Prog 1954 Kingslayer!

Goaty · 28 October, 2015, 03:13:37 PM

Wow Dredd was awesome, with biggest question!

Remind me again who is/was that robot in Brass Sun? Why does robot need the leaf?

And I prefer Proudhuff version!

Eamonn Clarke · 28 October, 2015, 08:16:12 PM

The whole planetary system was supposed to be watched over and controlled by a mechanical moon called Modernity, an artificial intelligence which, according to the Kurt Vonnegut blind watchmaker character, went mad and believes itself to be a God. Calling itself Merlin it activated its agent Arthur to track down Wren and destroy the key that can reboot the system.

"And I'm afraid I can't allow that, Dave."

Or something like that.

Spikes · 28 October, 2015, 10:22:43 PM

I also thought the guy at the end of Dredd was [spoiler]P.J[/spoiler]...

A cracking little story all told, with MacNeil's best work yet.

Frank · 28 October, 2015, 11:06:40 PM

Quote from: wedgeski on 26 October, 2015, 11:46:47 AM
Quote from: Darren Stephens on 24 October, 2015, 08:21:24 PM
Great prog, I thought. Call me crazy, but I still think that guy at the end of Dredd[spoiler] is PJ Maybe....[/spoiler]

That was absolutely my conclusion as well.

It would make that last panel really cool, but it would be a very high risk strategy for I'm-not-sure-what reason. Warren Gillo/PJ Maybe was seconds from death before an unprompted hunch from a previously entirely disinterested Dredd saved him from getting 240V of direct current up the arse.

Now he's headed for a mental health facility. If that was part of his plan all along, I'm not sure I can offer a plausible explanation for why a psychiatric ward is exactly where this criminal mastermind wants to be (or why he had to risk death to get there).

The way Gillo replied to the news his death would be painless - "That's not right! I've been so bad! I deserve to die in agony!" - certainly sounds more like Wilbur Hoss's good natured compliance when he was doped up on SLD88 than PJ Maybe taking the piss in the face of imminent death:

TordelBack · 29 October, 2015, 12:01:35 AM

I certainly took the final panel/speech to be the brainwashed Gillo acting as PJ's mouthpiece and explaining his motivation in shopping Lung. While I still can't see how PJ would have tampered with yet another evidence box to get someone else's DNA in there, there are some things that don't sit right with me. The idea of PJ altering Roberto's records to have his own fingerprints and DNA for a start - Roberto Smith, if he ever existed at all, was never an MC-1 citizen separate to PJ, so there were no MC-1 records to change (unlike Ambrose, for example).

When PJ left to go to Ciudad Barranquilla with Mrs. Strepsil, he was already facechanged to resemble her late husband (Smith's only known face, since PJ invented him) but even if he'd used the Smith ID on the way out (which would have been tricky), it would still have had his DNA/fingerprints. It was only on re-entering MC-1 as her new hubby with CB-criminal-provided papers that Roberto Smith could have come to MC-1 attention and started generating records, and he was already PJ at that point.

My brain hurts.

I, Cosh · 29 October, 2015, 10:35:14 AM

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 24 October, 2015, 07:33:43 PM
Defoe has a bit of a dip. ... BUT show me that Temple of Solomon and I find my teeth grating.

I'm a bit baffled here. Are you saying that you're annoyed about a building which doesn't exist appearing in a story which didn't happen? Or have I missed something?

I, Cosh · 29 October, 2015, 10:36:21 AM

Oh yeah, very good Prog all round I thought.

Molch-R · 29 October, 2015, 10:48:16 AM

Quote from: The Cosh on 29 October, 2015, 10:35:14 AM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 24 October, 2015, 07:33:43 PM
Defoe has a bit of a dip. ... BUT show me that Temple of Solomon and I find my teeth grating.
I'm a bit baffled here. Are you saying that you're annoyed about a building which doesn't exist appearing in a story which didn't happen? Or have I missed something?

Even *I* don't have a problem with Pat's inventive blurring of fact and fiction and the grinding of my teeth nearly made last week's Doctor Who inaudible.

Satanist · 29 October, 2015, 11:42:35 AM

That PJ Maybe eh? He's done it again and is damned elusive.

Prog is chugging along nicely.

Colin YNWA · 29 October, 2015, 02:00:21 PM

Quote from: Molch-R on 29 October, 2015, 10:48:16 AM
Quote from: The Cosh on 29 October, 2015, 10:35:14 AM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 24 October, 2015, 07:33:43 PM
Defoe has a bit of a dip. ... BUT show me that Temple of Solomon and I find my teeth grating.
I'm a bit baffled here. Are you saying that you're annoyed about a building which doesn't exist appearing in a story which didn't happen? Or have I missed something?

Even *I* don't have a problem with Pat's inventive blurring of fact and fiction and the grinding of my teeth nearly made last week's Doctor Who inaudible.

I know, I know as I say in my post its unreasonable and makes no sense. As I also say its not as if I'm bothered in other situations, so give me a flying horse in Red Seas and not only am I fine with that, I'm positively happy. So yeah there you go.

I think, maybe... mayyyyyy beeee its the fact that some of the stuff in Defoe is so far from the rest of the world it jars? So The Temple of Solomon existing would be fine if it wasn't so over the top? The steam cars I could live with if they weren't so majestic? Who knows its there and so I can't ignore it. Silly I know.

TordelBack · 29 October, 2015, 02:03:05 PM

A vizard did it.

Starkers · 29 October, 2015, 03:10:32 PM

Excellent prog. Nice end to the Serial Serial storyline, though I'm slightly disappointed it took Joe so long to realise that the real PJ wouldn't be caught so easily. That said I'm with everyone else, it wouldn't surprise me if Gillo was actually PJ in a double/triple/quadruple bluff! It would have been risky, but maybe Maybe had something else up his sleeve in case Dredd didn't have his lightbulb moment?

Or maybe Gillo was just an innocent patsy after all. PJ's assertion that he just ran away from Death still strikes me as a trifle lame so I wonder if he is even still alive? A spirit PJ would be a heck of a foe.

Thanks for the explanation up thread about Arthur, I'd forgotten who/what he was! Defoe continues to look gorgeous. Still not sure where Bad Company is going but really enjoyed Sinister Dexter this week.

Spikes · 29 October, 2015, 05:03:18 PM

Quote from: Tordelback on 29 October, 2015, 12:01:35 AM
My brain hurts.

As does mine.
I cant quite shake the feeling, though I can't join all the dots, that that last page in particular has a hidden meaning to it. And that Gillo's capture was planned, and very deliberate.

It could well be just exactly as it seems, I guess.

Tiplodocus · 29 October, 2015, 05:57:07 PM

Awesome proggage.

Thank you Tharg and droids.

Frank · 29 October, 2015, 06:03:00 PM

Quote from: Starkers on 29 October, 2015, 03:10:32 PM
it wouldn't surprise me if Gillo was actually PJ in a double/triple/quadruple bluff! It would have been risky, but maybe Maybe had something else up his sleeve in case Dredd didn't have his lightbulb moment?

Perhaps, but what would PJ Maybe get out of being banged up in a psych ward? And if he wanted, for some reason, to get banged up in a mental institution, why would he have to risk capital punishment to get there - rather than (for example) just saying he heard voices telling him to murder Chief Judge Hershey?

Wagner didn't give the explanation of Maybe's motive a big OF COURSE, HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID (!) moment, but it's much more plausible than the brain-hurting contortions you have to pull off to rationalise why Maybe had to risk death (then endure incarceration) in order to end up back exactly where he started - as innocent loser Warren Gillo: