Forum’s Favourite Thrill - Deadlock vs. Flesh Round 2 Heat 38

[Rogue Judge]

Flesh. Good fun with dinosaurs.

[Dark Jimbo]

Deadlock felt very "oh no, we killed off Nemesis—hang on, we can use Deadlock instead"...

Here's my take - Deadlock is not the star of the Deadlock series. Termight is.

I've long held that Termight as a setting has every bit as much potential for storytelling as Mega-City One, but the ongoing, breathless (sometimes perfunctory) battle of egos between Nemesis and Torque hadn't left room to really explore it since Nemesis I (particularly once they started mucking about with time travel).

But Deadlock is chock full of worldbuilding, and it's fantastic. We learn more about Termight in that one series than we have since that first Nemesis book. Zusian head juice? Mandrake bikers? Face-eating fruit? The old Temple of Terminus turned into a human/alien nightclub? Lib-anti foot fetishes? Chainsaw bikes? Robot spider tanks? Zardar, head of the Thought Police? That's the crime of us never getting any more series of Deadlock - that Termight was lost to us.

[IndigoPrime]

If the voting doesn't change course soon I'll be doing that to the lot of yous

TBF, that should have happened after Devlin was ejected.

Here's my take - Deadlock is not the star of the Deadlock series. Termight is.

That's an interesting take and a good point. Maybe I'll re-read Deadlock with that in mind. However:

That's the crime of us never getting any more series of Deadlock - that Termight was lost to us.

But we'd never have got it, because Mills is too often obsessed with his ego fights and recycling the same preachy scripts ad infinitum. But, yeah, in a different timeline, maybe we're all loving book seven of the endlessly imaginative Deadlock.

[Funt Solo]

No brainer: it's Flesh.

The deadlock series was okay, but I find he's always been more interesting as part of a group. Flesh is such a great concept, and the early, pulpy series were lots of fun. I enjoyed the mid-zone adventures of Legend of Shamana and Chronocide. I pretty much despised the later books as they're late era Mills banging his foil drum loudly in my face.

[IndigoPrime]

Shamana, interestingly, had a feathered dino too, way before that was mainstream.

[norton canes]

I've told myself I'll only vote in rounds where I've read at least some of both strips. But Flesh book I was so good I'll have to go for it despite never having read Deadlock.

Flesh

[moly]

Flesh

[maryanddavid]

Flesh purely on the basis of the first story, great central idea.

[AlexF]

Deadlock as a one off tale was decent, far better than it had a right to be. Agree that Termight was the star and that's a good thing. But it's not AMAZING. And there are bits of Flesh, even the later series, that really are AMAZING. Claw Carver and Old One Eye are all-time characters. Belardinellis art on Book II is something folk need to check again if they remember that story as a mere retread. I mean, the actual plots of Flesh are mostly awful (Chronocide and Midnight Cowboys being the exceptions). Come on people, watching humans being munched on is never not fun.

Flesh

[Huey2]

Deadlock

[paddykafka]

Deadlock

[Colin YNWA]

There's a LOT going on here and I'm genuinely not sure which way this one is going. If votes do come in this final day they will no doubt decide things. I'll let you know in the morning.

[broodblik]

I will call it Mills to take it

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

in which once iconic characters are recorded over and over by an admittedly brilliant producer - until the original greatness is hardly audible any more. eventually, thankfully, the tape unspools.
none of the above.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Flesh was a great idea, even if some of the stories weren't.  Deadlock was, as mentioned, just not as good as Nemesis.