I'm not going to get all spluttery and outraged about the printing error. It isn't as though it was deliberate, and I'm betting nobody's more annoyed about it than Tharg's minions. Shit happens. On with the review -
Dredd quickly goes some way to taking the edge of my dissatisfaction with the
Debris story, which promised much but delivered little. I'm a lot more interested in the Dolman/Easter/Corps plot now that I know it didn't have the abrupt and unsatisfying resolution I thought it did. It's just getting going so it's a bit early to call but I'm looking forward to next week.
Brass Sun doesn't really do much different from last week, so I don't really have much to say. Still very good stuff.
ABC Warriors is a joy. I was a bit nonplussed by last week's non-event of an installment but this makes up for that in spades, and introduces us to the real meat of this series. The flashback panel of
Happy Shrapnel was crackin', and Pat really pulls a blinder here; in a mere
single panel he retrospectively gives the chap in question a proper backstory, a unique identity he never really had before and explains the rather bonkers name
and erratic behaviour, all in a single panel! Only Pat could write an episode as decompressed as last week's and follow it with one as dense and rich as this. Say what you like about the man's comics but they read like nobody else's. We also get some lovely hints of why/how the original Mars mission ended, which has never really been addressed before, and some
beautiful foreshadowing of where this series going. Joy joy joy.
Blackspot indulges in the classic John Smith dodge of a cool and mysterious monster/setting that's never actually explained (see Cradlegrave); anyone can come up with funky beasties and intriguing scenarios if they're not called on to provide any sort of explanation, and the brass neck of this
should really annoy; but when it's pulled off with this much verve and style it doesn't really seem to matter (again, see Cradlegrave). And it helps that the art's a blinder (you know the drill by now... see Cradlegrave). All told, a textbook example of a Terror Tale... now get these guys back to work on more
Indigo Prime!
Grey Area is Grey Area. The plot continues to take its sweet time, the supposedly grizzled soldiers continue to talk like immature teenagers and Lee Carter continues to knock it out of the park - given nothing very interesting to draw he triumphs regardless and keeps the interest all the way through. It's not that I dislike this series; it's that I struggle to feel very much about it either way since the potentially interesting xenophobe plotline just fizzled out. Ho Hum.
