I am going to try and contain my excitement for the inevitable return of The Order (as previewed in the credits) as Absalom comes to an end in this week's Prog. "Under a False Flag" was my first extended exposure to Absalom, and I had mixed feelings about it. Harry is one hell of a character and pretty much carries the series on his back, but even with the aid of some ass-kicking partners and killer (literally) demon designs, it teetered on the edge of dull. The archetype of supernatural investigator is always going to be appealing to me, but I thought that Absalom was unable to consistently pull me in and make me feel invested in the story.
While Helium continues to showcase D'Israeli's stellar artwork (that last page!), Outlier has made it so that I definitely want to go back and read the earlier parts of this series. Often times in comics, especially in annoyingly huge-in-scale superhero comics from Publishers-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, a reader feels an obligation to go back and catch up on a particular character. Usually, this is because a story spirals into pure continuity porn. Outlier, however, has sparked genuine interest by spending most of its effort fleshing out an interesting and original world.
I want to gush about this week's Dredd, as usual, but I am so ecstatic with the direction this story is going that I don't want to ruin it for anyone else. Suffice it to say, the story threads that "Enceladus: Old Life" has us following started with several disparate Dredd stories which are now converging. The fact that I can follow them is confirmation that I'm finally a Dredd-head. I can't imagine I would enjoy this as much had I not been reading "Enceladus: New Life," but that's life in the Progs.
It would be a great move, if this series acts as a concluding arc of the penal colony revolts on Titan and that of Nixon more generally, to collect the related stories into a volume or two of Dredd stories. It would be a great mix of smaller stories and big-time hijinks.
Score: 4/5
2000 AD – Prog 1942 Writers: Various Artists: Various Publisher: 2000 AD Price: £1.99 (Digital) £2.49 Release Date: 8/5/2015 Format: Weekly; Print/Digital