3 out of 5

A long run for several thrills, with your enjoyment likely depending on how much A. you like Rob Williams and B. you can tolerate set vs. getting full-on stories. As a preview, I’m fine with B as long as the setup is interesting; I find myself not vibing with the writing tone that tends to come along with A.

Starting with the Dredd spot, we get the 10 part “And to the Sea Return” via Williams and Henry Flint. My two main problems with Rob’s writing are somewhat related: he crafts some fantastic concepts but doesn’t quite know how to properly deescalate his stories towards a conclusion; and there’s a fine line he almost always crosses between taking the material seriously and taking it too seriously. In MC-1, the latter turns Joe into a Clint Eastwood-style action star, in ripped-from-the-headline parables, i.e. not satires. It’s a mode I simply don’t prefer. That said, not ever Williams thrill is laced with social commentary; either way, he comes up with some at worst interesting but often pretty great ideas, and “Sea” posits a kind of living virus found in The Black Seam which can only be countered by altering one’s mind through drug use. And appreciably, Rob (and Flint) avoids the trope of using this setup as an excuse to do “Joe on acid” or something easy; it’s a pretty tough standoff (featuring plenty o’ Cass!) and worked… up until another flat ending.

After that, Niemand steps in with Nick Percival to nudge along their Shift / Oubliette storyline, which I’d say more about but I’m kind of lost in it. I look forward to reading this collected. There’s something something alternate world and something something some ultimate evil hiding there, and I do think Niemand writes well for Percival – giving him glory shots and dialogue that work okay with painted. But: this three parter are just those nudges; there’s no meat on this.

Brass Sun returns and runs through this entire set, courtesy of its creators: Ian Edginton and INJ Culbard. I’ve always liked Brass Sun, although I’ll admittedly get lost in the details, often happening with Edginton’s dense narratives. So I appreciated the way the writer uses the gap between this and the last entry (5+ years back…?) to jump us forward in time: Wren has a new partner, and essentially joins up with the underground rebellion, but also can’t not get out of her own way, almost by being too competent – she can’t pass up an opportunity to help others, even if its not tactically the best move. This amounts to something of a light reboot for the series, in the sense that it establishes a new status quo, and has to give Wren (and thus the reader) a refreshed reason for being involved in the battle to or to not restart the world clock.

David Hine and Boo Cook also return for Void Runners’ second entry, which ran a little long at ten parts. I thought the first series navigated a good balance between drug trip fantasy and sci-fi – rather purposefully mashing the too together – but this time out, and enhanced by Boo’s bubbly art, it felt more like hijinx, with void runner Alice accidentally convincing some peaceful beatniks to go to war. You can maybe find some parables in that, it just felt very broad and too open with its tone.

Rob Williams part two: a Zenith tie-in, that, frankly, does a poor job – see my negative Williams bias, though – of grounding readers in the Zenith world, which hasn’t had a legit appearance since the 90s. I mean, sure, we’ve had the reprints, but are we really relying on those? I guess my nitpick is that the tie-in felt pretty pointless, as Rob was essentially scripting the story of the aftermath of heroes – using original Zenith artist Steve Yeowell to depict the past of layabout hero Siadwell / Red Dragon, and Patrick Goddard for the present, in which some journalists are doing a modern-day followup piece on RD – and loading this down with nods to Zenith stuff didn’t really add anything. And especially as we lean in to conspiracy vibes, and go heavy on the weight of legacies, the content doesn’t quite stack up to the intentions, aligning with my overserious quibble. Good art, though,

A shoutout to the I-guess-this-was-a-3riller? Deadtown, from David Barnett and Luke Horsman, which I feel like was advertised as a full series, did not get the 3riller callout in the title page, but was forced into 2 parts – one being extra long – and the forums referred to it as a 3riller… Anyhow, this was the first true realization of Horsman’s talents, not giving in to his assumed preferences for drawing monsters / creepos (or maybe editors / writers just think that makes sense since he draws like Phil Hester, who also likes monsters), when his previous creatures-filled strips have been waaay too busy, visually. But I could tell I liked Luke’s design sensibilities and crunchy style, and remained hopeful he would be matched on something that – in my wholly opinion – was a better outlet for that style. And that was Deadtown! A fun riff on zombos where Barnett devised a reason for zombies to be lawfully reincorporated into society, and we follow a detective teamed up with a resurrected cop, and it’s then played pretty straight-faced. If the mystery hadn’t been given short shrift due to the length, this could’ve been great. If this was a 3riller – i.e. a test for whether or not we want more – yes!

Oookay. Lastly: Alex de Campi and Neil Edwards on Rogue Trooper. And I feel like I missed some kind of announcement about this strip or something, because… I dunno. This reads like a reboot? This reads like American Dredd; a US take on Rogue. I’m not just saying that because it’s de Campi, as I have gone back and forth on really digging what she brings to a book, but I will say that I’ve been under-impressed by her 2000 AD offerings so far, and this one just felt like someone who got the RT rundown a week out and plugged the character into a generic action story. But that’s kind of unfair, because RT sort of started out as semi-generic war action, and I wouldn’t put it past de Campi being a legacy Rogue fan, which brings me back to wondering if this was like a purposeful “old school” attempt. Unfortunately, Neil Edwards Image-adjacent style ages it into the 90s; this works when artist like Richard Elson do it on Kingdom because that book plays in the big, brawly sandbox. Rogue… I dunno, I have trouble positioning it that way in my head. I just couldn’t get engaged in this run in the slightest.