A good Prog all round (again), starting with a nice cover.
The current
Judge Dredd case is a good, entertaining, sci-fi and off-the-wall one, tapping into the classic strangeness of 1970s-template Dreddworld crimes. If I'm any judge - but not
that kind - the new Psi whom Dredd has been partnered with is top of the scale for Psi ability, with versatility being her strong suit.
The Red Seas is a corking adventure. I'm happy enough for the crew to just keep encountering strangeness and forteana as a commonplace of C18th globetrotting, without them necessarily having much of a sense of purpose; I can certainly do without them overcoming seemingly overwhelming odds every five minutes. But this series has such texture.
The
Future Shock was not a bad effort. I totally failed to notice the indecent haste with which the bereaved mother rallied. I was too busy trying to get my head round how her 'insurance policy' worked. Firstly, the beast would have escaped and done its thing whether or not the gangster double-crossed her, in which case her family were doomed full stop. Secondly, if there were any doubt as to the likelihood of the creature breaking loose then the plan was hardly foolproof. Thirdly, (to return to the first point again) the creature attacking the gangster was entirely independent of the fate of the biotechnician's family, which means she had already exercized her 'nuclear option' before their fate was revealed to her.
Cadet Anderson is a cool strip, with plenty of funny stuff that grounds it firmly in the Mega-City setting. I can only imagine the story is set before the outlawing of sugar, for Chumgum to have ruined Kyx's teeth. I'm sure sugar-free gum marketing people used to set a lot of store by the idea that chewing after meals helps prevent tooth decay because it increases production of saliva, 'your mouth's natural defence against harmful bacteria.'
I found
Absalom quite a hard read despite a good cast of characters, especially the main one, and its interesting use of technology in a supernatural detective story. The robot people have been quite simply my favourite thing about the series. Just when I thought the story couldn't go any further with it, it transpires that one of them is no less than
a 150-year-old bionic man or something, whose life has been extended artificially because of his usefulness as a faithful family retainer. As with the sudden appearance of
the gang of robot henchmen in the first place, I wasn't expecting that. I don't really dig the Rathborne family as villains, though.
