The Comicon Monthly Megazine Preview – Issue 402: Lawless, Storm Warning, Blunt II, The Dark Judges

Time for another of Comicon.com’s Monthly Megazine previews. And it’s a bittersweet issue this time around, including, as it does, a special tribute to the genius that was Carlos Ezquerra, who sadly passed away on the 1st of October.
Alongside that special tribute, underneath a rather gorgeous looking Phil Winslade Lawless cover, there’s a brand new Dredd and continuing episodes of Lawless, Storm Warning, Blunt II, and The Dark Judges. It’s a fine, fine line-up right now.
The Megazine 402 is out on 21 November in the UK and on digital and sometime later if you happen to live in the North American territories.

JUDGE DREDD: RIOT IN ISO-BLOCK 9 – Alex De Campi, Mack Chater, colors Jose Villarrubia, letters Annie Parkhouse.
Another single issue and done Dredd here, this time by Alex De Campi, who’s becoming something of a regular in the pages of 2000AD and the Megazine now, and that’s, definitely, a good thing. Here, in collaboration with first-time Dredd artist Mack Chater, she’s delivered a cracking Dredd.
We’re in the iso-blocks, and De Campi immediately makes us realise that the situation is dire, with the Judges still struggling to find bodies, even years after Chaos Day. The iso-block’s are full, and tensions are simmering, as always. But there’s something strange going on in iso-block 9, where prisoners just keep vanishing overnight, with their organs turning up on the streets and in the rich folks sometime later. Time for a little undercover work. Have a wild guess who’s sent in?
Chater might not have done a Dredd before, but he’s a natural, with classical looks, such style in his art, a little of Arthur Ranson maybe.

LAWLESS: ASHES TO ASHES – PART 3 – Dan Abnett, Phil Winslade, letters Ellie De Ville.
Marshal Meta Lawson managed, after a fashion, and in her own unique style, to bring some law and order to the frontier township of Badrock. But, in doing so, she’s managed to royally piss off Munce Inc. Seriously, they are pissed. Which rather explains the all-out siege happening right now with the express intention of wiping Badrock from the face of the planet.
Things look bad. Seriously bad, with Rondo, one of Lawson’s best, almost dead on the surgeon’s table. Desperate times indeed. But bloody hell, it looks so gorgeous, with Winslade’s black and white art filling every page with details, so many figures, a glorious sense of the insane scale of the assault going on. And of course, things get worse. Marshal Lawson simply can’t catch a break, ever. What used to be a series with great lines and a dash of comedy has become something darker, sadder, as Abnett and Winslade leave us wondering just who’ll make it out of this one alive, and manage to tug the heartstrings in unusual ways. Who would have thought the sight of the robo-doctor slumping down in his chair would be so heart-rending?

STORM WARNING: OVER MY DEAD BODY – PART 3 – Leah Moore, John Reppion, Jimmy Broxton,
With ghosts everywhere she looks, it’s no wonder Brit-Cit Psi-Judge Lillian Storm isn’t one for smiling. Not to mention the persistent headache. Currently annoying her is the ghost of a young man, insistent that he’s not dead but has had his body stolen. So, Storm investigates down the local pub, where a lock-in brings out hundreds of years of local color.
It’s a great looking series this one, with a roughness to the artwork, including all those lines of stress etched onto Storm’s face. Looks wonderful.

BLUNT II – PART 3 – TC Eglington, Boo Cook, letters Simon Bowland.
The majority of the colony have been kidnapped by the mutants thrown up by the unique fauna and flora of the backwater planet of Getri-1. Blunt is leading a rescue and, to be honest, it’s not going all that well.
The fascinating thing about Blunt is the way both Eglington and Cook are drawing us into the world we find ourselves on, and diving deep into evolutionary theory, shared consciousness, self-aware eco-systems, all integrated perfectly with the simpler tale of the colonists needing rescue.

THE DARK JUDGES: THE TORTURE GARDEN – PART 3 – David Hine, Nick Percival, letters Annie Parkhouse.
Another colony tale, where the Dark Judges, Death, Fire, and Mortis are marooned on the once thriving world of Dominion. Now, it’s a wasteland, the population decimated, and the survivors desperately waiting for the marines en route from MC-1. This episode we discover the explanation behind The Torture Garden and watch Death take on a little project.