Prog 2003: On The Warpath

[Frank]

So was that a Jaegir cameo at the end of Rogue

A younger Jaegir yes, I wonder if this could be a prequel set up for a later Jaegir story-line

In the second Attila Jagger story - the one where the villain dresses up in a GI corpse because that's what scares her most - she had a PTSD flashback to the time she watched the blue devil slaughter her platoon on Nu Earth. Presumably, that's what this is.

Kathy Bates would disapprove of the sequence where missiles streak toward our pals from space, building tension ... followed by a panel of Rogue and the chips perched on a mountain fucking miles away, going 'phew, that was close'.

Speaking of clunky, 'as you know, unconscious trauma victim, your captors plugged you into their mainframe and now I'm infecting their network with a virus ...'. I'm only moaning for fun*; Get Sin was an enjoyable story.

Uncle Pat clears up whether Bill is planting shell casings or not and shows the origins of Deadlock's animal faced ski-bike. Sentient assassin bikes are an insane idea, but it explains why half the Staffies in the country are called Harley.


* This follows part one's sequence where Dredd explains to himself why the Sovs can understand what he's saying. You'd think putting a fluent Sov speaker on the team would have been better than nanotech, especially in a story whose theme is that the simplest ways are the best

No story makes sense if you start pulling at stray threads, but the casual use of the term psychic virus is a masterpiece of hand-wavery.

Leaving aside the question of when Cass studied for her Cisco certification  (I can't even remember seeing her use a computer before) how does a psychic virus work? And how are computer systems vulnerable to psychic viruses, which presumably work on engrams or chakras, rather than C++?

If the terminal she's using is connected to the Sov network, couldn't they just have sent in a computer engineer with a USB stick containing a regular virus and achieved the same objective? If psychic viruses are better, shouldn't the Sovs have probed Mart with Uri Geller, rather than a Galaxy Note 7?

And why's Marty connected to the network, rather than an isolated desktop or an iphone with bluetooth disabled?

[James Stacey]

Uncle Pat clears up whether Bill is planting shell casings or not and shows the origins of Deadlock's animal faced ski-bike. Sentient assassin bikes are an insane idea, but it explains why half the Staffies in the country are called Harley.

We'll assume Bill is using some volg tech d/b shotgun then with an ejector. The soldiers seem less surprised about it than me. Sentient bike robots I'm totally cool with though

[TordelBack]

I sort of wondered were we drifting into Metalzoic by the back door...

[Steve Green]

Pat asserts copyright by time travel?

[TordelBack]

Pleasing symmetry, no? Dead dinos forward from the Mesozoic, live robots back from the Metalzoic.

I'm assuming 'the thousand yard stare' is a method of getting visions of the distant future, so that future tech can be duplicated. Nice idea.

[Frank]

I'm assuming 'the thousand yard stare' is a method of getting visions of the distant future, so that future tech can be duplicated

Aaah. You are so learned, Papa Homer.

Mills can of course sneakily incorporate Metalzoic into The Millsverse whenever he feels like it, just as long as nobody has the same name or a chainsaw Mohawk. Defoe's turned into Marshal Law, so why shouldn't The Gaffer bring his other orphans home*


* as he did with the cast of Third World War when Crisis went tits up

[Muon]

Well, after the heady thrillage of prog 2000 I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this round of strips (with the exception of Counterfeit Girl, which had me from the start.

Savage is hotting up after a couple of episodes that didn't really grab me. What was all that stuff about Tom Waits and PJ Harvey? I really enjoyed the last outing so I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Not a big fan of Flesh in its current incarnation but I don't seem to be alone in that. I really admire the artist's willingness to do something different, though.

Dredd was a bit fluffy and brief in the end (ooer!) but it's good to see Cass doing what she does best.

Hunted has potential but it hasn't drawn me in just yet.

Counterfeit Girl is surprisingly awesome after the mess the last Bad Company ended up being. She's turning out to be a great character (ironic considering she doesn't have a fixed identity) and, while the setting is quite a generic sci-fi one the colourful art really brings it to life. For some reason this strip reminds me of stuff I might have seen on Snub TV in the early '90s. Anyone remember that. I mean that as a massive compliment cos I used to fookin' love Snub TV.

Overall lookin' good.

[Muon]

Sorry, completely got my random late '80s/early '90s references ass-backwards. I meant to say Counterfeit Girl reminds me of something I might have seen on Liquid Television. anyone remember that? Aeon Flux and Dogboy? Jumpers for goalposts?

[Prodigal2]

Loving the current line-up with the return of Savage in particular raising my comic goose-bumps.

Was that a subtle "Porridge" reference in Hunted Girl? Horrible Hives?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Horrible%27_Ives

[Prodigal2]

Loving the current line-up with the return of Savage in particular raising my comic goose-bumps.

Was that a subtle "Porridge" reference in Hunted Girl? Horrible Hives?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Horrible%27_Ives

Apologies for wrong title of strip there-got distracted at key moment!!

[Frank]

good to see Cass doing what she does best

Infecting computer networks with viruses?

Alan Grant admits he basically ran out of ideas for Anderson during Crusade, but he kept himself on a tight leash regarding her abilities. Grant Anderson was a telepath; she could read the minds of others.

In other hands, she tends towards wizardry.

Slipping into the realm of fuzzily defined magic powers might not be a bad thing - maybe the reason Grant Anderson hit the skids was because there are only so many stories you can tell about a cop who knows everything already*.


* Grant's first decade of solo Anderson was 2 years of judge stories and seven years of dramatising The Fortean Times.

[ZenArcade]

Cover: another damn good cover, Rogue doing what he does best.

Dredd:  This trio of episodes has been really satisfying. It is top ranking story telling and the art work perfectly complements this. Bravo!

Flesh: growing on me. Langley is simply beyond superlative in some of the frames.

Hunted: good to see the mean, lean killin' machine back.  There was some disquiet evinced about the portrayal of Rogue, It seems to me that the archetype soldier isn't a muscle bound juggernaut; instead they are generally muscle, sinew, with an emphasis on reflex and speed.  Holden seems to capture this ideal.  I would however like to see a Rogue from the Nort perspective: to them he would simply be a blue monster. The story is getting very interesting as more and more characters are drawn into the drama.

Savage: artwise super, but it isn't my bag.

Counterfeit girl: loving this. The art is wonderfully Ewingesque.  A visual celebration.

This is another great prog. 2 engrossing tales; 1 wee gem and a momentum gaining Flesh. Lovin' it. Z

[Trout]

My brief comments: excellent Rogue, great Savage and good Dredd. The others aren't my thing.

[Muon]

good to see Cass doing what she does best

Infecting computer networks with viruses?

Hah, you got me there. I guess I was thinking more of the scene with her putting her hands on someone's head and her interaction with Dredd. Possibly those details struck me because Anderson seemed almost like a different person in the last solo story. That was cool, though - I enjoyed that story.

With an old-school version of Cass appearing in the landmark prog 2000 and a similarly old-school Anderson appearing in this recent Dredd story (in the current Dredd timeline, no less) it looks like an editorial decision may have been taken to remind us the character still exists and can play an important part in the Dredd-verse. I can understand that - it'd be a shame to throw away a good character with the reckless abandon Grant and Wagner used to dispatch great villains.

I have to admit I thought Anderson would be for the chop when people started talking of killing off a character a while back. I thought the character had nowhere to go, partly because of the problem of her powers, which you mentioned in your post. If she appeared in the prog at all it'd end up being a flashback to her rookie years. I saw stories in the meg as well but didn't find them interesting. Anyway, despite all that I'm glad to see the character back in the prog. It's interesting to see how she fits in with the darker, more serious Mega-City One we've been seeing in recent years.

[The Cheat]

What was the point of all the subterfuge last week, keeping Anderson's presence a secret, if Dredd's just going to run around screaming her name this week