4 out of 5

It’s fun being able to confirm over-arching themes within a writer’s (or any creative type’s) body of work.  Milligan has always been pretty cheeky, Morrison has always been outside of the box, Alan Grant has always been snarky, Mark Millar has always been somewhat mean-spirited, and Neal Gaiman has always been poetically predictable (THAT’S RIGHT I DON’T LIKE SANDMAN, OKAY).  Future Shocks in 2000 A.D. were the testing grounds for a lot of dudes, but also, I’d imagine, fairly hard to write, as you only had a page or two to tell whatever story.  Which is why most of them end up being Twilight Zone-like last panel twists, or build toward an easy sci-fi pun, and as these “All-Star” writers show (as this collection of Shocks includes the writers mentioned plus other recognizable names and a slew of notable artists), even though you might get stuck in that formula, there’s still a lot of fun and creativity to push around within that space.

Over the years, I’ve noticed my tastes leaning more toward anthology style works like this.  I’m not sure why.  I still absolutely enjoy the long-form tale, of course, but I suppose there’s something really appealing about seeing the sketches of ideas that come about in the pages of works of this nature, because as tough as condensed writing can be, it’s freeing to not have to worry about connecting plot details and whatnot that can derail a book over the course of however many issues, and since everything is an ongoing nowadays (I mean, even B.P.R.D. has switched over to regular numbering), the era of Vertigo one-shots or 4-issue series is for reals over, something occasionally showing up on the rack with a “1 of 6,” but there’s always the suspicion that it’s bait for a series or something.  I’m offering this to prove (you demanding bastards) that I read my share of anthologies or shorts, so I’m not just won over by star power here when saying that this is one of the better collections I’ve read.

However, I will say that I think that’s primarily due to Grant Morrison’s wealth of contributions, which I think make up more than half of the book.

If you’ve ever glanced at a 2000 A.D., the nature of the contents won’t surprise you – it’s sci-fi, with a cold, dry British feel to it.  But you might be wowed by how many of your favorites paid their dues here.  On the art side, I can only imagine how far my jaw would’ve dropped if first exposed to Kevin O’Neill or Brian Bolland in this fashion.  It’s really awesome to see, again, how talented these dudes have always been.  I gave the brief summary of the writing – there are 47 stories in here, 13 of which are Morrison’s, 10 are Milligan’s, the remaining 24 split across Grant, Gaiman, Alan Hebden, C. Smith, Larry Watson, Millar, Simon Furman, Steve Moore, Simon Spurrier, and John Wagner, who each get 1-4 stories apiece.  I do love Grant, but I can fully admit that he’s had some overly Grant-ish flops in his life, and produced some meh stuff.  But while the majority of the stories in here tread the Future Shocks line, with each writer’s individual quirk (and some fortunate to be paired with a Barry Kitson or Brian Bolland), I can just imagine a zonked-out teen Morrison scribbling the beginning seedlings of his interconnected universe concepts into these amusing little shorts that really push the limits of how large of concepts can be stuffed into panels, all while showing, so early on, the writer’s skill for making it seem like it pre-existed, that the oddity isn’t forced.  Sticking his tales into the middle of the book, sandwiched between the more generally humorous entries, was a great sequencing decision, as just when you’ve had enough of the light chuckles, you get some meat.  But you are reading for the chuckles, so the return at the end and 2000 A.D. stalwart John Wagner’s bonus closing tale is pretty much a hoot – is equally welcome.

Most collections from this mag would get a 3 star rating from me because some average stuff mixed in is just part of the journey.  Leaning on Grant to flesh this book out helps to sell it as something to actually keep on your shelf.