Comic Review: 2000AD PROG 1936- ‘It’s our defiance that makes us truly human.’

Publisher: Rebellion
Writers and artists: Various
Released: 24th June 2015



I hadn’t been counting it down, but I knew that it couldn’t last forever, and now the time has finally come. It’s the last issue of Slaine, after PROG 1936 it will be gone until 2016, and although I’m happy that it will return, it’s going to leave an irreplaceable gap in my comic book reading week for the rest of the year. Oh well, chin up boy, nothing lasts, enjoy the good times, as they won’t last forever, and so I intend to enjoy Slaine, and then wallow in misery and think about the good times when it’s gone. So, if you happen to see a lonely, bedraggled comic book reviewer in the pub over the next couple of months, be nice, the withdrawal symptoms are going to be tough on this one.

Enough of the silliness, and onto PROG 1936 of 2000AD which begins, as always, with Judge Dredd. This week he’s landed in Irish stereotype land. Get ready for some drinking, fighting and wife beating, ha ha ha, it’s so much fun laughing at the stupid drunken, funny talking Irish, and nobody is going to call you out on it either. When did it become okay to do that? I must have missed a memo or something, because in a day and age when people get upset and take massive offence at trivialities, it appears that the Irish stereotype is one thing that you are still allowed to get away with. Umm, I wonder why that is? Actually, I know why. It’s a pigmentation issue, if you know what I mean.

The next strip (Absalom) is about that annoying pub bore bloke, the guy with PC jokes masquerading as edgy social commentary. Okay, I’ll give him a second chance, lets see if he’s as irritating as he was last week. I’m all for second chances, not that anybody even gave me a first chance, but that’s another story.

Okay, we start with 80’s pop group references and care home children. Is this going to be about the ‘historic’ child abuse scandal that is going on in the UK at the moment? It kind of is, and it kind of isn’t. It’s talking about children being taken by establishment figures and used in a fictional fight against demons, but then it makes a mistake, choosing the easy target (Christianity) instead of focussing on the real life villains (politicians from all parties).

I understand that the Christian church is an easy target right now, but the child abuse scandals are not about the church, they are about politicians, and how paedophilia was (and still is) used to blackmail politicians into following the agenda of their masters. If you are going to do an ‘edgy’ story about 1980’s child-abuse, but with added demons and monsters to make it ‘sci-fi,’ why pretend that the abusers were Christians, when Christians had nothing to do with it?

The child abuse rings in the UK revolve around politicians and BBC celebrities, so why not be honest about it and give those poor old Christians a break for a change? I’m not a Christian myself, but this prolonged multifaceted attack on the Christian faith is starting to get very obvious now, and I’m getting really fed up with it. It’s cowardly, and in this particular story, completely unjustified.

Wow, the beginning of Slaine references the global flood, who was responsible, and why it was done. This is really exciting for me, as it ties into my own research on the subject. The narrative then hints at genetic manipulation by the ‘gods’ and the immortal spirit that reside in all of us.  I can’t quite believe that I’m reading about this kind of information in a mainstream comic book, this is great, and although I’m massively biased, you have to at least take some of my enthusiasm on face value and take a look at this for yourself.

No more spoilers, no more praise, get Slaine NOW. It’s the last chance that you’ll have to read it in 2000AD this year, and if you miss it and end up reading (and loving) it sometime in the distant future, remember that there was at least somebody out there who was raving about it on a weekly basis.

My review is going a bit long this week, so I’m thankful for Outlier/Dark Symmetries. It has no dialogue. I don’t know who is who, and there’s a fight going on, or something. I must be a bit dim, as I’ve read it two times and I can’t get anything out of it at all. This one has lost me. I’ve tried, but nope, I can’t get anything, nice art though.

Helium is much better. Not a lot happens this week, it’s a character building issue, but what does happen is very entertaining and genuinely funny as well. I like the main protagonist now and I want her to succeed, and coming from a cynical, angry old grump like myself, that’s a huge compliment.

I enjoyed two out of the five stories in PROG 1936 of 2000AD and I got a huge kick out of the superb front cover by Tiernen Trevallion. Two out of five, with an awesome cover, isn’t bad. I’m happy with that.

Helium is a very well written tale. I love the slow pacing, and the character building and I’m really getting into the story. Slaine/Primordial has been special, and I’ll go back now and read all of the stories together, savouring each gorgeously constructed panel and the best dialogue that I’ve read in a comic book for many a year. I’ll miss it, but it will return.

Last week I was blindsided by foolish optimism and purchased more than my usual share of DC Comic books. Man, was that a mistake. Listen to my advice. Don’t do it, they are bloody awful and aimed at a feminist studies student circa 1996. Who is buying this nonsense? It’s a mystery to me. You don’t get anywhere near as much of that US brand of PC nonsense in 2000AD, and Tharg’s book still feels somewhat like an old fashioned subversive comic book.

I can see signs of the PC brigade moving into 2000AD though, so I just hope that Tharg holds out against the tide of political correctness. It’s not going to be easy, but I have faith in the old alien. This era of the social justice warrior is killing comics for me, so I appreciate 2000AD more than ever. It’s not perfect, but there’s always something within its pages that brightens up my day, and compared to the teen feminism of DC, Marvel and most of the so-called ‘independent’ US comic books, 2000AD stands alone as something refreshingly alive and defiantly different.


Rating: 8/10 (For the Cover, Slaine and Helium)

* Quote in review title is a line of dialogue taken from Slaine. Without defiance what have we become? Cattle bred, and waiting for leisurely slaughter (that quote is from me).