Prog 2378: Underworld Uprising!

[norton canes]

Ooh! I get to start a prog thread.

So is 'R&TWT&C' just gonna be ten weeks of Dredd vs. bear - sorry, Dredd vs. giant mutant bear? Fantastic, I'm all for that. I mean, it would perhaps be slightly better if it wasn't just giant mutant bear but giant mutant misshapen rad-beast (a bit more scope for Guera to go to town) but I'll take this.

Shut down those end-of-year polls - Brink is back, again treading the tenuous tightrope between action and inertia. Does the first page, situated in what presumably passes for a meat-packing warehouse in this hab-verse, mean that the unions are again going to figure? I can see Lind would be a great asset in Race Around the World (BBC1 9pm tonight!). Events progress apace in Aquila, which this week features possibly the briefest 'foment slave rebellion to form army' scene ever. Love the cover too, by the way - the two visible eyes of the four-eyed horse beast make it look like something from Picasso's Guernica. And wait! Re-open those end-of-year polls! Despite the additional competition, Proteus Vex is once again the best thing in the prog! Great Skizz vibes from Illlla (that looks all wrong in lower case) Evuron.

[norton canes]

Across. Race Across the World.

[IndigoPrime]

All varying degrees of good for me this week. Nice cover. Good to see Fiends is on its way back. Dredd vs Giant Shako continues to be fun. The cadet's a thinker, which may well save Dredd's life. Brink starts wonderfully and is already horribly creepy. Aquila stomps along too, which some great moments and quality art.

Indigo Prime... I think I'm going to take that meta thing from the series to heart. This is the strip from an alternate reality, rather than Smith's creation. Or something. It's up and down for me – some great ideas but only borderline coherent at times, and I don't really want Johnny Depp in the comic, TBH.

And then it wraps up with Proteus Vex, which continues to be masterful. Everyone has their preferences, but for me the Prog's on a real high right now.

[Barrington Boots]

I was literally just writing one. Surprised we got to Wednesday without it - I had mine Monday , hope other subbies aren't still waiting!

I'm digging Dredd vs Bear now we've established the plot is just Dredd being chased by a bear. More of this please, I will be disappointed if anything else happens tbh.

I'm also delighted to see Brink back. Creepy cinematic first page, the rest is business as usual. Great!

Aquila on the other hand feels like it's moving at an incredible clip as the man himself raises two armies in two episodes. Lovely art as you'd expect from Patrick Goddard: I agree the horses rule, also Hannibal appears in his form as a GW warrior of Chaos, looking more like he should be storming the walls of Kislev than engaging in the Punic War. That's not a criticism, this version of Hannibal looks great and fits the implication he personally killed seventy thousand Romans at Cannae.

Indigo Prime is by now so bonkers tha I'm just reading and enjoying it without giving it too much thought. That's not a criticism either, I'm really enjoying it.

Finally Vex is the best thing is a really cool Prog. Vex still not in it! Still not a problem!

5/5 for me this week.

[The Monarch]

i had my copy of both this and the meg since saturday i just didn't want to start the thread for a third week in a row xd

all stories good. agree with ip on wishing not johnny depp was part of indigo prime but still liking the story

[Proudhuff]

Dredd fights stage left pursued by Bear, great fun and a good bit of Dreddversity. Liking the new sidekick 

I'm also delighted to see Brink back. Talking heads, but talking sense.

Aquila: Thought I'd missed an episode or turned two pages at once, trip tropping along at a fair old pace, nice change of pace from recent slogs in the prog.

Indigo Prime did Edgar Borrow this?

Vex is charging along... not sure where or why, but I'm enjoying the ride.

4/5 for me, with the prog on a major up tick, admittedly from flat lining   

[broodblik]

Cover by Patrick Goddard:

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Dredd fights stage left pursued by Bear, great fun and a good bit of Dreddversity. Liking the new sidekick 

I'm also delighted to see Brink back. Talking heads, but talking sense.

Aquila: Thought I'd missed an episode or turned two pages at once, trip tropping along at a fair old pace, nice change of pace from recent slogs in the prog.

Indigo Prime did Edgar Borrow this?

Vex is charging along... not sure where or why, but I'm enjoying the ride.

4/5 for me, with the prog on a major up tick, admittedly from flat lining 

I agree.

[Funt Solo]

Cover: knocking on the door to be in the running for the Top Three this year.

Fudge Bread vs. Mega-Shako: the more of this we get, the more I love the art. Extra bonus points this week for getting the noise of a galloping bear to work.

ggggg: I feel the need, the need for a re-read. Raymond Hirsch, it feels like I should know from two series back, but maybe I'm imagining that. This episode does more than anything before to position things within the solar system, and provide some traveling time data to let us know why the gggg the Mercury event isn't something you can just pop over quickly and check on.

Blackhawk: I'm all like "wait, Spartacus is a woman now?". But it's Blackhawk's dead missus from back in the day. I'd forgotten about her. So had he. Life's like that. Bleak. Bleaker for the demonic slave-masters. Bleak for Blackhawk when Hannibal shoves an elephant up his arse in a couple of progs.

Periwinkle Supreme - I called it, mofos! Everyone in the prime-verse has magic plot armor. It is getting a little "The Trade Federation has destroyed all that we have worked so hard to build." It's a brave attempt to make corporate meeting rooms exciting, but that's an uphill struggle at the best of times. Also, Depp's face in my comic where he's not on the wrong end of a shitty stick makes me queasy. You know, because he's a "wife beater". Man, it feels wrong to quote the Sun, but they won their day in court on that one.

Is he really cut in half ... or will he just sew himself back together with a magic space zip?

Salamander Irk - At some point, Vex will appear in his own strip. How mad would this be for new readers? Mind you, Nemesis Book I played that card a little - with him not showing his face until the end of the third episode. So, there's pedigree to this tactic.

---

In the pipe, five by five. Well, maybe 4.5 out of 5, because of the Depp thing. Fuck off, Depp!

[Le Fink]

Hmm great to see Bridget back in Brink, which looks gorgeous as per. What the hell is going on in that first page? Why was the jumper dress girl giving Raymond the evil eye? Who thinks the shit will hit the fan in Belleholme sooner rather than later? I think Lind makes things up.

The cover gives me Belardinelli Meltdown Man vibes. It's very cool.

[Jacqusie]

That hairy bloke on the cover is either doing the splits or he walks very strangely indeed...

Either way, perhaps not the best pose to be trying to get out of the way of what's behind him.

[Colin YNWA]

Finally my replacement copy loads (went to eBay as I gave up hope of my sub turning up which means it will land Monday - its happened before!

Anyway that makes this potentially a three prog day so I'll review each as I go quickly to try to give my thrillbuffers the chance to cool (I mean I'm 52 years old and I still buy into this Tharg stuff. Is that wrong of me?).

Anyway enough waffle to the meat of the matter.

Dredd fun but utter standard fare. Guera gives good snow wasteland mind.

Brink f88k you Royal Mail for making me wait three weeks to have Bridget back in my life. Oh God its such a joyous reunion. The only good thing about the wait is I'm up for it three times in one day!

Aquila brilliant fun. Everyone is so mean and hard and brooding but its made to work wonderfully!

Indigo Prime ha! it slips and it slides, nothing can be taken at face value and its immense.

Proteus Vex but immense as IP is PV is even immenseier, its immenourmus... but still its Bridget I'm looking forward seeing again most.

So I may have been made to wait but I'm so glad its a Prog like this I've returned to. Another Prog to really nail home that when its at its best there really isn't a genra comic as good as Tharg's mighty organ. We always know we're in a good place when Dredd is the weakest thing in the House of Tharg and even that was pretty good!

[Tjm86]

Finally my replacement copy loads (went to eBay as I gave up hope of my sub turning up which means it will land Monday - its happened before!

Had a couple of progs get lost in the dimensional oubliette of RM over the last few years.  One thing I will give subs is that they always sort out a replacement no quibble and PDQ.

[Colin YNWA]

Finally my replacement copy loads (went to eBay as I gave up hope of my sub turning up which means it will land Monday - its happened before!

Had a couple of progs get lost in the dimensional oubliette of RM over the last few years.  One thing I will give subs is that they always sort out a replacement no quibble and PDQ.

yeah I've done that before but had to do it about a year ago and don't want to take the p*ss so decided to cope for it this time.