Prog 2199 - Death Becomes Him!

[Magnetica]

Postie has just been, handing me Prog 2199, the Battle of Britain special, The77 issues 1 and 2, and the Meg 30th anniversary issue.

That should keep me going for a while.

Only read Dredd so far. All I can say is hmmm.

[Goosegash]

Well, at least it didn't all turn out all to be a dream, so that's something I guess.

So Giant [spoiler]shoots DeathDredd with Ichabod's magic story-ending gun and everything's fine.[/spoiler] This just left me confused about what happened with [spoiler]Anderson[/spoiler] though - [spoiler]is she alive? Dead? Some kind of angelic superbeing? After she's gone back in time and set the plot up does she go back to being a Judge like nothing happened?[/spoiler] Hmmm indeed.

The odd thing is this whole story felt like it was building to [spoiler]Giant sacrificing himself to save the day[/spoiler], then when that doesn't happen it makes it all feel a bit meaningless. All you can really say is "Well, that definitely happened."

[Magnetica]

Yes [spoiler]I was a bit confused [/spoiler] about what happened with [spoiler]Anderson[/spoiler] too.

I guess I will need to do a bit of a re-read, but this probably says a lot, I'm not sure I can be bothered.

[Greg M.]

On the plus side, [spoiler]Giant survived[/spoiler]. On the minus side, [spoiler]he was almost unrecognisably whiny and needy throughout - "Dredd, Dredd, remember Necropolis? Remember? We had fun together, didn't we? Please acknowledge me, surrogate daddy!"[/spoiler]

[Colin YNWA]

Well there's ending a plenty and one almighty not ending that might be the best thing in the Prog... well no its not but its close.

Dredd wrapped up at pace, much like the rest of the tale really. We'll see how this one gets reflected on over time but its been hit and mess for me. I would say it ends well. Neatly tided away. Anderson had it [spoiler]covered all along[/spoiler].

Diaboliks the [spoiler]house[/spoiler] is a big hungry angel eatting beastie so we're all good. Emjoyed this one. Interesting they seem to be building a squad type thing going on.

The Out has been a delight and ends by introducing a fantastic new character. One whose insight into Cyd is hilarious. We move on from the revelations of the last few weeks and end with a different revelation and a glorious panarama reminding us of the scope of possiblity here. Brilliant

3rillers Saphir solid end to a solid short story.

Sinister Dexter - wait what -WOW the story ratchets up and super exciting great to see this burst into life and very excited to see where we get taken next week.

So while 2198 was a down turn I've been impressed with the conclusions here and they way things are set up for more where needed. Good prog.

[Bolt-01]

Rather nifty little name drop in the Diaboliks, too.

[Eamonn Clarke]

Paul Williams

[Leigh S]

Moffat has a lot to answer for...

[73north]

Just received my copy ( still not read at 7pm tonight ) - arrived 3 days late

BATTLE 2020 BATTLE OF BRITAIN SPECIAL arrived yesterday - its pretty good - a couple of woeful stories
and one WOKE Story , the rest of them had me back to the 1970's and early 1980's !!

[broodblik]

A good prog before almost everything is refreshed.

Dredd – The story comes to a satisfactory ending. This was maybe not Rob's most dynamic story and not the best epic ever, but it had some interesting surprises down the line. What I can say is that the whole art team and not only Colin and Henry but also the colourists Chris Blythe should get some credit for some awesome imagery thoroughly the series. One thing that I felt could benefit the story was maybe an additional 3 parts and something like a 6-part prologue.

Diaboliks – Rennie added other series to the growing Cabalistic-verse. I enjoyed the series and would like to see where he takes this.  I could not see last week how Rennie would end this storyline, but it was an interesting way of ending the story [spoiler]using the house as a weapon[/spoiler].

The Out – This was again one fantastic new series by Dan Abnett. Simon Harrison's art fits the whole story like a glove. It is almost like this was written for him (oh yes, it was). Hopefully, we will get some more of this (oh yes, we will). The book ends with a fabulous splash page.

3riller – This was a delightful tale.  This one did not have time to stand still and went full blast the whole time. It is even written in a way that it can return (hopefully it does).

Sin/Dex – After a lot of talking episodes the episode ends with a Bang.  The big critique here is not how the story has been told but how it was published. Sin/Dex is almost used as Future Shock a filler rather than a series.

[Timothy]

Love the Kirby nod in Diaboliks.

[Timothy]

Love the Kirby nod in Diaboliks.

Luke, that is.

[TordelBack]

HMMMMMM...

I thought Dredd ended well,  brisk and fun to the last - although perversely I'm counting on an epilogue. If I was to ask one more thing of the conclusion  it would have been to give Anderson a more humourous flourish to go with her reveal: "Joe, if there's one lesson i've learnt from being your psychic sidekick speed-dial all these years,  it's always get your retaliation in first' or Mama Anderson told me time management is the secret to getting a head'. Well like that,  but y'know, actually funny. 

In such a light-hearted apocalypse, it seemed like a missed opportunity not to let Anderson crack wise in a higher register.  Truly great art in the bit with Giant and Death.

Not entirely sure about the Rogue Trooper crossover in The Out, seemed like an odd change to the status quo to chuck in right at the end. Fun character though,  I'm  just pondering the change from internal reflections to the GFD solution to getting group dialogue into a solo story.  But then constant change has been the only constant in The Out, so very much looking forward to the next run!

Diaboliks has lost me for the moment I'm afraid, but I'm sure I'll get back into it again.

While Saphir has looked gorgeous I'd rather see more Alienist or Dandridge than more of it.

After an awful lot of small panels of even smaller figures wandering around introducing each other in featureless rooms Sinister Dexter redeems itself with a twist I didn't see coming, and i still have hope that backup the theoretical AI backup uploaded into Ray's headcase is the counter...

I'm ready for change next week,  is what I'm saying.

[broodblik]

Tordel I think we will get something like  an epilogue because in next week's jump-on-prog we are getting a story by Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt and Book Cook "Carry the Nine" dealing with the consequences with the events off "End of Days"

[MumboJimbo]

Well, The End of Days ending was much better than I was fearing it might be. I'll wait to see how the effects of this are all worked out down the line before I can make a judgement on it, though. Will Anderson rock the Venus Blugenes dressed as Mary Poppins look for long? It's a bold fashion statement, at the very least.

Abnett does his now signature "end a series with a dialogue heavy installment with a view to future series" deal (see Grey Area, Lawless etc.) I guess a big shootout situation wouldn't really be what we've come to expect from The Out. It's been an excellent series though so far, but I hope we return soon as this feels more like a break than an ending proper.

I've liked Saffir, particularly the art, both David Roach's elegance and the muted but evocative colouring that helps to anchor it to the period. The story itself was a little perfunctory, but that's due to the 3riller format. Could become special if it gets a chance to breathe in a longer tale, and I very much hope Tharg deems it worthy of that.

The ending of Sinister Dexter I did not see coming, even though it had been very well set up, and we could've realised it ages ago. Hopefully the story can now get a bit of momentum going, as it feels like it's been in set-up mode for a while, putting pieces on the chess board and now it's time to see how the game plays out in an extended run for the strip.

The Diaboliks used its short 3 episode run well, and I guess the next part won't be long in coming and will involve Solomon and co taking on the second sister.

A decent prog all in all, with an intriguing ending for most strips. The Jury's still out for me on End of Days though, and I will leave it to simmer.