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Spoilers => Prog => Topic started by: Magnetica on 10 November, 2018, 12:33:48 PM

Title: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Magnetica on 10 November, 2018, 12:33:48 PM
Top billing as usual in this run is Dredd followed by Brink then Kingdom.

In Dredd we get a flash back from file 2103 whichs fils in a bit more backstory for Frank and his early dealing with Smiley and then ends with yet another major revelation, but this time one that you can kinda see coming.

Brink does what it does best, in others words a really atmospheric episode with loads of talking. And the good news is it won't be wrapping up before the Xmas Prog and will continue into the new year.

With Kingdom I made the mistake of [spoiler]flicking  to the back of the Prog before reading it. We knew that was coming, but it wasn't meant to be so soon. Not sure where that leaves Gene.[/spoiler]

Oh yeah Skip Tracer and Infestinauts were in the Prog too. Skip Tracer continues on its way as before. I am sure Infestinauts is meant to be funny, but I'm just not into it - may be a re-read once it concludes nest week is in order, but for now it is totally over shadowed by the big 3.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Leigh S on 10 November, 2018, 12:48:49 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 10 November, 2018, 12:33:48 PM
Top billing as usual in this run is Dredd followed by Brink then Kingdom.

In Dredd we get a flash back from file 2103 whichs fils in a bit more backstory for Frank and his early dealing with Smiley and then ends with yet another major revelation, but this time one that you can kinda see coming.

Indeed - [spoiler]Given he has failed to help avoid/alleviate Apocalypse War, Necropolis, Judgement Day, Doomsday, the Chaos Bug etc.[/spoiler] it isn't much of a revelation - and who is to say [spoiler]he didnt try to do something but they failed in the time they had - how is it much different to Captain Skank and the Black Atlantic Sov involvement stories pror to the Apocalypse War - knowing what is coming and stopping what is coming are two different things[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Richard on 10 November, 2018, 01:54:22 PM
To be fair to Smiley, there's only so much he can be expected to do single-handedly. Stopping Necropolis, for example, is a bit of a tall order. Anyway, I thought he was only meant to deal with internal threats like Judge Cal, rather than anything and everything?

The real revelations in this episode are that Smiley [spoiler]might not have the city's best interests at heart.[/spoiler] and we finally find out what happened to Frank in the snow, something that has been only hinted about for literally years.

Kingdom is the other highlight for me this week. As Magnetica's said, don't skip to the back of the prog!

I thought Kingdom would be ten episodes, but maybe it will be 11 with a double-length finale? Tharg says everything (except Brink) wraps up in prog 2110.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Leigh S on 10 November, 2018, 02:26:08 PM
I jsut think Dredd is making a massive leap to get tot he conclusion that Smiley [spoiler]concealed the info he obtained - he could have just as easily given that to Griffin and loads was being done behind the scenes before Block Mania started - it's not like Dredd was on the Council of Five or anything - that's even if the data wasn't a fake out to wrongfoot the Judges[/spoiler] - basically, lots of assumptions from Dredd there about what he has found and what Smiley did about it.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Richard on 10 November, 2018, 03:25:51 PM
Good point.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Eamonn Clarke on 10 November, 2018, 04:46:02 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/gxWzkUp.jpg)
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Colin YNWA on 10 November, 2018, 05:53:25 PM
Arh the Prog continues to be fine.

The revalations in Dredd do need a little fleshing out but damn it a great episode and as Richard says Franks 'origin' reveal is big enough in itself.

Skip Tracer cranks things up as it hurtles towards its much improved conclusion.

Brink is just sublime once again but didn't we just know no tails were being shaken.

3riller - Infestinauts Are Go! is a fun little distract which looks great. Three parts feels like it will be the perfect size for this too.

Kingdom - damn as has been said just don't skip to the end - there's no letters page so don't bother flicking to the bacl - okay... damn that a big ol' ending!

Great Prog.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: The Enigmatic Dr X on 10 November, 2018, 09:29:28 PM
I've been getting my sub prog in the post on a Thursday for the last month. S'not fair.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Jacqusie on 11 November, 2018, 09:02:18 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 10 November, 2018, 05:53:25 PM

The revalations in Dredd do need a little fleshing out but damn it a great episode and as Richard says Franks 'origin' reveal is big enough in itself.


In a simple twist of fate, I'm doing a back prog slog through the 1800's and with it Trifecta.

The go to prog to reference against all this current Dredd shenanigans is prog 1809 - SAUDADE (pt5)

Within lies the sequel to this weeks Dirty Frank / Dredd / Judge Frank dealings oddly enough... well it provided an 'Ahhh I see' moment or two for me anyways..
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Richard on 11 November, 2018, 09:14:21 PM
Thanks Jack, I'll have a look at that.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: McNulty on 13 November, 2018, 11:41:17 PM
Dredd: [spoiler]Bloody Hell! I knew Smiley was into some dark stuff, but this! He is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of not only half the people of Mega City One but also the entirety of the population of East Meg One and the entire population of an alternative Earth. If the defectors had information on Block Mania and the Apocalypse Warp technology, Mega City One would have been in a better position to defend itself, so much so the Sovs might not even have started the war. Thus the Sovs wouldn't have destroyed half of Mega City One and their retaliation wouldn't have destroyed the alternative reality Earth. Dredd wouldn't have had to take over the Sov nuclear bunker and destroyed East Meg One. All of this stemmed from one incident in Georgia. Instead of sending in a hit squad, why didn't Chief Judge Griffin give the defectors asylum? They could have got the information that way. If the team had been sent to escort the defectors out then Frank would not have had to gun down his team mates. [/spoiler] I know what have I just said could be explained away and maybe some of this scenario will be disproved in later episodes but I am just going with the information I have been given.

Skip Tracer: Was especially good this week. I liked the action and the feeling of the hopelessness as the facility is overrun was well executed. I also liked the turnaround at the end.

Brink: It is clear to most what my views on this story are. I understand and respect others' love for this story but it has never impressed me in storytelling or artwork. It is just my opinon and does not denigrate anyone else's views.

3rillers: Last weeks introduction didn't grab me but after this episode I was more interested. I felt memories of Banzia Battalion while reading it, (obviously before it went off the rails in it's final story). The final page reminded me of the Futurama episode when Fry got worms - talking doesn't work with worms.

Kingdom: It has taken eight episodes to get all these plot elements together, eight episodes to get all the pieces of the chess game into position, [spoiler]and then someone just nukes the entire chessboard![/spoiler] This easily is the second best story in the prog this week, just after Dredd. At the moment, these are the two stories I HAVE to read in 2000AD.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: broodblik on 14 November, 2018, 03:04:11 AM
Dredd keeps excelling what a great story[spoiler] but now we know the truth about Frank (I am mean dirty Frank)[/spoiler]

Brink is as always excellent

Sounds like a cliche but the prog is as the previous weeks awesome

Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 11:13:02 AM

(https://i.imgur.com/yfXpQV8.jpg?3)

Disappointed Dredd didn't view Dirty Frank's origin story* by sticking his Millennium Falcon USB stick into the cat's arsehole and pressing the PLAY button on its flank.


* How are we understanding the scene we're seeing? Was Clean Frank accompanied by those nano-bot fly cameras Williams conspicuously introduced in Get Sin (https://i.imgur.com/tTyQVXT.jpg?1)? Or are we just seeing the movie playing out in Dredd's mind as he reads a plain text Word doc?
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Magnetica on 14 November, 2018, 12:28:39 PM
Quote from: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 11:13:02 AM
How are we understanding the scene we're seeing? Was Clean Frank accompanied by those nano-bot fly cameras Williams conspicuously introduced in Get Sin? Or are we just seeing the movie playing out in Dredd's mind as he reads a plain text Word doc?

It's a bit like the pensieve flash backs in Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. E.g how do conversations between James Potter, Sirius and Lupin appear in Snape's memories?
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Tiplodocus on 14 November, 2018, 12:47:17 PM
An Omnivistascope, of course.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 12:47:46 PM

I'd be amazed if this really is the final Brink, but if it is, Tharg needs to get Culbard working on something else right away.

Everyone who's ever read Tintin has tried to strip their art back to a simple, elegant ligne claire and been horrified by the results. Unless your draughtsmanship, figures and composition are fantastic, it looks awful.

I thought Culbard struggled on early books of Brass Sun, but he's hit a run of form here where everything looks effortlessly brilliant, like Carlos Ezquerra from The Apocalypse War to end of Inferno.

I think it's Culbard's wonderful use of colour that makes this such a lush visual treat. As far as the story is concerned, I'm with Infowars in the belief that [spoiler]this goes all the way to the top[/spoiler]. I think [spoiler]everyone's in on it and Bridge's cop pals are setting her up for the full Edward Woodward[/spoiler]. I don't expect [spoiler]her to survive to front[/spoiler] any future series.


Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: broodblik on 14 November, 2018, 01:06:29 PM
I must agree with Frank on how Culbard's art has improved. His work on Brink is really special
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Magnetica on 14 November, 2018, 01:40:06 PM
Also how does Dredd work the keyboard with those thick gloves on?
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 01:47:45 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 14 November, 2018, 01:40:06 PM
Also how does Dredd work the keyboard with those thick gloves on?

The guy who pumps the air in the batmobile tyres gives him a hand.


Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: I, Cosh on 14 November, 2018, 02:13:58 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 14 November, 2018, 01:40:06 PM
Also how does Dredd work the keyboard with those thick gloves on?
I can work my phone with snowboard gloves on and it's still only 2018.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 02:20:12 PM
Quote from: I, Cosh on 14 November, 2018, 02:13:58 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 14 November, 2018, 01:40:06 PM
Also how does Dredd work the keyboard with those thick gloves on?
I can work my phone with snowboard gloves on and it's still only 2018.

https://youtu.be/6tEvQMyBFho?t=294


Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: wedgeski on 14 November, 2018, 02:48:04 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 14 November, 2018, 12:28:39 PM
Quote from: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 11:13:02 AM
How are we understanding the scene we're seeing? Was Clean Frank accompanied by those nano-bot fly cameras Williams conspicuously introduced in Get Sin? Or are we just seeing the movie playing out in Dredd's mind as he reads a plain text Word doc?

It's a bit like the pensieve flash backs in Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. E.g how do conversations between James Potter, Sirius and Lupin appear in Snape's memories?
Eh? Are you talking book or film?
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Magnetica on 14 November, 2018, 03:35:24 PM
Book - which I am reading to my son at present. Can't remember how it is handled in the film.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 14 November, 2018, 03:38:06 PM
I'm slightly baffled that literally no one on this forum appears to have encountered the narrative device where a character reads/is told about an incident and the scene dissolves into a flashback at which character couldn't possibly have been present but which we, as the audience, automatically accept as a more interesting way of presenting the information.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 03:42:05 PM
Quote from: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 11:13:02 AM
Or are we just seeing the movie playing out in Dredd's mind as he reads a plain text Word doc?


Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 14 November, 2018, 04:16:02 PM
Quote from: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 03:42:05 PM
Quote from: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 11:13:02 AM
Or are we just seeing the movie playing out in Dredd's mind as he reads a plain text Word doc?

An accurate flashback to what actually happened isn't quite the same, narratively, as the visualisation of a scene by a character in-story based on information being presented to them. I'm going to concede now that that's a pretty fine hair to split, however.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Frank on 14 November, 2018, 04:21:50 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 14 November, 2018, 04:16:02 PM
An accurate flashback to what actually happened isn't quite the same, narratively, as the visualisation of a scene by a character in-story based on information being presented to them. I'm going to concede now that that's a pretty fine hair to split, however.

Yeah, man. That's what interested me.


Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Goaty on 14 November, 2018, 05:35:52 PM
USB got video clip from Frank's bionic eye. That why Dirty Frank got eye patch.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: norton canes on 15 November, 2018, 01:00:25 PM
Another utterly engrossing prog, it may only take 15 minutes to read but for that brief time one is completely transported to the worlds of the various stories. In fact that's exactly the sensation I got when reading 2000 AD as a kid - pure, unmitigated escapism.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Tiplodocus on 16 November, 2018, 12:24:57 AM
DREDD: Fantastic.
SKIP TRACER: Pretty good.
BRINK: Fantastic.
INTESTINAUTS: Good fun.
KINGDOM: Fantastic.

I've been rereading BRINK Series 1 and 2 over the last week and there is so much good stuff in it, it beggars belief. Genuinely can't think of a similarly talky comic that hits the atmosphere and tension buttons so well. The layering of conversations and interrogations works brilliantly. And, oh my, that art and those colours!
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: broodblik on 16 November, 2018, 02:42:16 AM
Dredd as we already know is reshaping the dreddverse, here is an interview with Rob Williams related to The Small House: https://doomrocket.com/rob-williams-small-house-interview/ (https://doomrocket.com/rob-williams-small-house-interview/)
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 16 November, 2018, 07:44:57 AM
As I already mentioned on the 'TPO: Missing Chapters' thread — I think that interview is quite spoilery. Approach with caution...
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: BPP on 16 November, 2018, 04:30:00 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 10 November, 2018, 09:29:28 PM
I've been getting my sub prog in the post on a Thursday for the last month. S'not fair.

You're lucky. Mine at best comes the Friday after it's in the newsstands and often not till it's left the newsstands.

Definately something has changed with how the subs are being handled.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: TordelBack on 17 November, 2018, 12:19:59 AM
Well everything's just tickety-boo this week. What a comic.

And despite the giants around whose epic ankles it scurries, my favourite bit of the prog was in Intestinauts: "The wash never came...  We have not been used as directed". That's a line - and concept - worthy of Wagner, Moore or Mills,  and true to the noble heritage of 2000AD. There's also little I enjoy more than full-page in-universe ads.  Top marks all round.

I'm a little torn about this week's Dredd: Dirty Frank is the element I enjoy most from the Williams stable, so I was lapping up the backstory... but at the same time, the inciting incident seemed a bit...  prosaic?

For those wondering why a covert kill team rather than just welcoming willing defectors,  it's because Smiley wanted the intelligence for himself. By this stage, a few years post-Cal, he's well established in his role of Knowing Best, and like Edgar already more interested in hoarding his nuggets than spending them.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: norton canes on 17 November, 2018, 10:28:34 AM
Quote from: TordelBack on 17 November, 2018, 12:19:59 AM
despite the giants around whose epic ankles it scurries, my favourite bit of the prog was in Intestinauts: "The wash never came...  We have not been used as directed". That's a line - and concept - worthy of Wagner, Moore or Mills,  and true to the noble heritage of 2000AD. There's also little I enjoy more than full-page in-universe ads.  Top marks all round

Uncannily, I was just coming on here to add that my favourite couple of moments in the prog were both from Intestinauts: the 'PLACE TONGUE HERE TO ODER' patch, and the line "Disgusting! Imagine such pacifism inside you!" 

Agreed, the ad was a real flashback to the early days of 2000 AD.
Title: Re: Prog 2107 - Hostile Takeover!
Post by: norton canes on 17 November, 2018, 10:29:39 AM
And now I discover that putting the letter 'S' in square brackets is not a good thing.