Prog 1530 - High Stakes

[ming]

Another fantastic prog this week.  After Stickleback and Kingdom finished, we could easily have ended up with a bit of a slump in Thrill Power, but with Savage, Sin Dex and Nikolai Dante firing on all cylinders, it's far from the case from where I'm sitting.  Go Tharg!

Dredd  The return of the vampire droids was a bit of a shock and almost made up for the lack of Battle of Armageddon scenes.  If we don't get more of that, it will be a missed opportunity and a woeful case of skip to the end-ism.  Otherwise, I'm loving Origins, me.  Great Stuff.

Savage by name, Savage by nature.  He's so fantastically not-likeable, isn't he.  Next stop - getting the stories offa that disk and into the papers, I'll warrant.  Great Stuff.

Robo-Hunter hasn't been my favourite thrill since the early days of Verdus, but this latest outing is more of a return to form than the last couple we've had, so I'm quite happy with it.  After the opening episode with the lookalikes, it's certainly made a turn for the better.  Good Stuff.

Sinister Dexter is also back on form.  I'm among those that had previously wearied of Downlode's finest, but I'm happily converted by this latest story.  Will we be seeing more of Sin Dex after this?  Anyway, Great Stuff.

Nikolai Dante  Lovely.  Yes we've seen Dante in similar situations before, but it's still feeling like Dante at his best as far as I'm concerned.  Definitely a reckoning in the offing in the near future.  Great Stuff.

All in all, the Thrill Power dials are all registering 11 and I have steam coming out of my ears.

[Goaty]

wow, this prog is really brilliant!

Lulu gonna to get killed next week! very sad!

I think Dredd gonna shoot Booth at end of series, well Dredd wipe out Sov City 1 for Drokk's sake!!!

[IndigoPrime]

Mm. Dredd's never shot one of those before, and that's the way I thought the story would pan out, too. It makes sense, really.

[DavidXBrunt]

A splendid issue all round.

I don't mind Origins skipping the battle, as it's just more bangs and bullets along the way.

Robo-Hunter actually made me laugh outloud when Hoagy revealed where the grenade was.

Savage, yeah, I'm liking this. The moment with the two men at the dogs discussing the next race in particular stood out.

Sin Dex never went off the boil for me but it was maybe coasting. This isn't.

Dante - Lulu verses Konstantin! The plot moves on neatly and the art? Amazing stuff. I wouldn't mind more from Spatchcock and Flintlock, mind.

[Roger Godpleton]

Dredd: We're back to the quest, so everything be cool. Logan getting infected is a nice touch. Carlos kicks ass. Great Stuff.

Savage: This is probably the most outlandish strip in the prog, even though it's "real" world. That's a good thing though. Great Stuff.

Robo: Not buying that the "crap" robots (good line) are dead. I don't mind these occasional dealies but I would baulk at this being a regular. OK Stuff.

Sin:Yet another set of interesting developments. This strip is so much better in talkie mode rather than a zillion pages of gore and Finny standing still but still not getting hit. Very Good Stuff.

Dante: Before this strip I was bored of Lulu getting away all the time, but  now I don't want to go, especially not at Konstansin's hands. Fraser has restored harmony to the universe. Great Stuff.

Overall: Niddle-kneow (That's an electric guitar being played in a triumphant fashion.)

[The Monarch]

Konstantine is a nasty piece of work isn't he Lulu is so dead next week

[Goaty]

well, Hopefully Lulu got in Dante's plan before she meet Konstantine?

[Trout]

I didn't get my prog until FRIDAY, so I was in near-physical pain without my thrill power.

Then I overdosed. It was fantastic to see Snap, Crackle and Pop again. But isn't that someone writing Pat Mills' characters for him? ;-)

I also loved Dante and Robohunter - poor Hoagy - and I'm still enjoying Savage. SinDex picked up a little bit.

The cover was great, too.

Hooray for the prog!

- Trout

[opaque]

Dredd: Looks like it's going somewhere but we're not finding out anything about the state of the nation, let alone the world or MC1 after the atom wars. So much information missing (although how it would fit in I don't know), Battle of Armageddon coming up next I'm guessing.

Savage: Good but we need to get into some details again, it just seems to be generally pointless in that nothings being gained, just like real life hey kids! But it's not real life it's a comic strip and needs to progress.

Robohunter: Blah. Nice enough but really don't care.

Sin: Good getting somewhere with this too, I was worried it was going to stagnate but the last 2 weeks have shown great writing and planning skills

Dante: Doing very well too but there has to be some sort of twist or massive change coming.

2000ad is very good atm isn't it :)

[Dog Deever]

I can't believe they've killed Carlos Sanchez Robostogie- wasn't it Grant who killed Johnny Alpha as well?  Him and Stogie had better be back- imagine killing these sterling characters off and continuing to resurrect crud like Anderson! Perhaps he's paving the way for the 5 of Spades to be a new sidekick (I hope not, dare I say it- far too two dimensional a character! And 'Sinorita' is way better than 'toots'), along with a cybernetic Sam Slade-
heh! Heh! Slades and Spades! Sorry!
Dante and Sin/ Dex moving along nicely, but overshadowed (IMO) by all else at the moment- in another prog they'd shine.
Origins being back is great- I can't believe it's nearly over already, doesn't feel like a meg-epic! Continuing to enjoy Savage. Very strong prog, great cover.