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Prog 2299 - Street Justice!

Started by Colin YNWA, 12 September, 2022, 05:26:13 PM

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Colin YNWA

Sooo much to wrap up and its another example of how trickly they can be. I'll go from bottom to top.

Skip Tracer - to be fair the overall routine was of such low tarrif that the final dismount barely registered. I mean to be honest it looked emaculate but when its at the end of somethign so bland who cares.

Dredd- decent, with only a small step forward to lead us on. The trouble was it didn't feel particularly earnt. End of last week the solution is presented. This week it solutions. No daring do.

Dexter - They had a lot to do and that was a big leap towards what's to come and so we'll need to see what the rest of their competition offers. Even with the lurch forward though this felt both earnt AND an decent ending in its own right. We have a nice transition.... if its a bit of a letdown after the recovery in the second half of the routine.

Jaegir - Another step forward - meaning that we don't get an entirely satisfactory routine in and of itself but its not the leap forward of Dexter so has to score more.

Crawly Man  only chuffin' nailed it. After so much packed into a short routine it seemed impossible that the complexity of tthe landing required would work. But it did. And that salute form the crowd asking for more say it all.

What have we learnt then. Well the main thing is don't try to do an entire review based on a dodgy gymnastics metaphor just cos you like to question whether strip land their endings... it really doesn't work!

Next week looks interesting. I'll go with a lacross methaphor there...maybe...

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

The Enigmatic Dr X

Prog was meh.

Actually looking forward to Zombies.

I like that cover. It's like a generic 90s cover, but so what? I like it.
Lock up your spoons!

Batman's Superior Cousin

I can't help but feel that Godpleton's avatar/icon gets more appropriate everyday... - TordelBack
Texts from Last Night

broodblik

An interesting prog with some good endings and some not so good.

Dredd – Well the good idea did not materialize, and our droid's dreams are shattered. This was a fun 3-part Dredd story, and I can see that this is not the end of "End of Days" and "Atlantis" saga.

3rillers – This was a good 3riller and it is amazing how sometimes you can land a proper ending within a minimal page count. The good thing as well is that we do have scope for more let's see if the creative team can bring this back.

Skip(to the end) – After 7 series and 73 episodes we are finally there, the end (or in this case Valhalla). The last arc was the weakest of them all and on reflection it could have ended with the previous arc.

Sin/Dex – I am not sure what to make of this ending it feels more like an end of a chapter with an introduction to a new chapter. I have one request here Tharg can you please when you bring Dexter back at least do it as a 10/12-part story rather than the fragmented titbits.

Jaegir – The hunt now is truly on the one after a formula the other after a "maniac". Cannot wait for the next arc and please two years wait is way too much
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

IndigoPrime

Well, I enjoyed that. I'm not sure how much more you could wring out of the sentient droid, and so the ending of Dredd felt fine. I'd have preferred the story be another part or two though.

3rillers nailed the landing. Tightly written. Freaky. Great art. If this is it, great. If it's a backdoor pilot for this trio, I'd happily read more. Best thing in the Prog this week for me – and across the past three weeks.

Dexter ended quite well. I like the twist of the AI. I was also happy to see [spoiler]something close to Hosanna slapping Dexter out of his mooning[/spoiler]. I guess we now get to watch the lead go slowly mad,  [spoiler]fighting his best mate while having a ghost-like version of said friend in his head[/spoiler]. But, yeah, less piecemeal if possible, please, Tharg.

Skip Tracer... It took a while for me to realise how far it had skipped forward. In all, it wrapped up fairly well, but it still has the feel of one of those 1990s thrills that don't quite fit in the Prog.

Finally, Jaegir wraps things up in suitably solid fashion, although I'll at this point admit that I think I need to do a re-read, because some of the threads are coming loose in my head.

Intrigued to see how zombie 2000 AD plays out, too.

3rillers > Dredd > Jaegir = Sin/Dex > Skip Tracer

Richmond Clements

Finally caught up on the past 9 months of progs. Really liked that 3riller. Wouldn't complain about seeing them back again.

Proudhuff

Quote from: Richmond Clements on 14 September, 2022, 05:19:26 PM
Finally caught up on the past 9 months of progs. Really liked that 3riller. Wouldn't complain about seeing them back again.

Well done that sounds like an epic read!
DDT did a job on me

nxylas

I rarely read the little bits of text in the indicia, but I did this week, and now I'm curious to know what's been unearthed in the Nerve Centre.
AIEEEEEE! It's the...THING from the HELL PLANET!

McNulty

Dredd: the way the Sov robot was defeated was a little anticlimactic but at least there is a way open for a continuation in the future.

3rillers: This had a good conclusion, the story was interesting and i enjoyed it. I would be happy to see these characters in another outing.

Dexter: another instance of a convenient deus ex machina being used to resolve the situation. It'll probably be countered before too long because it would be too great of an advantage for Dexter going forward.

Skip Tracer: Never really got into this story but kept reading it throughout. It probably would be better when read in its entirety. It did suffer from the perennial problem of 2000AD stories in that long spaces of time can go by before further chapters of the stories are printed. Just imagine if they ever got Moore and Gibson back to do another chapter of Halo Jones after all this time?

This problem hit me again reading Jaegir. [spoiler]Am I suppposed to know who Colonel Raksha is? If he was introduced in previous chapters of this story, I am afraid that I don't remember him.[/spoiler] This is no fault to the storytelling. It is just because a lot of the protaganists in the story have similar looks and wear face concealing suits, it is hard to follow. It was a lot easier when Rogue was the main character, there was hardly a chance of confusing his look.

Like many, I am looking forward to next week's prog. I reread the prequel story to get amped up for the upcoming crisis on infinite wars. They were right when they said that they definitely wouldn't leave this hanging for three more years.

Barrington Boots

Mine arrived, very late. Thriller aside, I felt this was a bit of a prog of anti-climaxes really. Very 90s cover, a touch of the Brashill about it perhaps? I really liked it as a bit of a throwback.

Dredd – After two fun episodes I felt this just sort of ended very quickly. I felt there was a missed opportunity to have Sentientoid jump out of a cake but I'm glad something crazy did. Lovely art again and I have been digging the daft gangster dialogue, but I thought this could have run for another couple of episodes easily. Hopefully not the last we'll see of this.
Also, the fact that Sentientoids big idea was essentially [spoiler]to wear a big hat[/spoiler] was great.

3rillers – This was the best episode of the three: everything came together, and a suitably creepy end. The art has really grown on me - the demon is suitably horrific, the dog and the violence were superbly rendered. I still think the man / dog dialogue is pretty dire and the man is a berk but now I've read the whole lot I feel more positive about this than I did last week when I laid into it a bit.

Skip Tracer – I think I get what this arc was going for, but it all really just lacked impact and felt very rushed so it all sort of ended with a whimper. It also felt very unnecessary: should have finished with the last arc and a bit of good feeling. Over the years I tried hard to like this Thrill but it wasn't good, was it?

Dexter – Bit of a deus ex machina to get out of the confrontation and then all the interesting characters get shuffled off before the next chapter. Total anti-climax. If this comes back I would prefer to see it with a longer run and with Bettin on art.

Jaegir – Sadly also felt anti-climatic to me: after the big cliffhanger everyone survived being blasted with an oribital laser somehow and the various forces diverge and set up the next series. The stakes are high and promises a lot but this also, I thought, could have done with another two episodes and I felt it lost momentum a bit for me as a reader with the Regened break. I did like the gruesome manner in which the Kali virus info was hidden and recovered.

Just all felt a bit less-good-than-it-should apart from the Thriller which was actually better than I expected.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

norton canes

Perhaps not absolutely the most thrill-ridden prog ever, but these pre-jumping on progs are sometimes on a hiding to nothing considering people are focussed on the upcoming thrills

Not a bad conclusion to 'The Crawly Man' but I'm not sure it's got the depth of characterisation to warrant a full run. Besides, even though it's tied to a single ongoing narrative, Thistlebone fulfils much of its function.

Somebody please recalibrate the Yeowell droid's background depiction subcircuits! I thought the featureless background of the bar room was a comment on the AGI's blocked sensory apparatus but I suspect I was  mistaken. I'm not sure (Sinister) Dexter will ever end, so I don't quite know how to assess it in terms of an arc conclusion, but if we accept SD is like the ongoing soap drama of 2000 AD (sounds like I'm damning it with faint praise there, I'm really not) then it's great.

Similarly with Jaegir, this is definitely how long-term serialised thrills should be done, but the flipside is some characters fade from memory... a quick Google reveals Raksha is the 'deranged torturer' who Atalia offered up herslef to to save her colleagues in 'Valkyries', if it helps.

'Sentientoid' has been excellent too, a nice story enhanced by Jake Lunch's exaggerated artwork.

Blue Cactus

Quote from: McNulty on 15 September, 2022, 09:49:08 PM

Skip Tracer: Never really got into this story but kept reading it throughout. It probably would be better when read in its entirety. It did suffer from the perennial problem of 2000AD stories in that long spaces of time can go by before further chapters of the stories are printed.


Not sure I agree with this - to me it feels like Skip Tracer has barely been out of the prog for the last two or three years. All a matter of perception I suppose.

A very 90s looking cover but that's ok; it's generic Dredd but who doesn't like generic Dredd?

My highlight has been the 3riller the last three progs, and that barely EVER happens so well done to the team. I did wonder if Millmore ran out of time a little when the backgrounds all disappeared on page three but his facial expressions are great and carry it through, and when he does put the detail in, as he does on the final page, it's excellent stuff. Not sure if I want to see this return - Herne is a little bit 'generic hard man' so far, and the actual Crawly Man demon might be a bit limiting unless it was dealt with in a clever way. But I disagree with the idea that because we've got Thistlebone, the prog doesn't need another folk horror strip - as long as it's completely different, then why not.

Sentientoid did wrap up quite suddenly but it's clearly just one installment of Rob Williams's somewhat comedic and singular take on Dredd and no doubt we'll be seeing the droid at some point in the future. People have often said that Dredd lacks a unified feel these days in that different writers have their own version of the strip with their own recurring characters and plot threads. Whether or not this is a satisfying approach to the strip aside, I'd say Williams has one of the most distinctive 'versions' of the Dredd-verse that we have at the moment. I'd be happy for Tharg to give the entire strip to Niemand for, say, a year, and let him plot out the flow of the strip for a longer period, but I do enjoy the Williams stuff.

Dexter... ehhh. I've actually been happy with the piecemeal way the strip has run in the last couple of years - you're never far away from another burst adding to the progression of the wider arc. Not sure about this ending though - after all this time travelling to get to Mangapore and enjoying the interactions of this team, Dex just decides he's going to head back to Downlode again and the other three are dismissed. Hopefully we've not seen the last of them. Also if the friendly AI had revealed its [spoiler]let's say cloaking device[/spoiler] at the start of the story there would have been no need for the whole journey at all. Hey ho!

Skip Tracer has not been the story for me. Top art though.

Jaegir... I need a reread of the whole thing because I get a wee bit lost with the plot threads and characters in this one. It looks amazing, Coleby and O'Grady make it so imersive and the lettering is fab too - that little 'whisper' at the bottom of page three is lovely. In nit-picking mode I think there's a word missing from the first panel of the final page - I'm never sure when that happens if the word has been missing in the script and the letterer has to replicate the script, mistakes and all. No big deal of course!

The upcoming zombie thing... I'll wait and see. I'm pretty wary of treating 2000ad strips as a 'multiverse' where all sorts of crossovers can occur (don't mind the odd one here and there). Anyway I'm sure this will be well-judged!