Tharg is on the cover this week to celebrate the 38th anniversary of 2000 AD, and a pretty ok issue. The current Dark Judge saga has been chugging along, and I though the last two weeks dragged a little bit. Staples is still hammering out gorgeous panels and concise storytelling, but the claustrophobic environment is starting to feel less like a plot device and more like a constraint on the story's possibilities. I know it's a little silly to give that kind of criticism to something as pulpy and action-packed as this run of Dredd has been, but I'm disappointed that the spaceship has been nothing more than a locale. Of course, Dredd's quip during his fight with Fire this week was hilarious.
I thought the second installment of Survival Geeks was good, but I thought it was a little slow. I won't lay into the series just yet since this seems to happen to a lot of the new serials. Now that they've established some of the new story, hopefully they can pick up the pace a little next week. Googe's art is still a damn good mix of detail and humor.
The Order must have heard I like plot twists with my plot twists, because they put a plot twist all up inside of last week's plot twist. This week they put the fate of my favorite character into serious question, but I am oddly (and perhaps sadistically) happy about it, since it means I have a favorite character. Of the things I might not have ranted about at length just yet, Burns' work with colors is yet another great thing about this series. Flashbacks are a somber series of blues and hallucinations wash out into dull greens and grays. There is just so much atmosphere and life to every page of this comic that I feel like I can practically smell the dungeon they have been in for the last few weeks, and that's a really weird thing to be excited about.
"Station to Station," the current 3riller, distanced itself from the heavy, ambiguous symbolism of last week in favor of putting a sci-fi face to the culprit of the odd happenings in its pages. This week's entry made it pretty clear that we will either remember this title for its payoff, which is yet to come, or we will not remember it at all. The lack of backgrounds in a lot of these panels really made the issue feel empty and made for a really awkward contrast with the rich visual, other-wordly centerpiece of the issue.
Score 3/5
2000 AD - Prog 1919 Writers: Various Artists: Various Publisher: 2000 AD Price: £1.99 (Digital) £2.49 (UK) Release Date: 2/25/15 Format: Print/Digital Anthology