2000 AD Online Forum

Someone explain what happened at the end of Durham Red for me please?

Yeay for the return of the "starscans"!

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She dropped the offspring into a singularity - a place of no-time from which he can't escape. She managed to get away from this herself, but her actions with the offspring condemned the remainder of the human race to extinction. The story ends even further in the future, with her recalling the story while in disguise, and then noting "what she made" - i.e. a peaceful universe for mutants, with no humans. (This, IMO, puts a very different spin on her as a character - she was never intending to "save" humanity, just bring its "killer" to justice.)

Oh, and Red's apparently immortal in Abnett's version.

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But did she not die like Godolkin (spelling?) and then reappear in the far future? I can understand her being immortal as she is a vampire, I got the bit with the singularity but got totally confused when she got out and then reappeared in the future. Maybe I'll have to re-read it!

The "Truth" is that it's Red whose been in charge of the mutant empire for all these millenium, not her descendents, the offspring didn't kill her, she just decided not to be Durham Red anymore.

Right, now that's over could we have Johnny Alpha soon please?

Well, the ending wasn't that bad, IMO. I actually read it, and I'm glad it's over.

This week, I loved Gulag, and I'd like to congratulate Al Ewing on an excellent Terror Tale.

Bec and Kawl was decent stuff, too, and Droid Life - still hilarious - appears to have a new joke!

But I thought the cover was poor. It was like stick drawings.

Blech.

- Trout

I was really disappointed with the ending, I thought we'd have some huge twist regarding the offspring. We never really did find out anything about his background. I was so sure he was going to turn out to be someone from old stronty continuity. It almost felt as though abnett got bored by  the end of it. And the ending was only one of possible future outcomes. Lets hope the next time we see Red it's in a stronty dog flashback with Wagner back at the helm.

I am so hugely p****ed off!!!

I read this damn progs last Wednesday or Thursday at the nervecentre, but by the time I found a way to get online, the site was down!!

Drokkin' technology...

Good prog. Fine and dandy, but looking forward to the new offensive

Dredd...Limped home in thend but i was impressed with the art all the way through this tale

Red...Looks like thats it for a while, although in 2000ad world this means nothing...I think the mutant populated universe could be new interesting chapter in the Red saga

Bec and Kawl...Tharg..never commission this dross again...I found myself thinking fondly of Bison while struggling through this bilge

Droid life..surely deserves a full page sometime soon?..genuinely funny..a 2000ad rarity

Terror Tale..Psycho stuff...but nice psycho

Cover..bit colourless, didnt jump out at me...and Red looks like she could do with a fry up or twelve

the spring attack is overdue by about 2 weeks imho

T.P.S

Really good prog methinks!

Dredd - nice twist to the ending; Dredd get's arse well & truely whupped & saved by the corps!
Nice set up to an on-going villain too - they usually don't last very long & I'm glad he wasn't caught in this story.

B&K - great stuff, really like these two. Art is really pleasing & story is funny. And a starscan: YAY! What happened Tharg, commission too many front covers & have one left over? Not that I'm complaining!

Terror Tale - really intreaguing [sp?] and a genuinly interesting tale, which is often hard to find in these one-offs.

Durham Red - I thought it was an excellent ending to the character. I don't have a problem with her imortality - just cause she's a mutant doesn't mean that she *has* to age as a human would, especially if she has full blood transfusions regularly ;)
I liked the cover too - nice to see a Red action shot for once, rather then just a Red leaning over to flash cleavage. Although she does get 'em out inside the prog (Wonder how many Valkyries nudity bashers will complain about that one though!)

Great prog.

OK not done one of these for a while
Dredd - good romp and nice setup for the villain.  Hopefully we'll get a longer arc from Gordon, who I think deserves it
B&K - I dont really like but comedy is hard to do.  But its better than its been
Terror Tale - I wonder about al Ewing, I really do.  Nice
Durham Red - Well, erm I had  to read this a few times and Im still coming away thinking Ive missed something.  Who, What was the mutant?  What happened?  
Actually I dont really care.  I dont think anything has been added to the SD universe or Durham Red by these stories.  The only semi-interesting character in the story was Godolkin and he got killed.  All in all.  Flat

Yer Slips
 

Am I the only one who was disappointed with the Durham Red script I felt the story was disappearing up its own arse than into a singularity.  Why can't Red find one of Johnny Alpha's time bombs and get back to some proper S&D shennanigans with Johhny and Wulf. How about picking up George W for crimes against sanity. It'd be better than Blair1.

I agree with the comment about front covers. They don't grab me as they used to do.

Looking forward to some Volg bashing though.

Dredd wrapped up nicely, though I'm not sure this story really needed 5 episodes, and Stephen Hawking looks like he could be an intriguing villain. The Terror Tale was fun, Bec & Kawl was... OK, and as I've long since ceased to be interested in Durham Red, I'm glad to see the back of this bobbins. And Droid Life is class :)

Was anyone else slightly freaked by the sight of Steve Roberts pencils inked by Simon Davis? A bizarre combination of styles. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

"Steve Roberts pencils inked by Simon Davis? A bizarre combination of styles"

Yeah, Pete, I also noticed that, and quite liked it.

- Trout

The scene where Durham died in a similar manner to Godolkin was a fiction, in answer to whoever asked. She survived but told those people hearing the tale that Durham was dead so that she could live out a new life free from the St. Durham gubbins.

A better prog than the last few.

DroidLife - Laugh out loud funny.
Dredd - Good ending, hope there's a sequal.
Bek and Kawl - Excellent conclusion, better than the first 3 parts.
Terror Tale - I enjoyed this a lot. Nice story, appropriate art.
Durham Red - I actually enjoyed this episode much more than the rest of the book. Glad to see she survived as I'm still fond of the old girl.

Cover: well, nothing spectacular

Dredd: nice ending. okay, Gordon surprised me. I would have thought Rico comes to the rescue *g Nice tale, great artwork. More Adlard please.

Bec&Pain: It?s over. Thank Grud. Didn?t even bothered with it. Not my cup of tea. Forced and obvious.

Terror Tales: Hey, a good Terror Tale. Wow, who would have thought. And great artwork too!!

Durham: I liked the ending. The problem with the whole story was that it had so much potential to be more. the Offspring was so one note and frankly, I don?t buy it that Red can save herself with some gizmo while the Mutie who can destroy whole fleets with a thought is trapped, singularity or not. But the ending was clever. A word on the artwork. It has often been said, but this could be so much better if it wern?t so damn dark. Half of the space battles were just confusing to read.

Next prog: what a line-up!!!

I'm not normally a big Charlie Adlard fan- but I have to agree that I really enjoyed his work on this one- I especially liked the east Meg Judges.  Good stuff.

Yeah.

I also loved, as I've said before, Adlard's "snow judge" look.

More variant uniforms might be fun, as long as it doesn't go too far.

I always liked it when we saw a Tek or Med or something for the first time.

Even, sometimes, if McCarthy was doing it in the style of an artist on some really heavy shit.

- Trout

Another pale blue cover, lots of strips ending but nothing too spectacular or attention grabbing. Nice to see the pin-up's return and Droid Life was very funny. (Ahh, and that's why Al's turned up on the board again. Heh! It was a good un'.)

Have to read Durham Red from start to finish now to see if the climax was worth the wait. Fair prog overall, but it won't be a patch on next week's. By crikey.

I think I'm right in saying the 'star scan' was originally a cover but the Shaun thing came and took it's place.

I'm already polishing my shoota in anticipation of next week!

That sounds like a euphemism for something I'd rather not know about :P

I hope starscans are back for good anyway a bit chuffed that my guess on Kazan the sequal was right (it was only one other boarder who mentioned the possibility of him right? can't quite recall the thread) Red was piss glad to see it gone for good liked the rest of the prog and got a little snigger at that bit in bec and kawl involving the potter clone and you know who.

just caught up with this.

durham was a bit odd, i really wanted to know more about the son & godolkin etc. ah well, confused about her being immortal etc, what was that pulling her own face off scene at the end ? I found the art work getting sketchier & sketchier, any more episodes & she'd have been a total stick person against a luscious space backround, glad she looked like durham not a cartoon gerbil for the end page tho.

Dredd good stuff , suprised he wasnt in more shite with hershy, "wheels "  !   ouch !

future terror wotsit, was good, art good.

bec kawl fun, black eyed freak of nature ! ha ha.

letter page wingers, gee whizz ! somebody run the same story diguised as something else & make the women ugly with overals on & lets see if everyone finds the plot so bad then.

generally not the most thrill-tastic prog ever tho. too many thrills musta got lost at droids tea break.

I thought it worked ok.... You have to accept that she's now definitely 'immortal' (we already knew that they were doing that) and the following happened:

She DIDN'T die, but changed her identity. Her son became the first big ruler of the Mutant Empire type-thing, and a new universe was made, peaceful and nice. Red hung around, and when we see her it is waaaaaaay later, and she's telling everyone the story of Durham Red (which claims she died, so that Red could live a 'normal' life) and she has to wear a fake latex face-thing to make her look old instead of like herself!!

latex face thingy? you reckon? so is she the only imortal? why did she need to go into stasis if shes immortal?

Maybe she's just a heavy sleeper..!

It was a bit of a non-event, wasn't it? I'd have expected the (I assume) end of one of 2000ad's "name" characters and the extinction of the human race to feel a bit, well, bigger...

It wasn't the end of the human race really - Mutants are human too!

Well, alright, the norm race.

Bloody pedant...

;)

People like you, Noisybast, are who caused the problems in the first place.

Bloody Kreeler!

;o)

Get your scabrous hands off me, freak!

I liked the end of the Duram red story, nicely tied in that one off a while back where she was old and telling her grandchild or someone about her first SD kill.

Dredd has really disapointed me with this story, it came across as a half backed attempt at a mega epic. the dialogue didnt seem right and i really didnt like the line "who do you thinks gonna cover them", or whatever.

the other storyies i havent read yet. as my progs are stacking up back home im having to read the ends of these stories one by one in the shops.

they arent libaries im told

Durham Red - dunno gave up on this months ago
Bec And Krawl - cack
Future Shock (aka Terror Tale) - pretty good
Dredd - So the top Sov Judge - specially bred from the best stock lets Dredd get away so easy (you call that easy? We were meant to escape)- We need a villian that is Dredds equal - a villain that can genuinely put Dredd into some danger - how long is it since we had one of these? Judge Death perhaps - up until we heard his name was Sydney and they started playing him for laughs....
Droid Life - the highlight of this weeks prog..

Just out of interest why is Tyranny Rex coming back?

I liked the end of the Duram red story, nicely tied in that one off a while back where she was old and telling her grandchild or someone about her first SD kill.

No, it didn't... I read this very recently, and in it she was DEFINITELY old, not just pretending. It's yet another 'doesn't quite make sense' from the Durham Red universe...

>I liked the end of the Duram red story, nicely tied in that one off a while back where she was old and telling her grandchild or someone about her first SD kill.


2000AD Winter Special 1994
and reprinted in:

The Best of 2000AD Special Edition


La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.