Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1942- Spider Monster in the Snow

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 5th August 2015


Last week I tried something new. No, I didn’t buy all of the Marvel and DC books about young girls, government agents and identity politics, load up on aspartame and overdose on mental illness masquerading as normalcy. No, what I did was a lot more sensible, and enjoyable, than that.

What I did was put on some Black Metal music (the new album by Abyssal is awesome, and not as bleak and despairing as I though that it would be) and read 2000AD, story by story, stopping along the way and reviewing the book as I read it.

This resulted in a disjointed and slightly odd review, with me making my mind up about the book in real time as I read, and reviewed it. I enjoyed the experience, so that’s what I’m going to do again this week, so on goes Antikatastaseis, and let’s get into PROG 1942 of 2000AD.

There’s a really nice front cover this week, with Dredd in what looks like an evil version of Superman’s fortress of solitude. Nice job Glenn Fabry. Now lets open up this beauty and see what we have inside.

Tharg is talking about downloading the comic this week. I’d rather touch something than look at it, so it’s always going to be the hard copy for me.

Onto my old nemesis, Judge Dredd, lost in the beautiful, poetically pure snow, so although I might dislike the old uniformed control freak, at least his adventures are going to be pleasing to the eye.  The narrative read pretty well this week. The story is getting increasingly simplified, and I like that. It’s about a Judge hating monster, looking for revenge against the trigger happy Judges. Go on monster, you can do it. Kick their authoritarian backsides, you will be doing us all a favour. The artist on this one is Henry Flint, and he’s doing an excellent job. His snow monster is part alien, part arachnid and it looks awesome.

That’s a good start then, let’s get on to the second story.

Oh crud, it’s the ever annoying, old man media student lame cultural reference machine that is Harry Absalom, the most irritating fictional character outside of a Kevin Smith movie. Okay then, here I go.

Two references to old television shows and a bit of Christianity bashing, insinuating that all of the priests are sex abusers, that’s what’s on offer this week. Good news though, as this is the end of the story.

It should have been something that I enjoyed, but the Christianity bashing (lame, easy and ubiquitous in atheistic 2015 UK) and main protagonist killed it for me. It was supposed to be about institutional child abuse (see the breaking news about ex UK PM Ted Heath this week) but all it actually did was have a go at Christianity. Not big, not clever, and it distracts from the real life paedophile MP’s that actually did abuse kids in the UK, and continue to do so today. It’s not the Church. It’s the state, dummy.

Hang on. I need to brush my teeth to wash out the foul taste of Harry, back in a sec.

Ahh, that’s better, minty fresh, now on to the next story, the happily colourful and always enjoyable Helium.

Good news, it’s enjoyable again this week, the dialogue is fun, and it ends with a villain determined to end the life of our sparkling heroine. This is a good one. There’s a lightness and sense of gaiety to it, and it makes me smile. It’s the subtly of the writing that does it, but the art certainly helps as well. It’s big, bold, colourful and fun. I like it, how could I not?

Oh good, the next story this week is the steadily improving Outlier. It’s going to be good. I’m starting to have confidence in this one. Is that breasts? Yes, there are definitely breasts in this one, so if you are a fan of the mammary glands you’ll want to pick up 2000AD this week. I jest, but not about the breasts. It’s good, it’s green, it has breasts and it’s all action. So another win for Outlier, and the story continues to be a lot better than I thought that it would be.

Oh dear, the last story in 2000AD this week is Jaegir. I haven’t been enjoying this one, although last week it did show how you cannot expect uniformed order followers to investigate their fellow uniformed order followers and get magical results that transforms immorality (following orders) into morality. Fingers crossed, wish me luck. I’m going in.

Oh, a brilliant start, with our protagonist explaining that following orders is actually a good thing because it saves lives. Nice one, I see what you did there. Turning immorality into morality based on blind trust in ‘leadership’ and authority figures. This really is army indoctrination going on here. Hey kids, be your own man. Don’t let them tell you that they are doing it for your own good. Don’t believe the lies, break from the programming, be free, be independent, be a real man.

Oh, it gets even better now, with the leader girl admitting that she is ashamed, that she was responsible for condemning three hundred people to death, but as she is doing this she is still talking about ‘duty’ like that is something that everybody should be proud of. What is this? Oh yeah, I know. It’s militaristic collectivism, but dressed up as heroism because the protagonist is a woman. Yuck, this one is starting to really get my gander up. Do I have to read on? Okay then, I’ll try.

I made it, just about. The story really is a piece of work. It’s a right muddle of messed up morality and justifications for wearing a uniform, following orders, doing your duty, fighting to survive and just about every other idea that comes straight out of an army recruitment video. I didn’t like it at all, and it leaves me feeling a bit depressed as I finish up this week’s 2000AD.

Okay then, happy face on, and now for a quick summary. I’ll ignore the muddled morality of Jaegir and the irritating Absalom, and give PROG 1942 of 2000AD a solid thumbs up. The art in Dredd was great, and the story isn’t as annoying as usual. Helium made me smile and Outlier continues to be a bloody good little story. Add in the great front cover and that makes 2000AD well worth purchasing this week. I’ll leave it here with happy thoughts, all of the bad is fading already, as I’m looking at the front cover, smiling and feeling pretty good about the book as a whole.



Rating: 7/10 (Some bad, but the good wins out.)