Review: 2000AD PROG 1941- Outlier/Dark Symmetries is starting to get really good.

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th July 2015



Here’s a new writing experiment for anybody reading this ‘review’ to enjoy, or dislike, depending on how it goes.

What am I going to do is write this review as I read the comic. One story at a time, I’ll let you know what I think.

First off, the main cover looks pretty nice. The colours work well, and the concept of creeping evil invading mundane reality is both creative and interesting.

Inside the book then, here I go. The little cartoon strip ‘Droid Life’ is a joke about antagonism towards technology. It’s silly, and slightly funny, though not exactly something that I will remember as being particularly insightful or hilarious.

Tharg’s spiel is always worth reading, mainly because he frames the context into which the preceding stories should be read. Let’s see what he has to say this month. Err, not a lot, he’s just saying that the people working on 2000AD work hard and that they appreciate their publishers. You’re being a bit dull this week Tharg, a bit dull. We know that they work hard, so do bin-men.

Onto Judge Dredd, the hero of 2000AD, and a perfect symbol of the morally vacuous, order following society that we are living in today. Here we go again, with the assumption that order followers in uniform exist to serve and protect the poor, innocent, helpless civilians. I hate that assumption for one reason. The reason being that it is a lie. After that assumption the story washes over me. I enjoy the art, but this pushing of an authoritarian anti-freedom, anti-humanity lie is all I can take from the story. This lie needs to be exposed, not reinforced, and all this story is doing is reinforcing the illusion that those in positions of authority serve the people, and not the corporate state. We all know whom they really serve by now. Don’t we?

Next story is Absalom/Under a False Flag, the most smug, self-satisfied, self-aware piece of media student post-modernism since fatso Kevin Smith arrived on the scene. Oh crap, I’m not looking forward to reading this one. Let’s see how many safe 1980’s references I get in this week’s instalment. Okay then, he starts with a reference to ‘kettling’ and ‘hippies.’ That’s a weird amalgamation of modern Police tactics with a 1960’s CIA sponsored movement. It’s very odd that he thinks that modern protestors are ‘hippies,’ because as far as I’m aware most hippies are either dead or very elderly in 2015.

Oh well, on I go. It gets even weirder. A supposedly ‘anti-authoritarian’ and ‘rebellious’ Police detective gets to act like he’s helping out abused kids, when in reality everything that I hear about the real-life UK child abuse cases involves the cops refusing to investigate high level paedophiles, not exposing them. This story takes a huge leap of faith and assumes that cops act as some sort of independent body that properly investigates and prosecutes child abuse. Here’s a reality check, they don’t. The Police are the dogs of the state. They investigate what they are told to investigate. In the real world ‘mavericks’ like Harry Absalom might try to investigate, but if they get too close to those in positions of power (see the case of fat bas**** paedophile MP Cyril Smith) then they will be taken off the case, demoted and sent packing. That’s the real world, and I’m not seeing it in this comic strip.

Next story is Helium, and I’m already smiling before I’ve even read the strip, as it’s so bright and colourful, and such a nice contrast to the dowdy black and white drabness of Absalom. I’m going to read it now, hope it’s good. Okay, now I’ve read it, and it’s like a WW1 aerial battle war movie, but with horrible men after a brave female. That’s okay, I know how it works now. If you read contemporary comic books you are always going to get young females as the feisty, brave and independent protagonists, acting like men, in the driving seat and taking control. It can get a bit much, but I like Helium and the feminism is just simmering in the background of the narrative, and not bashing you over the head as many Marvel and DC titles do today.

I also appreciate the fact that Helium is a simple story, lacking in Absalom style self awareness and smart arsery, and instead preferring to tell a fun story, keeping it simple and keeping it reader friendly.

Next up is Outlier, a story that took a while to get going, but was actually pretty enjoyable last week. Let’s see how it goes this week. I tell you what, it has a great start, with a narrative structure that is very enjoyable and works very well. The rest of the story is really good as well, as it’s getting me very excited for what is going to happen next within the narrative. It’s hooked me, and I’m really enjoying this story. This is a bit of a surprise as this one started slowly almost lost me, but now it’s getting really, really good, and the art is pretty sweet as well.

Last story in 2000AD this week is Jaegir, a story that to me is reading a bit like a child’s war story, but with a modern style female heroine as the main protagonist. I haven’t particularly enjoyed it so far, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best this week. Okay then, read it now; here’s what I thought. ‘I bring war criminals among my own people to justice.’ That’s the first quote of this narrative, and already it’s ignoring how the real world actually works. Since when do countries do this to their own people? A few low level soldiers perhaps, but the real criminals, the people who gave them the orders? No chance mate. See Tony Blair, George Bush, WMD’s and Iraq for more details.

How can I take this story seriously when it is putting forward the idea that countries properly investigate war crimes, and then prosecute those responsible like they are some kind of unbiased, fair and moral third party. That doesn’t happen. What actually happens is that war breaks out, one side wins, and the other side loses. The winning side then sets up show trials (see Saddam Hussein) and executes anybody on the losing side for ‘war crimes.’ The war crimes committed by the winning side are ignored, and all those responsible for them get promoted and then get to write books where they tell lies about what went on, and those lies are then called ‘history.’ That’s reality, and that’s how the world works.

I give Jaegir credit though, as the female responsible for investigating war crimes committed by her own people ends up almost being killed, by her own people. That makes a lot of sense, so I guess that the story is saying something after all, in a roundabout way.

Flicking back through PROG 1941 of 2000AD I didn’t really enjoy the first two stories, the third was simple, colourful and fun, the fourth was really good, and the final story was better than usual. That’s alright, I’ll take that, and with the very nice front cover that’s just about enough to give 2000AD a thumbs up this week.


Rating: 7/10 (After a slow start, Outlier is getting surprisingly good)