Prog 1899 - Lords Have Mercy?

[ZenArcade]

Thats a damn fine cover.....was it Marshall? Looks like Robinson but I'm looking at it on a 5 inch tablet. I'll give my two bits on Dredd after I actually get it next Wednesday....but it is a good initial premise wasted so far. Z

[Dark Jimbo]

From what I recall

He's a mc-1 cit, abducted and taken to the Undercity in the Goblin King storyline, I can't honestly remember if his background was filled out much more than him being a leader of the slaves in that.

...you'd have to go back to the Goblin King story to find out more about him

Literally the only thing we find out about him in that story is his name - it's not even confirmed that he was an abducted citizen rather than a long-time Undercity dweller. I do find this a lot with Mike Carroll's (otherwise excellent) stories - big gaps in the story when it comes to enemies' motivations.

[Steve Green]

I don't see why it would make much of a difference what his backstory is, I could just read it that he's an empath - being re-introduced to a city where the majority of citizens have perished, arguably as a result of what Dredd did decades earlier.

The resentment and distrust being felt from that seems enough motivation, to the point of clouding his mind where he thinks that an even harsher regime would be an improvement.

[ZenArcade]

Don't be worrying if you read this Mike: you write some cracking Dredd stories. Z

[Dark Jimbo]

I don't see why it would make much of a difference what his backstory is, I could just read it that he's an empath - being re-introduced to a city where the majority of citizens have perished, arguably as a result of what Dredd did decades earlier.

Suppose it doesn't matter as such, just a bit odd to know next to nothing about a guy who turned out to be quite a major antagonist.

[Steve Green]

I suppose the response to that could be, you didn't need to know a great deal of Orlok's backstory, yet he brought MC-1 to its knees.

I suspect if you'd had a longer build up it would have signposted (and pretty much ruined) the reveal.

[Chris Tresson]

Dredd and Aquila were good this week, I had to reread the FS however, as the panel layout messed with me a bit. I got the twist pretty early on, at (what I think was) panel three. Other than that, soundly written and drawn.

Glad to see the back of Brass Sun (story was okay but I think it could have been done in less parts)

Black Shuck... I laughed out loud at the end of that one as I read, "The End?" at the bottom of the page. The audacity of that question mark... I hope I never see that bloody thing again!

Roll on 1900.

[Steve Green]

Prog 1900 teaser

[Frank]

Do you think every time either Alex Ronald or Greg Staples turns in another incredible cover image Tharg sidles over to the other one, sucks air through his teeth, and says I don't know, you're going to have to do something REALLY special to top this ...

[Steve Green]

The preview in print is a lot crisper, so you're missing the detail on the skin - but there have been a few blinders recently.

It's also a good indication of what's in store for us with Dark Justice.

[Dandontdare]

That's a stunning cover!

[Frank]

I don't see why it would make much of a difference what (Gideon Dallas's) backstory is, I could just read it that he's an empath - being re-introduced to a city where the majority of citizens have perished, arguably as a result of what Dredd did decades earlier.

The resentment and distrust being felt from that seems enough motivation, to the point of clouding his mind where he thinks that an even harsher regime would be an improvement.

That's a plausible reading of the character, but I'm not sure whether that was supposed to be Dallas's motivation. His established M.O (in the Goblin King story set in the Undercity) was to use his empathic ability to win himself a privileged position within the established hierarchy, then make his move when that order is threatened to win a similar position for himself in whatever system replaces it.

That seems to be exactly what he was up to here, with him piggy-backing upon Knight's plan to install the Lawlords as the new rulers of MC1 by offering to use his ability to fill a stadium (established in Traumatown) to accelerate the progress of her still small scale attempts to spread dissent through her media profile.

I'm not sure Dallas and Knight were supposed to be in cahoots until the point where he made that call to her saying they should talk at the end of pt.2 - Knight's prior rebuff to him doesn't suggest he's already part of the Lawlord's machinations. The technical aspects of Carroll's craft certainly worked there, selling me a dummy and making me think Dallas had co-opted Knight in the service of his plan, rather than performing the same switcheroo as when he saw the Goblin King's time was up.

[Dark Jimbo]

I'm not sure Dallas and Knight were supposed to be in cahoots until the point where he made that call to her saying they should talk at the end of pt.2 - Knight's prior rebuff to him doesn't suggest he's already part of the Lawlord's machinations.

But in prog 1898 Dredd uses the fact that the Lawlords got Dallas to betray his own race as an example of 'direct interfernece.' At which point the Lawlords say they first 'encountered' Dallas before the repeal of the anti-mutant laws.

[Frank]

I missed that. My humiliation is complete.

[M.I.K.]

That Future Shock was very well done.