COVER: Poor choice - so dark and cluttered with type as to be incomprehensible from a distance. This would not encourage me to buy this issue. Another thing about the packaging: why isn't the 'free' GN turned face-out in the bag? Even if it resulted in some shelf-stacking confusion, it makes a comic you can't flick through a little more enticing - as it is, it comes across as a surprise rather than an attraction, if you see what I mean.
DREDD: Lots to like here, but it doesn't quite work for me. Doherty's art is outstanding, reprising his Ratfink role as the king of sickening visuals. Interesting to compare this with Bagwell on Cradlegrave, the same sense of oppressive atmosphere from a very different angle.
Smith certainly likes using bionic eyes in his Dredds (that rather good extreme bungee jumping story with the implausibly happy ending featured a pair). I'm assuming the crime here is the unlicensed part of 'chop shop' - in a world of instant (but presumably limited and expensive) face-change machines and Sump products, surely it's not illegal for muties to have cosmetic surgery? Smith's Dredd here sometimes sounds authentic, but he seems to go on rather too much: "Forgive my colleague's colourful terminology" ; "The matter is certainly open for discussion", and so on - a rather more loquacious Dredd than I'm used to, and one that makes the 4-page 'deal' scene seem a very drawn-out piece of exposition. Montoyez is a very bad man who keeps his nose very clean, the Judges need a mole wired for sound, do it or else. Got it.
Also, effectively threatening a perp's mother (who only got sick because she was helping out after the Big Nec) seems out of character for the man that had the city pay for Bonny Crickle's operation, helped Mr. Knee with hi sgrief and flew Yassa Povey in for (you guessed it) a pair of bionic eyes. Dredd might be a bastard, but he's not that kind of bastard.
All that said, I'm entirely prepared to allow that all this may all pan out entirely differently than it seems in Part One - and it's a huge compliment to both men that I'm actively dreading what Ruckus will see when he opens that door and we find out what Skateboxing looks like!
TANK GIRL: Great, great art as usual (love that Magic Roundabout lampshade and the Babooshka sound efffect), probably the best of the whole Meg run. As to the story, it's obvious from the end that it's partly inspired by the closure of Martin's (and Hewlett's?) Alma Mater, but I can't help but feel a resonance with this community's recent fears over one of the great 2000AD artists (even if that ended in a collective sigh of relief). Still finding this fun and worthwhile.
MEET DARREN DEAD: I remember I read the original one-off, I remember I enjoyed it, but I have no idea what it was about, who he is or how the character came to be... whatever it is he is. So it was a complete surprise just how much I enjoyed this. Great to see Higgins liberated from the quagmire of Ginger Ninjas and flying mandibles, and getting back to the Big Meg. Rob has developed a real talent for these 'weirdoes in MC-1' tales, and the Manager/Darren banter is up there with Eddie and Zenith. Also loved Cerberus the handbag dog, and the other mythology jokes: "It shall be akin to how King Aegeus greeted the hero Theseus...". Indeed!
ARMITAGE: I stood up for this last month, I won't this time. First off, the art: Cooper does nice work, no question, and the PS layouts and graded tints weren't quite as off-putting as before. But. Where/when is this story supposed to be set? Armitage's office looks closer to Life on Mars than Brit-Cit in 2131 - cork boards and telephones and the same monitor I have on my desk. I know Armitage is a curmudgeonly old throwback, but he's supposed to be Inspecter Morse in the future, right? The fact that he appears to be appearing in The Bill may be at Dave Stone's request, I don't know, but either way, please stop.
As to the script... 'Timbo' carries a deactivated revolver to work? (Dave really hates those poshies, doesn't he?) Judges in the funny farm keep their full uniforms and badges? So the whole Star Chamber were killed in Brit-Cit - was that in a novel or an audio-play? Larger matters are more interesting, I'm keen to see how this all fits together, but there's just too much that's too annoying to make this enjoyable for me.
Finally, why does Justice have no blindfold in the first panel?
ARTICLES: I enjoyed the movie reviews as always (I appear to be the target audience - someone who seldom goes to the cinema these days, and wants to be reassured that he's not missing much), but I have to agree with earlier posters that that was a hell of a spoiler, even though I personally don't care one whit about Transformers past or present. Steady on there Andrew, Alec would never have landed that one on us! .
Haven't read the Fabry interview or ComX piece, but barring catastrophic constipation should get round to it soon.
FREEBIE GN: Not bad, but it does serve to highlight the shortcomings of the current run, which I'm sure is contrary to the intention. The Hershey thing was just bizarre.
Overall, could do better but still plenty of value for money.
