The Monthly Megazine Issue #432: Bob Drokk’s With Dredd – Bad Move Bob, Bad Move

The Monthly Megazine – doing just what it says, taking you through the latest goings-on in the sister monthly to 2000 AD, 30+ years and still going strong!

The latest Megazine hits shops and digital on Wednesday 19th May. More Drokking with Bob in Judge Dredd, more sleaze and depravity and demonic dildos in Devlin Waugh, more from the Dark Judges in Deliverance, more Brit-Cit adventures in Diamond Dogs, and the last series of The Returners begins – a last time because of the terrible news of the death of Si Spencer in February – a life cut short too soon.

JUDGE DREDD: DON’T DROKK WITH BOB – PART 2 – FINAL PART – Ken Niemand, Ian Richardson, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Well, we found out last issue that you just don’t Drokk with Bob, the ex-Cit-Def fighter from the Apocalypse War, a Fargo Valour Medal winner, who’s about as messed up as you’d expect.

But now that he’s old the Judge’s radar, poor old Bob is heading for a takedown, one Dredd is more than happy to deliver. But it’s not just Dredd looking for Bob, and he’s about to find out that old debts need to be paid.

Ian Richardson’s Dredd is just so wonderfully solid, his MC-1 looks so damn good in the rain, his Lawmaster just screams Neo-Tokyo, an absolute delight.

And Niemand’s work on Dredd is really turning out the whole range of MC-1 tales, with this one coming out as one of those social commentary tales, looking at the downside of life in the big city, the underbelly of the world, with Dredd coming up against it, the Law meeting the streets.

DEVLIN WAUGH: THE RECKONING – PART 1 – Ales Kot, Mike Dowling, letters by Simon Bowland

For all the focus in Waugh is on the depravity and the adventure, the real strength of these stories, the connective tissue that ties all these new Devlin stories together is Mike Dowling’s artwork, where he just keeps getting better and better and better.

I mean, just look at that first page, the close ups of Devlin, the different looks, the subtlety of what he’s doing, the brilliance of what he’s doing. It’s deliberately unsettling, the different views of Devlin creating a patchwork of imagery, so clever, so damn good.

Here we have the beginning of something, Ales Kot bringing together the threads he’s been developing ever since introducing the demon Titty into Devlin’s life.

Here, Devlin’s demonic dildo friend of sorts has been enjoying his new human body, but he’s missing his old dildo form – cue wonderful musical montage…

Anyway, back into the old dildo form he goes. But there are half-truths and outright lies flying around on both sides, with Titty and Devlin obviously caring for each other, yet both of them have their own agendas.

All of which leads to a couple of moments of strangely heartfelt moments, with Titty sharing his sadness with one of the very beautiful members of the Spanish football team currently residing with Devlin (but of course), and Devlin having a lovely quiet moment to enjoy the friendship between him and Titty…

But that’s all before it all changes, a shocking moment of betrayal, a moment that we’ve known was coming for the last few chapters of this particularly great Waugh story.

But just because we knew it was coming doesn’t make it any less heart-breaking to see.

 

DIAMOND DOGS – BOOK 2 – PART 2 – James Peaty, Warren Pleece, letters by Simon Bowland

With ex-Diamond Dogs member, Nia, still in Brit-Cit, and still having to work as a Brit-Cit Justice Department informer, the target this time is a key underboss in the Euro-Cit Crime Union.

And that’s what’s going on here, with her handler dropping her right in it, looking at getting rid of Eric Du Pont, the Euro-Cit boss and also the man who killed her dad.

But to do that, she needs to resurrect the Diamond Dogs so that she can get them on the inside of the meet.

It’s all about the set-up of the storyline right now, before jumping into it all once more.

So good to see Warren Pleece’s art again, that last page is just so darned good, with the return of one of the Diamond Dogs’ old adversaries.

THE RETURNERS – AMAZONIA – PART 1 – Si Spencer, Nicolo Assirelli, colours by Eva De La Cruz, letters by Jim Campbell

This one is just covered in sadness really, after the unexpected and terribly sad news that Si Spencer died back in February. As his last work, it’s good that 2000 AD have taken the decision to go ahead with it.

Having said that, it’s back with the Returners, originally a quartet of disparate individuals returned to life and now back in South-Am after surviving the haunted house in Brit-Cit. But being back in South-Am does mean that they’re going to have to deal with a Justice Dept that’s been looking for them.

It’s everything that the first couple of series was, short on narrative, big on Assirelli’s stunning artwork. And that’s always been my problem with the strip. Sure, it looks so good, but the big, open panels and pages means there’s much less chance to get a satisfying storyline in there.

THE DARK JUDGES – DELIVERANCE – PART 9 – David Hine, Nick Percival, letters by Annie Parkhouse

With the Dark Judges back, in their new alien forms, it’s time to take a step back and visit London, many years ago, and the creation of a meme with a difference – a memetic religion, an idea that needs a form, a prophet for the religious idea, and suddenly, things here in Deliverance have flipped a full 180. It really is one of those forget everything you think you know moments… and it’s a damn good one.

So, there’s a suicide meme that left 17 million dead across the world after that first 41-day outbreak, before disappearing, only to come back, even deadlier, a century later.

And that’s where it all links up to those Dark Judges and everything we’ve read so far in Deliverance.

It’s a stunning shift in things, completely throwing us off what we thought was going on, and doing it quite magnificently by Hine and Percival.