There might not be quite the level of thrills we had last week in Week 5, but it exemplifies just how tough this tournament is becoming. A middling week quality wise and we still get some right interesting ties and some really top draw thrills. It's only going to get harder folks!
Bad Company is taking down the Dredd world strips having already done away with DeMarco. Mind that assumes Hondo City Justice will take a fall here. It's not really been tested having breezed past both Junker and Anderson (movie) so who knows... well we will in 3 days time!
Bad Company - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=BADCOMP)
Vs
Hondo City Justice - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=HONDO)
Just reply in this thread naming your favourite thrill of these two series at the beginning of your post (or use Bold tags so I can spot it easily) and say what you like about these wonderful stories after that.
Match ends early on the morning of Sunday 12th June and the winner gets a place in Round 4 (of 9!!!).
What on Earth is ALL of this? (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.0)
For those that need 'um and can be bothered to follow 'um there's some simple rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.msg1070150#msg1070150)
Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN
Bad Company.
Bad Company
Bad Company.
It's a thrill that had a very strong first series, but where each subsequent series felt like diminishing returns. And I'm really not a fan of the recent revival.
But it's easily the better thrill here.
Bad Company
Bad Company
Everything Magnetica said, really. Bad Company.
Bad Company.
Hondo hd some fun stories but none of them are in the same league as that first series of Bad Company
Quote from: Magnetica on 09 June, 2022, 07:55:05 AM
Bad Company.
It's a thrill that had a very strong first series, but where each subsequent series felt like diminishing returns. And I'm really not a fan of the recent revival.
But it's easily the better thrill here.
100% this.
Bad Company
Bad Company
Hondo City Justice is quite a lot better than it's (non) reputation might suggest - but Bad Company is I think every bit as good as its reputation as a Top 10 all-time thrill, and I find something to love in every series except maybe the one so bland it's only known as 'Bad Company 2002'.
BAD Company.
You know you're in... Bad Company
Bad Company
Quote from: AlexF on 09 June, 2022, 09:53:00 AM
Hondo City Justice is quite a lot better than it's (non) reputation might suggest - but Bad Company is I think every bit as good as its reputation as a Top 10 all-time thrill...
Yup. A lot to like about HCJ, but even more to like about
Bad Company. (Although the Dayglo revival is
so bad it did make me briefly reconsider).
Quote from: AlexF on 09 June, 2022, 09:53:00 AM
...and I find something to love in every series except maybe the one so bland it's only known as 'Bad Company 2002'.
Also known as 'Saving Private Franks'. It's got BC's only gay characters in it, so there's that?
bad company, were it not for the revival.
so hondo city justice.
Quote from: Magnetica on 09 June, 2022, 07:55:05 AM
Bad Company.
It's a thrill that had a very strong first series, but where each subsequent series felt like diminishing returns. And I'm really not a fan of the recent revival.
But it's easily the better thrill here.
This^^^
BAD Company.
SBT
I've enjoyed the Hondo City Justice stories more than the Shimura ones that preceded it (with the caveat that the Frank Quitely one was the best thing in the world, ever).
Look how cool HCJ is:
(https://2kstages.github.io/AtoZ/HondoCityJustice/hondoCityJustice.png)
With Bad Company, the first series is an absolute blinder. Era-defining, prog-taking-over stuff (when everything else in the prog was treading water to an extent). The Bewilderness had some merits, but suffered from the obvious structure of getting the gang of misfits together. Each subsequent series went further into the abstract until the creators were literally farting into the collective face of the readership (see Terrorists, progs 2061-2071).
It really has gone from the best thing in the prog to the comic's equivalent of having a bully push your head into a toilet bowl. It has become ... bad company.
---
If I were voting on the first series, BC would win. If it were what I'd like to read a new series of...
Hondo City Justice
Bad Company. The second two were good, everything after that ranged from shite to not the best, but the first made up for everything. (Also, wasn't Shrike gay? He was around long before the 2002 couple.)
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 09 June, 2022, 03:36:29 PM
(Also, wasn't Shrike gay? He was around long before the 2002 couple.)
D'oh! Of course!
Quote from: Funt Solo on 09 June, 2022, 03:25:50 PM
With Bad Company, the first series is an absolute blinder. Era-defining, prog-taking-over stuff (when everything else in the prog was treading water to an extent).
It's funny....I was going to say the complete opposite about the other stories at the time e.g. Bad Company managed to stand the test of time despite not being the best thing in the Prog at the time. That would have been Slaine The King. But the seemingly sporadic publishing schedule of that seemed quite annoying at the time. Looking in up on Barney it missed 8 weeks in the middle, presumably to give Fabry time to draw it.
Plus you had Torquemurder (hmmm actually I'm not sure how good that was) and then Strontium Dog Bitch.
Bad Company, the best thing that came out of the legendary Prog 500. The first series is one of my all time top 10 (I've said that about more than 10 series, mind). The sequels were always enjoyable, and let's not talk about the recent revival.
Bad Company.
The first series is outstanding, subsequent tales not so much.
Cheers
Quote from: Magnetica on 09 June, 2022, 04:04:54 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 09 June, 2022, 03:25:50 PM
With Bad Company, the first series is an absolute blinder. Era-defining, prog-taking-over stuff (when everything else in the prog was treading water to an extent).
It's funny....I was going to say the complete opposite about the other stories at the time e.g. Bad Company managed to stand the test of time despite not being the best thing in the Prog at the time. That would have been Slaine The King. But the seemingly sporadic publishing schedule of that seemed quite annoying at the time. Looking in up on Barney it missed 8 weeks in the middle, presumably to give Fabry time to draw it.
Plus you had Torquemurder (hmmm actually I'm not sure how good that was) and then Strontium Dog Bitch.
Right - there's still tons of good stuff in the prog - my "to an extent" is important here. I loved the art on Slaine the King, but felt like it was a bit "Slaine's Retirement" - so just narratively not as engaging as "That Time Slaine Kicked a Dark God's Arse". Torquemurder is fine (again, great art) - but nobody's (probably) voting Book VI as the epic's high point. Lots of okay stuff in Dredd, with The Taxidermist being the stand out golden thrill of this 20-prog run. The Dead is good, but not golden. And SD: Bitch was not my cup of tea as a story, but (again) has great art. I don't think I ever really got over Wulf's death, if I'm honest.
To be fair, Strontium Dog Bitch was probably more about squeezing a Spitting Image style Ronald Reagan into the Prog than doing a serious story.
Bad Company!
Do people really hate the revived Bad Company that much? It's a total change of direction from what had gone before but I got a lot out of it, anti-establishment righteous anger and all that. And Dayglo's love for Brett Ewins is just SO intense it bursts out of the page.
Only the last chapter was a little too much but yes Rufus art was great
Bad Company
Quote from: AlexF on 10 June, 2022, 09:32:49 AM
Do people really hate the revived Bad Company that much? It's a total change of direction from what had gone before but I got a lot out of it, anti-establishment righteous anger and all that. And Dayglo's love for Brett Ewins is just SO intense it bursts out of the page.
I think "hate" is a bit strong, and it's not word I like to use. I'd prefer to say "it wasn't to my taste."
Anyway, why not?
Because it used some characters that had been killed off previously, and it didn't explain how come they were now alive.
This was discussed at the time and the answer seemed to be "because the whole point of the story is that truth is the first casualty of war" or something like "it's a what if commentary on journalistic reporting". Or even "just go with it and don't worry about".
Whichever one it was, it never really sat well with me.
And really it just want that exciting.
And my take on Rufus's art: yes I get he was mates with Brett and was trying to do a homage, but I would have preferred a less obvious attempt to draw it like Brett and for him to draw it in his own style.
I'd find it difficult to enjoy anything where continuity was just entirely ignored. Let's say Frodo and Sam rock up to Mount Doom and ... Boromir is there, riding Shelob.
Not that a reboot or a retcon is never a good idea - there are plenty of examples of things that work very well as re-imaginings or legends retold. Fury Road and Angelic spring to mind.
The original Bad Company wasn't a Looney Tunes cartoon - although it did have some out-there set pieces. It was, a bit like Apocalypse Now, a partially hallucinogenic drama. That's the property. It became Looney Tunes. So, it's jarring. Imagine Apocalypse Now II as a cartoon farce featuring all the key characters from the first movie (even if they died in that one) and you're getting there.
Ultimately, it just feels very indulgent. As an anthology, we probably all win, because some people will have enjoyed it. The artist will have enjoyed drawing it, I presume, and the writer seems like they were having a good laugh. This reader didn't enjoy it, but - what can I say that's positive - it wasn't boring. Like chamomile, though, it wasn't my cup of tea.
Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 June, 2022, 04:53:05 PM
I'd find it difficult to enjoy anything where continuity was just entirely ignored. Let's say Frodo and Sam rock up to Mount Doom and ... Boromir is there, riding Shelob.
But it works if all the way through the book, from the very first chapter, its been made clear that Sauron manipulates what you know to be true, so you no longer know what is.
Some wonderful chat here, lots and lots of it. In it all that a vote that is only going one way. Last day today and I'll wrap up in the morning.
VOTING CLOSED
Bad Company also joins the 20+ club with this vote. Its a thrill that in many minds seems to suffer from the law of diminishing returns and has a lot of later stories that folks don't think hold up to the blistering earlier ones. This isn't a view I hold (well except that 2002 series). It will be interesting to see if thatholds the thrill progressing as the draw gets harder? For now though
Bad Company
will be having its led restrained in Round 4.
QuoteThe original Bad Company wasn't a Looney Tunes cartoon - although it did have some out-there set pieces. It was, a bit like Apocalypse Now, a partially hallucinogenic drama. That's the property. It became Looney Tunes. So, it's jarring. Imagine Apocalypse Now II as a cartoon farce featuring all the key characters from the first movie (even if they died in that one) and you're getting there.
I can't disagree with this summary. But it immediately makes me want to advise you never to watch 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2'!
Quote from: AlexF on 10 June, 2022, 09:32:49 AM
Do people really hate the revived Bad Company that much?
Boris Johnson -
actual Boris Johnson - explaining he didn'f fight in the Ararat War bevause of an ingrowing toenail? Bleurgh. Latter Milligan makes Pat Mills look subtle.