Prog 106

The highlight of this week's issue is Judge Dredd. I have only read 106 progs, but already he has delivered so much that it's hard for me to imagine just how much better he might get - and I do know that there is much more in store for me in the coming years. This week's story with Judge Cal pushed all the right buttons for me, and as much as I love the other stories in 2000 A.D., it was hard to read on after what I saw in Dredd. But read on I did, and here's my take on this week's comic.   

Prog 106

31st March 1979 

It is day 100 of Judge Cal's reign of terror, and in his eyes, Mega-City One has reached perfection. The trains are running on time, the city is walled in, and the time for a letter to be delivered is reduced to four hours. This brings Judge Dredd into the story, as we see a letter delivered to the hands of Fergee, who slips into the underground sewers where Judge Dredd and the few men resisting Judge Cal hide. 

The news brought by the letter is good, Walter the Robot has managed to steal the daily briefing tape that Cal is using to brainwash the Judges. Dredd gives it to Pepper, telling him to make one of their own to win the Judges' back. Pepper tells him it will take two weeks to make his own, but Dredd gives him a deadline of one week. 

Even that may not be fast enough as we are again exposed to the madness of Judge Cal. He is haunted by visions of his enemies. and although he is convinced that Mega-City One has now reached a state of perfection, he cannot escape the thought that the only way from here is down. 

This madness subsides after a few days, and Judge Cal tells his men he has reached a decision. Since Mega-City One cannot be improved upon, and the only way is down, he will sacrifice the citizens so that it may remain in this current state forever. To this end, he has placed nerve gas cylinders at the end of every street, and at noon the next day, the gas will be released upon the populace. 

When Dredd hears this he commands Pepper to complete his mission with the tape that very night. The tape is finished as requested and on the final page of the story, we see Dredd and his men scurrying through the street of the darkened city. The last panel sees Dredd and his men looking from across the road at their goal, the Halls Of Justice, and seeing that it is crawling with Cal's men. 

I am torn. I want to give this a 10/10 but I'm worried that things may get even better in the future. I would hate to paint myself into a corner this early in the run of Progs. Once again it is Judge Cal who steals all the headlines, and although this is one of the reasons why I rate the strip so highly, it is also the reason I can't quite bring myself to give it a 10. Dredd is upstaged in his own comic, I can't go for that (no can do). Another hero of this week's strip is the world created, and the way that Mega-City draws on the familiarity of both the Nazi regime of the 1930s/40s and the communist forces that controlled half of Europe after the war. Cal has got the trains running on time, but at an enormous cost, and I was immediately sucked into the opening pages of this weeks comic. While the world shown to us in these first pages was a highlight, so too was the action that appeared in the last pages. Finally, Dredd is on the move and about to fight back. This offers up an array of striking panels, with a grim-faced Dredd looking strong and heroic as he pushes his men forward. Many of these panels deserved a second or third look (and a larger canvas) and I could feel the strength of the character burning through the artwork. Another brilliant instalment, and one I will read again once I post this blog.    

Rating: 9/10

Best line: "My mind is at peace, Judge Walter. I have made a decision about the future of the city. I will speak to the people tonight." 

It's taken a couple of weeks, but this week we have total war on the pages of Robo-Hunter as the two opposing robot armies advance on each other. As the fighting begins, Sam Slade finds himself in the middle, travelling with the General on an inspection tour of the men. 

After reprimanding a robot for cowardice, the General shows his true colours upon hearing that a war wagon is approaching and suddenly remembers that he needs to be somewhere else. This leaves Slade and Kidd alone with the other robots to fight the battle, and for a long time, Slade gives a good account of himself, killing many of the opposing robots on the battlefield. 

To top this all off, he sees the wagon approaching and in a display of courage runs across open ground to shelter in a building that overlooks the war zone. As the wagon passes by, Slade drops a grenade in, destroying the wagon and the occupants. 

He's pretty proud of himself and tells the robots that he wanted to prove that the war wagon wasn't so tough to beat. It is then that the ground begins to shake, and we see what a real war wagon looks like, filling the page with its huge size and fearsome array of weaponry.

The final panel of the imposing war wagon was fantastic and easily the highlight of the strip. It gave the art space to breathe and showed us the awesome power that Slade is up against. Unfortunately, the art throughout the rest of the strip failed to match this final image and overall it felt flat. A lot of the panels earlier in the strip were cluttered and with whole armies squeezed into panels it was claustrophobic and difficult to read. The appearance of the General did lift things, and his character and dialogue were a treat on the page as it rode across some of my earlier criticisms. A mixed bag this week, with some aspects of the story reaching new heights, while other components of the story floundered. A little more balance and this could have been spectacular, and even as disappointing as some panels were I still thought this was a strong issue.  

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Naturally, I'd like to stay and help you, men, but I've, er...just been called away. Good luck. Fight to the last droid. Drive, corporal, drive!"

Strontium Dog is heating up, with Johnny Alpha in hot pursuit of his ex-comrade, Fly's Eyes Wagner. Firing an electro flare through the window of the apartment where Fly's Eyes is sheltering, Johnny Alpha temporality blinds him.  

Fly's Eyes recovers quickly and as his sight returns he curses his father for not paying for an operation to fix his eyes. Shooting his father, he then shoots himself with the D-warp, sending himself to another dimension just as Johnny enters the room. 

Seeing the warp is still in progress, Johnny leaps into it, sending himself into the same dimension as Fly's Eyes. Wulf is told to stay but immediately jumps in too, leaving Gronk with no choice but to follow. 

All three experience the strange sensation of passing through multiple dimensions before they arrive at the top of a misty crag. As the mists clear they descend a staircase before coming to a gate telling them that all roads lead to hell. 

Such lovely art, it's a real shame that this isn't on a bigger canvas. Some of the aspects of the story strike me as silly, but my love of the art always overrides this thought and gives Strontium Dog an extra boost. The art is gritty, yet easy to digest and serves the story at all times. This week's story lent itself particularly well to the artwork (or vice versa) and although it took me a minute to get into the story, once I was hooked I was well and truly in. The thought of the heroes being warped into other dimensions opens up all sorts of possibilities for the story and it was scary and exciting in equal measure. Already, my interest in their chase of Fly's-Eyes has diminished, and I am much more interested in where they are and where they are going. A fork in the road this week, and with my imagination running wild about what may happen next week, I shall be picking up next week's issue with great anticipation.    

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "'All roads lead to hell'...that doesn't sound too promising!" 

With his memory destroyed Dan Dare is on the planet Lystria with the Mekon and looking for the crystal of life. When we last left them they had just been spotted by a Thraxian patrol craft, and with the Thraxians opening fire it looks like Dare and the Mekon are once again in deep trouble. 

Luckily the first shot is only a warning shot, and as the patrol craft comes closer they call to Dare and the Mekon to surrender. Things take a turn as one of the Thraxians recognises Dan Dare for who he really is and calls him by name. This stirs up memories for Dare, but he can't quite put the pieces together in his mind before the Mekon acts quickly and blasts the Thraxian. 

This plays out as a shortlived gun battle, with things coming to an explosive end as Dare shoots the patrol boat's fuel cells, resulting in a huge explosion that wipes out their Thraxian foes. 

Over the page, Dare and the Mekon come across a filtration plant, signalling that they must be approaching the outskirts of the city.  The boat's steering has been damaged in the previous battle, and they are sucked towards the plant. While Dare tries the swim for it, the Mekon watches on, and despite the quickness of Daare to react, he still finds himself sucked towards the plant. This leaves Mekon with a decision - should he leave Dare to die, since he has no further use for him, or should he intervene and save him. 

Episode seven of this story and things are beginning to accelerate on the page. For several weeks now we have been crawling towards this moment, and with some conflict on the page, and the hint that Dare's memory may be returning, I am suddenly sitting upright and leaning onto the story as I read. This story was an interesting contrast to Robo-Hunter which came earlier. While Robo-Hunter had smaller panels crammed with characters, Dan Dare dealt with much larger panels with fewer characters and a closer look at their faces and reactions. This meant I was reading the characters on the page just as much as their dialogue, and some of the expressions of the characters said just as much, if not more, than their words. This is something I have alluded to previously while reading Dan Dare, and this week provided a particularly fine example. I find I don't love Dan Dare at the moment, but the craft of making the comic is clearly on display with some great storytelling paired with fantastic art. I may not like it, but I respect it and once again rate it highly.  

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "It is the face of the Earth Spacer! The one they call--Dan Dare!"

Ro-Busters have survived Quartz's plan to kill them and now find themselves free. Before they have time to consider their future they are approached by a patrol of Punishment and Discipline troopers. 

There is a brief debate about what they should do, with some Robots putting forth that all humans are good and they must surrender themselves to them, while others think the opposite. 

The two opposing points of view split the team, and half the robots step forward to surrender, while the others begin their escape. Those that surrender come to a fast end, the troopers have no interest in taking prisoners, and blast the surrendering robots to bits. 

The rest of the robots rely on Hammer-Stein and his fighting ability, and we see some of his battlefield expereince come to the fore as he outwits the humans. Soon the robots are on the run with  Hammer-Stein fighting a rearguard action. It seems that Hammer-Stein may have bitten off more than he can chew as one of the humans ambushes him with a grenade. However, the robot Doctor Feely Good has him covered, and the human is dealt with by the good doctor.

The Robots make a clean getaway, although the troopers have one more card to play. They have a mek-detector with them, and using some of the oil left behind,  they are able to sniff the trail after the robots.

Ro-Jaws has a solution for this, and by leading the robots to a pig farm he has them smear themselves with faeces, thus hiding their smell. They move quickly on, and when the troopers arrive they find that they no longer have a trail the mek-detector can follow. 

The robots still have no papers, nowhere to stay, and no oil, and as they reach a motorway they have one more problem. Robot X27 is dying, and as they lay him out on the grass he says that he must tell them who he really is and what his mission on Earth was. It is important and could change the lives of every robot on the planet. 

Another strong issue, although not as compelling as some of the previous weeks. The battle against the troopers wasn't as intense as I expected, although I did enjoy seeing how the robots escaped, and appreciated seeing Hammer-Stein doing what he was built for. Ro-Jaws and Hammer-Stein lead from the front, but for me, the unsung hero of the story was the doctor robot. The series of messages that flashed up on his chest as he went to battle and grappled with the humans had me grinning throughout, and the final panel after the fight was the best of the lot. Great stuff, and I was pleased to see a background character shining brightly without derailing the plot and upstaging the two main characters. The final panel was a good setup for what might come next, and although it wasn't a dramatic cliffhanger, it was definitely a page-turner and a hook to get me back next week (as if I need an excuse!). 

Rating: 7.5/10

Best line: "Look, mate, don't come the old acid with me! Humans won't show no mercy! If they get hold of us - they'll turn us all into big drops of runny metal!"

Prog 106 final ratings:

Overall: 8/10

Best Story: Judge Dredd

Best Line: "You devils! You only plague me because you are jealous! Under my rule Mega-City One has reached perfection - my rule, not yours! "

Best Panel: