Prog 1725 - Destroyer of worlds!

[oshii]

I did wonder about the helmet swap thing.  [spoiler]The eyes bit was seriously cool, I'd completely forgotten about those being bionic.[/spoiler]

I'm coming round to the Flesh artwork.  I'm not sure I like it yet, but I certainly don't dislike it.  It's got the energy and violence of the 70's stuff which seems pretty apporpriate.

[John Caliber]

I'd imagine ALL Street Judges can override Lawgiver self-destructs - after all, if a Judge can't use it, who can? It's only there to prevent perps from abusing Mega-City One's most deadly handgun. Only Senior Judges have the authority to disarm it, but in emergencies (like the Apocalypse War), it's logical the rule would be dropped.

[Rex Banner]

The ABC Warriors' starscans have been a highlight of recent weeks but Liam Sharp's take on Zippo is simply stunning.

[The Sherman Kid]

Eyes down for a full house -

"uh uhm uhnnuhssuhn, yuh uhnnuhstuhn"
"Death is what made him.Death is what he was made for"
"turning us into vile speedos with the stamp of our secret vices on our faces"(WTF?)
"Fifty says the boss'll skin him and give him a salt bath.It's a classic opener,Lenny"
"What about Debourah Cur and Clawed Raines and JS Bark?

This is why 2000ad Rocks!

[Goaty]

Knock, Knock

[House of Usher]

Who's there?

[Goaty]

SHAKARA!






[spoiler]Message to the his enemy was classic![/spoiler]

[SmallBlueThing]

And I thought last week's was good!

Dredd: It all came together in the end. A cracking episode of exactly the type of Dredd I want to read. re the Lawgiver; if ONLY the judge who's palmprinted to it can use it, then what happens if that judge is killed? No, Dredd, as a Senior, of course can reconfigure the defences. Loved that he doesn't give a monkey's about wearing a white helmet too. Though a small complaint: When he took his helmet off, the neck and hairline shown in that panel is NOT how I see Dredd: Way too young a neck, that was. And where were his trademark curls?

Shakara: Marvellous. Funny, exciting, not too scribbly, full of ideas. Yes please, I'll have more. What? It ends in two weeks? Yer avin' a larf!

Flesh: Just perfect. Note perfect script, glorious, nasty, violent, scary, edgy artwork and a final page that made me at once want this already sitting before me in lovely trade or hardback form, and internally excited at the thought of many more weeks of this on a Wednesday.

Future Shock: Boooo for swearing! Yayyy for the rest of it! Liked that.

Kingdom: I weep that this has ended. Do we have actual confirmation that there will be more, because that could have been an ending full stop. Not the ending a series like this deserves, but AN ending. The ending this deserves, of course, is the ending never to be written, because Kingdom should go on forever, as long as Abnett and Elson are doing it. Oh, and I read the flashbacks literally: I like the simple, occam's reading, that Gene just killed his original master, from back when he was just a dog. Which is partly why as I said, it felt like an "ending ending".

Letters, Star Scan, cover- all great.

Can it possibly get even better next week? I genuinely feel sorry for people who don't read the prog.

SBT

[radiator]

While I don't think Kingdom could run forever, I do think that there is scope for plenty more stories - hope Abnett and Elson stick around for a while yet. Kingdom is classic 2000ad, a simple concept and action-packed stories all built around a strong, memorable central character - other 2000ad series could learn a thing or two from it imo and it's one of the few 2000ad properties that I could genuinely see working in another media like a kids animation.

[blixab]

For my tuppeneth worth, I enjoyed this weeks Prog.

Looks as though Deller is going to be bought back at a later date.

Shakara & Flesh were great.

Again, really enjoyed the Future Shocks. The last couple have been top draw!

Kingdom - Even though I enjoyed it, are we not back again to Vol1 but with different characters?

Did anybody else notice that all bar one letter on the input page was written by those celtic near neighbours? Pen to paper or type away all the English amongst us!!

[Alski]

Future Shock: Boooo for swearing!

What - "Ignorant pice of shit"?. ANyone else have a problem with that?

Was that the first real 'swear' in the twoth?

[SmallBlueThing]

Future Shock: Boooo for swearing!

What - "Ignorant pice of shit"?. ANyone else have a problem with that?

Was that the first real 'swear' in the twoth?

No, we've had loads. We even had a shit last week at the start of Flesh. Someone will be along in a minute to give you exact details of the first instance of 2000AD printing a naughty word.

The reason I don't like it, is because the prog is SO GOOD at the moment, I'd love to be able to pass a copy on to my seven year old, as he liked Flesh last week, and was interested in Kingdom- but I hate putting swearwords into the mouths of my children.

SBT

[Agent Rat]

I've been reading 2000AD since 1978-ish.
IMHO Dredd is better now than it's ever been. That said the reason for my post (My first post BTW) is that the whole swopping helmet and lawgiver thing really jarred.
It's always cool for JD to have an opportunity to get his helmet off, but......
* Are Justice Dept helmets and Lawgivers really so badly designed that they fall over at the first bit of EMP? Didn't they learn anything from the Apocalypse War? 
* What piece of tech in the helmet is so vital that the toughest street judge of them all can't do without it even for a few moments?
* It is very well established that only the owner of a lawgiver can fire it. If that's different for rookies guns or if Dredd has a special way around it then this should have been explained in the story. IMHO.
*"Htt!" - what? Are his vocal cords rebooting too?

[Dark Jimbo]

No, we've had loads. We even had a shit last week at the start of Flesh. Someone will be along in a minute to give you exact details of the first instance of 2000AD printing a naughty word.

That would be Bisley sneaking one in among graffiti on Joe Pineapple's gun early on during the ABC warriors' Black Hole story.

But as far as I know, (and I stand ready to be corrected here) the first time a 'real' swear appears in dialogue is during Button Man III. It was certinly the first f**k, anyway.

[locustsofdeath!]

Personally I can do without the swearing. I don't know, I just don't think 2000AD needs it most of the time. I like the made up swear words and all, and I think that's usually enough; however, I will admit that if they are needed to keep the realism of a story - one like Buttonman - then use them by all means. I didn't think the use of the word "shit" was essential to the believability of the Future Shock to justify its use. Oh well.

As for a review, this prog is fantastic overall - and the prog has indeed been fantastic the last couple of weeks. Dredd was okay, but then this entire arc was simply okay for me - not Ewing's best, but still as good as most Dredd writers not named Wagner.

Shakara, Flesh and Kingdom are simply amazing. And to think I didn't like any of these series when I first read them. My mouth was full of wrong. I am saddened that Shakara is ending, delighted that Flesh is continuing and excited about where Kingdom is going!

The Future Shock did fine until the last couple of pages. Kind of a twist from out of nowhere. I like Future Shocks written so that once the shock is given I can look back and say, "yeah, should have seen that coming". There were no hints or foreshadowing in this one. Nice dialogue and nice art, though.