The Monthly Megazine Issue #442: Vote Lawless

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!

Inside the March Megazine we have the continuations of everything we saw last month. But hey, that means five great strips so we’re all good.

It’s more of everything we had last month here – but that’s just fine and dandy, as all five strips are crackers. There’s politics and praising Zort in Judge Dredd, more western horrors and bloody revenge in Death Cap, Nia Jones gets in deeper in Diamond Dogs Book 3, the marvellous Metta Lawson’s political campaigning gets sidetracked in Lawless, and there’s more spectacular surfing action in Wagner and MacNeil’s Surfer. That, one and all, is a damn great lineup.

Oh, and of course, the Meg comes with the third issue of the Garth Ennis and Henry Flint‘s Hawk The Slayer sequel – it’s just the icing on the cake really.

Judge Dredd Megazine Issue 442 is out wherever great comics are sold on Wednesday 16th March.

 

JUDGE DREDD: PRAISE ZORT! – PART 3 – Rory McConville, Staz Johnson, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Dredd and his team are down in the Pan-African enclave of Profundia, investigating the death of the last MC-1 ambassador. It’s all tied in to the cock-up of Project Providence, where MC-1 used time-travel tech to steal future secrets from other Mega-Cities. And of course, they got found out and are in a hell of a lot of trouble. Which is why they need Profundia on board to swing a vote at the Assembly of Nations.

So, Dredd’s out investigating whilst the rest of the team are finding out just how crazy life is in Profundia – Zort’s will be done. But the people of Profundia might have a little something to say about things even now.

It’s become another great Dredd, running on from Project Providence and there’s that sense that McConville and Johnson have plenty more in the tank in their little corner of Dreddworld, pulling in geopolitics and still managing to give us something recognisably Dredd.

DEATH CAP – PART 4 – TC Eglington, Boo Cook, letters by Simon Bowland

As ex-Texas City Judge Goya makes her way across the desert of the Cursed Earth hunting down the gang that massacred her family and township. But she knows she dying, with the Grubb’s Fungus that the gang brought with them. All of which means we’re deep in the middle of a great Western adventure of retribution, done Dreddworld style.

Goya’s in need of transport now that her horse got killed. So it’s off to the Hermit Festival, where ‘the hobos and loners’ of the Cursed Earth come together to trade parts and vehicles.

Last month we heard a little of what the fungus does, showing up on the outside whilst it eats its way into your brain and does strange things. This month, well let’s just say that we get to see something of the strange things.

It’s excellent stuff, Eglington nailing the Western tone, the revenge thriller building deliciously slowly, and Boo Cook, well he’s doing the work of his career here.

DIAMOND DOGS: BOOK THREE – PART 4 – James Peaty, Warren Pleece, letters by Simon Bowland

You knew Nia was going to be in all sorts of trouble from the moment it all started, didn’t you? Adding Armitage as her new handler and him getting her to infiltrate the Silver Apples crime syndicate was always going to be dangerous, but now she’s in real trouble, thanks to the double-cross we all saw coming as soon as we met Armitage’s creepy colleague.

And now it’s all coming down on Nia, just like it was always going to do. Sure, Armitage might be in her corner but is she about to find out that, to a Judge, even a Detective-Judge like Armitage, she’s more than expendable.

Yep, it’s all working damn well, there’s a real sense of the procedural that’s unfolding with tension and style, and of course, thanks to Warren Pleece, it looks so bloody good.

LAWLESS: BALLOTS OVER BADROCK – PART 4 – Dan Abnett, Phil Winslade, letters by Jim Campbell

It’s candidate debate day in Badrock, with the number of candidates down by one thanks to last episode’s rather bloody trouble over at Brotherly’s lab.

That means that there’s something big and nasty roaming town. But, Badrock being Badrock and politics being politics, that’s not the worst thing going on today. There’s Marshall Nerys tracking down the mysterious and dangerous Smith, leading to a disturbing confrontation with Rondo, and then there’s the big mystery unfolding as to who’s pulling strings here in Badrock politically.

Curiouser and curiouser, as the old saying goes. Abnett writing so well, spinning all the plates, keeping us all guessing where this one’s going, and Winslade doing the thing he does, month after month, presumably driving himself mad with the insane level of detail that goes into every panel and every page that makes Lawless just a visual feast.

SURFER: PART ONE – PART 4 – John Wagner, Colin MacNeil, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Zane Perks is playing the stunt stand-in for the lead in the Chopper movie, and it’s showtime. The surfers are in place, ready to launch, safe in the knowledge that the Judges lining the route are actors.

Except… well, what do you know, seems the director wasn’t exactly telling the whole truth with things on that count. And he’s on his way to Antarctic City.

So, it’s Skysurf for real now – and it’s a thriller, Wagner writing Wagner and MacNeil just giving us page after page of beautiful, atmospheric sky-surfing artwork.

HAWK THE SLAYER #3 – Garth Ennis, Henry Flint, letters by Rob Steen.

If you’re a fan of the film, you’re going to be loving this sequel. If you’ve never seen the film, you’re still going to love it. After all, it’s Garth Ennis living a dream of his and thoroughly enjoying it all and it’s Henry Flint giving us some absolutely stunning artwork – I mean, just look at the work in the first few pages, the lighting effects, the gory horrors, the action – brilliant stuff.

As for what’s going on – well, it’s just pure sword and sorcery silliness in its best fashion frankly. Murder, magic, a few gags here and there, that sort of thing – damn fine fun.