5 out of 5

Kind of a weird spot to jump in for reviews, but with a couple big strips endings, as good a spot as any.

So… what makes a five star run of Megs or progs? Given that there must be a level of subjectivity here – whether I like or don’t like a strip shouldn’t be the deciding factor, because that’s only helpful if you have my exact tastes (which you should, of course, but I digress) – a five star run is one during which I feel like everyone understood the assignment, and when editor Matt Smith is able to shuffle things to offer a great range of tones and story subgenres. That’s the ideal: when you can read something even if it’s not to your taste, because it’s at least focused and well written / drawn, and there’s something different just a few pages away.

This batch of Megs absolutely offers that. Megatropolis – a noir / neo-scifi retelling of Dredd – is again paired with DreadNoughts – Michael Carroll’s brutal pre-MC1 history, and because this an “again” pairing, I have to believe that Smith and readers feel, as I do, that these stories are somehow opposite sides of a coin. They both are sort of retellings, even if ‘Noughts is canon and ‘Tropolis is an Elseworlds, and they both kind of springboard from the brutality of the Dreddverse to interesting extrapolations, based around street-level policing. Dave Taylor’s cold, austere artwork versus John Higgins’ surprisingly colorful, emotive whiplashes of thick lines; Kenneth Niemand and Carroll both writing with a kind of outsider’s informational voice, while dropping us right into the midst of backroom dealings and violence.

Anyhow, Megatropolis introduces its version of P.J. Maybe, while continuing to pick apart the Dredd vigilante; over in DN, we take a look at another Judge, and how they intersect with an honest-to-goodness honest cop. The former story is a little all over the place, but it’s still ongoing and I love the atmosphere and characters too much; the latter is one of the best ‘Noughts “side stories” so far, as it really shows off the black and white morality that had to be in place for MC-1 to happen, and how stickily that intertwines with the modern day.

Armitage is also still pending completion, but runs throughout these four Megs, coming from Liam Johnson and Staz Johnson. Staz is a great pick for this title, carrying over some Winslade lineweight with a Yeowell looseness that balances the old-school-cop-in-a-new-world vibe well. This feels like it requires some past Armitage context for full effect, but the storyline of an old flame of our Detective being accused of murder – and he of course goes rogue to investigate – is not only a classic pulp setup, but slots in nicely between the noir and grit extremes of the above tales.

The Anderson story ‘Hell Night at the Cine-Pit’ is kind of a loose-limbed poke at mindless entertainment, sending Cass into a brainwashed mass of film fans. Alec Worley’s script keeps us bouncing around quality ante-ups in the stakes and callbacks to Anderson history, while Ben Willsher delivers on the action-packed, kinetic artwork.

In the Dredd spot, some oners: Rob Williams does his dour thing on Dredd with Colin MacNeil on art, but I think Rob’s lore callbacks and generally more solemn tone work well when he’s not trying to build out his own lore, or make some grander point. This relatively isolated reflection on America (the character) is affecting. Garth Ennis and Keith Burns find a reason to reference WWII in Dredd. Fine – it’s what they do. The Kenneth Niemand first gives us a really solid Cursed Earth tale, with Joe hunting down a mirror-reflection beast (Anthony Williams on art), before starting of an multi-parter that returns to Old Joe – this was inevitable to return to, but I’m loving it so far, showing how anyverse of Joe can really never retire.