Prog 1441... Earth Shattering!

[ukdane]

Has no one else reviewed this?

Must be a bank hoiday in uk!

Cover Rocks- Surely ne that'll stand-out on the shelves.

DL: Is back.

VC: Didn't realise this was the last episode.

Shak: Double lenght.

Input: Is back.

GN News: good use of the bottom  of the input page.

RE-view when EYE-read it.

[Artificial Idiot]

Yes, it is.

Bloody posties... They're too imcompetant to deserve a day off!

[wrighty47]

Oi... whatchit matey!!  :p

Alan!

[Tiplodocus]

I got mine.

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Just a quick note to say I take back everything I said about the Dredd opening episode in last weeks prog.  I think I said it was an interesting start to the tale.  Having read episode 2, I realise that episode 1 was a complete waste of space. There's nothing in it which isn't done/expalained/shown ten times better in part two.  

This would have been a great first episode and would have left us guessing at who the stranger trying to chat Vienna up was, who was behind it all etc but because of the episode 1, we seem to have lost any mystery and chance to join the dots and guess for ourselves.  I really liked this episode - I thought it was great the way the characters and situations were introduced but am just ever so slightly annoyed that it wasn't part 1.  

GRennie will probably prove me wrong and I've missed some pivotal point in part 1 but that's standard for me.  I liked the M.Night Syamalan cameo as well.  Some wag said he's now the second most famous Indian in America (after Apu from Simpsons).

Did that make any sense?

Slaine benefits from having a sense of purpose and a specific goal to achieve but it's still the same old same old as far as I can see.  And what a suprise - last week's cliffhanger wasn't really.

VCs has an interesting ending but I can't help feeling there's a big contradiction in the "We are so insignificant to them" and the "They use us to entertain them" ideas.  Unless the whole galaxy is like a little ant farm being toyed with by a polity child. Which sounds liek a crap future shock.

Shakara has some lovely art and it looks like the plot will be expanded upon slightly from last "book".  Please.

[McNulty]

And so to my comments (If I can just adjust my scorched thrill circuits...)

Judge Dredd: Dredd continues to dispense justice to the perps after all these years! Those Total War punks were certainly racking up those violations - not only were they printing seditious material, in one frame I noted use of tobacco (possibly worse), coffee (bearing the name of a insane tyrant) and illegal firearms! I suppose when you're doing something as obviously illegal as printing anti-judicial propaganda, the other things just don't seem as important.
And onto Vienna - strange that after shooting down so many potential suitors, she begins a relationship with Pasha straight away. What is it about him I wonder. Animal magnetism? There shared love of Hotties, or perhaps the Brit-Cit accent reminds her of her time in that Megalopolis? We'll just have to see.

Slaine: After last week's cliffhanger, I really didn't think Slaine would be able to shrug off Odacon so easily, and he words against Gods don't seem to mesh with his devotion to the Earth Goddess he has previously displayed. Can it be that Slaine has lost his faith in his Pagan mistress? It was sad to see Fergus die, and so swiftly as well. Now only Odacon remains.

The V.C.s: This series ends with the emphasis firmly set against the Polity rather than the Geeks. Call me a sceptic if you will, but I seriously doubt Major Smith is the best choice for trying to make peace with the Geeks...

Shakara: Explodes back into 2000AD, full of black and white and RED! Loads of action right from the start, and several points of irony I would like to cover. Firstly, the idea of fighting wars on moons and planets apart from the two combatants homeworlds is not an original one. The theory behind such an endevour is persuasive, as put forward in the salesman's sales pitch, put as a past Future Shock said, surely if one side lost in such a war, it would simply launch everything it had on the victor, rather than submit to them? In the Future Shock, both of the armies, had mutually decided to fake the war, rather than have it decided, for fear of what their governments would do.
Another point shown in this great episode was the two combatants that had a visit from Shakara. The Shazarians and the Draganians do look very, very similar. And it has been said that people with few differences find it harder to get along than those who are completely different. And then Shakara appears and rains destruction on them - I've got to say, I really liked that frame where the salesman actually bites off his own tongue (the means to his fortune) moments before all those warmongers are incinerated). Was it justice, or vengeance. It was neither, because Shakara wasn't concerned about this system-wide war. The millions of soldiers fighting for their different governments were not what brought it here. Surprisingly enough, it was the doctor. The supposed being of medicine, of charity. Dr Procopio, was the guilt-ridden prey for Shakara this time. And he wanted to die. And for the first time, I think I saw Shakara hesitate before delivering the killing stroke. Who's next? I can't wait.

And finally, Droid Life: Funny as usual. Tharg's really going to have to forbid any further office parties for the underlings if this is how they're going to behave...

Well, that's it for this week. A thoroughly enjoyable prog, and I'm looking forward to next week's. Oh, by the way, did I miss what's going to replace the V.C.s next week?

[Bad Andy]

They did the war thing in the Judge Child Quest, only that time Dredd and Hershey were 'natural hazards'.

And that last panel...

Shakara's coming for me next!

[Grant Goggans]

"Oh, by the way, did I miss what's going to replace the V.C.s next week?"

Caballistics was mentioned in a Diamond solicitation around this time, so I think that will be back, but I'm not sure what will fill the fifth slot.  Possibly Atavar Book III?  The previous books have run for eight weeks with a double-part finale, so that would slot well from 1442-49.

--Grant

[Artificial Idiot]

Dredd has finally sercuried it's self as top dog for me again! Really enjoyed this strip, especially the Total War creeps. Wonder how many years they'll be doing each (assuming they survive the interigation process!).

Shakara was a really nice twist to what we've previously seen of him. I never thought I'd see the day that he not only let his victim explain it's self, but also have to be begged to kill! Wow. Good stuff, even if the war world concept was slightly contrived (but nicely executed, all the same!)

V.C.s was, for the first time in a long time, pretty great! I'm sure if I re-read this all the way through, I'd apprciate it more. And I just might do that, as that last panel really made it all worthwhile for me. Really great stuff on display, and I'm itching to see Smith's 'peaceful tactics'.

And as one story improves, the other slips into a great gaping hole. So much for a really exciting, gripping cliffhanger. Waste of time. A really exciting tale turned into nothing more than 'give the bad guy what for! Oh wait, we'll have to catch him first!". Nothing good to say about it, other than the art was, as per usual, excellent.

And of course, Droid Life is always welcome!

[paulvonscott]

Slaine, really enjoyed it again, reminds me a little of Elric novels with people chasing weird bad guys across strange landscapes.

Not read much so far as it's a meg day too.  But the visually stunning Shakara has livened up the prog.

Cover - Is that your spaceship or do you need to consult a doctor?

[IndigoPrime]

:: I never thought I'd see the day that he not only let his
:: victim explain it's self, but also have to be begged to kill!

He had to: otherwise the victim would never have been able to tell the reader the entire back story... Exposition central in that story this week...

[Rio De Fideldo]

Atavar does indeed return next week along with Sinister Dexter and Caballistics.

[Grant Goggans]

At five stories, it should be Dredd, Shakara, Slaine, Cabs and Atavar.  I think Sin Dex should return after Slaine finishes.

--Grant

[ukdane]

According to the man himself (in this prog), Atvar, Sin Dex, and Cab Inc return inn TWO weeks time, so I'd imagine next week will have a filler story (Future Shock?), or possibly a one off Sin/Dex.

This prog was Eggs & Bacon!

[Dudley]

Well, it had to happen...

Slaine falls back to earth (well, to 4th place) with a bump.  The in-one-bound-he-was-free beginning is just lame.  Picks up again quite nicely by page 4, and Langley's representation of snow-covered rocks is lovely.

The VC's - it may be genre, but by God I love it - gets a solid third.

Blood Trails really picks up from last week, I'd say more but Tips has said it for me already.

And at Number One:

++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++
++++++Unknown+Life+Form++++++

[Byron Virgo]

Was it just me, or does that bloke in Dredd look exactly like George Clooney?