Prog 1442: Slaine - Freedom or Death

[Tiplodocus]

I'll make the emost of being able to post while I'm still "seeking employment"...
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Another Langley cover rendered in yawnoscope.  For me, the novelty has worn off with these interchangeable covers. It's getting as bad as when they forced poor old Cliff Robinson to do a different Dredd pose every month.

DREDD: The plot moves along nicely.  There was an episode of Chopper where "nothing happened" but it was still great. This is similar - no big action set pieces (apart from the now standard Dredd having a mundane conversation while fighting a horde of mutant yaks) but it still kept me gripped and had enough little flashes of character to make you feel you were reading something denser.  Originally I was worried by the overly cartoony art but this has settled down nicely and I'd really like to see more of Mister Currie.

Slaine - it actually ends - which is nice.  Some of the pictures look pretty but I'd rather see what's going on in the fight than a two page panorama from the pages of National Geographic.  Brave of Mills to use a joke for the death of the baddie.  "Brave" in this case means I think it didn't work.

Shakara - has everything that was missing from the first series i.e. characters.  A nice twist (for me) to learn that Shakara isn't the Assassin of the title.  Do you need me to tell you how lush Flint's art is? Though not.



Off-topic:  Am I the only one who feels a little uneasy about a BLACK HAWK DOWN computer game based on "real events".  The films was great until you remember it isn't a work of fiction and, once you read anything about what really went on, the film becomes almost reprehensible.  I know people have no problem with WWII shooters but this just seems wrong.  

[Byron Virgo]

"A nice twist (for me) to learn that Shakara isn't the Assassin of the title."

Not wanting to be pedantic (okay, I do) but that was revealed already in new articles on both this site, 2000AD Review and in Comics International, so you really didn't have an excuse for not knowing about Valentine De'Ath prior to the commencement of this series.

[Wils]

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[paulvonscott]

Liked the cover, thought that Slaine looks a little out of proportion, but that's fantasy gubbins for you.  The Celtic Swirl 2000AD logo has to be my favourite bit of interference I've seen.

I thought this was a fantastic end to the books of invasions.  I'll look forward to them being all collected so it can be read in a big epic wodge.  On reflection, these books had to feature all the battles they did because of the source material, but I feel we've had quite a lot of good material outisde of the battles.

The last two pages to me seemed as good a use of space in 2000AD than many other strips that have bothered to fill them up with words.

I look forward to reading the next Slaine story, though I don't know much about it beyond the basic premise, it feels like it will be an epilogue to the series.  

We're then promised a break, so that should keep some people happy.  But if or when he does turn up again, it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

I feel we've come full circle to the Horned God territory and I actually feel some sort of pre-Slaine the King Era vibe would be quite welcome.

As I've said in a very mundane year, Slaine has at least been there to keep me reading.  

[Artificial Idiot]

You know, I'd rather like to see Langley do a cover which doesn't feature Slaine. The one he did for the first series of Shakara was superb, and I just can't help feeling a change would be nice...

Much as I absolutely loved Dredd and Shakara (as they were both fantastic!), Slaine... Well, I can't remember being so horribly bored reading a comic before now. It was mind numbing to the extend that there was no like or dislike involved... Grud, it was just so tedious. What a waste of two good spaces in the comic...

[Tiplodocus]

Cheers Byron.

"so you really didn't have an excuse for not knowing "

Well, I guess I could have put the following excuse in my review;

I missed the fact that the Assasin of the title was not SHAKARA because I never read any spoiler articles about a series that I wasn't particularly interested in the first time around (lovely art but where's the plot?).

I don't have time to live on two 2000ad websites (and I've picked this one in preference to 2000adreview) and like most people, I only buy Comics International to read the bits about me!

But thought that might bore people even more than I usually do. So I included the words "for me" instead.

Am I still a bad person?


Heh, and PVS has a point - I'd rather see fifty episodes of Slaine's Country Postcards than another series of Bison or Valkries or Durham Red or...

[Byron Virgo]

No, now that you've made it clear I'm finding it in my heart to forgive you ;)

Quite looking forward to the epilogue of the Books of Invasions - it'll be good to see Mills (currently on good writing form) tackling something a little different with the character. Does anyone know if it's still going to be Clint Langley on art duties?

[paulvonscott]

I hope so.  I'm also curious to see what Langely works on next and what, if any, mutations his style goes through.

[Mangamax]

Thought his final goodbye to Niamh, both the words and the fact you see how she looks to Slaine and how she actually is, was incredibly moving.
And the last two pages are fantastic.
Slaine should end NOW. It'd be a fitting finale wouldn't it?

[Waddie]

It'd be a fitting finale wouldn't it?
Yes.  And Mills is obviously great at spotting those!

No, hang on.

[Bolt-01]

Got to agree with MangaMax about the farewell to Niamh. Thought that was handled magnificently.

Bolt-01

[Artificial Idiot]

Yeah, the farewell was handled rather well. But to me, it seemed like it was drowning in a whole host of other, rather tedious scenes.

Maybe I just feel cheated because this is nowhere near as good as it could have been...

[The Amstor Computer]

Not got anything good to say about Slaine, I'm afraid. It's over, it'll be replaced by something else and it won't be in the prog for a while. Good enough for me.

Dredd was fun, but I really think the choice of artist was a big mis-step. Perfectly competent, but perfectly wrong for Dredd.

Shakara was a great ride, and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of Valentine's gang in the next few weeks. A real highlight.

The return of Caballistics next week is tempered by the news that yet another dull DAbnett space opera is back, along with Sin/Dex. SB Davis' art should be as gorgeous as always, and I can only hope that the story is a decent match.

[Endjinn]

Dredd's better than it was the last couple of weeks, liking it.

Enjoyed the ending to Slaine. Agree grade and comments to the good bits that people have mentioned above, and echo the hopes he'll be rested for a good while before coming back.

Shakara! Shakara! I like it lots.

[Dudley]

TOP THREE

Mat Smith proves that it's not just the dross like Valkyries that get the double double-length episodes...

Judge Dredd.  Andrew Currie is letting himself down with these movie lookalikes now.  It was fun for the odd episode, but I'm buggered if I want to see some caricaturist's idea of what "Blood Trails The Movie" would look like.  Various threads are beginning to come together and, OK, this looks like it could be interesting.  My money's increasingly on Vienna being offed - why else do a "niece in peril" miniepic for what, the third time in a row?

Slaine.  While I definitely thought it too many at the start of this series, I'm prepared to admit to having enjoyed this last run.  Mills has clearly brought Slaine to a natural close, what with Ukko having gone, the Sea Demons pretty much comprehensively vanquished, Niamh dead, the tribes in another dimensions (oh, all right, "density") and the last loose end (Kai) apparently to be wound up in the epilogue.  Great finish.

Shakara.  Shakara's a liquid????  Great use of green.  It'll be interesting how Morrison is going to keep our sympathies on Shakar's side, given that it's a practically conscience-free killing machine, while the assassin seems much more rounded and even writes hi own poetry...