Prog 2331 - The Fire in the Blood!

[Colin YNWA]

So I didn't get Prog 2329 (hold on how the hell has there been over 300 Progs since Prog 2000 - that's just really struck me for some reason... ANYWAY...) and have waited over 2 weeks to read a Prog THEN 2331 is a chuffin' Friday Prog. I mean always rare, these days the Friday Prog is the stuff of myth and legend. What the heck is goin' on there?

Anyway Dredd - bloody love Nick Dyer's art. This is a story in its own right BUT for the third bloody week on the bounce it serves mainly to set up more to come. Seriously Tharg get a grip of this will ya... mind did love this.

The other three continuing strips are as you where. I think I've mentioned a LOT tonight (well twice before) that both Durham Red and Rogue Trooper are just a joy. They remain superb. Enemy Earth continues to be fine, elevated by a great ending this week. Loved that dark ol' turn but suspect the doomed character will return down the road.

All that pales however as The Out returns with an episode which just underlines UTTERLY who this strip is so wonderful. For all its glorious exploration and imagination its comes down to Cyd being an AMAZING character whose journey I'd follow if she was on a train from Crewe to Stoke and wondering if Darlington was real and whether it would help her overcome the local Tory Council (well the electorate seems to have done that at least!). Just a genius strip. Thank the Dabnett and Harrison Droid and all else involved.

A Prog with The Out this good in is automatically a GREAT Prog... on a Friday too. Heaven is made of these times!

[broodblik]

Cover by Cliff Robinson & Dylan Teague:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[Barrington Boots]

That is such a good cover. I know everyone was rightly excited about last weeks, but this is a really great, striking image - the sort of thing that I'd definitely check out if I were browsing a comic shop.

Saturday Prog for me. Excellent Dredd - exactly the sort of stupidity and carnage I enjoy in MC-1. Not quite sure about the ending: part of the fun of this is having the villain inhabiting something stupid rather than dangerous, but equally I suppose it being an animated bus stop or something would be diminishing returns. Nevertheless: great.

I've enjoyed the last couple of instalments of Durham Red but this one reminded me why I soured on the last run. The flashback / suicidal rage stuff leads me to think we're going for a redemption angle here, but for me Red hasn't done enough to be the tragic heroine. She's a vicious killer, and acts like one almost all the time - her murders of past innocents are not really that out of character. She lacks the nobility or the empathy to be someone to root for: why shouldn't she get some comeback for her actions?
The story otherwise is great - love the action, art is great, the creepy villain design rules, the sidekick is working - this isn't a bad strip, it's just not one for me.. I guess I'm trying to justify why I've got a downer on this when nobody else does, I'd love to read an alternate take on this. Maybe I'm getting old and just don't want to read about children getting killed anymore but this really triggered a bad response in me.

Anyway, after that it's a welcome return for The Out in a super talky, super interesting episode. Delighted to have it back.

I didn't read Enemy Earth.

Finally I'm finding Rogue Trooper to be an ok war story and a poor Rogue story. It's extremely well written, looks fantastic but as a war story it's decent but not doing anything I haven't read before: as a Rogue story it's not doing anything for me whatsoever. Everyone else is enjoying it though. I'd like to see this creative team do a story in Nu-Earth, but this tale for me is a disappointment sadly.

Overall not a winning Prog for me but for 'it's not you it's me' reasons I think as there's a lot of quality here.

[IndigoPrime]

A fab cover and a fun Droid Life is followed by an amusing Dredd, which is silly and gruesome in equal measure. I'm unsure where those last few frames will lead, but I can only assume somewhere suitably stupid.

Red: Yeah. While I like this iteration and series and don't need to root for a protagonist, it's hard to see how redemption comes from this. Having a youngling myself, I'm even less keen these days on any depiction of a child being torn to shreds, no matter how obfuscated. More broadly, though, playing Red as a horror rather than either for laughs or as sexy vamp chick is an interesting take. And, man, the villain is horrible.

I'm still liking Enemy Earth, despite its weird tonal positioning. And The Out was a welcome return, even if the gap robbed it of some momentum. I will say that those aliens sure have a lot of patience in letting her speak outside of their protocol. And then we end with Rogue, which I think is working rather well with its relaxed pacing.

For me, this is another Prog where I didn't find anything I didn't want to read, and where everything was good or better.

Dredd > Everything else

[broodblik]

A good prog made better with the return of The Up.

Dredd – A another one-shot that opens the door for more or this can be the middle-part of a trilogy. Niemand, as we already stated, knows how to write Dredd and this one fell more on the ridiculous side of humor and was good fun. Bring on the next chapter. I miss Cam, but Nick is a good substitute.

Durham Red – This episode focusses more on the action and has a flashback. The flashback carries the burden of guild, but it could have been handled differently. Overall, really enjoying this arc.

Enemy Earth – Not my favourite but I did enjoy the Julius choice he made.

The Out – Pity about the break but good to have this back for the next 3 weeks. A very talkative episode and I like the fact that Cyd just does not give a damn about the consequences she will tell her side of the story. Cyd just want to find her daughter. As always a great story.

Rogue Trooper – Interesting how Ennis is trying to tie the milieu of the great war to events on Nu-Earth. Some how I am waiting for the rabbit to pop-out of the hat. Very much invested in the story with Goddard continuing to bring great visuals to the table.

[norton canes]

Another of those very nice 'as you were' progs where some entertaining stories continue in the same vein (literally, in the case of Durham Red)

But the cover's the absolute highlight, especially Dylan Teague's colours.

[Funt Solo]

The Dredd callback is nuts (in a good way).

One assumes that's one of the Mechanismo units involved in the climactic scene of Body Count from Meg 2.43 (from 1993). That would make it either Number 5 (a mark I) or one of the mark II's that was sent to hunt it.