3 out of 5

Solid but not outstanding reading; the one-shots end up being the standouts, with the reminder doing the job.

In the Dredd slots, the reliable Michael Carroll completed the second half of The Rubicon, which is an interesting micro-study of class disparity, but it’s a bit too compressed to be a winner.  He returns for a brilliant one-shot, though, in the awesomely self-reflexive The Third Person, with art from Carl Critchlow.  In Big Meg, T.C. Eglington and Boo Cook give us a fairly predictable but still fun rundown on a peculiar Meg inhabitant, and Eglington returns with Karl Richardson to offer up the two part Gecko, which is pretty average Dredd fare – readable but nothing notable.

The current king of shorts, Rory McConville offers us a wonderfully odd and hilarious ode to toasters in a Black Museum, this slot thereafter filled by the confusing and underwhelming Havn by Si Spencer.  There’s something going on about a persecuted class that’s living undercover in the titular sealed environment, but search me for an iota of concern for the characters.  Spencer, from what I’ve read, is a fast-flinging idea guy, which is certainly fine for serialized tales, but I just can’t get any footing in the plot at all: What the drive is, about whom I should be concerned.  We seem to be focusing on one particular member of the Alfar race – native to the planet on which Havn exist – but again, I can’t possibly say to what end.  Jake Lynch, after a couple entries, hands art over to Henry Flint, which seems like a normal thing for the duo, for whatever reason.  If you like Lynch / Flint’s blocky / sketchy style, this is right in line, but there’s nothing especially awesome on display yet.  As a last “maybe I just don’t get it” caveat, possibly this thrill is pre-informed by previous Havn tales.

Alan Grant / Paul Davidson finish off their mini Anderson epic Dragon Blood – Cassandra rescues a strong psi from an oddball community – and move right into follow up NWO, in which said oddball is loose in the Meg.  This was a weird thrill; major things kept happening week to week and I was entertained, but it felt fairly aimless overall – like I was never really sure of the endgame.

Lawless’ next installment, Long-Range War, has, yet again, astonishingly crowded art from Winslade and a charming, wonderfully defined cast scripted by Abnett, as Metta deals with the fallout from her scuffles with Munce, but something about the way the story is going feels too much like after-the-fact business.  Where we are makes sense, but I get the impression that Lawless was such a surprise win that our Meg editors requested more asap, whereas otherwise, at some future point, Abnett might’ve done a follow up story set later in the timeline.  Things are just feeling unnecessarily decompressed, despite my still looking forward to the title.

Issue 386 packs some awesome: a pitch perfect, super-cool one shot return of Jimp Heston, and Wagner and Percival’s ominous opening to the next Dark Judges saga.  And a movie-Dredd strip.  (aka Meh)