Villordsutch reviews the 2000AD Winter Special…
Greetings squaxx dek Thargo and welcome to this rather rotund 48-page winter special of 2000AD where following on from the popular Summer Special (Autumn be damned) some impressive names have returned to give us some one-shots or opening chapters samples for forthcoming stories. So let’s dive in and see what we have been served up.
Judge Dredd: Sorebone
Written by T.C. Eglington our story follows a small time juve gang who are rapidly losing members the messy way. Dredd investigates and discovers that there are now only two gang members left, Little Petey Foscel and the gang leader Paul “Inky” Gorble. After a tip-off that Inky is attempting to buy a rather big gun – which transpires is for protection – we discover that Little Petey has found a cursed knife called the Sorebone and he is currently in the process of disposing of numerous gang members, supposedly under the influence of the blade.
Whilst the artwork looks good from the Riccardo Burchielli and the colours also to are impressive from Luca Saponti, unfortunately the story itself doesn’t really get interesting or enjoyable and lacks in the dark humour you’d have expected in a Dredd story.
Rogue Trooper: The Feast
A short but interesting tale in which the Rogue Trooper shows some respect to a fallen solider and in doing so comes into contact with an aggressive poison that attempts to destroy him. Written by Guy Adams and with the art from Lee Carter, albeit a short story, it’s an interesting tale as Rogue spirals further towards death and his three “companions” battle to keep him alive. As this occurs we see a war take place between Rogue’s own body’s defences – as well as his subconscious – against the representation of the poison.
The Alienist
Given to us here is a brilliant slice of yesteryear comics with The Alienist from Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby. We step back into a Victorian alien incursion at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in which our hero Madelyn Vespertine can see the creature absorbing the life from the children and staff but nobody else can. The art given to this story from Eoin Coveney suits it perfectly and has the feel of Great British comics from decades ago.
Terror Tales: Phantom Pains
A filler of a tale which to me I could have really have left out after I read it. Like a poor ghost story told to scare children who have just played two hours of Resident Evil, Terror Tales: Phantom Pains by Eddie Robson really doesn’t do anything to entertain and just unfortunately occupies pages that could have been used for other better stories. The saving grace for Terror Tales is Jeff Anderson’s artwork which looks good, but not amazing enough to make this piece shine.
Defoe Frankensteiner
The idea of a Zombie (Reeks) Invasion in London, 1666 and the two experts tackling the threat head-on are Newton and Frankensteiner already sounds delicious and the opening chapter is just that. Our tale starts with the aforementioned two and a Reek strapped to a table as they carve it open wondering what makes it tick – both pondering what would happen if you place the heart of a good man in the body of a dead Reek. With this our comic begins and our first run in with Reeks is shortly around the corner.
The writing duty is down to Pat Mills and with the art from Leigh Gallagher, Defoe Frankensteiner looks and reads rather brilliantly. This is only our first chapter however and the full series is due to start in 2015 which is rather unfair in making us wait so long for more of this series.
Anderson Psi Division – Horror Comes to Velma Dinkley
Our favourite Psi Division Judge is called in to investigate a rather gruesome family slaying after the juve wearing the VR gaming headset finished playing and decided the game wasn’t completely over until he said so. After a scan of the boy’s mind she discovers the VR headset had been deliberately hacked to make him believe he was still in the game even with the headset off. After another three families meet the same fate Anderson tries to locate the source of these headsets.
Alan Grant delivered a story that bordered on the okay level, but I came away with that ghost story sensation again as earlier in the comic, however his payoff was unexpected at the end which was mildly amusing. The art from Darren Douglas was quite fantastic along with his streaks of colours and washes across Anderson’s mind scans; I really enjoyed looking across his art for details I may have missed on the first glance.
Scrotnig of the Winter Special
This came down to nearly a coin toss between Defoe Frankensteiner and The Alienist but in the end I placed on my reviewers hat and went back to re-read both tales to see which I enjoyed more. The winner was The Alienist from Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby along with the brilliant artwork from Eoin Coveney. If anybody wanted to see what horror or fantasy comics of my childhood looked like I’d probably hold that story up for them.
An enjoyable special this holiday season, but don’t get distracted by the cover and wonder where Judge Death is inside the special! Yes the cover is absolutely fantastic from Ben Templesmith however I really should look at the badge before I plough into the comic.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
