2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2021

[Proudhuff]

I did like the way Chopper and Armitage were portrayed but I'd still rather not see them anymore in any Dredd strips as I feel their stories are played out. I'm starting to feel the same about Anderson tbh.

At least they kept Death's Gang of Four out of it!

[JimmyNailz]

I also agree, its a waste not to have Anderson ageing. I feel like there is a great story to be told in her coming to terms with losing her youthful good looks.

I would hope if they ever do fully address Anderson's age and actually make her look her age, they'd move beyond the hackneyed and played out angle of a woman losing her looks. I don't recall Anderson as ever having been especially bothered about that anyway.
[/quote]

You're quite right. I phrased that badly. I meant, there is a some good stories to be mined from an older/wiser Anderson.

[Barrington Boots]

At least they kept Death's Gang of Four out of it!

Time for the Judge Death / Captain Planet crossover we've all been waiting for!

[Colin YNWA]

Mine only landed today and ... well its a case of close, but no cigar. On almost all fronts.

Visually it was very hit and miss, there were some real highs and Neal Googe was the absolute tops here. Dylan Teague's usually palette being perfect for the story too. Love Tom Foster's mad eyes Chopper to.

I'm all for the interlinked story and really don't mind if its more Meg than 2000ad its the natural way to link up stories so worked fine for me. The problem was it fell between its two stalls. The individual chapters were a little weak and felt too much the part of a whole rather than stories in their own right. The overall story felt like the parts where a bit bolted together and crammed into place rather than naturally weaving together.

Add to that after 48 or so pages that sinking feeling that it was also all set up as a bit deflating too.

Like the nod to Father Earth - bit cute but worked for me and when it all hung together... Overall noble effort, but a little short of it potential and while I'll happliy see where it goes I would have liked to be hanker for more after this and I'm not.

Missed opportunity.

[Magnetica]

I was going to comment, but Colin's pretty much said it all, so I won't bother.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm not sure what I made of it. My general thinking is I apparently liked it a lot more than most people posting here. It was quite breezy. Although some of the other chapters were arguably a bit inconsequential, the pace rattled along and felt a bit like a movie in fast forward. If anything, the lack of subsequent crossover from some of the players—along with sine demands on the reader at having remembered things that happened in 2000 AD/The Meg's histories years back—were the problem.

I don't think out stuck the landing though. That last part didn't wrap things up in a way that felt entirely satisfying. It was all a bit neat and quick, but I guess that's the thing when you've a limited page count and have to sprint for the line. In all then, I quite liked it and I enjoyed the special trying something different. If there's a place for experimentation and trying new things, the specials are surely it.

[Funt Solo]

I enjoyed it overall - it was fun to see a lot of underused characters back in the fold. If you're counting, and I am, it's been a while. We last saw Koburn in 2018 - he was a Rennie character, but was used to great effect in Dust to Dust (part of the Every Empire Falls sequence) by Carroll, and in his own five-parter by McConville.

Armitage, you'll recall, had a central part to play during Every Empire Falls' Brit-Cit segments (in 2016), but original writer Dave Stone hasn't done a solo series since 2012.

Chopper's a bit more recent (last seen in 2018's Wandering Soul by David Baillie) and clearly ties well into the whole earth-spirit thang.

Inaba (via Hondo City Justice) seemed to be dropped mid-thread by Robbie Morrison back in 2013's Revenge of the 47 Ronin - which had set up a new familial angle to the story. It was great to see both Inaba, and Googe on art duties - as he did such a bang up job on the first Hondo City Justice series in 2010.

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Plot-wise, as others have said, there didn't seem to be much for the other characters to do once it became an Anderson::Dredd fight to the almost dead - with that one page letting us know that the others were helping variously by playing the stock market, directing some outback clean-up and blessing a tree.

I don't really appreciate the force-of-nature stories. If you know you Dredd history, you'll realize that this is (at least) the third all-powerful thing in charge of the Earth - there's the eternal monk-dude from Shamballa, the magic lodestone from Ennis and now we have a corporate Mother Earth (uh-oh!) to provide us with more End of Days spiritual shenanigans.

There is room for things like End of Days in 2000 AD - but it's really very Marvel / DC stuff. Tell any story you like, however fantastical - with as many character deaths as you like - and then reset when you're done - put all the toys back in the box for the next writer. But that's not 2000 AD, is it? Or is it? Maybe it is now.

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Final note - I really like Maura McHugh's work on Anderson - she's brought back in Judge Shakta and the Ryan twins, and so we get that sense of continuity stretching all the way back to Half-Life and then Crusade - something other writers have shied away from. (What has happened to all the children who got taken into the Morlock underground in Crusade anyway? All grown up now?)

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Summary: I loved the idea and the energy and a lot of the content. Not so keen on the supernatural earth spirits being a dominant Dredd theme.

[IndigoPrime]

Well, people must have bought into the idea to some degree, because the special's now sold out on the 2000 AD shop.

[Colin YNWA]

Well, people must have bought into the idea to some degree, because the special's now sold out on the 2000 AD shop.

Oh that's very good news. Maybe that's the 400,000 Mike Carroll refered to in the Thrillcast*

*I know, I know do just imagine one day....!

[Proudhuff]

I also agree, its a waste not to have Anderson ageing. I feel like there is a great story to be told in her coming to terms with losing her youthful good looks.

I would hope if they ever do fully address Anderson's age and actually make her look her age, they'd move beyond the hackneyed and played out angle of a woman losing her looks. I don't recall Anderson as ever having been especially bothered about that anyway.

You're quite right. I phrased that badly. I meant, there is a some good stories to be mined from an older/wiser Anderson.
[/quote]

Just hoping: Anderson, The menopause years!  involves some judicial retribution!   

[Darren Stephens]

Well, people must have bought into the idea to some degree, because the special's now sold out on the 2000 AD shop.

I had quite a bit of trouble tracking this down in the wild, too. Glad I did. I enjoyed it a lot.

[MumboJimbo]

I also found it hard to find - hope that means it sold well, rather than just a limited run. The Clifton Smith's didn't have it, even though it always seems to have the current Rebellion special - in fact they still had Black Beth for sale. I went for a rummage in Forbidden Planet on Sunday and they had one copy left, which I snaffled. Haven't read it yet, though.

[IndigoPrime]

Decided to grab a print copy of this, because I knew I'd regret it if I didn't. Two newsagents in Fleet. The first had no copies. So I ventured into WHSmith. By the looks of it, our branch might have the UK's entire stock. (They had loads. 2000 ADs and Megs, too, along with Black Beth, Shift #6, a slew of Marvel bookazines, and two Commando comics. Blimey.)

[Sean SD]

I enjoyed it overall - it was fun to see a lot of underused characters back in the fold.

Sums it up for me too Funt. Love seeing some of these characters back in action

Finally got around to reading my digital copy of the Sci Fi special after falling behind on my progs and Megs.

Thought it was a good but not great special story wise.

I like the idea of bringing back these wider Dredd-verse characters and was great to see Carroll and McHugh having a crack at at one big story in this special.

Visual highlights for me:

Koburn's version of a lawmaster in Panel 2 background
Crocodile Dundee hat in Chopper's caravan
Armitage and Devlin Waugh in the one Brit Cit strip. More Armitage pls
Googe and Teague's work in Hondo City. Love the HC lawmasters. Teague on fire in 2021.

Will have to look it up but did Googe and Teague do the Hondo City art from way back?

now off to to listen to the Thrillcast about this issues creation

[AlexF]

I too was late to read this but I really enjoyed it. Especially the Anderson, and the idea of Chopper taunting Judges using Shakespeare quotes. How has nobody tried that before? Great fun!