2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[michaelarby]

Picked up age of the wolf and Dredd from the latest extension, and gonna pick up zenith cos you guys have mentioned it so many times in this thread. but other than that, not sure what to cherry pick. not too gripped by age of the wolf after reading the first arc, but that may have been my mindset when reading - think i was trying to force myself to read it when i shoulda read something else. will try again in a month or two.

[Barrington Boots]

Age of the Wolf is not good. Great concept mind you...

Skimming over Hachette's site, Zenith is brilliant. Stickleback and Leviathan are worth a shot from recent relases imo.

As someone that didn't read it in the Meg, what is the forum verdict on The Returners?

[JohnW]

Zenith and Age of the Wolf are worlds apart.
Age of the Wolf never thrilled me because I was a jaded grown-up when it ran. Zenith on the other hand...
Anyway, comparing them is fruitless. It's chalk and cheese (if the chalk turned into a werewolf and the cheese was fermented by dark entities beyond time and space and had great hair and a hit single).

Never could get into The Returners. It was always on that "I'll read it properly some other time" list, but that was however-many series ago and I've long since lost the list.

[Tjm86]

TBH Boots, I was never really sure what was going on with the Returners.  The art is great to be fair but it seems to lose itself a lot of the time.  Perhaps it might have worked better in the prog with less time between episodes, I don't know ...

[Colin YNWA]

I really enjoyed the Returners. Though it is fair to say the last couple had an element of - must re-read that is really get what's going on. On that basis I think it could be really well served by a collection like this.

Lovely art throughout as well.

[IndigoPrime]

It's an odd extension, in some ways. I've also, sadly, found some stuff just doesn't hold up. So far, I'd say:

• Essentials (if you don't already own): Cradlegrave; Leviathan (although good luck getting a copy now – I sold mine a while back for a terrifying sum of money); Zenith
• Really very goods: Strontium Dogs Vol 1; Deadworld; Brass Sun (if only because who knows if it'll ever finish?); Ro-Busters; Revere (I really like this, but am aware it's divisive); Devlin Waugh (because of the Kot stuff); Stickleback
• Actually, it turns out I didn't like this too much on re-reading: War Machine; Age of the Wolf
• Hoping it holds up and is fab, but haven't got yet: Dredd

Everything else falls below the "would I actually buy this AGAIN?" bar, given that I have a full set of Progs and Megs anyway, and increasingly limited shelf space...

[Funt Solo]

Age of the Wolf, for me, had two good books - the first and the third. I didn't like the middle.

Here's my old reviews of Books 2 & 3:

Age of the Wolf II: She Is Legend
The first series of this just blew me away: it had an original premise, stupendous art and a strong female lead.  This second series is more of a struggle as I'm not clear on what our heroin is trying to achieve (long term), and she seems to lurch from disaster to disaster.  It's not awful: still has great art and great potential: but I'd like to see Rowan more in charge of her own destiny, and to know more about how the setting works.

Harry (and his sister and his gran) are good villains: his racial purity notions are horrific.  His vision of a hyper-sexualized Rowan was a bit much.  I know it was part of his insanity, but it would be nice to have a female lead character who isn't hyper-sexualized (even when it is an apparition that another character is having).

Granny turning wolf was pretty cool, and perhaps I should have seen it coming (what with Little Red Riding Hood and all).  In summary:

More of this, please:	Less of this, please:

Age of the Wolf III: Wolfworld
Series #1 was "28 Werewolves Later", Series #2 was Wolfenders and this is Planet of the Werewolves.  That's quite a jump, which visually is quite shocking as the more standard giant wolf beasts of the first two series are replaced with a more anthropomorphic species. 

As it leaps forward in time, a sort of magically accelerated evolution has taken place and we witness a world filled with new beasts and a harnessing of new moon-powered tech (used by the wolf species in a bid to finally exterminate the human race):



Rowan has aged and become a notorious dervish: a grey witch that powers her way across the land and through any obstacle (herself as much a beast as any of the wolves) in her bid to defeat the curse that has taken over the planet:



Ultimately, it all sews itself up in a tricky third act: my assumption is that this ends the story.  If you're doing a re-read you could safely skip the second series as the weakest of the three and you'd be doing just fine.

---

The Returners I found a bit disjointed, although it was atmospheric. I didn't really click with Chandhu (the 2nd book), then Heartswood started to explain a bit more what was going on with them. I felt like it really hit its stride with Amazonia (the fourth book). Of course, Si Spencer died and Matt Smith scripted the final episode.

[Barrington Boots]

Appreciate your comments on Returners all. Sounds like I should check it out, but not as any kind of priority. The Hachette volumes are pretty affordable to I'll pick up a copy.

[sintec]

As someone that didn't read it in the Meg, what is the forum verdict on The Returners?

Both The Returners and Blunt read much better in the collected editions than they did in the Meg (imo). Wasn't expecting to enjoy either of them as much as I did. Far more likely to reread those than trash like Mean Team. The Middenface book was also a pleasant surprise, it's by far the best of the recent SD books in the collection.

[Tomontherun94]

Dredd/Anderson and Age Of The Wolf arrived today. Dredd includes all everything from Top Of The World, Mama to The Dead World. Slightly disappointed Trinity wasn't included but expected it. Maybe in a potential Niemand volume? (Surely he's got enough Dredds by now to fill a book?)

[Le Fink]

As someone that didn't read it in the Meg, what is the forum verdict on The Returners?

Both The Returners and Blunt read much better in the collected editions than they did in the Meg (imo)...

I enjoyed the Returners volume. Not essential but nice art and unusual storyline. I caught it half way through in the Meg and couldn't make heads nor tails from it then, so great to get the lot in one go. An entire volume with the same writer / artist throughout probably a bit of a rarity in this collection?

Blunt not so much for me but it did read ok in one go. Not sure I'll return to that one though. I struggle a bit with the art style, sorry.

The fat Dredd/Anderson volume is great so far. Nice plot and art. Not read any of it before, so a real treat. I'm about halfway through. I found the change in depiction of Dredd amusing - clearly Karl Urban in the prequel story to, well, "chinny Dredd" in the rest.

[Le Fink]

An entire volume with the same writer / artist throughout probably a bit of a rarity in this collection?

Apart from Matt Smith's final part of course!

[michaelarby]

I enjoyed returners and blunt well enough. cant remember much about returners though other than it enjoyably passed a few hours. I did like blunt and actually quite liked the art style. I enjoyed the colouring.

Age of the wolf has been sitting abandoned for a few weeks now. Not in any rush to finish it.

Stickleback, Leviathan, cradlegrave and devlin waugh were all very enjoyable. I have both brass sun volumes but have only read the first one so far - it was fine but i think i havent been in the mood for that kind of story lately so its sitting on the 'to read' pile.

Enjoying the new dredd volume but so far there doesnt seem to be much to differentiate it from mainline dredd other than the different uniforms. but again, nice to see the movie universe be continued at all.

[Max Headroom]

Has it been categorically ruled out that 'The Order' will not feature in this last extension? I recall some chatter on Facebook saying that there would not be a second book, but is this definite? Completing the story with unpublished strips and the current arc in the Prog would, I think, be fitting.

[IndigoPrime]

Who knows? These things can chop and change as they go. I'd hope that if there is wiggle room in the collection and the choice between something largely inconsequential and entirely wrapping up an already started series in HC that they'd go for the latter. At least if that works regarding page count.