Right, then. After a brief Nerve Centre OOOH moment (more Devlin incoming), we're on to Dredd, which remains top-notch. Again, it's like a Wagner/Bolland strip that's fallen through a wormhole. Literally the only gripe I have is my usual one, in MC1 being basically full of white men, bar a very few background characters. Anyway, I suspect this'll wrap up soon, and it's going to be one of my top Dredds for a long time.
The Future Shock didn't really do anything for me. Bullying's a bit of a trigger point anyway, but even beyond that the story didn't feel that shocking. I'm not sure what the resolution was trying to say, nor if there was anything more meant by that single panel of the bloke with the teeth. So: meh. (Also: is no-one else submitting Future Shocks? It feels like Tomlinson is getting an awful lot of them into the Prog of late.)
Hope has a nice twist, if an arguably fairly obvious one. I think in hindsight that while the atmosphere of this run has been good, I'm starting to align with folks who have said the storytelling isn't up there with the previous two volumes (which I grabbed as trades—I doubt I would with this run).
Brink is a between beats run, bar the end—a kind of info dump. Something that'll read better when collected than standalone this issue. And then there's Fiends, which has two powerful beings kicking the crap out of each other. I'm enjoying it, but I do wonder where the strip has to go after this point if the lead is now so insanely powerful he can survive basically anything.
So, weirdly, I'm missing... Dexter. That trips levity and spark combined with the nature of what was in this Prog made it feel a bit flat for me compared to last week. Dredd is clearly the standout and Fiends is very, very good. Brink is great as a whole, but this particular episode didn't really grab me. The other two strips were a bit hmmm.
Dredd > Fiends > Brink > Hope > Future Shock
Cover by INJ Culbard:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTwUqkwWQAIjO1x?format=jpg&name=medium)
Cover and Logo:
(https://dyn.media.forbiddenplanet.com/Tyble8c6NQragnhGOAiLiL1iJ8k=/trim/fit-in/779x1024/filters:format(webp)/https://media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/04/b8/862f11a50d6a771b0928e41749d08c61b9ad.jpeg)
I only enjoyed Dredd and Brink this week.
This is definitely the best Dredd in some time.
As for Brink, after that cover I was expecting Kurtis to show up; may be next week then?
I stopped following Hope and Fiends a few weeks back. I still read them but they're not making much sense to me now. Could say the same for the Future Shock too.
It seems weird (possibly even a mistake?) that the Future Shock is called School Run, and it reads as if it was intended to be called Class Carnage. If you look at the bottom of the first page you may see what I mean.
It seems weird (possibly even a mistake?) that the Future Shock is called School Run, and it reads as if it was intended to be called Class Carnage
probalby just as well
would have been bad timign
Good point!
A little bit of a flat prog for me as we are heading into mostly the endings of most of the stories. This is the time when we either get maybe a little bit tired of the current batch and want something different.
Dredd – This just gets better the further we get into the story. I can see we are heading into a real showdown at the O.K. Corral. Niemand is nailing this story and it feels very Wagnerism.
Shock – Average at best short. My question is the short not supposed to focus rather on new talent and form the new talent?
Hope – The plot so far is dragging a little bit which almost feels nothing is happening except "always" on the last page we have a cliffhanger.
Brink – This episode feels like a summary on what happened before. We end the episode with a what is next?
Fiends – This episode is just action and a fight between entities that cannot be destroyed. Not sure where Edginton will take this.
Late to this one as just back from a few days away and the review thread is still very quiet? Anyway...
... let's be honest right off the bat, glorious cover pun aside this is a drop off in quality for one main reason. I'm afraid to say the Future Shock is another shocker, but not in the waty a Future Shock is meant to be AND it got 6 pages to mess about it. Just not good.
Everything else is largely as you were.
Dredd superb as the tension continues to crank up.
Hope is superb as the twists tighten
Brink is just sublime as the madness get a grip
and Fiends well isn't quite as good as the action racks up... is dropping the crocogod from a great height onto a bus really going to do for it? We'll see.
So overall the slight downward trajectory continues from last week. Strangely it marks how good the Prog has been this year that a Prog as good as this is a little disappointing. That bar has been set VERY high!
^ Pretty much agree with this. I think perhaps TMO needs to recalibrate what's expected from a Future Shock, or relaunch them as a different type of short story - the need to crowbar in a cheesy twist (as in a hackneyed denouement, not a cheddary snack) is quite limiting and a bit dated, TBH. Something more abstract, like 'Relict' from a few weeks ago, is the way forward.
This prog made me write to Tharg. I'd pass comment further but I hope the Beast has its own comments in due course!
Agree with IndigoPrime on Dredd. Great compelling story this, but all the judges are white men, the muggers are all white men, Asher is a white man, the victim is a white man, the corpse at the start is a white man, most of the visible background characters are white... Sigh. This could be down to the artist, colourist, maybe the writer requested specifically that Purcell should pretty much look the same as Dredd, I don't know. Just give me a diverse future population please. The mugging scene was brilliant though, writers will often have a little throwaway 'Dredd dealing with perps' scene to add a little action but this had such a fun twist, a classic Dredd moment, absolutely loved it.
Steven Austin is developing into a capable art droid I'd happily see more of but the Future Shock didn't do much for me. A nasty little story without much to take from it.
I've lost the plot a bit with Hope, in a literal sense. Need to read it all together I think to see if it does flow coherently. Broxton is fantastic as always.
I suppose we're around the mid-point of this great lengthy Brink run so a good place to put a recap that reinforces the dread and I think it was right to emphasise how Maslow no longer wants to go outside, heightening the claustrophobia. Do we know who Heena is on the last page?
Fiends is a fight scene and as such it delivers the goods but again I've lost the actual plot line here. New baddies keep turning up and fighting Costanta but I can't remember why? Would be good seeing him do some Cold War spy stuff with a vampiric twist.
I miss Dexter a bit too, I know Bulletopia has been going for a while but I'm absolutely fine with that and thoroughly enjoying it.
Quote from: Blue Cactus on 03 June, 2022, 12:27:14 PM
Fiends is a fight scene and as such it delivers the goods but again I've lost the actual plot line here. New baddies keep turning up and fighting Costanta but I can't remember why? Would be good seeing him do some Cold War spy stuff with a vampiric twist.
Yep. 'Ipcress File with vampires' is a killer pitch. That would have been enough for me. And I prefered Constanta as merely a cunning vampire - suddenly he's the arch-nemesis of every major mythological figure going, for some reason. It just feels like Edginton would rather be writing Hellboy.
Quote from: Blue Cactus on 03 June, 2022, 12:27:14 PM
Fiends is a fight scene and as such it delivers the goods but again I've lost the actual plot line here. New baddies keep turning up and fighting Costanta but I can't remember why? Would be good seeing him do some Cold War spy stuff with a vampiric twist.
From the first episode, that's where I thought this run of Fiends was going and it's taken a very different turn from the set up. Big Things fighting Big Things has never really done it for me, I think quickly got bored of Godzilla back in the 80's and never recovered from Slaine's multiple fighty / talky scenes.
Shame as this era of the saga had some really decent potential with ipcress file / spycatcher plot twists, but at least the evergreen Tiernen Trevallion's art has been a delight, even though I'm still not to sure about the Crocodile bear-bat chap, I bet he has a few issues with his sense of self...
Mine rocked up this morning. Not a good prog imo and certainly not worth the two week wait!
The cover doesn't do it for me at all, although I get that it's the eye motif again.
Dredd as others have said this is excellent and one of my favourite Dredds for a while. Old school feel to both the art and story. Loved the mugathon guy.
Future Shock Sorry to say, pretty bad. Nasty little tale, neither interesting not amusing. 6 pages as well!
Hope Also neither interesting nor amusing, although it looks good. Can't believe what a backwards step this run of Hope is from the previous ones.
Brink Felt a bit like a recap episode, although neatly demonstrating Maslow getting increasingly less stable. A bit of a lull in the tale.
Fiends The art on this is fantastic but it's gone full on Freddy vs Jason with two unkillable monsters having a fight.. the cold war setting and original concept feels a bit abandoned by now, Constanza is unstoppable and my interest has really waned - again, this run feels like a big miss compared to all the really strong stuff before. Hopeful something will happen to prove me wrong!
I hate posting negative stuff about the Prog but Dredd aside, I found this one a disappointment.
Glad I'm not the only one that felt a bit disappointed with this prog. The FS was a peculiar creation and one I couldn't quite get my head around. Then again there didn't seem much to pull me in so that might be something to do with it. I'm just mindful of the fact that writing a good FS is not an easy job.
Dredd is, as everyone says, the highlight with Foster channelling Bolland to raise an otherwise pedestrian Carroll tale. So far little of the tale has strayed too far from many of his common ticks:
- ex-con struggling to get on;
- opportunity to get involved in potentially risky criminal activity;
- seeking big payday to start over;
- dodgy judge figure involved;
- shady criminals linked to plan ...
So the big question then is how will he land it all? Will there be a sudden twist to the end of the tale? We'll see ...
I would agree that Fiends has got far too much going on now and is in danger of being mythologically overloaded. Brink is simmering nicely but it is still a bit of a challenge to see where things hang together. It's been an interesting little diversion from the last tale we had. Have to see how this pans out too.
So ... given the bank holiday this week its most likely going to be Friday before this week's sub-prog shows its face. Not the first time patience has been required, so hey ho ... Here's hoping that when it does show up it is closer to form than we've been used to.
Quote from: Tjm86 on 04 June, 2022, 02:48:54 PMthe highlight with Foster channelling Bolland to raise an otherwise pedestrian Carroll tale
I mean, I disagree. But also: this isn't a Carroll tale—it's a Niemand one.
Homage?
(https://i.imgur.com/QTjB4EV.png)
(The first panel is from 1981's "The Sweet Taste of Justice".)