blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
It’s an issue of endings and new beginnings. Well, more like one ending and a lot of multi-part stories. Harlem Heroes whimpers out of the series, hopefully for good. Tully has this terrible moment where the Heroes mourn a lost teammate, then jump for joy at the thought of their next adventure. Finley-Day reveals the […]
MoreAll in all, not a bad issue. There’s actually danger in Dan Dare, for example, and a couple good pages in M.A.C.H. 1. A little makes a big difference with 2000 AD, apparently. Invasion isn’t terrible. It’s mostly action, with Pino doing decent work on a shootout between the protagonist and a bounty hunter. Very […]
MoreIt’s another weak issue. Mike Dorey’s art is real lame on Invasion, but the writing’s worse. Finley-Day actually relies on a huge truck of acid to solve the problem. Flesh is weak too; Sola’s art is distressingly underwhelming. It might just be too rushed–all the art this issue is rushed in some way or another–dinosaurs […]
MoreGood grief it’s a bad one. The only good story is the Dredd one. Wagner packs way too much action into its pages; even though Ian Gibson tries hard, he’s too rushed. But it’s still a solid story. The Invasion story isn’t terrible, but it’s got a frantic pace too. And it’s dumb–the peaceful nuclear […]
MoreWith a couple exceptions, it’s one of the better 2000 AD progs so far. Invasion is decent; very nice art from Dorey and Finley-Day has learned how to plot out a rewarding cliffhanger. A real surprise is Flesh. Without dinosaurs–this issue’s just future men against giant spiders–the comic is a lot better. Great art from […]
MoreCarlos Pino does the art on Invasion. He does pretty well, though Finley-Day’s script has all these analogues to the Nazis. It seems inappropriate and somewhat insensitive. Flesh has good Sola art and a lame script, as usual, from Gosnell. They should’ve just done it without dialogue. Gosnell even manages to butcher pop culture references. […]
MoreIt’s another less than impressive outing. Ramon Sola does the art for both Invasion and Flesh, so those strips look good. Invasion’s really boring; I suppose Flesh would be too, except writer Kelvin Gosnell tasks Sola with drawing hundreds of dinosaurs. They make up for it. Wagner’s Judge Dredd story isn’t bad (it’s the issue’s […]
MoreOverall, it’s not a terrible issue. Nothing really stands out as good or bad. The first half of the Dan Dare is okay even–Belardinelli really does do a lot better with space battles than anything else. The Invasion entry has decent art from Eric Bradbury and a nice reveal at the end. Finley-Day’s dialogue’s moronic, […]
MoreWhat a stinker of an issue. I think the M.A.C.H. 1 might actually be the second best story, which is sort of unbelievable. It opens with a tepid Invasion. Not terrible, but not very good. Carlos Pino’s art is decent. Then a poorly written Flesh about family vacations through time. Studio Giolitti’s writing (whoever it […]
MoreHarlem Heroes takes place in a world with a Mega City-One. That one detail is more diverting than anything else in this issue’s entry, except maybe how Gibbons draws the Russian players. They’re giant bear furries. They’ve been so attired a while now, I just hadn’t bothered to comment. The Invasion story isn’t bad. Finley-Day […]
MorePoor Judge Dredd. Even with a great page or two from McMahon–he does better with full scenes, not trying to summarize–the story ends on a lame pun from Shaw. Worse, there were some obvious better ones. Invasion has decent art from Sarompas, Flesh has a possibly good setup for the next issue (at least in […]
MoreMore hard going this issue, even though the art’s much better overall. Invasion has decent Ian Kennedy art and a not bad idea from Finley-Day, his execution is just weak. He doesn’t plot it for his page count. Sola does a small dinosaur versus cowboy battle in Flesh. Not a lot of opportunity for the […]
MoreIt’s a distressingly tepid issue. Even with Judge Dredd fighting a giant robot gorilla–or maybe because of that emphasis on absurd bigness. The Dredd story does look good though–Carlos Ezquerra bakes dry humor into every panel. The opening Invasion story is a bore. Finley-Day’s just writing dialogue for action scenes and he’s not particularly good […]
MorePat Wright takes over the art on Invasion and it’s immediately less interesting. Gerry Finley-Day’s writing isn’t terrible, but without dynamic art, the cracks show a lot clearer. Flesh still has great art from Sola. Ken Armstrong’s writing is even worse than usual, especially the dialogue. And they rip off Westworld whole sale. It’s a […]
MoreRamon Sola does the art on Flesh and all of a sudden it looks great. The dinosaurs, the landscapes, even the cowboys. All the strip needed was good art to make it palatable. Belardinelli handles the art on both Dan Dare and M.A.C.H. 1. He doesn’t do a good job on either, but Dare is […]
MoreOnce again, Invasion is the best strip, M.A.C.H. 1 is the worst and Harlem Heroes is the strangest. Starting with Harlem… Gibbons’s art is better this time, but the future setting is poorly thought out (Harlem’s a bad neighborhood even after future retrofitting?). It’s not a traditional storyline though, which is nice. Flesh is a […]
MoreThere’s definitely some weird stuff in the first issue of 2000 AD. Quite a bit of silly stuff too. Pat Mills wrote–either solo or with a partner–every story in the issue so the lack of creativity on some of the series might just be exhaustion. The first one, Invasion, is the strongest. Great art from […]
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