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Mega City Zero (IDW)

Started by JOE SOAP, 11 July, 2015, 06:53:55 PM

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Colin YNWA

Quote from: Professor Bear on 02 June, 2016, 10:43:28 AM
This isn't really a specific diss on the writer, but it does seem odd that IDW can't find a decent Dredd scribe despite currently employing several.

But isn't that kinda the point. This is meant to be different otherwise what's the point? Whatever anyone thinks of its success on other fronts surely we can all agree it's defo different!

James Stacey

I'm actually enjoying this one. Compared to the last main strip omnishambles this one is far better. Not prog standard but certainly late 90s Meg standard. Nothing wrong with trying something different.

Toni Scandella

This is getting worse and worse with every issue. I think I would prefer the 678 dark judges again.
It might be the first Dredd I own that is actually unreadable.  Not because it is just bad Dredd, it is plain bad writing full stop.

I get it is supposed to be a satire on those idiotic Men's Rights little boys you see in the comments section of any internet thing with comments enabled where women call out men's bullshit, but it is really poorly done.

If this is where American comics are at, I am glad I do not read any.

Fungus

Just read #6, the Redondo issue. Bought it with low expectations and found the story.... just horrible, horrible. I'm at a complete loss as to what IDW is thinking of.

Magnetica

The story has just completely lost me in the last two issues. I now haven't a clue what is going on.

I didn't even notice one of the leading support characters getting killed off. Just shows how engaging it is.

Link Prime

Quote from: Toni Scandella on 15 July, 2016, 12:15:39 PM
If this is where American comics are at, I am glad I do not read any.

It's where American Judge Dredd comics are at.
The same publisher (IDW) also currently produce one of the best comics on the market- Ragnarok.

I wonder how this version of IDW Dredd is doing compared to the previous effort.
Will it make it to issue 12?

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Link Prime on 15 July, 2016, 01:52:36 PM
Quote from: Toni Scandella on 15 July, 2016, 12:15:39 PM
If this is where American comics are at, I am glad I do not read any.

It's where American Judge Dredd comics are at.
The same publisher (IDW) also currently produce one of the best comics on the market- Ragnarok.

Yeah to judge all American comics by this one would be daft. Though again as I say I'm quite enjoying it.

SALMON63

This story can be better, just need some actuall brit in creative team maybe? >>

McDaid is a Brit.

Hawkmumbler

Quote from: SALMON63 on 15 July, 2016, 10:08:32 PM
This story can be better, just need some actuall brit in creative team maybe? >>

McDaid is a Brit.
And a damn good artist too boot. Best thing in the book TBH.

BPP

Having read through 1-8 in one sitting it's a strange but not bad comic. Certainly way better than the first IDW and the truly baffling Wolk fiasco but curious in a number of ways.

For those that haven't read it the story starts with Dredd in a grassy wastelands around the remenents of one city block. That block is the only structure for miles. It is guarded by Mechanismos that don't recognise Dredd. Dredd arrests then becomes ward of three feral children with whom he infiltrates the block. The block seems run on a social-media credit heirarchy that rejects law and encourages trolling up to a limit. There is a truely strange issue (3) where Dredd arena fights a troll (in the Internet sense) who grows Tetsuo-style in relation to how inflamed / angry he gets. The kids get expelled from the block and Dredd sets off in pursuit passing through the under city (4), going against and into a 'male' 1950s VR (5-6) and then a sort of high brown guardian reader cult of political correctness (7) before rescuing said colony's children from a gang infusing the kids with fluids from the Dark Judges 'in order to protect them' from the grass (8). In effect it all reads as a Cursed Earth saga with Internet communities replacing the traditional cursed earth cults.

Set against this, and somewhat out of nowhere, issue 5 seeds the 'explaination' for all this. Post Chaos Day a AI has begun manufacturing and distributing a drug called Green (grass anyone?) which is causing mass disappearance and suicide. A young judge, Berger, sees parallels in her own work on reducing crime which has some sort of social media / The Matrix vibe to it. Dredd and Anderson investigate but respirators are ineffective and Anderson becomes addicted. Berger teams up with Dredd and seems left in a position to further her strange reform ideas...

What to make of it all? It's certainly interesting when read as a whole. The main criticism is that it's incredibly decompressed and is taking far too long. The 'real MC1 Dredd' bits put the story back on an interesting footing but it took 5 issues before this was introduced. Or 15 of your earth pounds. To the creative teams credit 'real MC1' Dredd is pretty convincing. He acts, speaks and operates largely as the Prog Dredd would do. It sort of rebuts the 'you have to do something different with Dredd' line used when IDW Dredd acts like a loony. Furthermore after issue 5 we only get small progression in the 'real MC1' story element as the writer returns to his goal of critiquing / parodying online life.

As to whether it's 'our' Dredd it's hard to say. The 'real MC1' Dredd is convincing but only in the piece sporadically. In the latter issues the 'future / grass' Dredd has become more of a ward to the children while trying to comprehend better what the link of the green drug to the grass is. He's not a bad 'old man on the Long Walk' version of Dredd. What is odd however is both issues 1 and 6 where Dredd 'wakes up' in a new environment (first in the grass and secondly in a 1950s male-topia) Here Dredd acts completely inconsistently with both 'our' Dredd and the character in the bulk of the story. In both he runs around shouting he's the law, trying to beat up everyone and wasting his ammo. It makes no sense on any level. Given that's the 'Dredd' of issue 1 you would be concerned about how new readers would take to the character and just when the comic seems to have got to a more rational, logical realistic Dredd it goes and does the exact same thing with the 1950s VR machine. Frankly it's odd and poor writing / editorial.

The art is okay to good. It suffers a bit of very wonky figure work (Dredd seems to have permanently dislocated shoulders) and the colours can be muted-to-confusing. However there is good kinetic work and some very atmospheric work at times. The descent into the under city was a great couple of pages that would grace the Prog. However the children are clearly causing the artist problems, their body shapes and sizes seem to constantly change, one minute Dredd is pulling out 'adult' scale children from refuse, the next the children are pre-puberty formless bodies. And on that the whole 'naked' children thing in issue 6 is very very weird and unnecessary (although that was the guest artist).

Overall I'd put the series so far on a mid to high score. It's definately not without flaws but on its own rhythm it works. I'd hope this story resolves by issue 12 (4 to go) and the same creative team get down to some MC1 stories because they certainly have shown that they can deliver that. And frankly I'm not too sure how much more 'critiquing Internet culture' the story can take.
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dweezil2

That's a pretty fair summary.

Hope this arc wraps up soon. I'm intrigued what the creative team have planned next.
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COMMANDO FORCES

If only it was fair to middling. Let's see what the reboot brings, as it bloody needs one!

Highlight for me, Jesús Redondo  :thumbsup:

blackmocco

Fuck. I must be going blind. Been searching for this thread for weeks now and couldn't find it.

Anyway: I got to hang out with the writer (and City Of Courts artist) Ulises Farinas at SDCC (we'd both been asked to take part in the official Star Trek 50th anniversary art show and ended up doing a signing together) and we got talking about Dredd quite a bit. I've been very harsh on IDW's Dredd title bar the mini-series/spin-offs but Farinas talks a good game. His reasoning towards this version of Dredd was pretty simple: Dredd as he appears in 2000AD has never really worked over here in the US and he wanted to try something radically different with the character to see what happened. He also felt a bit like the current Dredd stories in 2000AD are too po-faced and dour, with no humor- something I happen to strongly agree with. I started up with the usual defense tactics but after two failed movies and God-knows how many comic companies and titles have tried over here, I have to admit I felt a bit stumped trying to explain what's wrong with this version.

He's a big fan of both Dredd movies too for various reasons and all this would have been so easy to torpedo except he's a genuinely nice guy. We ended up having a good natter about our favorite shite movies and a pathetically satisfying and in-depth discussion about all things Star Trek.

In any case, yeah it's most certainly not the Dredd we're used to and I don't know how on board with it I am but I'm certainly a bit more open to it than before after talking with him. Apparently they're talking about rebooting it again possibly and returning it to a more conventional approach but honestly, whatever reservations I might have about this current run, I prefer it to what came before with the initial team.
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dweezil2

Quote from: blackmocco on 07 August, 2016, 06:06:33 PM

whatever reservations I might have about this current run, I prefer it to what came before with the initial team.

Can't argue with that blackmocco, although oddly, some of the stories seperate from the main arc weren't too bad.
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sheridan

Quote from: James Stacey on 04 June, 2016, 07:35:48 PM[/size]I'm actually enjoying this one. Compared to the last main strip omnishambles this one is far better. Not prog standard but certainly late 90s Meg standard. Nothing wrong with trying something different.



That's about how I feel about the newest series - hoping that reboot happens though.


Quote from: blackmocco on 07 August, 2016, 06:06:33 PM
I started up with the usual defense tactics but after two failed movies

I wouldn't say 2012 was an unmitigated failure - I've not read a bad review of it, and it was number one in the box office the week it was released.  It's also been number one in whatever-category (sci-fi, dvd, blue-ray, etc) on amazon a few times.