Prog 1899 - Lords Have Mercy?

[JamesC]

A nice cover by Paul Marshall with colours by Chris Blythe. Dredd's usually imposing form is dwarfed by the law lords as Dredd threatens their leader.

Dredd - I've really enjoyed this Law Lords story. It turned out very differently to how I'd imagined after reading the first episode. In fact, part of me is disappointed that we never got the Buck Rogers style culture shock story of Indira Knight.

Aquila - Ends well with a very creepy last panel. I think this run could possibly have been a bit shorter for the amount of story we've had. Having said that, it's a quality strip and the art in particular has been absolutely stonking.

Brass Sun - I'm afraid I'm skipping this. It's just too slow for me and, while the strip has some good ideas, I don't think the characters are developed enough to hold interest.

Future Shocks - A fun tale we'll told. I'm pretty sure some of you will guess the twist before the reveal but I purposely try not to do that as it think it spoils the fun.

Black Shuck - I have similar frustrations with this strip as I have with Brass Sun. It's made of quality ingredients but it's missing the vital characterisation that is needed to hold interest. It's like mashed potatoes without any salt in.

Not the greatest prog but it's still worth the cover price. I'm really looking forward to the new line up next prog - especially Kingdom!

[Mabs]

Yeah, Kingdom! Get Whet! Been waiting ages for it to return.

I missed the last few progs sadly, starting with the rerurn of Jaegir, which I doubt is a coincidence!  Can't wait to get back on the weekly prog.

[Tjm86]

This week marks the culmination for me of the Prog Slog and just in time for 1900.  After the embarrassment of mistakenly thinking that Cascade had concluded a few weeks ago  it is interesting to see the full conclusion.  I wonder how well it would have worked as a slow burner.  I have to agree with JamesC that the culture shock development might have made for an interesting story.  Overall it read well but it did feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities to develop aspects of the story in greater depth and give the revelation of the Lawlords a greater impact than it did.

I think for me Brass Sun benefited from having recently read all of the preceding episodes.  Certainly it is piquing my interest as it continues to develop.

Aquila ended on a high.  Gallagher's art is absolutely first rate as always.  Looking forward to the return.

Black Shuck definitely needs a reread.  Not one that has captivated but I reckon it has the potential to surprise given a chance.  Yeowil's art has definitely helped.

And on to 1900!  Looking forward to next week.

[A.Cow]

Cover: Nice old-skool cover design.  'Nuff said.

Dredd: The conclusion relies on logical (and immediate) application of Lawlord law ... only to undermine this with a gaping inconsistency ([spoiler]Dredd threatens the Lawlords twice yet they endlessly delay executing him[/spoiler]).  And don't even get me started on the deus ex machina ([spoiler]Dredd's secret agents[/spoiler]).  A nice story that started well but, IMHO, went soggy.

Ecce Romani:  Another few pages of threatening poses ... although at least there seems to be less dialogue this week.  Not my cup of tea.

Brass Yawn: The vacuous characters finally leave the air-world.  Another chapter all wrapped up.  I'd rather see Vanguard brought back -- it might've had one-dimensional characters but at least they had dimension.

Future Shocks: I'm quite shocked at the shoddy panel layout on page 1 -- not what you expect from a seasoned pro like Dyer.  Nice twist, though.

Black who-gives-a-Shuck: The End?  Yes please.

Next Prog: Woah momma!  Wow!  That's a g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s bit of artwork!

[Colin YNWA]

Ending are such tricky things but I thought that this lot did it pretty well overall, in different ways.

Dredd felt a little rushed and its a shame this story seemed to... well not so much drift as stampede from what I thought it would be in its stella first couple of parts. Still in and of itself a pretty exciting satisfying conclusions.

In contrast Brass Sun seemed a little leisurely at the end, almost as if self consious of the fact its not a 32 page comics elsewhere BUT it was still very enjoyable. It wrapped things up really well while leaving the ideas, threats and intrigue that this story has really opened up dangling and I'm really looking forward to the stories return and the final page was GREAT!

Aquila even in its conclusion couldn't resist the urge to introduce a big terrible beastie that was going to be the undoing of us all... oh its been cut down... still I enjoyed this part more than most of this much lauded story which hasn't worked so well for me.

Black Shuck concluded really fittingly, it was a solid well presented ending to a solid well presented thrill. Kinda a journeyman thrill, not going to blow you way, or open your mind but at the same time I'd be perfectly happy to see it back.

So amongst all these ending the standout for me was the Future Shock. I loved it and it caught out. From the off I had its 'shock' nailed, I knew where it was going and it didn't (my ending was of course much better ahem) but I really enjoyed a Future Shock that shocked ... well surprised me that so many of late haven't. Bloody love Nick Dyer too.

Great Prog and always nice when an end of the line Prog often seen as simply clearing the decks for the new launch Prog is so damned strong...

... mind next Prog should be a stonker.

[Steve Green]

That prog 1900 cover is rather lovely - there's a great quality of translucency in the skin in particular.

[Eamonn Clarke]

sorry I'm late. Just got back from meeting John and Carlos at Bedford NICE con

[Dark Jimbo]

Well, Dredd was an enjoyable ride all told, but stubbornly avoided giving us the more interesting story. Carroll was a victim of his own success in that Indira was such an intriguing character, and the opening pair of episodes so well-crafted, that the direction the story then took fell well short of expectation. There was a chance to do so much with a character like that and the culture shock/time displacement. Ah, well. The Lawlords plotline was still been terrific fun, so it seems churlish to nitpick, but this week the wheels completely came off.

As A.Cow points out, it was a sudden muddled rush of dues ex machina, inconsistency and plot holes. The 'secret agents' bit was very silly and comes out of nowhere. We never had Gideon Dallas explained to us - (who the hell was he? What's his background? Why was he working for the Lawlords? How did he pass the psi-scans if he was in fact a powerful psi? How the hell did he get all the way from deep space to the Undercity?!) I was along for the ride, assuming we'd get these answers in due course, but in hindsight [spoiler](now that he's dead)[/spoiler] the character just seems like a walking plot maguffin. Speaking of which, the character of [spoiler]Indira is just thrown away[/spoiler]. Why didn't Justice Department use their other orbiting weapons platforms (the ones we've seen on many occassions) to destroy the ones that Knight was controlling? Having passed sentence of death on Dredd, why didn't the Lawlords just shoot him rather than explain their plans at length? So much that just doesn't really make sense.

Sorry to say it, but Brass Sun really tried the patience this time out. How do you make a concept like an entire planet of sky-pirates this dull? And unless I missed something, there's a unaddressed gaping plot hole - what was going on with the Chairman's daughter? How could a person be part of the key? That was a really interesting development that seemed to just get skipped over. The dialogue's still a bit cringeworthy too - 'sucking face?' Having Steerpike leave the team was unexpected, so points for that - if only he hadn't been such a bland character that I can't remember his actual name. I re-read Leviathan this week and Edginton is capable of so much better.

This is inadvertantly turning into a critical autopsy, but thankfully there's only really good things to say about Aquila. Great stuff by Rennie and Gallagher (though is it heresy to say I slightly preffered Patrick Goddard?) Surely we've enough material for a trade now? Hope so.

Script-wise, the Future Shock this week put most of the established creators to shame. Twisty, turny, original, imaginative, and all in four pages.

Black Shuck ends. No surprises, no twists - they just killed the giants as they'd said they needed to do in part 1. Job done. And that's been the problem all along - there's just so little to this. It's not been a bad thrill, but as Tordelback pointed out last week, the events of the first seven episodes of this would have taken up about two of Aquila. And the length of that flashback was pretty unforgiveable considering the sole purpose in hindsight was to set up a 'twist' that most people saw coming because it was given away in the title!

I quite enjoyed this week's prog, but you probably wouldn't know it from this review!

[Steve Green]

Dredd [spoiler]

I just read it as Dredd winging it, the list was all bullshit trotted out on the spot in response to the revelation that they would target anyone endangering Knight or Dallas.

So he figured that he would use that against them, the system hears that he's the one with the ability to kill them, so it makes him a primary target.

[/spoiler]

[Dark Jimbo]

Ah... yeah, that works. Nicely reasoned Steve!

[Steve Green]

[spoiler]I'm not sure if it's correct - the line from traumatown muddies things a bit.

Knight and Dallas seem to be gullible chumps in thinking swapping Justice Dept for the Lawlords was going to improve things much.

Them swallowing Dredd's fib doesn't seem out of character in that case.

[/spoiler]

[Frank]

Cheers, Eamonn. Stoater of a cover by the fabulously talented Marshall and Teague, with a hint of the classics about it.

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah completely agree with Steve Green there. Dredd was blaggin'

[Dark Jimbo]

[spoiler]Knight and Dallas seem to be gullible chumps in thinking swapping Justice Dept for the Lawlords was going to improve things much.

Them swallowing Dredd's fib doesn't seem out of character in that case.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]It just about works in Indira's case - she'd seen nothing of the Judges but what the Lawlords showed her.

Hard to know in Gideon's case because we never really knew anything about the character but his name. Was he from Mega-City One? Was he even from Earth, or native to Ricardo's World? If so, was his sole purpose in going back to Earth to be the Lawlord's cuckoo? If not, what was his beef with Justice Department? How he did he end up in the Undercity? How long had he been down there...? etc etc[/spoiler]

[Steve Green]

From what I recall

[spoiler]He's a mc-1 cit, abducted and taken to the Undercity in the Goblin King storyline, I can't honestly remember if his background was filled out much more than him being a leader of the slaves in that.

I don't know if Knight encountered the Lawlords (seems she wouldn't have had time?) and introduced them to Dallas, or vice versa - you'd have to go back to the Goblin King story to find out more about him -[/spoiler]