4 out of 5

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, of course, except where John Wagner’s Spector is concerned: if you didn’t like this strip… you’re wrong?

Wagner is one of the most overall impressive writers I follow. His deep cuts – a phrasing here I’m using to just refer to those stories that hit harder than others – are maybe not as directly mind-blowing as classics by Alan Moore or Grant Morrison have been, but that’s part of what’s interesting about them: John can duck and weave through dark or dumb comedy, and inject something really weighty into the middle of an established character’s world, without betraying that character or the spirit of the comic. That aside, he’s able to consistently blend those moods in his works, and has done so in every decade he’s been active. Of course not everything is gold or even, sometimes, great, but it’s more the fact that I can’t point to a particular era and say “John was writing in style X” during this time; which isn’t to say his abilities haven’t changed and evolved, moreso that he’s always had a kind of baseline tone and set of interests that make his body of work varied, but also consistent. What I’m trying to get around to say: 50+ years into his career, and his pen still delivers books that read more modern and cutting than Johnny 20something’s new hottt Image title. Yeah, that’s Spector: one of the best things he’s written, fun and smart and surprising and satisfying, and it’s such a simple concept at its core – a robot cop. Seen it, done it, but the way John blends noir / detective tropes into it, shot through with modern politics and AIness… it just trumps so much other stuff trying to play in with similar topics. And Dan Cornwell’s art…? I know, I know, this was a tough blow to Ezquerra fans – myself included – wondering how this title would feel without Carlos, but Dan navigated a line that maintained a general look, but was also absolutely his own thing. It looks fantastic. What a title. Worth the price of admission alone – and props to the design team for those title pages, which gave the story an extra sense of majesty.

Okay! Next: One-eyed Jacks, Death Metal Planet, and Devlin Waugh wrapped up, without much change to my takes from before – One-eyed maybe being the most disappointing, only in that it was such a fun concept, but dragged on a bit. (It’s good overall, just seemed like it could’ve been punchier. But maybe something to collect, and will read better in that form.)

The Dredd slot from hereon out is a lot of oners – from Carroll, Edginton, and Niemand. These are solid writers (it’s good to see Carroll on Dredd, back-to-back – my favorite modern “serious” Joe scribe), and the tone varies month by month with this spread. Nicolo Assirelli shows up on art – developing to be a new star for me, as their art was a little Yeowell-y open-ended at first, but it’s gained a lot of weight and better choreography.

Lawless: also dragged on a bit, but it was for good reason: while the “reveal” regarding our lead felt a bit staid, it was an effective plot to play off against Rondo’s story, and this is the big battle… so we needed to revel a bit. Again, collected, I’m sure this will fly, but month to month it sometimes felt like we were delaying things for glory shots and story beats that had already been done. An overall very solid conclusion, though; not dissatisfied by this in the long run, and certainly looked forward to reading it each time.

Dreadnoughts: as we’ve seen with this title, it’s often very character heavy – typical of Carroll – but it just feels so soaked in history and character that I can’t help but adore it. John Higgins’ art can sometimes be a bit stiff, but that’s fitting here, and I really couldn’t imagine any other artist on it. Mike is expertly weaving into and out of Glover’s history, leading up to her judge-ship, and that’s played intriguingly off a kidnapping that also deepens our understanding of how the judge program developed in the early years. Dreadnoughts is a great read bit by bit, but it’s enhanced by knowing it’ll hold up on re-reads and probably become even better, as we can soak in more of the atmosphere the more installments there are.

A couple of Mega City 2099 installments (one by Niemand and Conor Boyle, one by Wyatt and Lynch); I can’t really get a grasp on this title in terms of how canon it’s supposed to be, like whether it’s poking fun at early Dredd or doing some legit early years explorations. I guess I’ve kinda been viewing them as Dredd one-shots with “older” technology and whatnot, and maybe that’s all they are. Not unenjoyable, just not clear on how they fit in yet.

Besides some Tales from the Black Museums – neither by writers I’m especially keen on, and both rather unremarkable, perhaps due to that bias – a P.I. DeMarco from Laura Bailey starts up, with Waugh artist Rob Richardson looking leagues better with more exciting framing and more detailed panels. (I’m wondering if Rob was trying to mimic the prior Waugh artist Mike Downling’s minimalism…?) I’m really on the fence with Bailey, as she’s got a great character voice, but her plotting often works in fits and spurts. I want more of DeMarco, and the setup here of investigating some twisty-turny thieving has some fun procedural aspects, but the plot is still hiccuppy. Still, as with several of the thrills above – looked forward to reading this, even with my criticisms, and hope Bailey continues to develop DeMarco.

Within this batch of Megs we got a special: Battle Action with the Meg: an alterna-world where the two mags merged, giving us sci-fi war strips – the sister to the 2000 AD issue of the same. While this wasn’t as successful as the outing – you still had your ongoings here, kind of cluttering it up – still a really fun concept that provided strips that are maybe so intriguing because the writers knew they didn’t have to continue them.

A longer run of Megs than usual, thanks to Spector and Lawless going for quite a while, but also above average thanks to those same strips, and all other inclusions being incredibly consistent.