Well as you were isn't it. The good thing is as we were was in a very very good place. Mind Brink is almost up and what will Tharg do to fill that not inconsiderable void?
Dredd - well it end all very nicely. Would have happily explored this idea a little more and the mystery could have been extended, though I'd called the 'twist' by page 2. Though of course by not extending this we have a nice tight thrilling Dredd that works perfectly well.
Brink - what more need be said things end with more comics perfection and a conclusion to come next week. Just genius on all levels.
Zaucer of Zilk remains a mapcap delight, a joy on the eye, a play with the words and a top thrill.
Proteus Vex turns and tightens its grip and background is provided and motives explored. This is brilliant and beautiful stuff.
Feral and Foe Also explore motives and does some cutting to the chase. Great, but in this line-up great feels run of the mill!
Tharg will have his work cut out topping this line-up this year.
(https://i.imgur.com/8aVIX2I.jpg)
Joel Carpenter cover
@inkoutofthebox
I have to be honest, Dredd felt a little like an awful lot of work for that final line ...
I was thinking the same, though I think the ending might have landed a lot better (no pun intended) if we had seen the [spoiler]falling Fattie flyer knocked out of the sky by a series of events caused by the Hi-Ex that Kettle commanded that Judge to do - like a Lawmaster tyre was seen bumping along from the explosion, then over a parapet, then hitting the batglider....[/spoiler]
Otherwise, it was a decent enough Dredd
Quote from: Tjm86 on 09 February, 2020, 08:36:49 AM
I have to be honest, Dredd felt a little like an awful lot of work for that final line ...
It's very rare I get to read the Prog on the weekend, but we are staying in to avoid the storm.
Dredd felt like a missed opportunity. As others have said it was a lot of work just for the pun at the end. At least it has avoided making the Judges all powerful in predicting crime.
Brink: not sure how many ways there are to say this is awesome.
Zaucer is....kinda ok....I'm not hating it anyway...
Feral and Foe continues to be great. [spoiler]Nice little twist this week.[/spoiler] Currently my favourite thing in the Prog, and given Brink is there that's saying something.
Proteus Vex is a bit of a slow burn, but is interesting enough. Had to re-read a couple of earlier episodes to to check my understanding, but it's all good.
That doesn't seem like a fair criticism of Dredd to me. I didn't get the impression that the whole story was just a set up for a punchline. It's a legitimate story in its own right, with a quip at the end because that's how these sort of stories typically end.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQFtpvxU0AUsPKR?format=jpg&name=large)
Pretty much agree with what's been said up stream, I did find the machinations in Dredd a bit tricky to follow, everyone in the dept in uniform looked similar (with one exception white, male, older) a better mix of race, hair cuts and body shapes may have made it easier to follow, or even the handy BIG name badges prominent.
Perhaps if the Psi Judge was introduced in the first act? I like the idea of a chain of random events leading to the Batgilder's demise too.
read my Prog on Monday ( no show at the weekend ) and got to agree with the other comments
Dredd was a solid 2 parter - that delivered at the end in an amusing way
Brink - I totally enjoyed this story - yet again , another great thrill .
Zaucer of Zilk is a pretty good laugh , and a nice change from the normal fare
Proteus Vex is for me the best story in the Prog - I find the story engaging , and the twists and turns
added to Henry Flint's art - just wonderful
Feral and Foe - another great story this week - and great action and combat .
I am just so happy I made the great choice of re-buying 2000AD - after the film ' Dredd ' came out in 2012
and re-subscribed after originally reading the comic in the 1980's when sadly heavy NHS
work , long shifts and overtime took over .
I'm afraid the Dredd didn't work for me. The art was lovely - I am really warming to Jake Lynch - but I found the two parts didn't really fit together smoothly. Part one set up an investigation into the staff in the lab with all sorts of issues of internal politics within the team to explore, and part two just rushed to a big baddy outside. It would have worked nicely as a longer tale with more time being spent investigating the team and the rogue psi judge slowly emerging, but as a two parter I thought it was a little rushed.
Dredd was an interesting one. I like Jake Lynch on Dredd. He seems to have a strong McMahon influence which obviously works well. The second part of the story, on the other hand, seemed completely disconnected from the first. Was it heavily cut down? This one is going read even more strangely when collected.
The Dredd story felt a little disjointed between the episodes and could benefited from an extra episode. Overall still a satisfactory Dredd tale.
Good news that the next Brink book is in the works.
Good prog yet again :thumbsup:
Great proggage, just great. Primary thought: Lynch's art coloured by Boswell is an absolute joy
I'm firmly in the "loved the Dredd" camp. Actually, I loved everything else too. As has been mentioned above, it's going to be hard to keep this level of excellence going all year! Great start to 2020!
Proteus Vex really has its cetacean robo-chassis under it now. There are echoes of Banks here for me, amped up and fetchingly dressed up in something between Kirby and, well, Flint. I found it hard to get into initially, but now I think the way Mike has slowly doled out the back story has worked to its advantage. And it's a pretty cool plot, to be fair.
Apocalypse War parallels didn't go unnoticed this week, but I was so interested in learning about the Obdurate that I didn't mind a bit.
Gonna have to put me in the 'slightly disappointed' camp re. Dredd, I'm afraid. I thought this was going to build on the time travel aspect and conclude with some satisfying Steven Moffat-esque timey-wimey paradox thing but that whole aspect was jettisoned. Still, hoping we see more of the Future Crimes Unit and there ongoing feud with Psi Div.
Feel a tiny bit guilty about criticizing Blink last week, this was a quality installment. Looking forward to a nice juicy denouement next prog. Proteus Vex... gah, I don't know. On the one hand I'm warming to the protagonists as they get some character development, but the rather mundane space-opera plot isn't grabbing me at all. It needs to be much more weird! Zaucer of Zilk as I've said before just isn't my Qup of Qea. Feral & Foe on the other hand continues to be glorious, cannot fault it.
Brink
Clearly thinking too much about Steven Moffat
Quote from: TordelBack on 12 February, 2020, 08:57:15 PM
Great proggage, just great. Primary thought: Lynch's art coloured by Boswell is an absolute joy
Good god yes! Lynch and Boswell work so well together, more please Tharg!
Can I say I really like the Lawmaster design on the cover? A good mix of classic and Willsher! That would work well for the Warlord games
Quote from: norton canes on 13 February, 2020, 10:21:31 AM
Gonna have to put me in the 'slightly disappointed' camp re. Dredd, I'm afraid. I thought this was going to build on the time travel aspect and conclude with some satisfying Steven Moffat-esque timey-wimey paradox thing but that whole aspect was jettisoned. Still, hoping we see more of the Future Crimes Unit and there ongoing feud with Psi Div.
Feel a tiny bit guilty about criticizing Blink last week, this was a quality installment. Looking forward to a nice juicy denouement next prog. Proteus Vex... gah, I don't know. On the one hand I'm warming to the protagonists as they get some character development, but the rather mundane space-opera plot isn't grabbing me at all. It needs to be much more weird! Zaucer of Zilk as I've said before just isn't my Qup of Qea. Feral & Foe on the other hand continues to be glorious, cannot fault it.
So what you are saying, if I have got this right is...Zaucer of Zilk is too weird, and Proteus Vex isn't weird enough? :D
Yes. I mean, no. Er... that is, I'm not really keen on Zaucer's psychedelic shade of weird; but I do think Proteus Vex needs something a bit more unconventional, more outré perhaps, than the space war saga type stuff it's currently built around. Apologies if my sketchily-expressed opinions on the two strips seemed mutually incompatible :)
I see where Norton is coming from: Vex is a fairly straightforward space-opera plot dressed-up in weird and wonderful visuals, while Zaucer's plotting is unconventional to a fault but depends quite a lot on a standardised '60s psychedelic palette.
Happily I think both mixes work well.
I really enjoyed that Dredd story. Nice, compact ending. We need more like this.
I liked it too, and not just because it looked fabulous: it was a good idea neatly told. Interesting that consensus seems to be that Kill Bloopy was too long and Future Crimes was too short. Who'd want to write Dredd, eh.
I've only just realised after reading the covers uncovered post (https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-justice-delivered-with-a-bullet/) that the building on the cover has 2000AD written on it.
It's dynamic but a tad too subtle!
Quote from: Tomwe on 24 February, 2020, 09:54:12 AM
I've only just realised after reading the covers uncovered post (https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-justice-delivered-with-a-bullet/) that the building on the cover has 2000AD written on it.
It's dynamic but a tad too subtle!
Dynamic but not a favourite cover. Also missed the building's '2000AD', perhaps the aim was be experimental and dispense with the main logo(s) (or however you want to term the title(s), there are threads dedicated to that kind of thing...) this time. I felt there was an 'MC' trying to get out, reading in another direction, but without being sure.
If you catch sight of the building's '2000AD' then that's 3 references on the cover - too many...