The Monthly Megazine Issue #446: It’s Regicide For The Red Queen

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 July Megazine we have the second and final part of Regicide in Judge Dredd as Dredd and Maitland’s quest to bring the Red Queen down comes to a conclusion. There’s also the final installment of Death Cap, a stunning series from Edginton and Cook. Alongside those, we have more of Anderson in Dissolution and Lawless: Ballots over Badrock. And making up the five strips, there’s another visit to the Black Museum in Little Weed.

Judge Dredd: The Megazine #446 is out wherever great comics are sold and available now.

 

 

JUDGE DREDD: REGICIDE – PART 2 – FINAL PART – Arthur Wyatt and Jake Lynch, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Surprisingly, this is the final part to ‘Regicide’ – surprising in that I was more than expecting Wyatt to stretch things out with this, after all, it’s been a tale he and Lynch have been telling for a while now, one that pulls all the themes of Dredd, Maitland, The Red Queen, and much more, encompassing the stories that he and Rob Williams have been telling.

 

But the lack of more episodes is possibly my only criticism of this one. After all, we do get to see Maitland and Dredd take down the Red Queen, we get a little Judge tension going on, plus there’s – as you might expect – an ending that leaves things open for the future.

Plus, Jake Lynch’s artwork, which is always so good to see – another one of those artists who’ve come through in the last few years to sit amongst the very best of the modern Dredd artists.

 

DEATH CAP – PART 8 – FINAL PART – TC Eglington, Boo Cook, letters by Simon Bowland

It’s been an incredible series, it really has, one that we knew from the very first episode was going to be over and done in just one series, such was the fatal nature of what we were dealing with.

Ever since ex-Judge Goya got that Grubb’s fungus infection we knew what her end would be, but it’s one of those where the journey was the thing, a revenge-fuelled journey to the inevitable end.

 

But dammit, getting here has been something very special. Between them, TC Eglinton and Boo Cook have created something quite special. What they did through three series of Blunt was impressive, but Death Cap just takes all that and trumps it. Eglington’s writing has been so tight here, the driving revenge plot energising the entire eight parts, but still allowing space to get in ideas of evolutionary biology and complex theories of biological process. Similarly, Boo Cook’s artwork is on another level here, stunning in the scale of things he’s tried to take on, gruesome, nasty, and hideous when it comes to showing the extent of the infections we’re talking about with the fungus here. Watching things progress, seeing Goya’s slow infection take root over the last eight episodes has been a lesson in creeping body horror.

As for the ending… well, it’s final, of course it is. But then again, there’s that moment… you’ll see it when you read it. And that one little moment means there’s maybe, just maybe somewhere else for two very talented creators to take this.

 

TALES FROM THE BLACK MUSEUM: LITTLE WEED – Liam Johnson and Antonio Fuso, letters by Simon Bowland

These Black Museum tales have something about them, the one-off nature, the macabre nature of them, plus the extra page count they have, it all gives them a slight advantage over things like the 4/5 page Future Shocks.

Case in point, Little Weed, a tale of an accidental sarcophagus of pure gold and a tale that begins in Mega-City Two with a heist and ends in the Black Museum with another heist. Johnson plays a blinder with the tale, feignting one way with his story and then sending you off down another path for the end twits. And of course, if you’ve seen Antonio Fuso’s artwork over in the Prog, you’ll know how fitting his dark black and white work is for something like this.

 

ANDERSON, PSI-DIVISION: DISSOLUTION – PART 2 – Maura McHugh, Lee Carter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Okay, last issue of the Meg opened up this really promising Anderson with a hell of an idea… Anderson in a hell of a lot of trouble with those in charge and in a psi holding cell.

All that led to a flashback to current Psi-Div Chief Shenker on a call with Anderson, the call which led to his getting the top job, promising that we’d get to see more to the mysterious workings of Justice Department Psi-Div.

And this issue of the Meg… well, in one of those happens every so often moments, the PR droid at 2000 AD sent out the latest Meg missing Anderson. I hear Tharg’s called him in for what Tharg calls emergency repairs but there’s something about the way the other droids shiver when he says this that makes me think there’s more to it.

I shall get copies some other way and update you here, but in the meantime, have the last few panels of last week’s Anderson to give you an idea of how good this one looks…

 

LAWLESS: BALLOTS OVER BADROCK – PART 8 – Dan Abnett, Phil Winslade, letters by Jim Campbell

More badness coming up in Badrock as the fallout from the election really takes hold. There’s bad folks in town and it’s seemingly up to lil’ Archie and newly installed Outlaw Metta Lawson to even try and do something about it.

Hell, even Brotherly doesn’t seem immune from the attention of the mysterious and dastardly Mr Smith, and Brotherly’s got SJS Judge McClure in his pocket. So what the hell sort of backing and power you reckon Mr Smith’s got that he’s able to exert this much leverage?

Meanwhile, old Nerys has handed in her report on the corruption she’s seeing. And for just one moment… one wonderful moment, you think she’s got one over one McClure…

Except… well, let’s say that things go very wrong for Nerys Pettifer right after this. Poor, poor Nerys.

Yep, things sure are coming to a head here in Badrock, so much going on, Dan Abnett keeping all of those spinning plates in the air at once and Phil Winslade’s artwork just amazing you every time you see it. The detail might hit you first, but it’s the quality of it that stays with you through your time here in Badrock.