Villordsutch reviews 2000AD Prog #1899…
Florix Grabundae for turning up and Borag Thungg to you all! We have a rather gruesome 2000AD this week with mistakes made, heads removed, swords swallowed and personality copied (the latter not so gruesome, just inconvenient).
Dredd concludes our “Cascade” story with the Lawlords a trigger pull away from bringing the sentence of death to Dredd (and then Mega-City One and then onto Earth) for crimes committed against what they have deemed to be illegal. After using a bit of Captain Kirk smarts Dredd gets one over on Commander Syrex, who meets a messy end with a system of correction that surely couldn’t truly work in any society. Dredd shows he’s more cunning fox than battering ram (though he can be both) and with the threat of being hunted through the galaxy the Lawlords leave and our story ends. It’s a good action ending and clearly leaves the door open for the Lawlords to make a return in Dredd’s life at a point in the future.
Aquila Carnifex looks splendidly gruesome from the pen of Leigh Gallagher and we see the slow wrap up and conclusion of everything that has come before, beginning with the two spectators, on a hill, enjoying figs as Locusta is seized by a mob attempting to flee the city and later the extremely horrible demise of Caesar at the hands of Carnifex – but not before Carnifex has fought from the blubbery grip of Sporus, Caesars morbidly obese slave crusher. An excellent read thanks to Gordon Rennie.
Brass Sun as ever is amazing to read, thanks to the writing talents of Ian Edginton and also the art of Inj Culbard. This slice of Brass Sun has the feeling of optimism and that our tale is coming to close with perhaps a splinter of loss to be expected, however come the final panels you’re suddenly thrown off this happy footing completely as something tears through the star-filled fabric and stares directly at you the reader. Brass Sun is a comic strip that I do so wish I had all the pieces so I could continue reading until the end.
Future Shocks gives us a quick blast of a story from Eddie Robson & Nick Dyer in which a previous employer – from a digital company called VT – recognises a few personality traits in an avatar that VT have generated to actually be hers – it’s a rather big case of identity theft. The story itself was rather an interesting one until the pay-off when it became a, “Wait…what!?” moment and I had to go back and re-read what had just been delivered. After the interesting social and ethically issues raised about employees wavering personalities etc then to be given this ending I was let down slightly by the finished article; a shame really as I was quite enjoying it until the final couple of pages.
Black Shuck the end (perhaps) and we get to see the battle rage as our giant King swats the warriors like buzzing gnats and Black Shuck wields his mallet bringing down the sunlight turning this gigantic undead monarch into stone. This final strip seems to be over rather quickly as the battle occupies nearly all of the pages though there appears to be little fear that the Black Shuck and Co. will lose this skirmish to be honest.
Zarjaz story of the week
Aquila Carnifex hits it for me, though Brass Sun was very much a close second. Aquila secured it not just for looking just beautifully gruesome in the art department thanks to the fantastic work of Leigh Gallagher and colours from Dylan Teague, but the rather excellent story and wordplay of Gordon Rennie. I could have happily read this story twice over to see if I’d missed anything and scoured the art for details my eyes had failed to notice. If the collected works of this appear I’ll be picking it up as a special treat for myself.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published September 17, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
