4 out of 5

Solid Dredds – despite an underwhelming ending to Wyatt’s / Williams’ “A Better World” and very compelling additions to Thistlebone and Full Tilt Boogie, with even Deadworld turning in a mostly linear adventure. Also: Indigo Prime being Indigo Prime.

In the Dredd spot, the majority of our weeks our concerned with the conclusion to Maitland’s “less cops” experiment, aka our writers’ juuust beneath the surface commentary on modern politics – the split between ideaologies – though to be fair, the reason this stuff works in Dredd without being obnoxious is because, well, these politics have always been part of the world, and it’s a matter of how close to reality you want to play the card. Wyatt and Williams do a good job of keeping things firmly planted in character and lore, and this really was masterfully paced – apparently (according to the 2000 AD thrillcast) very much due to Henry Flint’s freedom on page design. As I’ve unfortunately come to expect from Williams’ tales, there’s a huge-ass buildup to the penultimate chapter, which does have some wild payoffs (that work, even if you can predict them), with the last chapter all like post-script stuff for later setup that comes across as… very underwhelming. But everything up to this point is incredibly strong (not always the case with Williams, who can get kind of clunky and heavy-handed while piecing things together), and so you are just kind of recovering during that post-script.

After this, two one-shots from Niemand – one with Joe Currie and kind of just a classically silly lark about interdimensional travel, but the other one (with fantastically weighty but fluid art from Nicolo Assirelli) is what I’m seeing as a really fascinating particularity of Niemand’s: one-shots or seeming standalones that are actually carving out an ongoing cast, or vibe, for the writer’s own corner of the Dreddverse. It’s a really indirect way of doing world-building – very Wagnery – that I’m loving, the more I recognize it.

A 3riller from Paul Cornell and new artist Laura Helsby. Helsby’s a good choice for a 3rillers, as their art is a bit too amateurish for a full run, but there’s good character design there that can be developed. Cornell’s story about alternate versions of the titular astronaut, effing up time in a dimension-hopping adventure (lots of that going around in these progs!) is… clever, but written a bit too fleetingly to pull off a good balance of sci-fi and stakes. It’s never quite convincing on either front. But it maintains a fun tone; also a smart pick for a 3-parter, which can be great for these somewhat off experiments where we can try out ideas and vibes.

Full Tilt Boogie continues – Tee has to set down on an alien planet and barter for assistance. I was a bit mixed on Boogie’s first couple outings in Regened and the prog, but this is the first set of thrills where I feel like De Campi settled into the book, perhaps no longer needing to shoot for the moon for an audience, and doing a bit of a less traditionally structured, quieter tale. Eduardo Ocana’s art – kind of a widescreen clare ligne; a less digital / stiff Culbard – is fantastic, crafting a world and characters that just instantly breathe, given even more life by De Campi’s careful script. This makes me want to swing around and reread the last arc.

Indigo Prime does two back-to-back arcs, featuring undercover Prime agents inserted into the company that bought them, with a surprise cameo from a legacy character and Kek-W forcing artist Lee Carter to do all sorts of celebrity likenesses – the IP agent disguises as various actors. Kek keeps the weirdness of Prime trudging along, and I kind of got on board for this, though I found all the movie reference stuff obnoxious… while also somewhat accepting it as purposefully over-the-top. I kind of give IP a pass most of the time, but because we haven’t started doing too much alternate world / character variation stuff this time that seems to require a good grasp on Prime history, I was able to generally follow along and be entertained (and entertainingly annoyed).

…Kek does double duty with Fall of Deadworld’s Retribution, which is mostly an extended battle with Phobia and Nausea. Similar to IP, because the story was fairly linear, I wasn’t as put out on this strip as usual – again, entertained. Maybe moreso by Dave Kendall’s art: Kendall has become the king of painted sequential art, really adding a ton of movement to the work, which is something that even seasoned painters have trouble with. And it adds something to the book, as even “normal” characters can look absolutely diseased and vile in the art style. Deadworld has always looked the part, but now the pages can flow at a good clip, and Kek mostly gets out of the way to just kind of pair people off for various scuffles. (I mean, there’s lore here, which I’m still only half-following, but it’s balanced well to be there for those who want it, or be undistracting for those who don’t.)

Lastly, Eglington and Simon Davis continue Thistlebone, and this is another series where I feel like, once it got warmed up, its really started to cook. The initial entries kind of had to go over-the-top to confirm it was going to be full on gothic horror, and now, with The Dule Tree, T.C. and Simon can indulge in classic Hammer riffage, juggling purposefully cliche characters – an over-pompous film director – with more engaging, fleshed out ones, and weaving in and out of the grotesque in various forms, whether it’s up front bloody stuff, or sexism, prejudice, etc…. As with Boogie, the world and lore are becoming so solid that it makes me want to reread how we got here.