Luke Graham reviews 2000AD’s Prog #1890…
Borag thungg, Earthlets! Prog 1890 of 2000AD is packed to the gills with thrills and spills, but which strip delivers the most?
Speaking of deliveries, in part two of Sinister Dexter, Finnigan Sinister has to escape from delivery company Congo after his cover is blown. Swiftly dispatchingfive security guards in an inventive action scene, he escapes in mail truck. Unlike Mr. Davis, I’m not a fan of Jake Lynch’s artwork here. The lines are too messy, it’s not always clear where one character ends and another begins. It’s just awful. At least Dan Abnett is moving the story in an interesting direction as Sinister and Dexter are invited to a… barbecue.
A new tale begins in Dredd as Joe investigates the disappearance of a mutant freshman. Writer John Wagner works his usual magic, exploring alienation and prejudice with the how the students unfairly treated mutant Lenny McTick, while playing with the tropes of US college campus movies. It transpires that the jocks have hazed poor Lenny, abandoning him to fend for himself in dangerous territory. Boo Cook’s artwork is exaggerated and cartoonish, but it works and Dredd’s chin juts out in just the right way, and the framing device of the students feeling guilt over how they treated Lenny is well done.
Less well done is the narrative in the first part of Aquila. The slave-turned-gladiator is cutting a bloody trail through Rome in an attempt to complete an assignment for mad Emperor Nero. The action is satisfying and Leigh Gallagher’s artwork is top-notch, especially a stunning full page image of a horned demon springing up behind Aquila. Yet the rest of the strip is an exposition dump attempting to explain the story and previous events to new readers. It’s a necessary endeavour, and should be appreciated (too many 2000AD writers tend to forget that readers might not be up to date on complex storylines) but it could have been handled with more subtlety by writer Gordon Rennie.
Guy Adams’ 3hriller Voodoo Planet comes to a thrilling, if depressing, climax. Claire is captured by the Loa (grotesque humanoids controlled by slug-like parasites) and forced to endure one last torment at the hands of the tyrannical Doc. The flashback structure succinctly explains the Loa’s origins, and PJ Holden’s great artwork is detailed in its grotesqueness. I just wish it didn’t have such a downer ending…
Scrotnig Tale of the Week
With its beautiful art and evocative narrative, Brass Sun part 3 is firing on all cylinders. Wren and her fellows are investigating a gas giant and enter a danger jungle (which reminded me of the deathworld from the original run of Zombo). Inj Culbard’s art is just gorgeous: the contrasting colour schemes and use of silhouettes creates vibrant images that are a joy to look at. If you’re not picking up 2000AD for Brass Sun alone, you’re doing something wrong.
Luke Graham is a writer and works in newspaper production. If you enjoyed this review, follow him @LukeWGraham and check out his blog here.
Originally published July 16, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
