50-Word (Comic) Review- 2000AD- PROG 1958: You always mistook fists, for flowers

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 25th November 2015


The overarching theme is of resistance to unaccountable, authoritarianism control systems, fighting against enforcers. The best story though is ‘The Crow Gifts.’ It encapsulates the ‘progressive’ desire for martyrdom, for pointless death to further their cause of suicidal, masochistic, nihilistic emptiness. This is how the left feeds it’s own executioners.

Rating: 9/10



What am I on about here? Two things: First off, most of the stories in 2000AD feature little people against the power of the state. Judge Dredd acts like a US Policeman in one of those videos that keeps getting released online (#JudgeDreddMatters), and the other narratives feature resistance fighters (as the heroes) against top down control systems and state agents. That says a lot to me, it says that there’s a growing sense of anxiety in the western world today and there’s a growing understand that our supposed leaders are not quite as benevolent as they make out on our tell-lie-visions. That’s good. It’s a start at least, and it shows that the writers in 2000AD are not being bogged down with 1990’s nostalgia or cultural Marxist identity politics, as is happening in the US comic book industry right now. The best thing about PROG 1959 of 2000AD though is ‘The Crow Gifts’ by David Baillie. The story is about a young girl. She lives with her Grandfather, feels trapped, and rebels against his pragmatic advice about safeguarding her own future. Rather than do as he advises (living a life as a wife and mother with a prosperous husband) she chooses to embrace her own destruction, feeding birds that will eventually peck her to death. You could over analyse this story, and talk about multiculturalism, feminism, liberalism and immigration, but I’ll keep my analysis simple. To me, the story is the perfect synthesis of the suicidal progressive movement, a death cult political ideology that always embraces fists, for flowers (see song at end of review). I read ‘The Crow Gifts’ and see the progressive left, independent, feminine, nurturing, loving, and walking straight off of a cliff. 2000AD is pretty good this week, but Crow Tales by David Baillie is a lot better than pretty good. It’s easy to rail against an authoritarian control system as you can see the tyranny right in front of your face. But to recognise the weakness that comes from within, that’s the key to fighting back and reclaiming humanity from all that has been lost, not just by force, but by indoctrination into progressive politics and an ideology of martyrdom and self-destructive, masochistic nihilism.