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Meg 447 - Monster Smash!

Started by broodblik, 17 August, 2022, 07:36:52 AM

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broodblik

This was a great meg with only 3 stories but it delivered the goods.

Dredd – Another wonderful one shot by Niemand and some gorgeous art by Googe.  Again, it is a case of Niemand creating another possible return set of characters as the story focus on a Death- fanatic.

Anderson – We have a new head of PSI division. The story felt a little bit rushed even the art felt rushed. It is a pity since the story was quite interesting. It could have done with 2 more episodes

Lawless – Wow what an ending and to an absolute gem of a series. Yes, we will get another series next year with the whole landscape completely altered. The whole meg devoted to this last part of the arc a whopping 34 pages of Lawless. It is like a dream come true for all our fan boys' pity for people picking up the meg for the first time. 

The meg also features a great piece on the great man Alan Grant.

If you have  not read Feral and Foe the floppy feature the first arc and it ends with a message that "The story continues in the Feral & Foe trade collection, on sale January 2023"
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.

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.

Colin YNWA

I mean this issue has triple Lawless so there's not much more to say is there. Its an absolute winner. But let's delve deeper.

Dredd I misfire by Niemand's terms but still a fun Dredd, its just not an excellent Dredd which he's pretty much always done before. Lovely and utter perfect choice of art from Neil Googe (with Gary Caldwell on colours) does elevate the whole think. Kenneth does another citizen focused story and here introduces Callum a crafty seller of Justice related merchandise. Its a humour driven strip and its good for giggles but that robs it of the emotional resenance of Niemand at his finest. Still heartly one off with a telegraphed ending and a sure return I'll happily read.

Anderson... err this happens and then that and... some stuff and Green Judge and then.... well its over...

Lawless high octane, breathless ending to the current series than backs and beats Metta even further into a corner and trouble. The extended fight sequences mean we are robbed a little of what makes Lawless the truely wonderful thrill it is, its character driven moments but damn if its not impossible not to be blown away by it all. The tension is high, I worry for characters at every turn and Dabnett and Winslade play me like a fiddle.

There's a reason I think Lawless could win (won't by maybe should) FFT Tourney and its this. It can spend weeks building story and character and then bang smacks you in the guts and takes your breathe away with a glorious body blow like this. Its just brilliant and read back i think this will be even better. I love this thrill and its probably my favourite thing in Tharg's entire thrillorchard at the moment and that means I think its better than The Out and Brink... so fuck me that means its good.

Floppie is ... Feral and 20 mintues ago or whatever, very disappointing BUT made up for by a very moving tribute to Alan Grant from his peers and prodigies. Its fittingly wonderful.

Overall its 3* Lawless good so its an absolute winner of a Meg and next issue has quite the uphill struggle to not feel like a massive come down!

Max Headroom

I don't usually post in this section, but I felt compelled to say just how utterly brilliant 'Lawless' was this month. A triple dose of just the very best thrills! Dan Abnett is an amazing writer and I think others would join me in saying this deserves the deluxe hardcover treatment one day.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Max Headroom on 18 August, 2022, 03:51:21 PM
I don't usually post in this section, but I felt compelled to say just how utterly brilliant 'Lawless' was this month. A triple dose of just the very best thrills! Dan Abnett is an amazing writer and I think others would join me in saying this deserves the deluxe hardcover treatment one day.

Yes I would absolutely gobble up a hardcover of Lawless. Few, if any thrills have deserved it more.

scrotnig

Another short post just to add to the Lawless worship.

I mean, there are great thrills in abundance, but Lawless somehow transcends even the best of the best for me. Everything about it is so deftly constructed, every character is so believable and distinct, every setting seems like it's real, it envelops you in its world like nothing I've ever read.

No other artist or letterer could do it justice either, its style is so definitive and distinctive, it's such a creative "coming together". The whole team make it look effortless, I'm sure it's far from that.

How it feels so fresh after running as long as it has is astounding.

It's just incredible and it leaves me wanting more...lots more...every single time!

I can't praise the team behind it enough. The Meg is worth the money just for this!

And yes, collect the lot to date and I'll buy it.

Richard

Lawless isn't my favourite series ever, but I really enjoyed this month's episode. That [spoiler]fight with McClure[/spoiler] was just epic.

IndigoPrime

A strange issue, in some regards. I wasn't taken with the cover (despite loving Winslade's strip art), and the intro page initially made no sense, having so little in it, in terms of strips.

Dredd was fun and I liked the bit with the helmet swap. Googe does tend to draw a very young Dredd, but that works in isolation. Also feels like it's a set-up to something. Not Niemand's best, but then even a middling Niemand Dredd beats a lot of other Dredd.

The Alan Grant tribute was great, and then we got Anderson, which honestly isn't doing much for me. It's the first time I've not been excited by Lee Carter art. (Lots of blank space and drab green here...) And the script is building lore in what should be an interesting way, but it's all just feeling a bit flat.

Then Lawless. And... well. I mean, it starts before the staples, with the resolution to last month's battle, which is all kinds of terrifying. Then it ramps up with McClure going full evil. Then there's the Lawless chase and scrap. And it's going and going until we hit the very last page of the comic. I wasn't expecting that, but it's hard to grumble about anything else when we get so much Lawless. (Unless you don't like Lawless, in which case I don't know what to say to you.)

The floppy was... weird. I don't think we've ever seen anything so brazenly ad-oriented before. The strip is too new to have value in that form and isn't really existing as a means to access a current strip in 2000 AD, so I dunno. Any other month, I'd have griped that this was cost-cutting, but given how much strip was in this issue, it looked more like cost-balancing. That said, I very much don't hope this floppy sets a precedent.