Prog 1787 - His Darkest Hour.

[a chosen rider]

If Wagner had thought things through, Mega City would have come out of that war as devastated as it's shaping up to be now. But because of the different tone of the strip back then, it pretty much got a free pass.

I agree the impact was more superficial, but then in all fairness, MC-1 won the Apocalypse War

Yeah; I think the key difference is that in the Apocalypse War, the Judges would have been viewed by the population as the heroes, pulling together with the cits to fight off the Sovs, and that would have made efforts to restore order and rebuild afterwards much easier.  This time the cits are against the Judges, and they're going to be fighting them all the way if they attempt to put things "back to normal" afterwards.

[Syne]

If Wagner had thought things through, Mega City would have come out of that war as devastated as it's shaping up to be now. But because of the different tone of the strip back then, it pretty much got a free pass.

I agree the impact was more superficial, but then in all fairness, MC-1 won the Apocalypse War

Yeah; I think the key difference is that in the Apocalypse War, the Judges would have been viewed by the population as the heroes, pulling together with the cits to fight off the Sovs, and that would have made efforts to restore order and rebuild afterwards much easier.  This time the cits are against the Judges, and they're going to be fighting them all the way if they attempt to put things "back to normal" afterwards.

When victory comes after having half your city demolished, half your population killed, getting your butt kicked by enemy ground forces and having to assassinate your own commander-in-chief, I think the term "win" is strictly relative

Even as I typed my last post though, it occurred to me that the two big differences between the Apocalypse War and now are:

(1) strong and organised anti-Judge forces grounded in the citizenry itself.
(2) unlike Block Mania, the Chaos virus is incurable and fatal.

But on the plus side, there's no conga lines singing the "apocalypso" in the street...

[TordelBack]

So, Durham Red.  First off, it looks great, cheesey-cake or not.  It moves along briskly, the designs are good, the colours vibrant.

But.

Blue nosealiens call Red 'pretty lady' and seem to have plans for some prison bondage cosplay action.  Earthgirls as the 'universal donors' of intergalactic sexy is an ancient trope, so I'll let that one slide.

But.

Red feeds on said alien, without comment.  This is surely her first time offworld, her first bite of alien bean juice, and her first kill as an S/D agent.  Don't we get a reaction to all that, in this, a Year One style tale?  And if we don't, why are we here?  Maybe she's just ripping his throat out, and getting the blood all over him but not herself, and maybe this is just a fun bounty-hunting romp, so pausing the tale to acknowledge the newness that is in every stale thing might not be on the menu.  So I'll let that one slide.

But.

Avi Reebok is wanted for killing Kreelers during the war?  Hasn't that all been dealt with with already?  Wasn't exile from Earth the punishment for even the leaders of the uprising, never mind the footsoldiers?  Is there a bounty on every former mutant insurgent?  But maybe this is a Blood Moon type deal, so I'll let that one slide too.

But.

That's a lot of sliding for six pages.

[Goaty]

Late post, dammit delay of Digital copy!

Oh my gosh, what a start to Day of Chaos, that only after midnight? What could be worse to coming on Day of Chaos? Looks like it maybe be worst aftermath than Apocalypse War? kills of cadets so brutal, and dark!

Dante, that is nice goodbye from Lulu and Elena, really wish Andreas back for Elena's ending, but gotta to dream...

[TordelBack]

And so to the Future Shock, with apologies for the disjointed reviewing this week. 

David Baillie isn't a name that's made much of an impression on me before, I hadn't even remembered that he was the writer on that Redondo 'Mazikim' story a while back until Barney set me straight.  The last few weeks have changed that.  His 'What to expect...' Future Shock was my top thrill last week (and in a Prog that strong!), and while not quite as good this week's was really strong stuff.  I though the twist was pretty cool, in that it wasn't simply what I expected it to be [spoiler](intransigent human uses new powers to perpetuate pointless war), [/spoiler] but rather a much better additional layer of [spoiler]'Ahh, the aliens were the asteroids that destroyed my fleet - now I can do that too!'[/spoiler]. 

Future Shocks are famously brutally hard things to do well: set up a world and some characters, tell a story, throw in some action, and end with a decent twist, in four pages?   Twice in a quick succession Baillie has delivered stories that made me instantly re-read them, and continue to enjoy them. 

That he was paired with two masterful artists in Pleece last week and Williams this week obviously helps his cause, but looking at my overall personal 'hit' ratio for FS's, Terror Tales and the like, two
in a row is pretty good going.  He's not a name I'll forget again.

Aside:  Anthony Williams in B&W?  Is this a first?  More of that please!

[Proudhuff]

So, Durham Red.  First off, it looks great, cheesey-cake or not.  It moves along briskly, the designs are good, the colours vibrant.

But.

Blue nosealiens call Red 'pretty lady' and seem to have plans for some prison bondage cosplay action.  Earthgirls as the 'universal donors' of intergalactic sexy is an ancient trope, so I'll let that one slide.

But.

Red feeds on said alien, without comment.  This is surely her first time offworld, her first bite of alien bean juice, and her first kill as an S/D agent.  Don't we get a reaction to all that, in this, a Year One style tale?  And if we don't, why are we here?  Maybe she's just ripping his throat out, and getting the blood all over him but not herself, and maybe this is just a fun bounty-hunting romp, so pausing the tale to acknowledge the newness that is in every stale thing might not be on the menu.  So I'll let that one slide.

But.

Avi Reebok is wanted for killing Kreelers during the war?  Hasn't that all been dealt with with already?  Wasn't exile from Earth the punishment for even the leaders of the uprising, never mind the footsoldiers?  Is there a bounty on every former mutant insurgent?  But maybe this is a Blood Moon type deal, so I'll let that one slide too.

But.

That's a lot of sliding for six pages.

wotesaid

[Mardroid]

Cover: Crotchety aged, but tough looking Dredd against a burning city. Looks great.

Dredd:  Grimly disturbing but interesting stuff. I don wonder how that coalition of terrorists moved such a large force so close to the cadet building before they were noticed but considering a) the rest of judges are dealing with stuff elsewhere and b) PSU is down... yeah, I'll buy it.

Durham Red:  More enjoyment, although I thought the guard was taken out a bit too easy. Curious that in a world where super powers among mutants seem quite rare, albeit far from unknown, I find it interesting we have four in this episode that are empowered in some way. That's not a criticism, mind, I'm enjoying it.  One thing though, that invisibility guy doesn't need to be naked! Doesn't he know that if his head vanishes the minds of everyone else won't cope with a walking jumpsuit and will thus just cancel it out? Then again he's know Ginger Ninja.*

As for the fact this guy is wanted for killing Kreelers... it's not just that. He was undercover and killed from within. That's enough to heighten his reputation as a war criminal as far as the norm government are concerned.

Dante: Naughty Lulu! I enjoyed it, although Elena's face looked a bit wonky.

Future Shock: I thought I might have missed something as the ending seemed so obvious and simple. Not bad overall, but not really my cup of tea. I'm not sure why Frog speak is amusing though but it is.


*I'm joking of course. The way invisibility is portrayed in this strip is makes much more sense.

[TordelBack]

As for the fact this guy is wanted for killing Kreelers... it's not just that. He was undercover and killed from within. That's enough to heighten his reputation as a war criminal as far as the norm government are concerned.

Fair enough, while I seem to recall plenty of undercover underhand shenanigans from Johnny & Co., there are obviously special cases: Moon, for example.  However, maybe a line to that effect?  Grant has created plenty of opportunities for interesting things to happen that shed light on Red and her world, but the story just seems to glide over them as if everything was taken as read.  I'd like these 'early years' stories to earn their keep with the odd bit of insight.  I appreciate that a light'n'breezy SD adventure is a valid choice, but I'd like to see the premise mined a bit more.

[Frank]

You know what, fuck you all!

I'm going to wait for Clickwheel to pimp me my cheap prog this Wednesday, then I'm going to post here- even though, by that time, everyone's all talked out and lost interest. I'm going to have the last post on every prog review thread from now until same-day-digital.

I spend the 50p price difference on Kumquats.

[Spikes]

^ This.

[TordelBack]

And finally, there's Grey Area.  I don't really know what to make of this now.  On the one hand it's a strip with a lot of potential (Abnett seldom disappoints) but after a fair few episodes there's still not a whole lot to hang on to here, and there is a worryingly high people talking:cool aliens ratio. I suppose I still don't know what's actually at stake in this story (beyond Kymn's neck and Bulliet and Birdy's relationship) - is there sufficient anti-alien feeling for these events to tip over in to a pogrom (at a local or world-gov level), or are the neo-Nazis (and please come up with a better name, Dan) just a nutty minority whose defeat will be widely celebrated?

Artwise Carter is pulling out all the stops this time - he truly is the king of decaying industrial units, and his colour work is breathtaking.  There is still occasionally a sense that the characters are placed in the lovely backgrounds, and sometimes don't seem to be inhabiting the same space a each other, but his faces have got a lot more consistent - Feo in particular is superb.  The brief appearances of boobarmour remain distractingly silly, and I find myself wondering about the H&S aspects of wearing a solid plasteel underwire into combat.

[Mikey]

Aside:  Anthony Williams in B&W?  Is this a first?  More of that please!

You know, I think it is his first B&W in the prog - though he did a monchrome strip in the WH40K comic (Leviathan iirc) and it was magnificnent stuff. I think I might even still have them!

M.

[Richmond Clements]

Aside:  Anthony Williams in B&W?  Is this a first?  More of that please!

You know, I think it is his first B&W in the prog - though he did a monchrome strip in the WH40K comic (Leviathan iirc) and it was magnificnent stuff. I think I might even still have them!

M.

I think it was Titan?
Pretty sure I have it somewhere, but have never read it. Written by a Mr D Abnett.

[Mikey]

I think it was Titan?
Pretty sure I have it somewhere, but have never read it. Written by a Mr D Abnett.
[/quote]

You're right. It being about a new Titan captain/pilot should have given me a clue.

M.