2000AD Summer (All-Female) Special 2018: Is This the End of Meritocracy?

The 2000AD special of summer 2018 is a very special, special indeed, for this marks the first time in it’s entire (40 plus year) history that the writers and artists are completely comprised of affirmative action diversity hires. Yes, they are all women, not all straight white men, funny how that works, isn’t it? Actually no, it isn’t funny at all, and I’ll explain why it isn’t funny, and is actually very patronising, and ultimately, very, very dangerous.

The west is what the west is today, because of meritocracy, the idea of a level playing field, where the best, or hardest working thrive, whilst the worst, and laziest do not. Meritocracy produces unfairness, because to have winners you have to have losers as well, but meritocracy also produces great achievements that would not be possible under any other system.

You can try to be fair, and get everybody to cross the finish line together, and this has been tried many times before. Ask the Russians about it, the Chinese, the Cubans, or any other nation that has cried ‘not fair’ and abolished any idea of a meritocratic system. We are talking Communism here, and I would strongly suggest that what 2000ad is doing with this summer special of enforced diversity, which is of course anti-diversity (as all of these progressively insane projects are) is the comic book version of a red revolution.

Well, we all know how revolutions work out, don’t we, and if not, why not? I’ll tell you why we don’t understand that revolutions are bloody, stupid, and just put you back to the beginning, revolving in a circle, and not progressing at all. It’s because of the schools, the welfare state, the female teachers, the pandering, the guilt, the cultural Marxism, the movies, the television, the crusty old sandal wearing, Guardian reading BBC, a state mandated, anti-white, anti-male communist system of anti- meritocracy, school-girl fantasy utopian, far, far left propaganda.

So, of course we are getting an all-female anti-diversity 2000ad bloody revolution of feel-good stupidity. It’s a sign of the times, as the purple hedonist used to say. In an age of Godless, matriarchal, welfare state, government indoctrination, morality free nihilism, you get your virtue from the least rebellious comic book on the market today. Signalling to the heavens that they do not believe in, crying to the sky, ‘We are good people, we are good people, watch as we virtuously flog ourselves to the Goddess of meritocracy crushing mediocrity.

But what, I hear you cry, will I say if the special is actually really, really good? Well, I’ll say the following. If it is really good, and I will not find out because I am not purchasing it, then they didn’t need to do it in the first place. They could have allowed each and every one of the female creators to compete on the same level playing field as their male contemporaries, and let the cream rise to the top.

Do you remember, when that used to happen, when the cream was allowed to rise? I remember, and it was a glorious time. No colours, no genders, no gay, straight, trans, whatever, no left, no right, no politics, just good old fashioned hard work and talent, with the best man, woman or little green frog, rising to the top, and producing the best product possible. Oh, those halcyon days, they are fading, fast, and if you buy this summer special from the virtuous signallers at 2000ad, you are helping to end those days, now, and for the future, forever.

50-Word (Comic) review: 2000AD-PROG 1962: (911 Truth in 2000AD)

Writers and artists: (Click link:)
http://www.comicbookresources.com/comic-previews/2000-ad-1962-2000ad-2016
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 6th January 2016


2000AD returns from its Christmas break with a roar of righteous rebellion. ABC Warriors is about 9/11 truth and the lies of the neoliberal mainstream media/political establishment. Strontium Dog is about transhumanism, selective breeding and God-like elite world controllers, and ‘The Order’ looks awesome, and is awesome. Welcome back 2000AD.

Rating: 9/10


9/11 Truth in 2000AD? Yes, it's there in the story 'ABC Warriors//Return to Ro-Busters,' by Pat Mills. Are the questions that are not allowed to be asked finally seeing the light of day? I hope so. Nice one Mr.Mills.

50-Word (Comic) Review: Judge Dredd//The Beating-Part Three- The end of an arc, and a compromise that destroys all that came before

Writer: John Wagner
Artist: Patrick Goddard
Published in: PROG 1960 of 2000AD
Release Date: 9th December 2015


Spotlight on state sanctioned violence, on the order following sociopath Dredds of the world, and as the finish line draws near, a compromise. Stockholm syndrome cowardice bows to slave state programming. Why? Writer? Editor? Owner? A false dawn of ‘Rebellion’ then back to the slave game of Police state obedience.


Rating: 5/10 (Good, but then three panels destroy it all)



How do they expect the reader to feel? Do they not care? I say ‘they’ because I don’t know who blame for what has happened at the end of this arc. Was it the writer? Did he not know how to end the story? Did he feel like he had gone too far, and deliberately rein himself in? Or did the editor look at the story, get worried that it was a bit too close to the truth, and order a compromised ending where everything would be brushed under the carpet? Who knows? They do, but they’re not going to tell me, are they?

The entire story arc of Judge Dredd/The Beating was about Police brutality. It was about the Police (as representatives of the state) and how they are given the authority to murder anybody that doesn’t instantly surrender, prostrate themselves on the floor and kiss their royal boots. 

This wasn’t a story about racism or racial profiling, or anything like that. It was a story about what the cops are allowed to get away with, because they ARE the state. Cop violence is the reality of the state. It is what the state actually is. The state is coercion backed up by the threat of violence from uniformed order following thugs. That statement is as true in a democracy as it is in any third world Islamic s***hole (hello Saudi Arabia). 

The state is always going to back-up it’s uniformed enforcers, because without the uniformed enforcers, there is no state. There’s a huge debate still raging in the US about this, and although the majority of protestors have mixed up ‘racism’ with what it actually is (statism) the issue of Police brutality is quite a hot button topic at the moment. So to see good old 2000AD deal with it over the past three weeks was a nice surprise for a comic book reader like myself who has become depressingly used to seeing reality being COMPLETELY IGNORED in his comic books. 

I read the last two issues of this arc, beamed like a anarchist Cheshire cat, and ran to the Internet to tell everybody how great it was that Matt Wagner was writing about something that actually had some kind of relevance in the real world. Do you know how many people actually review 2000AD on a weekly basis? Worldwide it’s hardly anybody at all, just me. I’m the only one who can be bothered. What does that say? Seriously, if the comic was so bloody cutting edge and essential reading, how many reviews do you think that it would get? It would be a heck of a lot more than just my half-hearted, moaning and complaining efforts, that's for sure. 

I want to say good things about this comic book. I really do. I’m always looking on the bright side, searching for the gems amongst the muck, and hoping, hoping, hoping that it will break through the toxic, circle-jerk cloud of neoliberal, progressive, multicultural guff that is choking the US comic book industry in 2015. I want 2000AD to be a beacon of sanity amongst the comic book progressive unreality that is coming out of the US right now, and occasionally, it gets close. 

And now, here comes the comedown to my goodwill party of delusional naïve optimism. In this, the final instalment of the Judge Dredd/The Beating arc, John Wagner has taken all of that goodwill, all of that hope and expectation, all of that praise that I showered upon him over the past two weeks, digested it, and cr***d it back all over face. 

Why am I so upset? What exactly has John Wagner done? 

He has written an ending to the arc (in the final three panels) where he reveals that Judge Dredd didn’t actually beat anybody to death at all, and is in-fact a hero working for the greater good. John Wagner has turned the embodiment of state sanctioned violence into a misunderstood hero, and in such a bumbling, unsatisfactory and unconvincing way that it reads like an addendum, added onto the story at the request of a panicking government/cop worshipping editor. The story ends as cuckolded as possible, signifying to the readers that there is no problem with cop violence, no problem at all. Go back to sleep. Thanks for reading. Reality is now closed for the foreseeable future. 

Do you see why I might be a little bit upset about this? A narrative that was exploring the very real problem that cops can beat you to death, and get away with it, has been turned into a story about the individual personality of Judge Dredd, and how he’s not really as bad as you first thought him to be. 

All of the contemporary concerns about state sanctioned violence have been left hanging in the wind. Nothing has been resolved. State authority is still legitimate. State sanctioned violent coercion is still legitimate. It was all about Judge Dredd. He didn’t beat a man to death. You have nothing to worry about now.

 I trusted a writer, and at the final hurdle, he massively compromised, and went back on everything that came before. This feels like (and here’s a dated reference) the Bobby Ewing shower scene in Dallas. Trust has been betrayed, and there’s no coming back from this one. 

Who made the decision? Will I ever find out? Does anybody at 2000AD even care? Probably not, and that’s the worst thing of all. I have read the story. I paid to read it. I reviewed it. I wasted my time, and my money. I’m the sucker here. I’m the idiot. They are laughing at me, and my anger, frustration and sense of betrayal will be completely ignored.

50-Word (comic) review: 2000AD-PROG 1959- Reflections on a world gone wrong

Writers and artists: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 2nd December 2015



2000AD, you really are spoiling me. What can I complain about when your stories are about Police brutality, political corruption, false justifications for war, resistance to tyrants and the ‘highest’ being questioned by the ‘lowest?’ This is how you get with the times. This is how you actually say something.


Rating: 10/10

Check out the following quotation from ‘Defoe//London Hanged’ by Pat Mills- 

‘By what authority are the highest in the land to be questioned by the lowest?’ 

Look at the front cover on this issue of 2000AD (by Cliff Robinson) where an unrepentant Judge Dredd is caught on a camera phone beating a civilian to death for the crime of talking back to him. 

Read ‘Bad Company//First Casualties’ a story where ex-soldiers find out that the war they risked their lived for was based on fear propaganda and lies. 

Something happened to 2000AD recently. I don’t know how or why, but something clicked, and rather than being lost in the silliness of identity politics (like US comic books) they started to reflect real world concerns within their narratives. 

When I read a typical DC, Marvel (and most of the 'indie' US books as well) I read nostalgia, style over substance, identity politics and the worship of collectivism and state authority. 

When I read 2000AD I read about individuality, resistance and the desire to be free from those that wish to enslave and control. PROG 1959 of 2000AD has three excellent stories: Dredd, Bad Company and Defoe. These three stories are UK stories. You will only get them in 2000AD. 

When people ask me- ‘Why should I bother reading 2000AD in 2015?’ I will point them to these three stories. If you care about the world around you, about what is happening now, then you will get a heck of a lot more insight from these stories than anything that you will read coming out of the almost completely worthless US comic book industry. 

For a story to excel, it has to reflect the times in which it is being written. We don’t live in the 1990’s anymore. The cold war is over. Things happened. They continue to happen all around us as I type these words. Comic books need to reflect these realities. We are not children, and we don’t need a ‘safe-space’ to protect us from harmful reality. 

When we get with reality, things change. Politicians cannot fob us off, as they always try to do, and they have to actually engage with the people that they are supposed to represent. 

That’s us, we are the people that are supposed to be in charge, not corporations, not banks, and not arms dealers. We get with reality and things start to change, so when I read 2000AD reflecting the real world of 2015 back into their narratives, that makes me very happy indeed.

50-Word (Comic) review- 2000AD- PROG 1956: My mind is on other things

Writers & Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion (time to live up to the name folks)
Released: 11th November 2015



Reading comic at work, memories of 1980’s flooding back. Dredd story is silly. Defoe is rich v poor. Brass Sun so convoluted will read better as a whole. Dexter inconsequential. Bad Company all nostalgia. How to think about a comic when Islam is showing it’s true face of intolerance again?

Rating: 7/10



I read this comic book last night, and I enjoyed it. Dredd made me laugh, and there was a nostalgia factor to the book as a whole, but how much longer can we bury our heads in nostalgia whilst ignoring the reality of the world around us? Knock, knock, here’s a reality check. Western civilisation, look at what has happened to us. We are under attack, and most of us are too scared to even defend ourselves. Cowered by political correctness into shutting our mouths and living in a delusional non-reality world, or the dead world of the past, our heads are in the sand and our asses are up in the air. No more enforced ‘respect.’ It’s truth time. We need to start getting with reality. We need to start defending ourselves. Radical Islam is a real threat that seeks to kill us all. This threat needs to be recognised EVERYWHERE, and comic books need to do their part as well. Have a good weekend. Speak truth now. We have been building our own graveyard, labelled with the cultural Marxist epithets of 'diversity’ and ‘tolerance.’ Stop building the graveyard. It’s time to smash it down, and to rebuild what we have been programmed to destroy. Start speaking truth. Stop living life as a politically correct coward. Start defending yourselves. If you don’t, you know what’s going to happen next.

50-Word Review- 2000AD-PROG 1955- A Wake-Up Call to the People of the UK (10/10)

Writers and Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 4th November 2015



2000AD breaks through the doors of reality exposing Police state indoctrination of children, the hidden agenda of an elite group, a matriarchal tyranny, a blood, guts and gangsters gross-out television show and a false flag used to justify a terrible war. How about that for getting with the flippin times?



Rating: 10/10

What the Tharg happened to 2000AD? All of a sudden it’s woken up, realised that it’s 2015, recognised that we are living in a neo-liberal political consensus Police state, and decided to start talking about it. I’m shocked, and very, very happy. Judge Dredd//Islands (by Michael Carroll) is excellent. If you want to know how a Police state really operates, and how it indoctrinates and uses vulnerable children, then you have to get this book. The other stories also have a lot to say about the hidden nature of reality in a 2015 UK where the mainstream media delivers rancid turds to the public whilst telling them that they are eating caviar. That’s a metaphor, by the way. We live in a world of lies, and the more they lie to us, the more willing we are to accept their lies as truth. 2000AD is making one heck of a statement this week, and that statement is HEY UK. WAKE THE HELL AND SMELL THE BLOODY TYRANNY THAT YOU ARE LIVING IN. This is excellent news for reality obsessed truth nuts like myself, and I couldn’t be happier to give this book a very rare (for me) but much deserved, 10/10. Get this book NOW!!!! It’s essential.

50-Word (Comic) Review: 2000AD-Prog 1954- Bad Company Brilliance

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 28th October



Dredd concludes Serial//Serial. Villain undetected, which is good. Don’t kill a star. Defoe is rich crooks versus poor crooks, happy enforcers enjoying their work. Bad Company old school art brilliance. Used up dogs of war refuse to hide painful memories with state mandated ‘medication.’ Now that’s something with contemporary parallels.


Rating: 8/10

Bad Company//First Casualties is the undoubted star of 2000AD at the moment. It’s a story that reminds me of the old days, the days when I first fell in love with 2000AD as a kid. The art is old school excellence, very 80’s, very cool. The characters are enjoyable, interesting, a bit wacky and a lot of fun. The story itself has a strong thematic core that resonates with contemporary concerns. It’s about traumatised veterans, and what happens to them when they are no longer of any use to the death cult state. 

The story is dealing with truths that a lot of people don’t even want to think about. The state is organised violence. It programmes young men, turning them into murderers, monsters, and spits them out when they are no longer of any use. Medals, parades and charity concerts cannot hide the truth. Bad Company//First Casualties is a story about what happens to soldiers after the war, and in a 2015 UK society full of traumatised young men returning from illegal foreign wars, it’s as contemporary, relevant and important as a ‘sci-fi’ story in a weekly comic book can get.

50 Word (Comic) Review: 2000AD-PROG 1953- I Want to Break Free

Writers and Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 21st October 2015



Dredd story gets it. Chinny mocks uniformed order following authoritarianism. Defoe is class war, reanimation of dead ideology, collectivist Corbyn awaits guest appearance. Brass Sun hits religious collectivism. Dexter is mainstream television, cool people violence, yuck, don’t desensitise me Bro. Bad Company rejects drugged sheeple culture, awakening time. I approve.


Rating: 8/10

Judge Dredd// Serial Serial is fast becoming the best Dredd story that I’ve read in a long, long time. Writer John Wagner really gets the absurdity that is Judge Dredd and he’s putting a lot of humour into this daft story about a serial killer and his cliché taunting letters to the cops. It’s a great send up not just of Dredd, but the entire ‘serial killer’ genre itself. I missed this at first, but I’m well on-board now. Defoe//The London Hanged is a slow builder, and there’s real meat in the rich versus poor story-line, as it ties into what is happening in the real world UK of 2015 with a largely unrepresented and disaffected tax netted population being ripped off by a bunch of Eton educated toffs, and with the only alternative being a Labour party that is going back to their dated Marxist ideology of the 1970’s. Brass Sun//Motorhead is getting to that part of the story where individuals rise up against the collectivist controllers. If only we would do that in the real world. Sinister Dexter// The Taking of the Michael is graphic blood and violence with the gross-out realism that you get on ‘cool’ mainstream US television programming. I don’t like it. I don’t like US television, and I don’t like to read it in my comics either. There is nothing ‘cool’ about shooting somebody in the head. Bad Company// First Casualties is old school 2000AD. It has top retro art, a wry sense of humour and the plot itself is a boys own adventure tale about a group of buddies getting off their drugs, clearing their heads and starting to fight back against the collectivist, lying control system that has used and abused them. In other words, it’s a story about retired soldiers realising that they have been used like dogs, and have been put into a drugged up retirement home as they are too damaged to be of any more use to the sociopathic state. I love it, and I love 2000AD this week. I disliked only one out of five of the stories, and that’s a very good strike rate, or whatever that American term is. 

2000AD-PROG 1952- Fifty-Word Review: Bad Company? You’re Bad Company.

Writers and Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 14th October 2015



Dredd hunts serial killer, readers yawn, joke saves the day. Defoe collectivised zombie poor kill rich. Is Corbyn there? Religious villain in ‘Brass Sun’ mentions “Clockwork Jihad.” Getting somewhere. Sinister Dexter is sci-fi Miami Vice, with violence of US television. Sick. Bad Company conjures Ghost of 2000AD past. Nostalgic smile.


Rating: 9/10

Dredd//Serial Serial is pretty stupid, but I’m starting to enjoy it now. The best thing about it is the joke at the end. It turned my frown, upside down. Dredd always was ridiculous, and this story is in touch with that sense of the absurd that rescues Dredd from statist hell and turns it into an absurdist comedy that looks at the ridiculousness that is totalitarian uniformed authority figures. Defoe//London Hanged has old school horror quality art, and the story about a risen underclass of zombie villains returning to fight against the rich, well, that just reminds me of what’s happening right now in the UK labour party. Labour (post Bliar, post Iraq) is unable (due to ineptness and neoliberal consensus) to sell itself to the UK public, so it’s going back to the zombie dead of it’s failed ideological past. Electoral failure is guaranteed, but perhaps that’s the whole point? Miliband no 2 is lurking. Brass Sun is interesting, and the mention of ‘Jihad’ in a religious/bad guy sense, is very brave of writer Ian Edginton. Nice one mate. Sinister Dexter is pretty much a US television show, but in comic book form. It’s all about cool, and brutal death scenes. I’m not a fan, but I’m not the audience for this one as I find contemporary US television to be pretty much unwatchable. Bad Company reads like something that I’d read as a kid back in the mid 1980’s. It’s funny, not in modern way, but in an old fashioned way. That’s rare, very rare these days. I’m a big fan. Funny old stuff makes me smile.

P.S

Check out the very cool ‘Bad Company’ merch available here: 

http://www.plastichead.com/catalogue.asp

The Fifty-Word Review: 2000AD-PROG 1951- Serial killers and potential

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 7th October 2015


Dredd opens with serial killer yawns, then Defoe versus zombies, could be saying something about class warfare, onto Brass Sun with a twist at the conclusion, to Sinister Dexter and a world of douche bags, then Bad Company Kano in a chaotic romp that recalls days of 2000AD glories past.

Best: Bad Company//First Casualties 8/10

Worst: Judge Dredd//Serial Serial 2/10 (See previous post on my blog for more details about that one)

Overall rating for PROG 1951 of 2000AD: 6/10 (Defoe has potential, Bad Company is old school fun)

2000AD-PROG 1950: Jump on board, the ship is sinking

Artists and writers: Various.
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th September 2015


I’m writing this in a public library and it’s quite the experience. I have a morbidly obese lady sat two seats away from me, mumbling to herself as she surfs the Internet, and two jobs seeking teens behind me, talking loudly about the NFL whilst working on their job applications. The large lady cannot appear to breathe without making a noise much like a sweating/rutting Walrus, and the two teens probably need to look for jobs as NFL analysts, as that appears to be all they are really interested in. As for me, I’m typing away on a computer console in the corner, trying to keep my composure, and trying not to let the immense irritation that is building inside of me to spill into this review of PROG 1950 of 2000 AD.

Every now and then 2000AD offers a jumping on point for new and lapsed readers, an opportunity to sample their wares and to see if 2000AD has more to offer than the Marxist inspired identity politics that is polluting the US comic book industry at the moment. PROG 1950 is one of those jumping on points, offering four brand new story arcs for new and old readers alike.

The problem with 2000AD is that it is wildly inconsistent. When it’s good it’s very good, but when it’s bad, it’s bloody awful.

I don’t enjoy saying this, but PROG 1950 is very much on the side of ‘bloody awful’ and no, it’s not just because the rotund lady is still mumbling to herself and the students are now talking loudly about their Mum’s and driving licences.

PROG 1950 gets off to a horrible start with a Judge Dredd story (by John Wagner) that uses two of the biggest clichés in contemporary writing, that being the serial killer and the sawing in half magic trick. Seriously, what is going on here? Does writer John Wagner have nothing better to offer than this? If so, he needs to find a new line of work, because this is terrible. Who hasn’t read a story about a magician being murdered when one of his tricks is tampered with? Who hasn’t read a story about a serial killer sending taunting letters to the cops? When you are reduced to using tired old tropes like this, you have run out of ideas. You need a break, you need to live a bit, read a lot, and come back to your writing career when you have new ideas and something interesting to say about the world in which you are living.

Oh great, here come more job-seeking NFL analysts. The library sounds like a busy pub now, and yes, the walrus is still here, and just as noisy as ever. Crap, oh well, onto the second story in PROG 1950 of 2000AD.

Defoe//The London Hanged is from the pen of Pat Mills, the man who produced the excellent Slaine, the best thing about 2000AD since I started to re-read it over a year ago. This new story has excellent black and white ink and pencils from artist Leigh Gallagher, and the narrative follows what amounts to a zombie hunter in mythological Olde-England. This opening is short, it introduces the main protagonist, sets the scene, and introduces a threat. That’s about it for the opening, and it’s hard to tell whether or not it’s going to be as essential as Slaine. All I can say at the moment is that it looks great, and I’m eager to see where Mills takes it after this introductory phase is over.

Brass Sun-Motorhead- is one of those set in the future stories where you have a pretty young female protagonist fighting against the evil powers that be. These stories are a dime a dozen in 2015, but is this one any good? First off, the young girl heroine is incredibly annoying. Mouthy and bossy she bravely puts up with her own physical discomforts, doing what is best for us all, and telling people to shut up whilst she does it. What can I say? It’s another narrative seemingly designed to make young girls feel good about themselves. That’s very laudable, but it’s also very, very, very common in comic books today. Plus, here’s a revelation, there aren’t exactly thousands of young girls reading these comic books, so who exactly is getting anything out of this? It’s not middle aged blokes like me, that’s for sure.

Let’s see if the last story in this jump-on issue of 2000AD has anything to offer this old, grumpy and increasingly fed-up bloke.

In short, no, the story doesn’t have much to offer me at all. The art in Bad Company//First Casualties looks great, very old school 2000AD, but this new arc begins and ends in a very predictable manner. The story is all about the end of a war. A cool sounding warrior (Kano) is missing, and his group of warrior comrades are chilling out in a veteran’s compound, drugged up, and fed-up now that the war is over. The story follows one of these men as he’s released on a special mission, and guess who he bumps into on the final panel of the book? Yep, it’s exactly who you would expect him to bump into, it’s Kano. Is this predictable narrative excusable because what happens next is going to be so much fun? I hope so, but as a stand-alone opening, it’s very mild, not very exciting, and as predictable as a walk in the park with my headphones on. Is that what I want from my 2000AD? Not really. I want a bit more than that.

That’s it. The jumping on point is over, so let’s recap what we have here. A formulaic detective Dredd story, a cool looking zombie tale, a bossy heroine narrative and a retired soldiers going back to war against/with their old boss story. I want to get excited, but there’s not a lot going on here, and as a new jumping-on point, I was hoping for a bit more. If 2000AD want to stand out from the politically correct social justice warrior wave of dross coming from the states them they need to do a lot better than this.

I want to be a huge fanboy. I want to scream about 2000AD from the roof-tops, but they are not giving me a lot to work with here. Introductions to new arcs can be difficult, but they are also an excellent opportunity to make a killer impact, and from what I’ve read in PROG 1950 of 2000AD, the impact is going to be minimal at best. 2000AD is usually a lot better than this, so this book is a huge disappointment. It’s tame, very tame, and I can’t see this book winning over any new converts at all.

Okay then, review over, the walrus is still grumbling, the class is still chatting like it’s Friday night in a pub, and it’s time for this disappointed, frustrated and not too happy comic book reviewer to get out of here. Urggh, the guy in the booth next to me just exhaled all over me, and his breath smells like vomit. I need to get out of here. Oh dear, who’d be me?


Rating: 3/10 (As a jump on point for new readers, this is very disappointing.)

Comic review: 2000AD-PROG 1948- Judge Dredd as the villain that he always was

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 16th September 2015



No messing about this week, let’s get straight into the content of 2000AD PROG 1948.

Writer Ian Edginton gets the character of Judge Dredd spot on, portraying him as a sociopathic murderer, using the magic words of arbitrary ‘law’ to justify his immoral actions. In ‘Ghost Town-Part One, Judge Dredd is shown for what he actually is. He’s not cool, he’s not tough, he’s not a hero, he’s a drone, not a man, but a machine, programmed with ‘law’ that gives him the excuse to murder anybody that fails to comply with his programming.

Joe Dredd is not a good man. He is not even a man. He doesn’t deserve to be called a man. He is a perverted stain on humanity, the kind of machine man who always backs up government, in all of its sick forms, and he deserves nothing but utter contempt. Ian Edginton writes him as a programmed murder machine, and it’s the most brutally realistic portrayal of Dredd that I’ve read in 2000AD since I came back to it over a year ago.

I usually hate Dredd stories, so to see him portrayed as he actually is, that’s a huge thing to me. Here’s a Dredd story that I can get something out of. It’s a Dredd story that refuses to excuse his behaviour, and instead addresses it head on. That is what you should be doing with a programmed, uniformed, sociopath like Dredd, and I’m extremely happy to see it being done here.

The Alienist Part 5 continues to look great, plus it has a very interesting plot reveal, a reveal that resonates with me personally, a reveal that gives a very convincing argument as to the nature of evil and the spiritual realm and creatures that inhabit it. I won’t spoil it, but I will recommend it. Last week I was unnerved by the lack of empathy shown towards it’s deceased characters, but this week I can let that go and enjoy a good idea played out in an interesting story.

Grey Area-Deadline concludes with an apocalyptic battle and final page reveal. I’ve enjoyed the arc, the dialogue has been very funny, and I did appreciate the sly dig it was having at the ‘new-age’ community, the peace loving types who do nothing whilst the world around them burns.

‘Dreams of Deadworld-Fear’ has a strong theme from beginning to end. The theme is that those that use fear will inevitably become victims to it themselves. It explores attitudes towards fear, and reveals how it can be defeated. Fear is a weapon that can be used against those that use it. Fear only works when people are consumed with it, and they let it rule their lives. Fear is the one thing that controls OUR lives RIGHT NOW. The state needs fear to control the slaves stuck within its tax net. Without fear we are free, but how many people do you know who live a life without fear? Do you know any? I don’t. Let’s change that, right now.

The key to defeating fear is to catch it, and throw it straight back into the faces of those that use it as a means to manipulate and control. Hey television, I’m looking at you, turning you off, and poof, your power is gone. Hey government, I don’t need you, I will not give my consent to be governed, poof, their power is gone. That’s how fear works. Reject it, live free, throw it back in their faces, and let it consume those that would use it against you.

PROG 1948 of 2000AD has achieved the impossible. It has published a Judge Dredd story that I actually like. I like the story because Dredd is portrayed as the villain that he actually is. There is nothing cool about him here. He is shown as the sociopath murderer that he actually is. Dredd is the law, a law based on the threat of violence, not choice, not morality, not humanity, but violence.

Dredd never was a hero. Dredd is the law, not natural law, but the law of the state. If the law states that you must be executed for wearing a hat, he will execute you on the spot. Judge Dredd is not a good person. Judge Dredd is an immoral drone, a weaponised murder machine. He is the uniformed face of tyranny, and that is how he is finally being portrayed in 2000AD.


Rating: 8/10 (Finally, a Judge Dredd story that I actually like)

Comic review: 2000AD-PROG 1946: Fire ain’t supposed to be so wet

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 2nd September 2015



I began the day so inspired, bursting with creativity due to a musical experience into sweet, dark atrophy, begat from seduction, led through conformity, ending with a sigh as the masses dig their own graves, as they do. I was inspired, crazy with passionate, emotional drive, and I put down the words, the review, and it’s here, on the blog, for all to see.

I’m talking here about my review of Aphotic by Jupiterian. I really enjoyed both the album, and the review. The music was great, and the review came easily. But now it’s time for PROG 1946 of 2000AD, and all I feel is tiredness, and an urge to get it over and done with. Statism, collectivism, conformity and hiding under pretty pictures, throw in some disregard towards Christianity and reality, and that’s all there is here. Oh well, let’s get it over and done with.

Tharg begins with info about the new big hitter in 2000AD, ‘Dreams of DeadWorld.’ He talks it up, making it sound like something that you can’t afford to miss, but what is the reality? Read on, and I’ll let you know.

First off is Dredd, and its all about ice monsters and the Judges that are shooting them. The ‘dead’ Dredd returns as a hero, of course he does, and that’s it.

I talked about the sweet art in ‘The Alienest’ last week. It’s still good this week, but what of the story? A Christian relies on his faith to save him. He dies, and is called an idiot. Nobody will comment about this. Nobody will even care. I’m not a Christian, but I’m not an idiot. Making Christians look like fools is very PC in the west today, and I don’t like it. Christians are not fools. Atheists are fools. Believing in nothing is idiotic, but when are atheists made to look like fools in mainstream comic books? Does it ever happen? No, of course not, because atheists believe in the new ‘God’ of science, and if you don’t believe in their new God then you are to be mocked and scorned.

Well, here’s a message to the faithful followers of the new God of science. Your heroes are government-funded tools, and you wouldn’t know truth if it hit you over the head with a signed copy of the bloody God Delusion by his holiness Pope Dawkins. You are dimwit dupes, and you don’t even realise it.

Apocalypse Anonymous settles down into the story that I feared it would be. It’s set in Syria in 2015, but there’s no reality here. US Special forces are now fighting monsters. By ‘monsters’ I don’t mean ISIS, I mean comic book monsters, demons from a different reality that have been drawn to Syria because of the (western backed) fight against the Syrian government.

How do you make US Special Forces that are fighting to take down the government of a sovereign country look good? Easy, you chuck in a monster and make out that they are saving the world. Is the monster an allegory for ISIS? Perhaps it’s a clever tale where it will be shown that the US created said monster (accidentally, cough, cough) and are very sorry for doing so, and will now do all they can to defeat it? That would have been a good story, don’t you think? It would have been, but that’s not what you are getting here. What you are getting here is quips and monsters. Oh dear, next story please.

That next story is Grey Area, and apart from some casual blasphemy it wasn’t exactly memorable this week. Jokes and people sitting around chatting, that’s all you getting, but it’s a calm before the storm moment in the ongoing narrative, and it’s been a pretty decent series so far.

So, here we go, onto the main event story, the Tharg pushed, ‘Dreams of DeadWorld- Fire.’ The art is sweet, dark, painted gothic nastiness. It looks ill, diseased, unwell, sickly, and as coal black as a Goth falling down a well, on Halloween night, in a Graveyard. The story though is a bit threadbare, and it doesn’t hold together as an analogy. It follows a character called ‘Fire.’ He’s a bit of a lovesick teenager, experiencing rejection and concluding with an emo moan about feeling ‘nothing.’

That’s not how fire feels. Fire feels hunger, the need to consume, the need to destroy in order to sustain itself. Fire doesn’t do emo self pity. Fire exists to consume.

Fire is me on a perfume bender (I love perfume, did I mention it?) looking for the new flacon, but never satisfied, submerged in capitalism, hating the need, the desire, but feeding on it, and feeling alive whilst doing so. If fire feels nothing it dies, and it’s no longer fire, it’s soggy wood, so nope, it didn’t work for me. The art was great, but the story, fizzled, and the writer took the concept of fire and instead of doing something interesting with it, turned it into a depressed, damp, dull and dreary teenage boy. That’s not hot, that’s wet, very wet.

Wow, what an epic moan. How did I manage to say so much about so little? I amaze myself sometimes. Okay then, 2000AD PROG 1946 wasn’t exactly great. None of the stories shine, and the only noteworthy, or commendable aspect about the entire book was the artwork in ‘DeadWorld- Fire.’ That’s the thing about 2000AD. Sometimes it’s great, and other times it’s the absolute pits. Get it if you want some cool Gothic artwork, but if you are looking for a decent story, sorry guys, there’s very little on offer this week.


Rating: 4/10 (For Dave Kendall’s art in Dreams of DeadWorld-Fire)

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)

2000AD- PROG 1943: New story sends bitter, right-wing comic book reviewer to Cloud Nine

Writers and artists: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 12th August 2015



Here we go again, then, another week of comic book reviews, and as usual, I’ll start with this week’s 2000AD.

Ah, the cover, it looks alright, very 2000AD, very PC, very SJW, a mohawked woman, with a gun, large and in charge, actually so in charge that the cover would be perfect for the identity politics obsessed US comic book industry right now. It’s a good cover, but I know the story that it depicts, and I dislike that story. Oh well, on I go.

Let’s see what Tharg has to say for himself this week: Not a lot, and that’s that.

Let’s get to Dredd. The story is simplifying now, and it’s pretty much your basic comic book story of revenge crazed loopy villains versus the heroic judges. The Judges (cops) are portrayed as cops are always portrayed in comic books, as the mythological protectors of the poor innocent helpless, defenceless people. Remember kids, cops are heroes, cops protect you from bad guys, following orders is good, bowing to uniforms is good, join us, join us, join us.

The art in Dredd/Enceladus looks great, it looks like a blizzard, but the ideological meat of the narrative supports the status quo slavery system that we are all currently living within, and supporting with our taxes and cowardly, indifferent acquiescence. This ideology exists as subtle mind-control, pushing the message that you need uniformed order followers to keep you safe from the monsters of anarchy and real freedom. But hey, that’s Judge Dredd. If you love order following murderers in cool Nazi-esque uniforms, then Dredd’s the man for you.

Oh dear, Helium got a bit too serious this week. It has a very harsh last panel, one that doesn’t really fit with the light-hearted nature of the story at all. When you have playful dialogue, big bright and colourful art and colouring and a sense of fun about everything the last thing that a reader expects is a gruesome suicide and brain parts splattering all over the page. I’m still enjoying the playful banter, the big smiles and the fun, but that last panel was ill-judged, and hopefully that will be the first and last piece of needless gruesomeness that the story contains as it continues to progress.

Outlier is a tale of two moments of dialogue this week. The first (‘We need to get them fighting back.’)
is something that I can agree with.

I live a life surrounded by people who acquiesce to the world that is around them. They live their lives with their heads down. They see the shapes available in the wall, look for a gap and try to fit in, trapping themselves, and blocking others that want to tear the wall down.

How many control, and how many chose to be controlled? It’s the biggest problem in the UK today. Millions of slaves and a handful of slave masters. People need to stop joining, and they need to start fighting back. The people say yes, it’s time that they said no.

The second quotation (in Outlier) was the final quotation of the strip, a deliciously memorable and tension packed,‘That’s not your son,’ a phrase that is perfect in that it encapsulates everything that is happening within the narrative, and leaves the reader in eager anticipation for next weeks instalment.

That’s two pieces of dialogue. The former is something that I can get my teeth into and riff/rant on, and the later is something perhaps more traditional, some easily digestible narrative meat that everybody will enjoy. That’ll do, I can take that. I can rant, and I can enjoy. That’s what I do.

The next story in PROG 1943 of 2000AD is Cloud Nine, a vision of a world that has natural balance, nature laws of cause and effect and natural justice. However, the world has been hacked by a vampiric parasite that feeds on the creative, imaginative, free thinking people that live there. It takes them into itself, stealing their flesh, moulding it onto itself, satiating itself, renewing itself, living off of the life energy of those that would be free to use it for themselves.

You know what I’m going to say next, right? I’m going to compare Cloud Nine to government, aren’t I? Well yes, but not only government. Look at any parasite. Look at the comic book industry, the music industry, the movie industry, heck, just look at any industry that needs new recruits, that feeds on them to regenerate itself, cough, army, cough, cops, cough. Yes, Cloud Nine is one to watch. It’s going big picture, and this start is a bloody good one.

Nope, I’m still not getting anything out of cover star Jaegir. This month it’s all about inside the mind of the female protagonist. She’s worried that her failure will prove other’s right, that she is letting down her dead relatives. I never warmed to her in the first place, probably because she’s just an order following soldier, so going into her mind where all she is worried about is essentially herself, doesn’t really do anything for me at all.

2000AD ended with a whimper this week with an indifferent offering of Jaegir, but there was something new within PROG 1943, something that resonated deeply within me, shining like a beacon of liberty in a world obsessed with order following statism.

That beacon was Cloud Nine. It looked great, and it said a lot. An enslaved populace, being fed on by a centralised vampiric entity, hey man, that’s not fantasy, that’s reality, and I love seeing it being reflected in this week’s edition of 2000AD.

My comic book reading week has officially begun, and I’m smiling, but I haven’t read any Marvel or DC books yet. That’s tomorrow, when the US comic books are released. I love that country, and I love the people that live there, but man, their comic books are almost completely dominated by progressive libtardness these days, so wish me luck in finding a glimmer of sanity in their echo-chamber world of PC/SWJ nonsense. I try, I really do.


Rating: 7/10 (Get it for Cloud Nine)

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.) 

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)