Prog 118

 “The Only Constant in Life Is Change.”

Not the wise words of my Mother, but rather the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. It's 2500 years since Heraclitus, yet his words still ring true as I read in this week's Tharg column that the next issue will feature three new stories. Some quick math on my part and I realize that means that some stories will be finishing this issue. With Dredd being a constant since the comic began, we will be bidding a fond farewell to Strontium Dog and Rick Random - well a least a fond farewell to one of them, the second I'm not so fond of, and will happily wave goodbye as it pulls out from the station. Some of these stories are ripe, and I can see them coming to a natural conclusion, and some are not quite there yet and I am curious to see how they can be finished in a satisfying manner. I love reading comics, but as I get older I find I am getting harder to please. If they can conclude these stories in a manner pleasing to me, then the writers and artists have done a very good job indeed. We shall see, and in the meantime, there is the thought that next week will bring three new stories. Change indeed, but that's a thought for next week.  !

Prog 118

23rd June 1979 

Judge Dredd opens with a story called Cityblock 2, a natural follow-on from last week's story focussed on a single cityblock. This time we learn that only 13% of the the citizens have work, with robots designed and built to do every little job. For some this leisure time becomes boredom and descends into crime, while for others their whole sense of being is tied into working. 

One such person is Arnold Short and after a preamble about this future life, we see Arnold losing his job as a nightwatchman to a robot. For thirty years Arnold has been on the job, and now he has no idea what to do with himself - his job was his life. 

After seeing Dredd dealing with other problems related to this work/life balance, the story snaps into action as a report comes of a sniper with a laz-rifle. Dredd arrives just in time to save a woman's life and we quickly learn that the shooter is Arnold. 

Without a job, he would rather be dead, and he challenges Dredd from one of the upper levels of the city block. Dredd responds by storming the apartment, kicking down the front door and returning fire. 

Arnold has no choice but to jump off the balcony, but Dredd is too fast and prevents him from taking his own life. 

Arnold is convicted on the spot to hard labour for the rest of his life, an outcome that he is very happy about. He can work away to his heart's content, while in the eyes of the law, he is rightly punished for his crimes. 

Although similar to last week, this was a step up in terms of intensity. The idea of a city block is now familiar, and we turned our attention to another aspect of Megacity life, with a fast and furious story that was far more compelling than last week. The art was a highlight, but without the dramatic tension in the story, it would mean very little. The two go hand and hand this week, and after being lowkey about the last couple of Dredd stories, I suddenly find myself back in his world and eager to see what comes next. I like that the concept of a blissful future where we all work less was turned on its head, and the fact that robots were doing all the jobs meant people were desperate to do something meaningful in their lives. As they say, be careful what you wish for, an automated future may not be the utopia that some dream of. A strong story concept and a firm vision of the future gave us a great platform for Dredd to do his stuff, and this story was a winner from beginning to end.

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Sorry citizen - I can't let you do it! You might land on somebody!"

The final episode of Rick Random sees everything wrap up quickly this week. 

Landing on Shoya, Rick and his party find that a coup has taken place. An approaching troop carrier is shot down by Rick, and after shooting the survivors Rick gets Vanda to fly the vessel to carry his commandos to the seat of the action. 

Arriving a Shoya City they fly toward the palace. They come under attack, and Rick and his commandos attack the palace from the ground. Although losing men, Rick fights his way inside and soon he reaches the throne room with Jameela and Exon. They are surprised to see Baron Odana there, as they have already seen him die twice, but here he is very much alive. Odana attempts to kill Jameela, and Exon sacrifices himself to save her. 

Odana attempts to escape down a well in the floor with Rick hot on his heels. Rick wastes no time in shooting him dead before he can get too much further, leaving the last page to tie up the loose threads. 

When it's announced that Odana is dead, the coup effectively dies with him. With the situation back to normal, Rick Random explains that the death of Odana on the Columbia was a diversion and a sleight of hand as Odana was never on the Columbia - only an android built to impersonate him. 

With only the paperwork left to do, Rick bids all farewell as Vanda drags him off for a well-earned holiday.

A muddled ending befitting the story we have seen thus far, with the highlight coming in the artwork of Carlos. It looked starkly different to the previous issues and was perhaps the only bright spot in this damp squib of a finale. The finale had action but lacked any real drama. Rick Random blasted his way into the palace and then shot Odana as he tried to escape. It gave us scenes of people blasting each other but remained linear in its storytelling, and with no further issues to come there were no extra layers added to the story. The final scene of Random waving goodbye as he left with Vanda felt empty, and I couldn't find any joy towards the character as he disappeared. The one panel that was fun was seeing Odana meet his end, and with Carlos on art duties, he did look a lot like Wulf from Strontium Dog as he was blasted, as did another Guebin character later in the story. I used to have great expectations for this story, expectations that have faded week by week, and although I am loath to say it, I'm secretly pleased to see it come to an end this week. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "I'll see you in hell for that, Odana!" 

Attempting to escape Hell-World, Strontium Dog Johnny Alpha has made his way to the Black Citadel, where he now faces Satan himself. A wave of demons carries Johnny and his companions forward, bringing them into the Black Citadel for a conversation with Satan.

Satan seems quite amenable to Johnny and his companions, curing Wulf of his gargoyle sting before reverting to his natural form as he explains the world they are in. 

Satan's natural form is human, although an ugly and disfigured human, and Johnny recognises him as Ronald Fiveways, the man who invented the dimensional warp, before mysteriously disappearing.

The next page unravels Ronald's backstory as he explains how a fire in his laboratory left him badly disfigured. Shunned by society and ridiculed for his ugliness, he turned his back on humanity and elected to escape to a completely empty dimension, one he could mould to his liking. 

This dimension became Hell-World, and just as people on Earth made his life hell, now he made a hell for people. In this world he became Satan, creating dimensional traps to bring people here for his own enjoyment.

Johnny gets angry at Ronald at this point, but Ronald has absolute power and there is little Johnny can do. However, Ronald has promised to return Johnny to his own dimension and he intends to keep this promise. There is one more promise he makes, he wants to be Johnny's friend and offers to fulfil any wish of Johnny's. 

Fame and fortune are on offer, but Johnny chooses the nobler option of requesting that the Hell-World be destroyed. Surprisingly, Johnny's request is honoured, and as Johnny, Wulf and Gronk, are warped back home, the Hell-World shatters. 

This just leaves us with the final two panels as our heroes reappear on a busy city sidewalk. Gronk can barely believe they are home, but as a policeman yells at them to move along, Johnny asserts that yes, they are indeed home. 

I'm surprised to see Strontium Dog finish this week. Still, it's hard to image a bigger villain than Satan, and I did get serious 'final boss' vibes when I first saw him on the page. Except for Satan, the story felt low-key as we trundled to a stop, and there was no exclamation point in the story as you might expect. The explosion of the hellworld was small on the page and was insignificant, and so too was the warp back to their own dimension by Johnny and friends. This could have been a bells-and-whistles finale, and after the previous shenanigans of Mr. Moon and Mr. Sun, I expected to see plenty on the page. Instead, we got Satan's back story, hardly riveting, and then he agreed to destroy the world simply because he liked Jonny. This was all too easy, and although it wrapped the story up in a timely manner, it was unsatisfying. I have always liked Strontium Dog, and this final issue did it a disservice. I shall remember Johnny and his friends for the earlier moments in this story, and the delightfully weird world in which they inhabited, and consign this final issue to my file named "Could Have Been Better"

Rating: 8/10

Best line:  "You there! Mutie! Move along!" 

 Dan Dare's attempt to reach the crystal of life looks doomed as he continues his battle against the guardian while in the background the Mekon has already reached the crystal. With one final throw of the dice, Dare uses the power of the claw to fire energy into the guardian's power terminal in his heel. This works, and the head of the guardian explodes with an impressive "Thwaaaam!"

With the guardian dead, Dare advances on the crystal, where he finds the Mekon smugly waiting for him. The Mekon has been rejuvenated by the crystal and ignorantly tells Dare that his powerful claw weapon has no effect on him.

But while Dare and the Mekon face off, from beneath the rubble comes Hagnar, bloodied and bruised, but very much alive. Hurling a rock a the Mekon, Hagnar misses, instead striking Dare and his claw weapon. The claw weapon fires a powerful blast, and seeing what it can do, the Mekon makes an escape.

Hagnar wants to pursue him alone, and an argument with Dare about this sees Hagnar punched out by the power claw. Dare rushes outside, but he is already too late and the Mekon has escaped the planet.

The final panels wrap up the story. The Thraxians have crumbled without a leader, and the Lystrians now control their own planet. However their treasured crystal now belongs to the Mekon, and in the very final panel, Dare vows to hunt him down, even if it takes the rest of his life.   

This was nicely done and felt the end of one chapter while giving us a reason to turn to the next. For a brief moment, I thought this may have been the end of Dan Dare altogether, but his final words make it clear that there's plenty of unfinished business here and he'll be back. The first page didn't fill me with hope of this being a great issue as it retrod the same ground we saw in the previous issue, this time with a different outcome. Last week we saw Dare fire a blast into the guardian power socket, and then be blown off his feet in an explosion. This week started before he fired a blast, and when he did fire his blast it was the gurdian who exploded, an explosion that had no effect on Dare. A case of rewriting history there, although sometimes a week can be a long time, and I'm happy enough to forget what I read last week. I enjoyed the look of this comic, and especially the Mekon now that he is restored. Hopefully, we will get more like this in the coming weeks and Dare tangles with the Mekon sooner rather than later. I haven't always been a fan of Dan Dare of late, but this was a solid finale. It wasn't as spectacular as one might have wished, but it ticked all the boxes in terms of action, artwork and plot, and got us to a good point to jump off into the next chapter. We now have a good foundation for Dare's ongoing battle with the Mekon, and I expect the next issue shall pick up from where we are now.  

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Eat power, Thraxian!"

Prog 118 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Judge Dredd

Best Line: "There's no corner of space where he can hide from me! I'll hunt him down..I swear it! I'll make him regret this day, if it takes the rest of my life!"

Best Panel: