A good enough meg not the greatest but enjoyable.
Dredd – The Red Queen saga continues with interesting new story basically continuing from last year's The Hard Way running in the prog. This is a semi-standalone which will then continue into the next arc of the saga. Lynch is the normal artists but for this episode we have Ian Richardson on art duties (who reminds me of Staz's art) and it is great. Good start.
Death Cap – A very weird episode in the sense that nothing really happened except that we have 8 pages where Goya has been carried to a fungus. The page layout was quite interesting. Plot wise except for the last page nothing changed.
Diamond Dogs – We are moving to the endgame as Armitage and Nia gets their respective "issues" sorted out. We need to wait and see how the finale will now play out.
Lawless – Meta is not taking her lost very well. The new mayor well what can we say is being used by everyone. Meta at last "decided" to do something about the lost. A good episode from Abnett spinning and weaving his intrigue. As always the art is fantastic.
Surfer – Zane is on the run and [spoiler]try to make a deal with but ending up being arrested[/spoiler]. What is more interesting is that this is only the end of Book 1 so there is more to come.
Cover by Andy Clarke:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSje2nIXoAA070P?format=jpg&name=large)
Cover and Logo:
(https://www.comicbooknews.co.uk/img/2000AD/2022/Judge-Dredd-Megazine-444-1.webp)
B/W Cover:
(https://2000ad.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/4GREYTONE-784x1024.jpg)
I enjoyed Dredd and the ending was intruiguing. Nice art, too. Death Cap continues. Nice layout ideas and probably interesting from a collected standpoint in terms of pace, but I still don't care about anyone or anything in the story.
Diamond Dogs is almost done. Probably warrants a re-read. I've been cool and warm on this one, but this episode was solid. Lawless, though, goes from strength to strength, and Surfer ended well.
In all, 60% fab, 20% hmm and 20% nope for me this issue. Sort order: Lawless > Dredd | Surfer > Diamond Dogs > Death Cap
Interesting Meg which carries on the split of quality.
Two thrills just aren't cutting the mustard. Diamond Dogs I want to like as I love the art, but it just slides off me and I not only can't remember it month to month its gone the moment I've turn its last page. A re-read. Well one day and it might serve it well, I just don't care enough to be enthused to do it anytime soon.
Similarly Death Cap. I'm just not invested. This one at least tried to punch above its weight with some innovative and intriguing page layouts and storytelling ideas. Just goes to show all the innovation won't work if you don't have characters to draw you into it and carry you through.
Dredd is a real step up from those two. The squad getting picked off around Dredd is rushed through, it is cliche by now so that's no bad thing. But the story is building and leaves us in an interesting place.
Surfer interesting and brilliant. This is building to something and just like Chopper before we really learn what. Just as with Super Surf 7 our hero is hauled away, with a promise that this isn't the end. Can't wait to see where this goes and how this develops.
but very little in comics if as brilliant as Lawless which has a really REALLY good episode. The obvious is revealed as we see who is pushing the new majors buttons and we already know this will create a friction that will spark things in Badrock. We also get revealed the unexpected as Dabnett and Winslade take the genius step of making Metta a [spoiler]masked vigilante[/spoiler]. I mean it feels obvious when you see it. A real "well of COURSE that's what they did with her next" but how we get there, the perfect superhero origin and set up... its just devine stuff and I can't wait to see what's next.
Hawk the Slayer ends really nicely and as I'm picking up the comics I'm looking forward to reading this back in one. Henry Flint is apparently back somewhere in the Prog for September and it can't come soon enough. Lovely text piece for Garry Leach and the rest of the filler is good fun. So overall the quality outweighs the problems.
I have no knowledge of the original Hawk the Slayer film, but read the five floppies a couple of nights back. It all hangs together pretty well. The story isn't exactly brimming with originality, but it does what it was ably, bringing the readers up to speed, familiarising us with the cast, and building some creeping evil throughout. Lovely art too. In all, it's an interesting idea from Rebellion, and I wonder how the commercial ramifications work out, giving Meg subscribers a version of this for free, but selling the comic standalone as well? (Printing is the 'cheap' bit, of course. Creation is the expensive part, which is eased if the content is repurposed. And then distro is the PITA.)
It's also interesting to see 2000 AD's posts on Facebook about this. The comments threads are alive with people who clearly love this property and are eager to read the comic. Feels like a smart move in principle. Here's hoping it worked out in the event.
I have now also read the last chapter of Hawk and I can recommended it. As Indigo say it is not the most original series but it is super enjoyable.
Making the Hawk part of the meg as a floppy might have been to boost sales or just give it extra exposure. I would have bought it if it was not part of the meg
Honestly, I probably wouldn't have done, but I appreciate it as a value-add for the thing I already subscribe to. (I certainly like it more than what we're getting next month, say, which is content I've already read that isn't that old and that I wasn't overly keen on in the first place.)
It does seem much too soon to reprint those Anderson stories already.
I enjoyed Hawk the Slayer. Never having seen the film, I would not have bought the separate comic, but I presume there are other people who are not interested in Judge Dredd but want to read a sequel to a film they loved in their childhood. I'm sure Revellion know what they're doing.
Hard to believe we're going to read Megazine 450 this year. 400 feels like only last year!
*Reach not read. (Although I suppose both work!)
Quote from: Richard on 19 May, 2022, 12:10:03 PMIt does seem much too soon to reprint those Anderson stories already.
I don't get the strategy here. As a long-term collector, I get that I'm going to have read most or all of the 2000 AD reprint. But reprinting a Magazine strip that's less than three years old seems a bizarre decision to me.
Having been utterly indifferent to Hawk the Slayer, I found that final episode super enjoyable, am super curious to see how this comic does in the wider world. In general I don't get much out of comics follow-ups to film/TV, no matter how good they are, it always feels a bit like a consolation prize.
Mm. Quite a few that should have been slam dunks just... weren't. Buffy in comics form was middling. I've not liked a single thing of the Firefly stuff I've read. With Hawk, though, I've no reference points so just had to take it as what it is.
I'd completely forgotten the postie delivered this last week.
Really must get round to reading 🤣.
Not sure if I missed something in Dredd, but when he exits out into the ocean he says (thinks) this isn't the first time he has been the sole survivor of a team. We didn't see everyone else get killed. Ok I can fill in the blanks, but it just seemed a bit jarring.
As with some others I want to like Diamond Dogs, but some of it is just not that memorable. And it's not because it's overly complex. I'm sure a one sitting read through would sort that out quite easily.
Death Cap kinda lost me a bit this month. But I'm not sure how much I care.
Stand outs were Surfer and Lawless.
Lawson's disguise seems to be taken straight out of the Clark Kent playbook. As in, oh wow I'd never have guessed it was you. You know with the distinctive hair and everything.