2000 AD in Stages

[Colin YNWA]

[Dredd] - Crusade is like Battle Royale on ice, with Judges!

Stop it your making it sound good!

[IndigoPrime]

the city looked great

Apart from that pipe that was in about 15 different scenes, thereby showing it up for being a repeatedly re-dressed soundstage. Sigh.

Agreed about Armoured Gideon. It's not a tier-one thrill, but it was a lot of fun. Its omission from the Ultimate Collection is not a surprise, but nonetheless a shame.

As for the rest of this stage, I half the time eye-rolled so hard I thought my peepers would roll out of the room. Finn was dire. Harlem Heroes was pointless. Rogue Trooper was a painful attempt to merge continuities that precisely no-one asked for. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

[Funt Solo]

Meg: Vol. 2.7 (Wicked)
(Megs 2.73-2.83, 1995)

Meg 2.73 jumps us on for the final eleven issues of volume #2. The switch from volume to volume doesn't follow consistent reasoning. From volume #1 to #2 it was the change from monthly to fortnightly (and 52pp to 44pp). But then it went back up to 52pp from meg 2.50. So, the switch over to volume #3 seems driven by the rebranding of the titles that was coincident with the Stallone movie.

Anyway: here we are, before all of that happened, still enjoying a relatively powerful line-up of thrills. There are lots of different art styles on offer and, whereas the prog of the time is feeling tired as it dredges the subs drawer, there's something much fresher going on here. Even in the case of something not quite making classic status, almost everything is at the least interesting.




Judge Dredd
Towards the end of this stage we start to get a double dose of Dredd, and there's a danger of weakening the anthology strength of the comic. The odd editorial aspect is that the three extra Dredd stories don't have any title or sub-title: most stories at the time had a credit page, but these just don't.

Highlights: Skar is a 37-page monster of the week that's the same as but not as good as Raptaur. Terror With Mrs. Gunderson starts up the idea of her apartment being haunted (by Brian Skuter), and it's Dredd that suggests she run it as a paranormal experience. Repeat Offender explores the idea of the same scene playing out time and again: so it's Groundhog Dredd.

Next stage continues the double dose of Dredd...


Maelstrom *NEW THRILL*
Featuring an international group called the STAR Judges, who are attempting to root out planetary corruption, but end up fighting human/pterodactyl hybrids because of ... reasons.   
Tis a one and done. For completists, Extreme Edition #17 offers a reprint alongside some original designs by Chris Halls. There's an argument that this serves as partial inspiration (alongside Warhammer 40K) for 2008's Insurrection.


Shimura
Chambara sees Shimura escape a yakuza hit squad and the authorities by utilizing Hannibal Lector's infamous literal-face-mask technique. The Transcendental Assassin demonstrates Shimura's ability to deflect arrows and smash someone's face in. Heavy Metal sees Inaba try to talk a fellow officer down from committing ritual suicide (as she is also subjected to dishonourable behavior from her superiors). Finally, Assassins has Shimura hire hit-men to take him out so that he can learn their secrets (whilst it also tells a mirror story of an ancient ronin).
Shimura's back with a longer tale starting in meg 3.14...


Harmony: Transient 114
An amazing blend of the sci-fi tropes of the age, this has mind-altering drugs as societal balms (a la Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), minds having been altered (Total Recall), a facsimile of ED-209 (Robocop), but piloted (Mechwarrior), and a mass market gladitorial fight to the death (The Running Man).

Harmony Kreig (having been captured last time we saw her) has been brainwashed into a killer-ratings ... killer, as she pilots her mech against wannabe winners of a gory game show. She even has a banner line on local billboards: "Can You Survive The Blitzkrieg?"

What this does really well is broaden the story out from just being about a sassy bandit, and add in themes to do with societal control and corporate gangsterism.

Harmony's back with the launch of volume #3...


Anderson, Psi-Division
Postcard To Myself brings Anderson back to MC-1 from her backpacking trip around the galaxy so that she can investigate Something Wicked, in her new guise as a pouting, nail-biting, lip-licking, glam, disco queen. A cult is moving some people off-world, and employs very powerful (and aggressive) psychic phenomena to get its way.
Cassandra predicts her return with the launch of volume #3, in a story billed as the direct sequel to this one...


Pandora: Mural Scream
Pandora actually launched with an eight-page story in the 1994 Mega-Special, showing off more of John Hicklenton's unique art style. She's a Wally Squad operative who goes deep cover into a metaphysical drug gang that's part of an SJS plot to psychically monitor the citizens (that, for some reason, involves passionate, leather-clad, psychedelic sex rituals).
This is it for Pandora. I don't know if it's ever been reprinted, but a John Hicklenton special wouldn't go amiss.


Plagues of Necropolis *NEW THRILL*
An interesting idea, this harks back to 1990's Necropolis mega-epic in the weekly prog and provides six standalone side-tales (set prior to Dredd's return to the city) from five artists.
That's all the plagues Si Spencer was willing to unleash. They get a reprint in meg 355's floppy.


Missionary Man
Inspired by those scenes of confidence tricksters selling potions to credulous townsfolk of the old west, Medicine Show has Preacher Cain deliver some righteous fury.

The two-part Night Riders has some sketchy art but a powerful redemption story: a Texas City hotdog run where it's standard practice to murder muties gains the attention of Preacher Cain (who it turns out is a TC Judge who's taken the long walk as an Outlands Marshal).

Preacher Cain rides nonchalantly back into town with the launch of volume #3...


Mean Machine: Visiting Time
Another dose of Hicklenton magic, in which Mean's son (Junior) visits him. This riles Mean into an escape with unfortunate consequences - not least for Jay Angel, who happens to be first in the 'phone book when Pa tries to track down Junior.
Wagner passes the dial to Rennie and Mean's next few greasy spots are special-bound: he shows up in the '95 & '96 Sci-Fi Specials and the '96 Mega-Special before returning to the meg in issue 3.69...


Harke & Burr: Secret Origins
Inspired by those scenes of confidence tricksters selling potions to credulous townsfolk of the old west, this sees Harke & Burr trying to bring rain to a parched Cursed Earth settlement. 
The final series starts in meg 3.04...

Because men must be tough! ---------------------------------------

Because women must be swexy! ---------------------------------------

Because this shit is STRONG! ---------------------------------------

References:
- Barney
- The 2000 AD ABC

[sintec]

Maelstrom also got a reprint in Volume 76 of the Mega Collection (Klegg Hai!). Which means I must have read it but I don't remember anything about it. Not a great sign tbh.

[Funt Solo]

Maelstrom also got a reprint in Volume 76 of the Mega Collection (Klegg Hai!). Which means I must have read it but I don't remember anything about it. Not a great sign tbh.

It's probably the greatest disappointment of this stage: the wonderful Colin MacNeil on art but quite a damp squib of a plot featuring too many thinly-drawn characters. The villains look silly (heads peeking out of the chests of giant monster suits) and their leader pontificates to the extent that his main threat is talking people to death (Star Trek: Nemesis - I'm looking at you).

It's like it has all the ingredients for a great story, but just misses. It might have been saved by more of a build up of why we care so much about the characters. And a different threat.

[Funt Solo]

I'm planning on collating the data from this thread into a fan site. I'm assuming I can do that under fair use without stepping on any toes, and I've noticed that other sites drop in a copyright notice for Rebellion.

Is there anything I'm not thinking of?

[Funt Solo]

Fan site version is up, currently covering the 70s: 2000 AD in Stages.

Feedback welcome, thanks.

[broodblik]

Looking good Funt 

[broodblik]

...and great that you have included Starlord and Tornado as well

[Colin YNWA]

That is looking fantastic! Good job sir.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

That's fantastic. More please!

SBT

[AlexF]

Nice work there Funt, it's great having all this stuff more easily accessible on a single site.

Meanwhile, from my own experience these last two stages were indeed my own nadir of fandom. On reflection The Megazine stuff was kinda interesting but it went WAY over my head when I read it at the time.

With all the context, it's reminding me why I thought Steve White's Rogue Trooper was a breath of fresh air - it doesn't hold up to much on a re-read. In case you didn't catch Chris Weston's appearance on Space Spinner 2000, he explains that it very much was editorial insistence, based on fan insistence, that they find some way to connect old Rogue and nu Rogue.

All that said, perhaps the very worst is yet to come, in terms of specific thrills...

[Funt Solo]

Update on 2000 AD in Stages site:

New Content: I created a page dedicated to 2000 AD's Diceman, from 1986.

Progress Report:

• The images now have curvy borders! So important.
• The first eleven stages are now added - covering 1977-1986.
• I've added the occasional quote from the board - hope that's okay. PM me if not.

[Funt Solo]

Update on 2000 AD in Stages site.

I never was happy with the way I'd split up stages 14 & 15, so I've reconfigured them slightly (& renamed them) in adding them to the site:

Stage 14 - 10 Years On
Stage 15 - Zenith & the Wizards of Oz

Like the Ministry of Truth, I've also been erasing some of the mistakes I made when I initially wrote the articles so it's as if I never made any mistakes. Almost as if I'm perfect in every way. 

[Buttonman]

Excellent - former best thread on the board now best fan site!