SJW Girl in 'Refugee Games.' (A Webcomic about Social Justice)

Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1945- A Pleasurable Diversion

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 26th August 2015


It’s Tuesday afternoon, it’s raining, and I’m listening to black metal music whilst writing up my review of 2000AD PROG 1945.

Life is good.

As usual with my 2000AD reviews, I’m reading and writing as I go. So first off, the front cover. It’s pretty bloody good this week, featuring a feral looking Dredd, crouched, battle scarred and ready to explode into a violent assault on whatever unlucky bloodbank (aka every enslaved human being currently living under neo-liberal corporate statism) that is threatening his uniformed authority.

Nice one Mr. Jake Lynch.

Let’s see what Tharg has to say- Oh dear, he’s still describing reality as ‘mundane,’ and applauding himself for diverting our attention from the world around us. Not good Tharg. Reality is never mundane. Reality is fascinating. Reality is awesome. Reality is the one thing that the good sheeple (yeah, I use that word) need to get more attuned with, because if they don’t, it’s bread, circuses and slavery, FOREVER.

Oh Tharg, you are either very dim, or are just as caught within the neo-liberal matrix as 90% of the comic book readers themselves. A good story doesn’t have to deal with ‘mundane reality,’ but the best, the very best, always deals with it, that’s what makes them great, that’s what makes them a cut above the rest, and that’s what every writer working for 2000AD should be striving for.

Take precious, delicious reality, take something that you see in the every day life that you lead, stick it in your narrative, and say something that needs to be said.

Judge Dredd gets us off to a bad start. It’s all about the heroic cops (Judges) and how they are temporary down, not out, and about to fight back against the evil villains. The art (as always in this arc) looks great, but what is the story saying? To me it’s saying, support uniformed authority. That’s all that I’m getting here, and that’s not a message that I have any respect for.

The Alienist Part 2 utilises a story telling technique that makes it a very involving and enjoyable read. The technique is to show the inner thoughts of the main protagonist, giving readers the pleasure of being a spy within her mind as the narrative progresses. That’s extremely reader friendly, and I love it when writers think about the reader first. I already mentioned the art last week, it’s great, black and white, old-fashioned horror, very cool. This story might not be saying anything, so it will only ever rise to good, but it’s a very enjoyable good, so all credit to everybody involved.

‘Apocalypse Anonymous’ is very interesting. The story is about Special Forces operating in Syria, in 2015. Yes, you heard that correctly, 2000AD are actually featuring a story that references real world events that are happening right now. How are they going to get around that without upsetting anybody? How are they going to have westerners look like the good guys when we all know that our callously evil western governments deliberately created ISIS in the first place?

This story solves that problem in two ways. Firstly, it doesn’t mention ISIS, instead it just refers to ‘rebels,’ whoever they are, and then focuses on western Special Forces and what looks to be an upcoming fight with alien monsters. Will ISIS be mentioned late on in this three-part story? Will it bring up the fact that the US is working with ISIS to get rid of the leader (Assad) of a country that has done nothing to anybody other than wanting to be free from corporate western hegemony?

Will it mention that Syria is ran by a largely secular government, and that the so-called ‘rebels’ are Sunni Muslim extremists, otherwise known as Al Qaeda, or ISIS? Will it mention that western governments are on the same side as these Sunni extremists? Will it mention that the fight is Sunni Islam and the west versus Shiaa Islam and Russia? What do you reckon? My bet is that the next two episodes will have the western Special Forces fighting monsters and that nothing of any consequence will be discussed. That’s what I reckon will happen, but I’ll wait and see. I could be wrong. I hope that I am.

Grey Area/Contact is very amusing, very wry, and very entertaining. The story is concise, easy to follow, straight to the point, witty and fun.  It’s a nice piece of writing, very clever, very enjoyable and even a reality obsessed bore like myself couldn’t help but enjoy it. Nice writing Mr. Abnett, you are a talented, clever bloke and your dialogue is as sharp as an Oscar Wilde brand of razor blades.

I was a bit dismissive of Helium last week, but it’s usually enjoyable and the big bright colours and playful tone always makes me smile. This week’s episode begins with a gorgeous purple background and big happy faces. The narrative itself begins with a joke and ends with a very serious cliffhanger. Are our heroes doomed? Tune in same time, same 2000AD channel next week folks. I love it. That’s how you are supposed to finish a comic book.

Looking back at PROG 1945 of 2000AD it’s looking like a ‘good’ issue. Good means that it was fun, that it entertained me, that it diverted me. It didn’t say anything, but it didn’t try to. I look for excellent in my comic books, but good is certainly better than bad, and 2000AD was far from bad this week. The best story was Grey Area, and the worst was Dredd. Next week should be good. Helium has a delicious cliffhanger that will be resolved, that new arc (Apocalypse Anonymous) will show whether it’s going to touch reality, or not, and there’s something new called ‘Dreams of Deadworld’ that looks to be very intriguing indeed.



Rating: 7/10 (Not much reality, but 2000AD is a good, diversionary comic book this week)

Comic book review: Sinestro- Futures End #1: A Parallax to ISIS

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Igor Lima 
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 24th September 2014


I’ve never been afraid to say controversial things. I’ve never been afraid to state the bloody obvious, even when everybody around me is doing their best to ignore it. That’s what political correctness and a life based on protecting a career does to you. It stops you from saying what you want to say. It stops you from saying what needs to be said. Well, I have no need to keep my mouth shut. If I see something that needs to be talked about, then I’m going to talk about it. I’m never going to win any popularity contests, so screw that. I’m not afraid. I’m not a coward.

So, here I go again. The character of Sinestro in ‘Sinestro- Futures End #1’ is a ruthless dictator who is keeping the most violent and destructive elements of society under control, caged where it belongs. But when you take Sinestro away, when you take the dictator away the beast is unleashed and society falls apart. The beast in this book is something called ‘Parallax.’ Sinestro controls it, stops it from destroying his home planet of New Korugar. But then a team of ‘liberators’ comes along. A team called ‘The Apex League‘ who talk ‘peace’ but end up unleashing the beast that is Parallax. That beast then acts exactly as you would expect it to act, it destroys the planet. Does that sound familiar to you? Does that sound like something that is happening NOW in the real world? I’ll spell it out.

Sinestro is Saddam Hussein. Sinestro is Colonel Gaddafi. Sinestro is President Assad. Parallax is Al Qaeda. Parallax is ISIS. The Apex League are the US and their coalition of the bribed and coerced. America has destroyed Iraq and Libya, and is currently attempting to destroy Syria. These deliberate acts of war have unleashing ISIS upon the world. The dictator Saddam Hussein ruled by fear, exactly as Sinestro ruled by fear. But now he has been removed, and Hell has been unleashed.

Why has America done this? It is not incompetence. It is deliberate. The beast is used to further the agenda of those who control the armies of ‘peace makers’ and ‘liberators.’ Who are these people? Who are the people that sent uniformed order followers to war, to unleash the beast that is now tearing the Middle East apart. Do you believe that their agenda is world peace? Do you believe that they care at all about the death, destruction and misery that they have deliberately unleashed upon the world?

Do you watch television? Do you read the newspapers? You know who these people are. They smile at you. They ask for your vote. They make you complicit in their evil. They give orders, and you obey them.

Yes, the out in front spokesmen and spokeswomen of the satanic elite’s give the orders, but they also receive them as well. Their orders come from a tiny number of 'elite' family’s hidden within the structures that they themselves have set up and funded.

THE UN, CIA, MI6, NSA, GCHQ, UNESCO, NATO, IMF, WORLD BANK, BIS, ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION, RHODES TRUST, CARNEGIE FOUNDATION, TRILLATERAL COMMISSION, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, BILDERBERG GROUP. 

They scheme behind the scenes, giving orders to the bleached white teeth on your HD television screen. They create ISIS/Parallax, they unleash ISIS/Parallax, and they use ISIS/Parallax. That’s what they do. That is what they always do.

I’ll finish my review here. I’ve made my point. Think about it. There’s nothing more to say.

Rating: 9/10

Comic Book Review: Sinestro #3- Sinestro is President Assad of Syria

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Dale Eaglesham & Rags Morales
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 2nd July 2014 (Release date for the UK. Book was released on 25th June in the US)

Comic book fans won’t notice this, but that’s to be expected. Comic book fans don’t really notice anything. They like comics, so reality isn’t exactly their strong point. They think that the important issues of our times are highlighted by the corrupt and dying corporate mainstream media, so you have to expect a certain level of ignorance from the group as a whole. The title of this review is ‘Sinestro is President Assad of Syria,’ because that’s exactly what is happening in this book. What writer Cullen Bunn has done here is to take a real world, contemporary situation, change the names, stick it in space, and see if anybody will notice. They won’t notice Cullen, but I did.

Sinestro is a brutal dictator who was massively unpopular with his own people, so he left. But now that he has left his people desperately need him back. Why? Because a group of religious zealots are rampaging through space, slaughtering the helpless ‘Korugians,’ and selling them into slavery, all in the name of their bloodthirsty religious dogma. Does that sound familiar to you?

We are talking I.S.I.S here, aren’t we? And we are talking the Middle East. Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, and Bashar al-Assad. Iraq, Libya and Syria.Three countries ruled by dictators. Well, they used to be until our leaders decided to bomb the crap out of them and fund and train the terrorists who are currently turning their countries into Hell on Earth.

Three countries destroyed by the New World Order. Three countries where the surviving people are being slaughtered by Sunni Islamic terrorists funded from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and the US. Last week the liberal saviour President Obama revealed that he was going to give a further $500 million to these maniacs, but because he’s ‘liberal’ I guess that’s okay, right?

Comic books will not, in any way shape or form, criticise Islam. But whilst political correctness dictates that you can’t even give the merest hint that it’s Islam we’re talking about here, it’s perfectly acceptable to attack Christianity. So instead of references to a caliphate, suicide bombings, jihad and other familiar terms you get allusions to Christianity with words like ‘Inquisition, ‘Congregation’ and ‘Bishops.’ That’s understandable. Cullen Bunn has to wrap it up in Christianity. If he didn’t then he’d be in big trouble with the thought Police and his career in comic books would be over. But for those paying attention, we know what this is all about, and it’s not what happened in Spain in the late 1400’s.

I want to end this review by congratulating writer Cullen Bunn. He’s demonstrated that you can explore contemporary issues and concerns in modern, feminist liberal comic books, as long as you are clever with it. You have to dodge the politically correct land mines, but it can be done. Most of the readers of this book won’t see any connection between what is happening in the Middle East and Sinestro’s adventures in space, but that’s okay. Cullen Bunn has done some clever writing here, and he’s done it in such a way that he won’t get criticised for it. If anybody points out what that his themes seem strangely familiar and contemporary, he can just smile and tell them not to be so daft. After all, it’s just a silly comic book about a bad guy in space, isn’t it?
Rating: 10/10