like a few , I got a bit lost a while ago .

The Rob Williams End of Days is the highlight of the Prog , for me .

Thanks 2000ad !!

broodblik

A very good prog as we have been experiencing the whole year.  I will give this another 5/5

Dredd – The second episode does not disappoint and Dredd's last words "I Can do that" set the wheels in motion.  As always MacNeil's art helps to deliver a great story.

Sin/Dex – Just as the story stars it looks like the same pattern with all Sin/Dex stories rather than one big story we have multiple small stories making up the arc. A lot of talking with a cliff-hanger at the end.

Full Tilt Boogie – An excellent start to this new series. We start with a background story (some nice world building) and then we continue from where the regen episode ended.

The Order - I am enjoying the train-ride, the Order is continuing to fascinate me. If you cannot enjoy the story at least behold the beautiful paint-work art by Burns its is especially great in this episode.

Diaboliks – So the story is building towards the new team that will be formed. This episode does not have the action, but it shows us where the story will be going. Good start for another interesting Rennie story. Here we have our classic B/W strip.

Thank You, Tharg for all the continuous thrills !!!!
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Proudhuff

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 09 June, 2020, 07:54:30 PM
Quote from: Jacqusie on 09 June, 2020, 07:51:47 PM
I'm not sure what you've done with Colin, but you must be bodysnatcher & you're rumbled   ;)

Quote from: Proudhuff on 09 June, 2020, 05:33:56 PM
Got to say the opposite of ColinYMCA  ;)

Maybe I was just in a grump when I read it???

I can sympathise with that, often the case with me  ;)
DDT did a job on me

TordelBack

You can track my changing humours by the tone of my prog review threads. Someone should make an app.

Despite being less than cheery this week, I though that was a solidly enjoyable prog.

We'll start with the lone fly in the ointment, Dredd.  Atmospherically drawn, skilfully written, but seriously why does this involve Ichabod.  Other than Johnny & Wulf (good), Rogue (weak) and Hammerstein (poor), has this ever happened before, a completely unconnected 2000AD character dragged into Dredd in such a central role?  The priors are all top-tier crossover fodder, and one movie tie-in.

I don't have a problem with supernatural god-bothering storylines in Dredd, or indeed fourth-wall breakers, there have been plenty of both: but why drag a character with such a very specifically meta background into it?  I now fully expect the Four to be Malone, Crispy, Armoured Gideon and the Witchboy of London Town. Either that or Dredd's quest will lead him to Tharg's drawer where he can finally team up with Ace Garp, who at least is in someway connected via the Kleggs, and Blackhawk, more tenuously linked through Mac-Mac. 

It doesn't help my enjoyment that I've really grown to dislike Williams' brutish sub-vocalising Dredd - he's a top-class detective with a talent for applied violence, not bloody Mongrol or Gene the Hackman. I don't however dislike the Anderson dialogue, it's actually a timely addition, seeing as she's what, 60-something now?

It all looks bloody lovely, mind. Will that be enough to get me through another 3 months of it?

Now, what was that I was saying about it being an enjoyable prog?

Ah yes. Full Tilt Boogie. Not what I as expecting at all, but a dense and intriguing space-opera opener instead, and really quite beautifully drawn.  I scurried off to find the first Regened prog to refresh the first part, but alas that's the problem with giving comics to kids: it has completely vanished into one of their foetid nests. I wonder if the throat-cutting scene is what saw this week's episode bounced from Regened to here?  Good stuff so far.

The Order makes much better use of the Edge than the previous series, and maintains a pleasingly linear and gloriously painted trajectory. Something to be said for being on rails. Really enjoying the references in this one.

Sinister Dexter might be taken as evidence that what works in Brink might not always work elsewhere, but actually I was very pleased to have the plot and relationships summarised like this - although I'm still holding out hope that (a). Lilith is backed-up in Ray's headcase and (b). this is all taking place inside a simulation. 

Diaboliks this week feels like slipping into a comfy old shoe. Getting Dom back for this was a great idea.

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

JayzusB.Christ

You know, I much prefer the black and white version.  But I suppose black and white covers don't sell (I nearly gave up looking for the Big Dave cover with the different logo).
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

norton canes

Er, did anyone find Anderson's line

[spoiler]"So, headache, nausea and some bitching period pains. That's just another day being a woman, Joe."[/spoiler]

a little too on-the-nose? Like, so on the nose it could have floored Tyson Fury? The second I read it I genuinely had to get up and leave the room. I made an involuntary noise, a gulp of astonishment I can only describe as being primal. Then I had a little sick reflex in my throat. Oh, Tharg. All the steps you've taken to get female perspectives in the comic by actually employing female creators, then you let something like this slip through the net. Am I missing some kind of ironic reference?

Anyway.

Thought there were a few not twists exactly but sideways moves in this week's strips. 'End Of Days' and The Diaboliks suddenly mutate into 'assassination run' type stories. Full Tilt Boogie, rather than focus on the protagonists from the prologue, opens with a massive slice of world-building. And SinDex drops another deliciously dialogue-dedicated Abnett special. Never understood why people don't like these episodes - if you think that, let's say, half a dozen episodes of something like SinDex equates to an hour or so of TV episode (your calculation may vary), then it's fine to have a chunk of that given over to talking heads, especially if it's setting up a big plot. What I actually found more objectionable was that frame had to be illustrated from Polly's POV simply in order to justify the episode title. Put that crowbar down, Mr Abnett!

With The Order also a joy to read, the prog once again has a fantastic set of strips to fill the next few weeks. Bitching!

Blue Cactus

I feel kind of similarly to TordelBack's view of Rob Williams' Dredd. I like Williams's writing a lot, Lowlife and Ichabod being two examples of great stuff he's done for the Prog in my opinion, and Ordinary was fantastic. His Dredd, though, is quite often depicted as this legendary FORCE - stuff happens around him, people react to his presence, and he just waits until he has to blow stuff up or punch something. He kind of says as much in this week's episode. It's a valid take on the character, to be fair.

This isn't always the case, he has done some sneaky planning and under the radar teaming up with people and investigating things in Williams strips too. But he seems to lack those glimmers of humanity, dry dry dry humour, inquisitive detective instincts and even concern that I love seeing in the character.

Still going to enjoy this story though!