Prog 2364 - Witch in Time

[Colin YNWA]

Well if you are going to lose Helium good job you have Thistlebone in the locker ready to pop out!

Oh and Henry Flint on Dredd. I mean can he get any better? I'm not sure he can. Its a great story, and that ending is fantastic but let's be honest when Henry is drawing he's the star of the show.

The Devil's Railroad well if you don't like it this isn't changing your mind. But I like it so cool.

I don't like Enemy Earth alas.

Thistlebone is absolutely magnificent and does not hold back at all! Oh Simon Davis how we miss you when you aren't here.

Feral and Foe remains fun.

Just look at the diversity in the art across this issue. Now that's Thrillpower with out a house style to sheckle it!

[broodblik]

Cover by Simon Davis:

[IndigoPrime]

A suitably grim and striking cover, as you'd expect from Davis and Thistlebone. Then on to the opener of A Better World. This Dredd tale is one I've kind of been dreading, because it surely brings an end to this Maitland arc. And things almost never end well in MC-1. That sense of foreboding was ramped up in the final page, and Dredd's flagged Hernandez as a bad'un. Perhaps Beeny might sway things somewhat. This feels like a strip that could shift the status quo (even in a small way – Sector 304 as an anomaly and an enclave or sorts), but I suspect everything will come crashing down. Perhaps Dredd will growl: "Not your fault, Maitland. At least you tried." I hope I'm wrong.

Devil's Railroad continues to be horrible as its caricatures do horrible things. The thing about the painkillers just made me annoyed, having gone through something not a million miles away from that with the NHS. But it didn't promote empathy. It just made me think I don't need this shit in my comics. I'd previously said it reminds me of bad-era 2000 AD. But it's also reminding me of some of the... less-good Marvel stuff I'm plugging through. Again, I'll be happy when it's over.

Enemy Earth is better. This won't go down as a classic in my book, but it's rattling along at a fair old lick. It has energy. And it absolutely should have been in Regened.

It's too early to tell with Thistlebone if it'll match the previous runs, but it's already grabbing the attention. No messing around in 2000 AD! You can imagine in a US volume, they'd have meandered for at least 20 pages – maybe multiple issues – to get to that point.

And then Feral & Foe finishes things off with another slice of banter mixed with action.

So that's a straight 4:1 for me. Dredd > Thistlebone > Feral > Enemy >>>> Railroad

[Barrington Boots]

Dredd was excellent this week. There's a serious sense of foreboding - the tight panels on the early pages give it a real tension. As IP says above, this strip feels like it could have some real significance, but already Maitland, and her project, feel doomed and that makes it incredibly compelling because I don't want that to happen. Brilliant start (and Henry Flint! Perfect.)

As it's a new year and I want to be less of a curmudgeon I made an effort and go back and re-read all of the current runs of Devil's Railroad and Enemy Earth. The former is, if anything, less enjoyable for me than I thought as the problems I had with it seem to escalate with almost every episode. I was happy to find that Enemy Earth is actually pretty good: it blasts along at a fair old clip and it's got interesting and unexpected stuff happening. The art isn't for me and I think this would rule Regened rather than being a bit divisive in the regular Prog but if we're right about the eventual aim being a tpb, then I'm glad we have this than Lowborn every week.

Thistlebone Very glad to have this back and with a shift in focus to boot. Deeply grim opening episode, already full of menace. Awesome!

Feral & Foe consistently great, although this week, for me, the dialogue did start to grate a bit, sometimes drifting too far into snark in the face of inevitable death. But everything about this is loads of fun so its a minor gripe. Liches get stitches indeed.

[broodblik]

This prog has a feeling like a mini jump-on point with two great stories starting this prog. Any prog just feels stronger with a great Dredd story. Overall good prog with just one itching that needs a scratching.

Dredd– First thing first and I must say that Henry Flint's art here is absolutely astounding. What a great opener. This feels like it can be epic with Dredd more focused on getting the perp that following the outcome of the Maitland experiment. Looks also the vultures are hovering waiting for the project to fail.

Railroad – I struggle to like this what good news just two more episodes.

Enemy Earth – The story still has a very cliché feeling to it and reads like most post-apocalyptic stories, but Cavan did try something slightly different here and makes the story more readable than the first book.

Thistlebone– This opening chapter has areal eerie feeling to it and Davis last two pages deliver the horror. A good start to the new chapter.

Feral and Foe – Fun as always as we running into the final countdown, will our band of brothers have success or succumb to the dark side?

[norton canes]

Intrigued to find out what happens to Maitland's experiment in sector 305, but perhaps a little less eager to get more from the Red Queen et al thread, so hopefully 'A Better World' will biased towards the former. Henry Flint's art is putting me very much in mind of the work of an art droid from 2000 AD's early days - can't quite place who, though, I'll have to look at some back progs.

Obviously a pleasure to have Thistlebone back, once again pushing all the right folk horror buttons. A print of that 5th page would be awesome (one for next year's 2000 AD calendar?), though it already has competition from the 4th page of Feral & Foe.  And, come to think of it, the 5th page of The Devil's Railroad. I can't deny there's something genuinely stomach-churning about the direction it takes this week but it feels really exploitative, like a horror movie that has to fall back on schlock and gore.

And I think I've finally got what Enemy Earth reminds me of - basically, a really good modern pop song: the tune (the story) is fantastic but the production (the artwork) is so loud, in a totally ramped-up way, that it obscures everything else. If that makes sense.

[Richard]

Why is Hernandez still on the Council of Five? He literally tried to depose the current chief judge. And at the end of that story, he'd been replaced.

[Funt Solo]

Why is Hernandez still on the Council of Five? He literally tried to depose the current chief judge. And at the end of that story, he'd been replaced.

My agèd brain hath failed me. What story was that in, please?

[Richard]

Machine Law, progs 2115-2122.

[Barrington Boots]

I'm sure Hernandez was on the council for The Pitch where Maitland pitches her idea. Reinstated? Could be a different Hernandez but seems unlikely?

[Funt Solo]

Machine Law, progs 2115-2122.

In prog 2118 the new council is DCJ Ada Porter, Gerard Fulsome, TJ Han, Hector Robles & Judge Harvey [Mechanismo].

[IndigoPrime]

Oops. I guess that's the problem when you've multiple 'showrunners'.

[Barrington Boots]

Harvey is definitely off the council by now. I haven't the Progs to hand to check, and I'm not sure how good the source is, but the Dredd Wiki gives the current council as Han, Waldron, Hernandez, Beeny and Fulsome, with Waldron and Hernandez reinstated?

[Richard]

Yes, I'd forgotten that we'd already seen Hernandez and Waldron on the Council since Logan became chief judge, also in a story by Rob Williams. It still feels a bit "off" though. Why would Logan forgive them? They literally told him that if he didn't fire Harvey they would arrest him!

I won't let it stop me enjoying the story, but it does contribute towards making it feel a bit like it's another Dredd in a parallel universe.

[Funt Solo]

++SPOILERS++

Prog 2122, where the confrontation occurs - the coup-group threaten to arrest Logan. Dredd arrives and kicks some ass.

Logan says "You're all suspended. Leave your weapons here, report to the guardroom, I'll deal with you there. I'm very disappointed in you..." [Nothing like - "you're all on the next shuttle to Titan".]

After Harvey removes himself from the equation, Logan tells Dredd "Fulsome's rejoined the Council in the light of Beeny's reinstatement".

It's not clear if Fulsome was part of the coup (not from my brief prog-scan, at any rate) - but it demonstrates that Logan felt (and he also said) that he'd made a mistake and was trying to recover from it. Within this narrative, even if it was not apparent to the writers, it also makes sense that the coup-Judges were ultimately forgiven.