Prog 1394 - Public Enemy!

[The Amstor Computer]

COVER:

Already commented on this on the other thread, but this is a lovely, moody piece from the Flint droid. All the better for having very little of the page taken up by text or trailers for the other stories.

DREDD:

Very, very good. Dredd's "manifesto" is a perfect character moment:

"Me, I say nothing reasonable about terror. This is war. I make no concessions. Beat me fair and square and you can take the keys to the Grand Hall off my dead body -- but I'm damned if I'll hand them to you on a plate."

MacNeil's art is on top form again, and I can't wait to see where this story goes next prog.

SAVAGE:

Heh - first, he took out tanks with soap, now he's shooting down Hinds with tin-foil!

The story is beginning to pick up pace now, and with Freedom Day coming next prog, I've got a feeling things are going to get very, very unpleasant for occupied Britain.

My only criticism? You guessed it, it's the few moments of clunky dialogue. "Funk" is still bloody awful, but the worst offender this week has to be Noddy going on about his "vital fluids".

Still, this is Pat Mills at the best I've seen him in years, so I guess I can forgive it :-)

A.H.A.B.:

No idea where this is going now, but I'm looking forward to finding out. A.H.A.B. is back on form now he's within reach of his nemesis, and it looks like being a grand finale. Richard Elson's art is also much improved over the slightly rushed last couple of episodes.

LOW LIFE:

Guess who the villain is? If you're pointing at the Judge with funky glasses, give yourself a pat on the back!

Well, this "twist" was expected, but what wasn't was Farnsworth's motive. Very Robin Hood, and it succeeded in surprising me, so congrats to Rob Williams.

As someone pointed out over at 2000AD Review, this is basically one long "origin" story. It remains to be seen whether all the threads will be tied up by the end of this story, but Rob & Henry have done a great job of establishing a new ongoing series here.

A special mention has to go to Henry's work on the flashback panels - it's very subtle, but the slightly faded look works perfectly, without being intrusive in the way these devices can sometimes be.

CHOPPER:

Ah, well. I think most of us had high expectations for this series, but now it's come to the end & the character is no further forward - 8 episodes of this, just to have Chopper right back where he started? I doubt I'll be alone in feeling a little bit cheated by this.

The artwork is great, as usual, but even it can't lift this. A few good moments aside, this has been a real let-down, and it feels like John Wagner's just been coasting through a tale about a character he really doesn't care about anymore - and if he doesn't, why should we?

8.5/10 - A cracking prog, let down only by Chopper.

[W. R. Logan]

>Ah, well. I think most of us had high expectations for this series, but now it's come to the end & the character is no further forward - 8 episodes of this, just to have Chopper right back where he started? I doubt I'll be alone in feeling a little bit cheated by this.

I?d have to disagree that the character is no further forward. Look at Vienna, Rico, Death, Anderson, Strontium Dog & even Robohunter, they were written into a proverbial dead end with nowhere to go or even in continuity limbo. Wagner is the prime example of taking a character that we think has no where to go and in one story bringing them back, their first stories may not be anything earth shattering but it salvages them from other writers or from situations where you may not really care whether they appear again and places them back into the consciousness of the readers that allows them to come back again. With some of the characters above its not the first story that is anything fantastic but because they now have been brought back from limbo it allows the writers to do something with them.


La Placa Rifa,
http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/>W. R. Logan.

http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/images/Co79_logo.gif>

[The Amstor Computer]

Fair point, Logan. I just feel that, apart from Jug's death, not much has really happened in this story. There's not even a mention for Dredd at the end, despite the build-up with him at the beginning & his determination to stop Chopper.

If Wagner does have plans for a future Chopper story, maybe this will be seen as a necessary step, if not a particularly great story. At the moment, though, it's hard not to feel a bit pissed off with a story that's run for two months only to land Chopper right back on a beach in Oz.

[W. R. Logan]

>At the moment, though, it's hard not to feel a bit pissed off with a story that's run for two months only to land Chopper right back on a beach in Oz.

But its taken Chopper out of the hands of other writers, has placed him back in to the readers consciousness and once John has taken back ownership of a character its not that easy then for other writers to do anything with the character without first asking if John has any future plans for them.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[The Amstor Computer]

Yeah, I understand that - and it certainly is good to have Chopper back in the hands of the guy who created him, but for me that's a consideration *outside* the simple question of "did I enjoy this story?".

[paulvonscott]

Hmmm... not convinced by that, John Wagner could have written some other story and done the same thing surely?

Chopper continues, like Strontium Dog, but they havn't really gone anywhere yet have they?

As for John reninvigorating other characters, Death?  Mean machine?  Struggling would be a better word.  Enjoyable enough, but a bit tired.

Rico and Vienna weren't at dead ends, they were just characters that weren't being used (or in Rico's case, in all honesty a new character as a foetus in tank couldn't be described as being at a dead end as far as character development goes), and any writer could have brought them back if they'd wanted. The end results were excellent of course, Vienna and Rico have been the best things in Dredd, Dolman also.

Putting Anderson in a coma wasn't a great new launch for Anderson.  Grant seems to be the one who pulled the iron out of the fire here.  And it's Grant on Robohunter as well.

I'm happy enough to read just about anything Wagner puts out, but you've hyper-egged the pudding a bit here Logan.

I think the easiest thing to do in Chopper is just disregard the frankly appalling writing of Alan Mckenzie and Garth Ennis and carry on.  But as Chopper is such an iconic character, and seemed to symbolise so much of the anti-judicial feeling in the city, getting him mixed up in some industrial espionage seems to be a real anti-climax. Tthe best bits are merely echoes of older stories, and while it's enjoyable enough, it doesn't really feel like chopper's back to me.

Perosnally Chopper getting involved (even involuntarily via this woman) with the Total War movement would have been about a thousand times as exciting as a the formula of Pop's pop.

As I said, huge Wagner fan, but let's not go crazy here.

[W. R. Logan]

>I'm happy enough to read just about anything Wagner puts out, but you've hyper-egged the pudding a bit here Logan.

Personally don?t think I have but once again we could go round in circles so I?ll agree to disagree as usual.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[paulvonscott]

That's fine, just adding my opinions.

[judge dreddd]

moan moan moan

that email by jason palmer

he IS the law

chuckle...zooms off into sunset..

[Banners]

Thought Chopper a lovely little story. So it lacked pathos and didn't add to Chopper's iconic status much, but it was perfectly paced, expertly rendered and entirely likeable.

It certainly gave this rapidly-approaching-30yr-old a schoolboy's grin this morning and made me genuinely glad that I still subscribe to 2Thou.

The depiction of Jug's funeral and death will become enduring images I reckon. And the use of the scribbled smiley in the 'twist' was a lovely touch too.

Great stuff!

M@

[Mr D]

COVER:
Yay! Low Life's.... second(?) cover. And the best by far.

DREDD:
Enjoying it thoroughly. Not a foot wrong so far. Hooray!

SAVAGE:
No no no no NO!!

After picking up more and more each week, the ball is spectacularly dropped (for me) this week. The word 'Funk' seems to mean anything Mills wants it to. And to be honest, it shouldn't exist at all - it's a terrible fake word!! I can't tell whether Mills is TRYING to write a vague parody of his own work, but I doubt it. Seriously, I find it hard to read!! And last week there was the 'revelation' that the villain is gay. What a SURPRISE! In a Mills story? NEVER!!Argh!!
I hope this picks back up next week and doesn't contain ANY mention of people's sexuality or religion. It's a story about terrorists. It doesn't need any of it at all.

A.H.A.B.:
Hm, not sure how this is going to end at all! I'm loving it though, and can't wait to find out!!

LOW LIFE:
Hehehe, silly shades guy WAS the baddy. Well I enjoyed reading it this week, and the art is great (as usual). Can't say more than that really!!

CHOPPER:
I loved this tale. I'd have liked it to be an important story I suppose, but I think it was designed just to let us know where Chopper is and what he's thinking right now. From here further adventures can launch! I enjoyed this, and genuinely though Chop had been fool enough to let them lead him along all the way. The moment when she opened the box was priceless.

I've really enjoyed the art on this tale as well! It really suits Chopper, and I'd like to see the same team on any further adventures.

Fantastic prog, let down quite heavily by Savage.

[DavidXBrunt]

Dredd - the idea of centering on the politics teacher instead of Dredd or Total War is a genius idea that really lifts this story from the norm. Great script, nice art.

Savage - No, we knew he was Gay from the first time he appeared, it was made clear then. Last week made it clear that the straight baddy and the gay baddy were equally awful, mind. I'm enjoying this and liked this weeks episode in a 'calm before the storm, segue into the action next week' kind of a way.

A.H.A.B. - More of what we're used to. If you're not enjoying it yet you never will. If, like me, you are enjoying this then you'll be caught up in it.

Low Life - It'd not clicked with me yet this one - competent script, Henry Flint on art, how could that fail? Well, the obvious baddy is revealed and things take off. It could go either way, will Aimee join up or shop him? Genuinley don't know.

Chopper - Yeah, it's light, but it's great fun. Lovely ending episode that brings two months of nicely paced, beautifully drawn, comics that set out to entertain and succeed. Come on - you've had some fun why would you want some major epic? And the smiley was a nice touch.

Cover - Henrys Flint = yay! Droid Life - absent = boo!

[Bolt-01]

Had this weeks Low life spoilered at Bristol when NoisyPat showed me the last page. Looks even better in the flesh (so to speak)

Chopper finished nicely. Not an amazing story but the whole tale is a corker.

Tyranny Rex is back next week too.

Bolt-01

[Proudhuff]

Almost perfect prog! let down by the lack of Driodlife / P14 and NO FLOYD K letter!

Chopper was fine by me, I'm glad he's back on the beach, no in the cubes or with that hussy!

Huffy B-)

[Mr D]

No, we knew he was Gay from the first time he appeared, it was made clear then.

Did we? My mistake. I shall have to re-read.

Last week made it clear that the straight baddy and the gay baddy were equally awful, mind.

True, but the straight baddie is more a violent moron who's being led. The actual villain is the gay one. But regardless of what he's trying to say, why does ANYONE have to be straight or gay?? It has nothing to do with the plot at all!!

   Same with the repeated mention of Noddy's bedroom fumblings. If it were funny I'd be able to take it as a running joke, but...