Prog 10

     

Back again, Progging and slogging my way to happiness. A small milestone today as I reach issue ten. A long way to go yet, I know, but nice to know that this blog hasn't folded after only a few weeks. My regular reading habit is forming, and I find my thoughts drifting towards 2000 A.D. a couple of days before I come to the next issue. The time has come to feed my comic appetite and digest Prog 10. 

Prog 10

30 April 1977

Invasion plays the long game this week, instead of a self-contained story we end with a cliffhanger and the story unresolved. I applaud this. I was hoping the writers would go this route, and here we are at Prog 10 with the story finally given some legs and a chance to stretch. The story itself is familiar, freeing a prisoner who is useful to the resistance. The twist is he's held at Dartmoor, and the surrounding moors are just as much a deterrent as the prison itself. Rumors of a monster on the moor keep the prisoners in fear, and even the local resistance fighter speaks of these monsters.  True to form, Bill Savage snatches his man but returns to find his contact dead and the car incapacity, before the final panels see a pack of dogs set upon them. The pacing of this story works well, we have an opening attention-grabbing page, half a page of exposition setting out the lay of the land, and the final page and a half are Bill and the resistance in action. Maintaining its good run, this issue of Invasion is a fine way to start the week.  

Rating: 7/10

Best Line:  "It's...wild dogs versus mad dogs!"

I don't care what happens next in Flesh, just like last week the first page is so good that I'm already sold and whatever may happen in the following pages. With rampaging dinosaurs attacking the train, my eyes eat the page up just as hungrily as the dinosaurs.  The second page is just as good as the first, with the dinosaurs gobbling up humans, while Brontowski and Carver fight back. The story accelerates from here, Reagan seizing control, taking control of the train, and speeding to safety. We end with the train crashing back at the trans-time base. The story has all three things I look for - memorable art, great characters, and an inventive storyline (I didn't even mention that the Tyrannosaurus had a heart attack, did I?!). Once again we have all three in this issue, and the only reason I don't rate it higher is I don't know how much better it might get in the future.  

 Rating: 8/10

Best Line: "Everyone try to relax. This is the safest train you'll ever be on." 

The highlight of Harlem Heroes this week is the artwork. The story continues apace, but it leaves me behind, my thoughts and eyes lingering on the artwork as the story recedes from my mind. We left with Cyborg Gruber taking aim at Giant, and this is resolved in the first panels as his shot strikes the Montezuma's leader's jetpack rather than Giant, leaving Giant to watch as his opponent tumbles from the sky. The game continues, with Gruber taking another shot a couple of pages later, this time missing completely as his whereabouts are revealed. Fighting his way clear, the story ends with Gruber seemingly surrounded. Writing about it, the story seems good, but reading it in a comic form never sucked me like it should have. As compensation, the art is glorious, and even as I dismiss the story from my mind, several panels remain in my virtual gallery. 

 Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "He's going to crash into the runway!" 

For some reason, I never associated 2000 A.D. with great art, but here I am four stories in, and all I can talk about this the great art so far.  Dan Dare outdoes all that comes before and the opening two pages by Belardinelli are extraordinary. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I can safely say that these two pages are worth at least ten thousand. The rest of the pages are equally fantastic as the battle of Jupiter between the Bioggs and the humans continues. With Dane Dare engaging on a death or glory mission, he mages to destroy one of the enemy ships, but it's not enough and the story ends back on the Odyssey with Monday embarking on his own final trip. There is plenty to look forward to, and with Dan Dare added to the previous stories in this issue, we are looking at a very high overall rating.    

 Rating: 8.5/10

Best line: "The alien ships are spouting jets of liquid -it's eating away the metal of our vessels!"  

Another week, another hostage to villain to be taken alive in M.A.C.H. 1 parachuting into the Armenian mountains to take his man, I momentarily have visions of James Bond, a comparison that is further strengthened later in the story as john Probe takes to skis and out runs an avalanche. But that's all ahead of us as he first grabs his man and begins his journey back, a journey that soon goes awry with the appearance of an enemy Jet'copter. With his 'special abilities' John takes out the copter, only to find Igor has gotten away and is now preparing an honorable suicide with a grenade. Taking to the skis, and out skiing an avalanche, John snatches the grenade in the final second, saving the day and returning safely to London. I like M.A.C.H. 1, but I am starting to find the stories are treading the same ground again and again. However, it does have its charms and I always promise myself that next week will be a great one. It certainly continues to hint at something stronger with its brief lines regarding man versus machine.  

Rating: 5/10

Best line:  "H'mm I'm not interested in MACH 1 the man - only MACH 1 the secret agent. That will be all, Moxan!" 

Man versus machine is at the foremost of my thoughts for Judge Dredd this week. Following on from last week's excellent story that saw Dredd pondering the relationship between man and robots, this time out we have a rampaging robot that only Dredd can take down. The brilliantly named Call Me Kenneth is bent on fighting the fleshy ones, which puts him right in the path of Dredd. Call Me Kenneth completely upstages Dredd in this story - he has all the best lines, leaving Dredd to deliver the moral and ethical soliloquy. His final prediction that we are on the brink of war with robots bodes well for future issues, and I buy wholeheartedly into the concept. This is the ninth Dredd story, and it has jumped from strength to strength with every issue. I don't know what the future will hold, but I want to be there to see it unfold. An excellent capstone on a great issue.  

 Rating: 8/10

Best line:  "Death to the fleshy ones!" 

Prog 10 final ratings:

Overall: 8.5/10

Best Story: Dan Dare 

Best Line: "Now we're the only things between the Biogs and Earth, Monday...with our warp drive running on half power and the main armaments shot to hell..and most of the crew killed by a slime attack!"

Best Panel: