(https://media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/bf/9f/8b5c0b858e7addf8fcfffcd4c0501a7cb226.png)
Nice enough and timely cover, although it appears to align with something we haven't got to yet in the strip itself.
Dredd kicks off a presumably final part in the trilogy of tech being taken over my a malevolent force. More high stakes here than Dredd vs toilet. And given that Anderson was buy, I'm guessing Kaspian is going to end up very dead indeed. Anyway, a good start.
Helium continues to be top-notch, in both art and script, and Devil's Railroad at least manages one of those things. But there's a point where the script goes beyond on-the-nose. I mean, I guess this strip isn't supposed to be subtle, but we're about one millimetre away from the bad guys wearing literal signs saying "I am a bad guy. Please hate me". And it continues what feels like clickbait for feminists but adding to implied sexual assault and actual sexual assault with bizarre frames about vaporising a uterus and making the woman forget she was pregnant and then calling her a tramp for not agreeing to this. Yes, we get it. Evil, nasty characters. But just... bleh. This increasingly reads like something from 2000 AD's dark era.
The last chunk of Enemy Earth starts off well enough. Though quite why Hitler shot them out of the sky, I've no idea. Perhaps we'll find out next week. And then we end with Feral & Foe, which continues to be quietly excellent.
A good Prog, in all, if not hitting the dizzy heights of some recent weeks. And I'll be happy when Devil's is out and something else is in.
Feral & Foe > Helium > Dredd > Enemy Earth > Devil's
Quick review from me this week!
Really great cover that, I think. Very powerful.
Dredd Good start to this tale. Loved the previous ones featuring this antagonist: having the alien force in the Mechanismo isn't as daft as the two previous instalments but the dialogue makes up for it. After a superb, serious Dredd I appreciate the change to something sillier.
Helium still really enjoying this. Visually very striking. I really like how moral a character Hodge is.
Devil's Railroad Didn't enjoy it at all.
Enemy Earth I struggle with the art on this but as before, keen to give it a chance!
Feral & Foe Really enjoying this also. Swift end for the Beholder, but the real plot is with Wrath and now I'm not sure where this is heading, which makes it intrguing as well as fun. Looks brilliant.
Well its a bit of a dip under a glorious cover.
Dredd lovely art, fun start good stuff. Love the dialogue for Clanker, if its a little Chimpski. Nice start.
Brass Sun is massive fun this week. The art is stunning the action is intense and 'Pursuit course laid in.' is just cruel!
The Devil's Railroad I worry I'm the only one who likes this one! I completely agree the villians are just so evil but for me that carries the farce in the story which is played well with Rufus Dayglo's art. Its all so over the top and in that it works! I want to see more of Palamon with his solo reduced now! Fun over the top stuff.
Enemy Earth... err can this have really lost me already... we'll see...
Feral and Foe is just great fun.
Decent Prog but still a dip as the line-up charges to X-Mas. It'll be a curious X-Mas Prog that's for sure.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 27 November, 2023, 08:18:43 PMBrass Sun is massive fun this week. The art is stunning the action is intense and 'Pursuit course laid in.' is just cruel!
I almost got so excited to see Brass Sun is back but then my inner Sherlock deducted that Helium=Brass Sun
Quote from: broodblik on 28 November, 2023, 04:04:47 AMQuote from: Colin YNWA on 27 November, 2023, 08:18:43 PMBrass Sun is massive fun this week. The art is stunning the action is intense and 'Pursuit course laid in.' is just cruel!
I almost got so excited to see Brass Sun is back but then my inner Sherlock deducted that Helium=Brass Sun
Well dammit! My subconscious hopeful dreams got the better of me there!
And there was me thinking you were doing a wry funny.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 28 November, 2023, 09:27:53 AMAnd there was me thinking you were doing a wry funny.
Oh you overestimate me so much... I mean, well yes of COURSE that was what I was doing....
A good solid prog but a little more down than previous weeks. We are steadily moving to the year-end and it will be surely a quite a different year-end party with nothing new starting.
Dredd – From the serious of last week to the over-the-top silly and violent we could not ask for more contrasting stories. The alien being possessing machines is back and it is as silly in its goodness as the previous stories.
Helium – It is all action stations in this episode as our valiant heroes try to escape from the clutches of the foul villains. Another good episode by our creative team lovely vibrant colors by D'Isreali, good stuff.
Railroad – So the baddies are just plain awful people with no more values, this still reads like something from the dark times of the 90s. In some sense this episode was better than the preceding ones, but I am still not a fan.
Enemy Earth – The return of my least favorite series the last few years mainly due to the clunky art and we have done this before multiple times storyline. At least I find this much more entertaining than Railroad lets see how the finale is handled.
Feral and Foe – Super enjoyable series with great dialogue and super art. I liked the fight scene and how it was portrait as we are introduced to a new character (technically it was last week). Top thrill in the prog and this is steadily moving up in the Dabnett queue of great stories.
B/W Cover:
(https://2000ad.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/devil-cover-scan-150DPI-884x1024.jpg)
Alternative cover:
(https://2000ad.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DEVIL-COVER-2-V3-TO-SEND-150DPI-786x1024.jpg)
It's a break-neck prog, with no time to catch a breath - from the prey-thing running for its life to the Battle of the Bellerophon; from the race to reach Earth to the race to reach... er, wherever it is Zoe and co. are racing to (checks recap - India), and another pair of pulse-pounding pages portraying the clash of the Longaevi, it hardly lets up. Florix Grabundae to all droids concerned but Top Thrill goes to 'Clanker' for all the other lovely details - the gore, Nick Dyer's slightly louche looking Dredd and Kaspian's puppy-dog enthusiam.
Have we seen Kaspian before?
Really didn't enjoy this prog.
Not at all impressed with the art on Dredd. The colouring seems off, the art too blocky, and neither lifts the other. The mechanismo on the second last page is a good example. It feels, I dunno, rushed.
Devil's Railroad is an idea waiting on a story.
And Enemy Earth is too childish for me. I get why it's in the prog and it does what it needs to...
The challenge the prog has is keeping long term reader 48 year olds like me happy while winning an audience.
Maybe the childish stuff should be like the recent Battle cross over and less following the crowd?
Dredd I've usually got a lot of time for Nick Dyer's style - he's one of the few who draws Anderson as a tough middle-aged cop for one thing - but yeah I thought it was a bit too rough and ready in places this week. The strange green stuff wasn't convincing. Maybe it's the shock of the new after Poison and I need to get into it? The comedy has previously come from an entity trying to make ridiculous things murderous, whereas now we have a murder machine being murderous, so it's not as funny so far.
Rest of the prog's ongoing series, Helium - Devil's Railroad - Feral & Foe, are still great, I mean really, really good, especially Helium. Enemy Earth I started to like in the second series so interested to see how it ends.
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 27 November, 2023, 01:59:06 PMI really like how moral a character Hodge is.
Am I the only person who thinks what she did makes no sense? Not just rescuing her enemies, but doing that by attacking the creature that an entire village of innocent people happen to live inside.
I read Hodge's attack as something to drive the monster back, saving the airship, but not endangering the settlement that's within it - her vehicles weapons are totally crappy and unable to damage it, and it's aiming for a 'nobody dies' scenario. Fits with her background as an officer responsible for helping people.
A bit dip in quality this week, apart from Helium and Feral and Foe which carry on in the same vein as before.
As to the other strips.
Not a big fan of this particular Dredd trilogy. Hopefully it will only be a two parter.
Enemy Earth carries on as before. It's the same standard as before, no better, but no worse. I'm just not a fan.
Which leaves The Devil's Railroad. The subject matter of the script has hit a real low this week. I really don't want to see this kind of thing, I was going to say in the Prog, but really anwywhere.
Yeah I've been pretty revolted by the ...Railroad on the whole. It looks like it should be Fun, the art is cool but you have these cartoon baddies doing really seriously unpleasant things which are not fun. It doesn't work as farce because farce is usually fairly harmless and it doesn't work as satire because these are cartoon baddies not the real world forces affecting real world immigrants having the piss taken out of them.
I'm also not a fan of Enemy Earth because I am not always sure who everyone is and I am fed up of When Animals and Plants Attack. I am a wee bit bored with the whole thing. It's never going to be a particularly epic saga but I will say that the art has fantastic energy, if the artist could draw faces in a slightly different way, I would be well on board.
The rest of the prog, though, is fantastic. Helium and F&F are fantastic to look at and I love the stories and characters. The Dredd story makes me smile. I liked the warring programming/possession voices.
Quoteif the artist could draw faces in a slightly different way
FIFY
Quote from: Richard on 03 December, 2023, 04:45:08 PMQuoteif the artist could draw faces in a slightly different way
FIFY
Richard - you are being a Scunthorpe. (I deleted what I was going to say - this is the polite version.)
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Let's just summarize some reality here:
- Zoe is wearing a bandana, has long purple hair and bruised eyes. And one arm.
- Jules has a dark mop of hair and stripey tentacles growing out of his back.
- The robot head has a single large red eye and is the head of a robot.
- The pilot is a massive bearded lumberjack of a man with wild red eyes.
- There's a dude on the ground with a Hitler moustache and a bald, scarred head.
If you can't tell the difference between those things then it's not the artist's fault.
(You're free not to like any art style you're presented with, but try not to talk utter bollocks about it.)
Quote from: Funt Solo [R] on 03 December, 2023, 05:59:32 PMIf you can't tell the difference between those things then it's not the artist's fault.
But it is the artist fault if everyone looks like dudes
Oh, dear Grud - I've been teleported to a dimension where everyone's a [censored]. :'(
There's a difference between 'faces all look the same' and 'faces all look like they were drawn by the same artist'.
FWIW I think the art for Enemy Earth is the best thing going for it. Great style, fluid and dynamic action, good storytelling, and a welcome art style. Not sure why some are having an issue telling the characters apart.
(I'll admit the story isn't working for me, but that's no slight on the quality of the strip. I'm sure it rightfully has it's fans.)
Same goes for Nick Dyer's art - yes it's sketchy stuff, but the style, storytelling and page layouts are superb. Thoroughly prog-worthy!
Quote from: Woolly on 04 December, 2023, 05:14:23 PM...Great style, fluid and dynamic action,...
Yes yes and yes!
Quote...good storytelling...
I dunno, if I have a minor criticism it's that I think the storytelling in Enemy Earth isn't
always there... sometimes I can't tell what's going on.
I can tell who is who though - the characters are drawn consistently from what I can see. The giant purple eyebags have been toned down a bit of late which I appreciate (looking at the next prog).
I can tell the characters apart, it's just that I often can't tell what they're doing or what's happening.
For what it's worth I think Horsman's storytelling has become clearer as the series has progressed. I felt the most recent episode was channeling the sheer energy levels of his work into much clearer and more fluid action from panel to panel.