Prog 1845: Mega-City Takedown

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I have no clue what is going on in The Ten Seconders.

[Simon Beigh]

I have no clue what is going on in The Ten Seconders.

Glad I'm not on my own... I'm determined to invest the time in giving it another go when the run finishes and re-read it from scratch

[ChickenStu]

Glad I'm not on my own... I'm determined to invest the time in giving it another go when the run finishes and re-read it from scratch

Me too. Not really getting on with Defoe either. Age Of The Wolf III I may try to read when all is said and done in one go. New Dredd story looks promising.

[Zarjazzer]

Lovely cover. Strong prog I enjoyed the Dredd story and Slaine is beginning to peak my interest even if it  is a   "greatest hits". Ten Seconders though keeps getting better and better. Fabulous.

[Fungus]

OK, first ever review from me -- here goes 

Cover So-so, but nicely detailed. Badge way too small, annoyingly so. Shoulder pad scuppered
the chances of including D R E D D. He might be in a shootout, but posing is important too...

Dredd Liked it, Wagner dependable, 2 Lawmasters a nice (double-take) moment, and decapitation on p2 effective.

Defoe Zombies leave me cold... script is average. Find the art scratchy and not my taste. But: last page, especially
top panel, wonderful.

Slaine Not read any Slaine for many years, and I did wonder what revisiting old stories would mean. Waiting for
McMahon, here. Fingers crossed, warp-spasm style.

Age of the Wolf Can't get into it. Read it, as I wouldn't just "skip" a story.

Ten-Seconders Beautiful. Bagwell's art stunning and (not so much this part) wondering what's going in just means
I can re-read in a few weeks and slot it all together. The atmosphere is pitched just right (for me). Only back to the
prog a year and tempted by the earlier storyline. Shame no Bagwell there, though. Rob Williams probably my favourite
"newish" writer, along with Ewing.

Favourite story: Dredd/Ten-Seconders
Favourite art: Ten-Seconders

[DrJomster]

Fascinating seeing the Slaine art this week. Still waiting to see how the overall premise turns out, but the art was lovely.

Wagner on Dredd. Willsher art. Cue contented sigh. 

Yes Defoe was a little predictable, but there was a certain element of fun watching it play out. Art also going great guns here!

[Mabs]

The cover in this weeks prog is absolutely fantastic! It reminded me a bit of Greg Staples' wrap around cover for prog 1750, including the green hue to the layout. Karl Richardson's artwork is really great here, I love his detailed style and the way he draws the Judge's helmets. Brilliant work.

Judge Dredd: Bender Part One

This was an enjoyable opener to John Wagner's new story, with excellent artwork from Ben Willsher. I have to say I wasn't too big a fan of his rough style at first, but have grown to it. And like Jim has said, he seems to have tidied up his lines a bit. There were some great panels to admire such as the gruesome incident on page 2, and the judicial assault at the end. He has a very visceral style which I like. The story was also great, setting up the characters really well such as Judge Lock, and of course Judge Bender, a name befitting of his self as he seems to be as bent as crowbar. It'll be interesting to see how Lock gets on with his new partner.

Defoe: The Damned Part Ten

This was great fun. I had a feeling Defoe would betray Faust and so it proved. But he goes about it in excellent fashion, earning his trust before dropping a cracker, or in this case Faust's Crystal. But just when you think Defoe'll get the upper hand the slippery Faust gets one better on him. The black and white rendering of Leigh Gallagher's art is outstanding as ever, and I can't wait to see the drama played out in the water next episode.

Slaine: The Book of Scars Part Two

The Bride of Crom, which was re-enacted this episode was sligtly enjoyable than last week's opener. Part of the reason why was Clint Langley's more 'orthodox' artwork, this for me is a huge improvement on his photoshopped style - which has began to bore me tremendously. The story left me in the dark somewhat as I'm unfamiliar with the world of Slaine, but I was familar with "The Wicker Man" ( which happens to be one of my favourite British horror films), and the imagery on show of all the poor buggers stuffed inside the Wickerwork figure was quite chilling, and Slaine happened to be amongst them too. Although the story did border on the surreal toward the end (this is a fantasy strip afterall) I enjoyed it quite a bit. It'll be interesting to see what Pat Mills & Clint Langley cook up next prog.

Age of the Wolf III: Wolfworld Part Six

For the first time in, well six weeks I can honestly say that I genuinely enjoyed this strip. I've understood much of the premise and what is afoot, and who is who, and even though there was less action and more talking this time round - I enjoyed it. The motivations of the characters are more clearer too, and Jon Davis-Hunt's artwork has been very good thus far. I can understand the criticism of the characters especially the werewolves looking too "cartoony" but I think it suits the story. The colour palette is also eye-catching, the whole tone of the strip reminded me of the Manga cartoon's I used to love as a teen, especially fantasy films like "Vampire Hunter D" and "Amon Saga".

The Ten-Seconders: Godsend Part Seven

This is again fantastic stuff from Rob Williams and Edmund Bagwell. Storywise I think I know what is going; the 'Gods' have been naughty and their parents, the "God-fathers" have arrived planning on teaching their unruly children the hard facts of life via their newly endowed/powered Consigliere; ex-Father Malloy, who's gone a bit big headed with his new found powers and acting like a tit. The only person who remains a bit of a mystery for me still, is Jennifer. Other than that it's not been too much of a problem plot wise. This episode was very enjoyable indeed, with some truly awesome visuals again from Mr. Bagwell. The panel on page 3 of the fossilised statue of the all father was truly magnificent. It reminded me of the giant statues of Elendil and Isildur in the first The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in terms of look and scope. One of my favourite standout characters thus far has been 'Damage', it's funny to think that he is a character who is not human, yet has more human traits than most of the humans in the strip, some of whom are turning into different beings altogether.

So an excellent line-up this prog, Judge Dredd and Ten-Seconders were the pick for me, but the others were also good fun.

4.5/5

[Montynero]

Cracking cover. I think sometimes you can over-think cover imagery. Dredd or Johnny Alpha looking mean in the middle of a firefight is the sort of thing that'll draw in a casual browser any day of the week. It's one of the core pillars of tooth's success. I never tire of it.

Dredd: Always enjoy anything by Wagner & Willsher. 'Bender' though? Not the greatest title. What is great, however, is the effortless way Wagner makes Judges like Bender & Lock seem so real. Their natural dialogue and the judicious use of slang bring the city vividly to life. It's like Hill Street Blues with hi-ex. Fantastic.   

Defoe: I love Defoe. The art is freakin' amazing, and the blend of politics and undead horror completely refreshes the otherwise tired Zombie genre. Page 6 has to be one of the great escape vehicles of fantasy literature. (Though I could have done without the 'hey, check out Da Vinci's boat' balloon.) I want one!

Slaine: I really enjoyed this too. The art's spookily atmospheric, if a little static in places. It presses the nostalgia button, while offering something new through the art and the revised perspective. And that's a brilliant warp spasm. Classic Slaine, in my humble view.

Age of theWolf: Really fun fantasy stuff. Very different in tone to the previous strips, which is why I love 2000ad. Hunt and Worley should pitch this as a drama series to the BBC. It'd work better than Atlantis in the Merlin slot.

Ten Seconders: Still glorious in scope (the ships got broken worlds within it!!!) , with consistently great dialogue (the welsh, eh?) and art, though like a few others I'm a little uncertain as to what exactly's going on this week. Probably just me being thick. I find that's usually the case.

Really looking forward to seeing all these stories resolve!

[Montynero]

Dredd was okay. Really nice art but a bit too much future slang in the script.

Dredd: Good start, good art, but again, looks like this one is gonna be fairly predictable.  Good cop (Lock) and bad cop (bender) team up, Bender will go too far, Lock will Challenge, but will be tempted to go the way of Bender due to past events.  Or it's the past events first, Lock does something bad, and Bender uses it to control him or whatever.  Hope I'm so very wrong.

The Ten Seconders: Still building I guess.  But it really has to quicken the pace I feel.

I dunno, man. [spoiler]You may be right - but with Judge Lock you've got  a borderline frootloop with a grudge against whoever decapitated his mother under the wing of a bad judge. I'm guessing Lock's capacity to raise the stakes on Bent to psychopathic proportions may escalate this in interesting ways.[/spoiler]

And I reread Ten Seconders. It seemed both perfectly clear and brilliant. I guess Age of The Wolf et al blew my circuits. And I don't agree with JamesC that the pace needs to be stepped up, there's a hell of a lot happening. [spoiler]Resonances of the past (Rachel) and foreshadowing to the future (Damage)[/spoiler]. I'd argue the only improvement to be made is giving it more pages. This is the stuff, for sure.

[Ghost MacRoth]

Yeah, the next episode seems to be heading in that sort of direction. May be more twists and turns in this tale than in a .....a.......well......a twisty turney thing.

[TordelBack]

Only read the Slaine so far, but i thought it was brilliant. 

Langley does a solid job of reproducing Bellardinelli's designs and layouts faithfully, but here rendered in his own refreshingly scruffy linework and washes in place of the Maestro's elegant brush. Particularly fascinated to see how well the Spassimo has aged, still completely freaky and unique.   Interestingly there also seems to be a Jean-Claude Gal vibe, a major influence of the styles employed by two of the key artists missing from this project, Angie Kincaid and David Pugh.  Yes, I liked the art a lot, although Feg without antlers came as a bit of a shock. 

As to the script I thought it was remarkably subtle and deep, addressing the greater wisdom Slaine earns in later years, the essential truths he has learnt about the similarity of his and Medb's religions and their situation as pawns of their macrocosmic overseers, as well as his long-standing attraction to her.  Remember that Feg is eventually revealed [spoiler]to be merely the Old Horned God still hanging on to life millennia beyond his 7 year span[/spoiler], much as Slaine himself has.  It's all neatly done and pretty significant in recasting the original tale in the light of the whole saga.

My only real regret is that it would have been nice to see Slaine the father effect a reconciliation with Roth Bellyshaker, who only gets a cameo portrait, but it's a minor quibble and the pages are pretty packed as it is. 

Clever thoughtful stuff by Mills, and a neat turn by Langley.  A positive beginning.

[Montynero]

Only read the Slaine so far, but i thought it was brilliant. 

Langley does a solid job of reproducing Bellardinelli's designs and layouts faithfully, but here rendered in his own refreshingly scruffy linework and washes in place of the Maestro's elegant brush. Particularly fascinated to see how well the Spassimo has aged, still completely freaky and unique.   Interestingly there also seems to be a Jean-Claude Gal vibe, a major influence of the styles employed by two of the key artists missing from this project, Angie Kincaid and David Pugh.  Yes, I liked the art a lot, although Feg without antlers came as a bit of a shock. 

As to the script I thought it was remarkably subtle and deep, addressing the greater wisdom Slaine earns in later years, the essential truths he has learnt about the similarity of his and Medb's religions and their situation as pawns of their macrocosmic overseers, as well as his long-standing attraction to her.  Remember that Feg is eventually revealed [spoiler]to be merely the Old Horned God still hanging on to life millennia beyond his 7 year span[/spoiler], much as Slaine himself has.  It's all neatly done and pretty significant in recasting the original tale in the light of the whole saga.

My only real regret is that it would have been nice to see Slaine the father effect a reconciliation with Roth Bellyshaker, who only gets a cameo portrait, but it's a minor quibble and the pages are pretty packed as it is. 

Clever thoughtful stuff by Mills, and a neat turn by Langley.  A positive beginning.

Good post, that.

[vzzbux]

Justed noticed on the cover. That is some shadowing on Dredds groinal area.



V

[Simon Beigh]

Thoroughly enjoyed Dredd although it's nothing new; and nice to see the old Lawmaster alongside the new - presumably the Judges are using whatever equipment they can get their hands on these days.

I asked Mr Willsher about this, Mark, and you are half right. Yes, equipment is short in MC1 post Chaos but also he wanted the senior judge riding the newer Lawmaster. It wasn't in the script, Ben came up with it, partly because he wanted to draw the different Lawmasters...

[Fungus]

Thoroughly enjoyed Dredd although it's nothing new; and nice to see the old Lawmaster alongside the new - presumably the Judges are using whatever equipment they can get their hands on these days.

I asked Mr Willsher about this, Mark, and you are half right. Yes, equipment is short in MC1 post Chaos but also he wanted the senior judge riding the newer Lawmaster. It wasn't in the script, Ben came up with it, partly because he wanted to draw the different Lawmasters...

Given Willsher added this himself (if judges go by surnames, so can art droids...) then is the appearance of  [spoiler]aeroball [/spoiler]  in panel 1 of next prog's Dredd down to him too ?-) Must be a good chance, as Wagner apparently provides little extraneous detail ?