Prog 1988 - Front Toward Enemy

[Bat King]

'Like' Button for Butch... lol

[Ghost MacRoth]

I'd guess it wasn't just one screamer.... a targeted attack on the Psi division would likely need more than one assailant.  I just took it as a montage of various Psi judges getting attacked by various assailants.

[Frank]

Totally lost in this week's Dredd. What was going on with the SJS Waldron woman? If it was the 'screamer', how did she affect so many psi judges when Lewis had to read her to be affected? Was it to do with Lewis' empathic powers? When did we learn Waldron was a psi? Do the Texans really have no psis of their own? Why did Hershey need a shower?

Yeah, Oswin tells Tower to 'get (her) cleaned up', but Hershey's only been in a minor tussle. Maybe she hasn't been home for days, but there's nothing on the page to indicate that passage of time.

I like the idea the SJS have psis*, but I can't remember anyone saying Waldron could guess how many fingers you're holding behind your back. Psi powers don't obey logic, so I don't have a problem with inconsistencies in their use.

Lewis says screamers are 'one in a billion', so TCJD would be lucky to have even one on the payroll. On a completely superficial note, I really like MacNeil's more chiseled, Blue Oyster Bar version of Dolman.


* It's genius, actually

[Ghost MacRoth]

Lewis says screamers are 'one in a billion', so TCJD would be lucky to have even one on the payroll.

But they are doing those clone Psi's aren't they?  Like the one that was controlling Thorn.  I see no reason that they couldn't have changed the game a bit.... ok screamers are naturally one in a billion, but maybe the numbers can be boosted artificially?  But to be fair, it didn't necessarily have to be screamers that attacked them all, after all, a bullet to the head will work just as effectively, and the montage only shows the Psi's down, not how they went down.

[Magnetica]

Here's my input:

Dredd: Question though, Where is Judge Anderson in all this? Has Dredd contacted her or has she been gotten at by the Texans?

Scarlet Traces: I must admit, I have read every Megazine since the start and I do remember the original story set in Victorian Britain but for the life of me I cannot remember the follow up series Tharg mentions in his Nerve centre explanation. That being said, I did enjoy the feel of this opening episode. It is very reminiscent of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet (He had problems with Martians too).

Re Anderson - I guess Mike Carroll likes to use his own supporting cast where he can so we get Lewis rather than Anderson ( I assume she was the PSI Judge from the Carroll Dredd draw by Nick Perceival a few months ago).

Nice to See Dolman back in Dredd too.

Re Scarlet Traces - I remember reading the first series in JDM Megazine but have no memory of the follow up.  According to Wikipedia the 2006 series was published by Dark Horse but not in JDM. Don't know if that is definitive though.

Either way I can't remember what actually happened in what I did read, but what I do remember was I didn't really like it. I think my thoughts at the time were that I didn't like steampunk and didn't like D'Israeli's art which was too "simple" for my tastes. Recent stuff like Helium has turned my opinion around a bit so let's see how this pans out. But what is it with the "constable Hodge" hair style?

[Hawkmumbler]

Funny you mention Smiley, could this be a second coup he foils by shooting the unsuspecting ring leader?

[TordelBack]

Hmmm, from reading those various interpretations and going back to re-read the story so far,  I think a narrative ball has been dropped somewhere between last week's and this week's Prog: the bit with Waldron, Hershey and the psis is incomprehensible, and requires a lot of hand waving to even pass for coherent. Always assuming an explanation doesn't materialise in due course. Or that it relates to a story in the Megazine.  Or that there was a magic horse involved.

[A.Cow]

I think a narrative ball has been dropped somewhere between last week's and this week's Prog ... Always assuming an explanation doesn't materialise in due course.

It seems more a case of a writer being so close to what's going on that they forget to explain it to the reader.  We already had that a few weeks ago with the Armitage-grabs-gun thing.

Both are things that an editor should spot and deal with.  So it's really all Tharg's fault.  Too busy crafting Prog 2000, no doubt.

[IndigoPrime]

I've only read it once, but my assumption was the Texans were routinely taking out the Psis, on account of them being a danger and able to pick up on what's going on.

As for the rest of the Prog, Brink is beginning to click, and I think it'll read really nicely as a series, like Brass Sun. And Scarlet Traces is back, which is, to my mind, TOTALLY AMAZING. I loved that series (both books, and also their take on WOTW), so it's properly exciting to see it return.

[Frank]

my assumption was the Texans were routinely taking out the Psis, on account of them being a danger and able to pick up on what's going on

Correct, but what we're discussing is whether all the victims have been taken out by one particularly rare type of psi (a screamer), or whether regular Texan JD have given them the Jimmy The Greek montage.

Just to make it extra fun, me and TordelBack have got locked into a discussion of whether Waldron (we hardly knew ye) was a psi as well as head of (?) SJS. The advantages of psi judges to the SJS are so obvious I can't believe it hasn't been done before*.

Whether TordelBack is right - that Mike Carroll got so excited at all the cool things he thought of he forgot to communicate them properly to the reader - depends on whether Pamelina Oswin gets one of those speeches where she explains her plan to Dredd instead of just shooting him.


* It still may not have been!

[Colin YNWA]

I've only read it once, but my assumption was the Texans were routinely taking out the Psis, on account of them being a danger and able to pick up on what's going on.
their take on WOTW)...

Yeah didn't struggle with this one all seemed quite strange forward to me. Very different to the whole gun handover thing.

[TordelBack]

I've only read it once, but my assumption was the Texans were routinely taking out the Psis, on account of them being a danger and able to pick up on what's going on.
their take on WOTW)...

Yeah didn't struggle with this one all seemed quite strange forward to me. Very different to the whole gun handover thing.

The implication being that Oswin just took out the head of the SjS-who-may-or-may-not-be-a-Psi in front of Hershey, splattering her with Waldron's blood to the extent that she has to take a shower? Cos that seems like quite a story development to happen between progs. And if they were going to be that blatantly brural, why the subterfuge with Lewis? Just shoot her already. No, I don't think there's enough there on the page for it to make sense. My guess is that Lewis's empathic abilities have caused her encounter with the 'screamer' to be broadcast to all the Psi's in the city, but that really isn't clear, particularly since we didn't know Waldron was a psi - if she was. And if she wasn't, what happened to her?

I am fully prepared to apologise when Mike clears all this up in a single expository panel next week, but for now it's clear as mud to me - much harder to read than the Armitage gun thing.

[Frank]

The implication being that Oswin just took out the head of the SjS-who-may-or-may-not-be-a-Psi in front of Hershey, splattering her with Waldron's blood to the extent that she has to take a shower? Cos that seems like quite a story development to happen between progs. And if they were going to be that blatantly brural, why the subterfuge with Lewis? Just shoot her already. No, I don't think there's enough there on the page for it to make sense. My guess is that Lewis's empathic abilities have caused her encounter with the 'screamer' to be broadcast to all the Psi's in the city, but that really isn't clear, particularly since we didn't know Waldron was a psi - if she was. And if she wasn't, what happened to her?

Waldron-splatter does explain the shower, but I agree it was too significant a development for a smash-cut to suffice as explanation.

I like putting stuff together for myself, and I don't always need (or want) to know absolutely everything that's going on at all points during a story, but the way things were handled doesn't suggest that narrative aporia was a deliberate, stylistic effect Carroll and MacNeil were going for.

[A.Cow]

my assumption was the Texans were routinely taking out the Psis, on account of them being a danger and able to pick up on what's going on.

I read that totally differently.  I thought it was because the Texans consider Psis to be mutants (as per the Dredd movie).  After all, the story cuts directly to Oswin talking about why mutants needs to be got rid of. And the anti-mutant stance has been hammered in recent weeks.

[Dandontdare]

I think it's more likely that they are being taken out (by screamer or by bullet)  as a threat removal as psis are most likely to suss it as a coup rather than cooperation, rather than due to anti-mutant feelings.

I don't think the Hershey shower needs any explanation =- they want her alive and hopefully cooperative, so they give her some leeway, a regular shower is when she takes her chance. No need for any blood-splatter rationale.