Nice punny tagline.
Good Prog behind it.
Dredd as you were nicely cranking tension, typically superb Niemand interactions between character and a place fantastic story. I'm not sure I've actually declared this but Niemand is now clearly the best none Wagner Dredd writer we have and have had.
Brink Speaking of the best this is just that. Another quite brilliant episode. Who is following Maslow?
Hope more innovation and imagination with the way this story is presented and its a damned good story too, so - fantastic!
Dexter - the only real misstep this week. This has been a fantastic story and then this week fight and over. I assume something is being set up with the moths - I guess the final weapon to defeat the AI (I'm normally wrong about these things!) - but for this story I wanted more than the energetic slam, bam over ending.
Fiends origins and emergances - brilliant fun.
So yeah a bit of a step back from last week, mainly due to Dexter, which bad, just not the high standard I'd set for it!
Cover by Tazio Bettin:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTHGg9DWYAMsNJY?format=jpg&name=large)
Cover and Logo:
(https://dyn.media.forbiddenplanet.com/LzKQEGHMyhJUuqaJyoE43GdVMRA=/trim/fit-in/779x1024/filters:format(webp)/https://media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/f8/14/ee95768ca7d1c09e28efbeb87bfd9688d4a6.jpeg)
A good prog I will give it 5 out of 5
Dredd – The story is pulling me in and Niemand is setting up a showdown between a man trying to survive and a man that is the law. The team Niemand/Foster is producing the goods. Niemand is the new Dredd.
Brink – Paranoia is setting in as Maslow gets the feeling like he is being watched and Culbard helps to elevate the paranoia with some great panel layouts. The plot is steadily and creepily moving forward as another old friend is reintroduced. Another interesting ending to the story.
Hope – Creepy and disturbing with Broxton's effectively using red to tell the story. Great stuff so far.
Dexter – Well the story ends in away that is quite predictable but still a good filler for the time being. Unfortunately, the plot has not moved an inch just another day on the run. Maybe there is something at the end (those damn moths!!!)
Fiends – Great story as the first sinner swap war stories with Constanta. Edginton keeps on adding more layers to the mythology of Fiends. Supper stuff.
LOVED Hope this week, some amazing imagery in there, even if I am totally lost about whatever the plot of this series is. Someone is killing people on a film set, I guess? Hope is theoretically investigating but has zero clues?
Agree that Dexter ended a bit too quickly and easily, but overall a fun diversion and Bettin is gettin better each time.
I continue to be disappointed that Fiends is no longer about the clash of the horrors of war with the horrors of vampirism, and has become yet another Ian Edginton mash-up of supernatural beasties from around the world/across the ages, with a vague wartime setting. I'm really struggling to find a story there to get invested in! At least it's gorgeous to look at.
Dredd remains fantastic. This feels like the ultimate pairing of current 2000 AD droids on the strip. More, please! Brink continues its slow burn build. I wasn't convinced at first, but I'm more into it now; I suspect it'll read better collected, mind (and will be a chunkier book than usual). Hope is in a similar 'better when collected' space, but this episode was nicely grim. Dexter worked for me. The strip seems happiest in smaller chunks rather than having massive arcs that don't really go anywhere. I still hate the lead mooning after Sinister's ex, mind, which feels like manufactured confrontation waiting to happen. And then Fiends, which looks superb and is thoroughly engaging.
Everything above the bar of goodness this week. The Prog's firing on all cylinders. Dredd > Fiends > Brink > Hope > Dexter
B/W Cover:
(https://2000ad.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/coverinks-807x1024.jpg)
Some more Bolland linework from this weeks Dredd:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FThjUDSWQAAf3Yg?format=jpg&name=large)
I'm going to go against the flow here I'm afraid: more misses than hits in the Prog for me this week.
Great tagline but not sure about the cover - I'd have preferred just Dexter / Billi without the big head.
Dredd Fantastic story, fantastic episode. Everything about this shines. It's looking more and more than Asher will end up conflicting with Dredd, which sounds like it could spell his doom - and tbh that'd be preferable than Dredd being outwitted again, but I hope this doesn't come about. He's a genuinely sympathetic character as well as being very grounded, rather than having some super-awesome capability that allows him to stay one step ahead of Dredd and / or the strip events. The art is just perfect and Tom Foster is incredible.
Brink Also very strong. Old faces reintroduced - less tense and more exposition-y than last week, although I really liked the layouts on the first couple of pages for conveying that sense of paranoia. Great stuff.
This Prog is great so far! But wait...
Hope Nice episode visually but this run on Hope has been awful. The storytelling is so vague - not helped by the various crazy page layouts - and the protagonist is so distant that I have little reason to just flick past looking at the pictures. Huge step down from previous Hope tales.
Dexter - After a good start, something of a perfunctory wrap up. This would be less of a problem if we had any reason to care about Dexter, or the one-note Carrie, or the annoying Billi. I also dislike the romance subplot. A shame we didn't get to see the robot fight the monster as Tazio Bettin's combat scenes last time out were a real highlight.
Fiends With this episode I can feel my interest in this tale crumbling. The (cold)war setting seems to be have been rendered pretty much irrelevant: instead we've got Constanza facing off against another legendary monster, which isn't really a direction I'm keen to see this going. This is the THIRD 'I'm the villain behind this' reveal we've had, following both Baba Yaga AND Rasputin, with this one being the most divorced from the setting (and if you're familiar with Vampire:TM, a bit cliche). We've also seen both [spoiler]Cain[/spoiler] and Constanza get absolutely destroyed in this story and get back up: if this is going to boil down to two unkillable dudes slugging it out it's all a bit Freddy vs Jason.
Those complaints aside, the art is stunning and I especially like the crocodile-bear-bat monster.
There's a wonderful synchronicity with what's happening on 'An Honest Man' right now - the Niemand droid is taking all the best elements of John Wagner's writing (the noir genre, the terse prose, the ghoulish humour) and cranking them up to eleven, while Jumb sorry Tom Foster is doing the same with Brian Bolland's artistic style. The result is a classic Dredd tale of old on steroids. Love it.
The outsized visor and head bubbles in Brink were a nice touch. Don't want to think what goes on at the 'DISCO XXX YOGA 24/7' emporium. Not too bothered about the lack of a conventional plot in Hope as long as the surreal detours are this wonderful. I'm okay with Dexter coming in three-part bursts - they're pretty much like 3rillers with a bit of linking continuity. And yeah, Fiends is all over the shop but I can cope.
Is there anything on the way from the estimable Rennie droid? Currently reading the first Jaegir collected edition, it's whet my appetite for more - or failing that Aquila, or The Alienist..?
Quote from: norton canes on 26 May, 2022, 02:27:57 PM
Is there anything on the way from the estimable Rennie droid? Currently reading the first Jaegir collected edition, it's whet my appetite for more - or failing that Aquila, or The Alienist..?
Yes, Jaegir's next arc called Ferox will most likely land sometime in August
Quote from: broodblik on 26 May, 2022, 02:36:26 PM
Yes, Jaegir's next arc called Ferox will most likely land sometime in August
The Coleby droid mentioned that he was drawing Norts just a couple of days ago, so there's definitely something in the works.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 21 May, 2022, 06:14:51 PM
I'm not sure I've actually declared this but Niemand is now clearly the best none Wagner Dredd writer we have and have had.
I'd be hard-pressed to choose between him and Rob Williams. It's great that we have such a high standard of non-Wagner Dredd writing nowadays, compared to the era of "Sonny Steelgrave" et al.
Quote from: broodblik on 26 May, 2022, 02:36:26 PM
Yes, Jaegir's next arc called Ferox will most likely land sometime in August
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 26 May, 2022, 02:45:15 PM
The Coleby droid mentioned that he was drawing Norts just a couple of days ago, so there's definitely something in the works.
Cool! A ten-parter, I hope
Quote from: nxylas on 26 May, 2022, 02:47:06 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 21 May, 2022, 06:14:51 PM
I'm not sure I've actually declared this but Niemand is now clearly the best none Wagner Dredd writer we have and have had.
I'd be hard-pressed to choose between him and Rob Williams. It's great that we have such a high standard of non-Wagner Dredd writing nowadays, compared to the era of "Sonny Steelgrave" et al.
Rob Williams is an excellent writer, but his Dredds do tend towards blockbuster movies. It'd be interesting to see him run smaller stories across a few months. Niemend, meanwhile, has often skirted around Dredd in strips that are smaller parts of a bigger whole, but now appears to be added more actual Dredd – which is going well.
Personally, I'd say Niemend's writing feels the closest to Wagner's, in a manner only Al Ewing has really matched. Honestly, if Tharg threw a load of cash at him and said "just write Dredd for a year", I'd be happy with that. But between him, Williams, Carroll, etc, with input from a handful of others, Dredd is in good hands, even if it does sometimes feel a bit like we're reading several alternate universe Dredds rather than a single cohesive whole.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 26 May, 2022, 03:46:34 PM
But between him, Williams, Carroll, etc, with input from a handful of others, Dredd is in good hands, even if it does sometimes feel a bit like we're reading several alternate universe Dredds rather than a single cohesive whole.
I actually kind of like the way each writer has carved their own little niche within the Dreddverse, with Matt presumably keeping a watchful eye to make sure they don't contradict each other (not that Wagner and Grant ever worried much about that when they were sole writers). YMMV of course.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 26 May, 2022, 03:46:34 PM
Personally, I'd say Niemend's writing feels the closest to Wagner's, in a manner only Al Ewing has really matched.
Not sure about that... for me, Al managed to write Dredds that were unmistakably Ewing, but still
felt like Dredd. It's hard to articulate, but Dredd is actually such a difficult character to get right that when a writer tries to bring their own 'stamp' to the strip, it usually involves shifting at least a few degrees off what feels
right for Dredd.
What I think both Ewing and Niemand bring (brought) is a desire to get Dredd right first, then write stories around that... and that's what makes them feel Wagner-ish — the fact that Joe is generally spot on. After all, the Wagner/Grant then Wagner-solo era encompasses such a vast range of tone, mood, and even genre, it's hard to point at any story that's definitively Dredd, other than for the fact that Dredd's in it.