Preview: ‘Mega-City Max’ — Fresh Talent, Fresh Looks For The Latest ‘2000 AD’ One-Shot Special

Mega-City Max is 2000 AD‘s latest one-shot special, with this one aimed at a teen readership with fresh versions of classic 2000 AD characters by some top, top talent… this one’s a very special special!

 

2000 AD, like all comic companies, have a big problem with their readership aging. The difference between them and other comic companies is that they’re doing something about it.

We’ve had 2000 AD Regened for all-ages and now we have Mega-City Max, the whole Mega-City 1 experience, just wrapped up in a different package, attempting to appeal to a teen market, and packed with the hottest creators around.

And if you ask this particular old man, I reckon it’s got a real shot at doing what it sets out to do.

 

But before we get into what’s inside, a little rant about the head-in-the-sand attitude that’s prevalent in what the American market describes as ‘mainstream’ comics. For a start, the superhero comics traditionally described as ‘mainstream’ comics are nothing of the sort. Nope, they’re not. Don’t even think of arguing that one, not when comics around the world and the multi-million-selling kids and YA titles swamping your local Walmart tell another story.

And sure, we know kids read comics – they just don’t read the sort of comics that Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, and the rest, including 2000 AD, have traditionally put out. No, the kids are out there devouring Manga, Dav Pilkey and Raina Telgemeier’s books, and a host of other works that you’ll so rarely see in any but the finest, most forward-thinking comic shops.

But that’s not the point here. This is all about 2000 AD looking at its readers and realising that they’re aging upwards and have been doing since the beginning of the comic. When the readership for your comic is getting older and there’s no young readers picking up your comic, your comic will eventually find its readership has literally died out. So all the ‘fans’ bemoaning that the new comics aren’t the same as the comics they used to read really are missing the point. You want 2000 AD and others to be around in 20, 30, 40 years? Then it needs to reach out to new readers.

And that’s the idea behind the Regened Progs aimed at younger readers and that’s the idea here with Mega-City Max.

You might not find it’s for you. And that’s fine. But don’t be a gatekeeper, don’t whine about it not being ‘your’ 2000 AD. It’s not meant to be, that’s the whole bloody point.

For anyone who genuinely loves the medium of comics and not just ‘their’ comics, then anything that attempts to widen the readership is a great thing and should be supported.

And for anyone who considers themselves a fan of 2000 AD, you have to hope that Mega-City Max works, have to appreciate what 2000 AD are trying with this and with Regened – something more than pointless handwringing as the age range of comic readers buying their wares goes up and up and up.

 

Anyway, rant over. Time to have a look at Mega-City Max, a new 48-page one-shot special out on 19 July in comic book stores in the UK and 9th August in North America.

Mega-City Max all takes place in the world of Judge Dredd, albeit not featuring him – the decision was made to leave him out of this one, giving it more of a vibe of looking at the world and some of the great characters in it.

It features some familiar characters given radical new looks by a group of incredible talents including the amazing Hannah Templer (of Cosmoknights as featured here), Ramzee (another young creator we’ve featured a lot), Oliver Gerlach, VV Glass, Lucie Ebrey, and Korinna Mei Veropoulou. And there’s also the brilliant Roger Langridge, always a joy to see him writing and drawing something!

All the stories are stand-alone tales unburdened with any continuity and include Harlem Heroes, De Marco P.I., Devlin Waugh, and Walter the Wobot – plus new characters in Cranium Chaos.

Now, time for a look inside…

 

DEMARCO P.I.: SNAKE OIL – Story, Art and Letters by Hannah Templer

Galen DeMarco entered the Academy of Law to give her life a purpose, however she was unfairly expelled from the Academy. The incident didn’t stop her from wanting to help people, so she set herself up as a private investigator. DeMarco tackles cases that Justice Department can’t or won’t touch, helping out the unfortunate and needy, and she still keeps in touch with her friends from the Academy – straight-edge Barbara Hershey and psychic Cassandra Anderson.

The rather brilliant Hannah Templer, whose Cosmoknights from Top Shelf is essential reading, brings us a beautifully bright opener for DeMarco. Younger sure, but still the same down at heel PI feel to the strip. This time she’s here on her very first case, gifted her by Cass and Babs, with perps who aren’t really perps booked for trespass with just two things in common, memory loss and warts.

 

Templar’s art, as you’d expect after devouring Cosmoknights (because you surely have by now – right?), is sublime. The tonal work she does with colour is simply beautiful. Sure, it’s all got a brightness to it as befits the tone of the whole Mega-City Max thing but it’s also full of tonal shifts to give atmosphere, just like this moment here…

 

And then there’s her line art, which is so wonderfully clean and expressive. Her storytelling is precise, the flow of the tale is so good, I really like the way Templer keeps everything tight and constrained in the investigative phase of the tale, with DeMarco hitting the streets, doing the PI thing, allowing Templer’s art to shine in the small moments….

 

But there’s also a moment later in the storyline as DeMarco confronts the villain of the piece and she totally opens up the page and the more formal, regular panel structure is discarded with a kinetic explosion of action and colour. It is, to be honest, bloody gorgeous.

 

WALTER THE WOBOT: DON’T BE CWUEL – Story, Art and Letters by Roger Langridge, colours by Pippa Bowland

Built by the Interglobal Hardware Company, Walter the Wobot first served Mega-City One’s Justice Department, but through a series of misadventures he worked his way into becoming a free citizen! Or at least the Judges didn’t want him around anymore… Now, the meek drinks dispenser droid works to serve the citizens of Mega-City One, but he yearns for other experiences…

Now, the veteran of the bunch gets the second tale – sorry Roger! – and it’s a predictably brilliantly silly thing, a what if Max Normal walks into a comedy club to sink a few shuggy pockets and sees Walter the Robot behind the bar.

Well, of course Walter ends up on stage – in this sort of tale it’s the only thing that’s going to happen. But the trouble is, Walter’s about as good at comedy as Dredd is at diplomacy. And that’s how Max gets involved, greasing the wheels to allow Walter to get his shot at comedy.

 

As you’d expect from a Langridge-written and drawn thing, Walter’s exploits are silly and funny, packed with character and comedy, on and off the stage. And you’ve always got to credit a writer for going with rhyming speech!

Is this the first time Langridge has written and drawn for 2000 AD? I think it might be. Certainly overdue!

 

DEVLIN WAUGH: WEDDING HELLS – Story by Oliver Gerlach, art by V.V. Glass, letters by Simon Bowland

Devlin Waugh is a Brit-Cit-born Olympian who has fallen on tough times. A part-time occultist, and full-time dashing rogue, Devlin is determined to be back in the spotlight, and will seize on any opportunity to become part of the in-crowd once again – even if that means having to roll his sleeves up and deal with demonic interlopers.

This is the one that really does feel absolutely perfectly done – a genuine Young Waugh tale where you can perfectly imagine this version of Devlin growing up into the flamboyant queer vamp we know and love. It is, to overuse a word I always associate with Devlin, rather fabulous.

In the tale of a disgraced Devlin – although we never quite find out what ‘his humiliating fall from grace’ was and just why he’s ‘a national embarrassment’ – something that just adds to the mystery. Desperate to get out of his funk, he’s definitely up for being the scandalous element and the best-dressed celebrant at a celeb wedding between a truly horrible Kardashian-esque thing from Brit-Cit and a groom with a rather suspicious set of horns and a particularly reddish tone to his skin.

 

Anyway, it’s Devlin into action and in full effect. Like I say, Gerlach and Glass have really managed to get under the skin of the character and bring out the young Devlin quite perfectly.

Glass’ artwork is just a superb thing, all those wonderful backgrounds and popping figures, all the manga-esque movement and figure work, it all adds up to the best strip in a comic full of quite wonderful strips.

 

CRANIUM CHAOS – Story, art, letters by Lucie Ebrey

The odd one out amongst the strips in here as Ebrey’s Cranium Chaos is the one strip not rejuvenating existing character. Instead, the wonderful Ebrey, whose webcomic Muggy Ebes was essential reading from 2012 to 2017, and whose comics work just keeps getting better and better.

This one’s pretty much your everyday idiots on the streets of MC-1 sort of thing, two wasters looping into the next fad, anything to take their minds off the mind-numbing day-to-day existence here.

Which explains why one of them decides the thing he really needs to be seen as a Mega-City star is a cranial implant…

 

It’s Lucie Ebrey in Mega-City One, what’s not to absolutely adore about this one? In theory, this is part of a longer series called Mega-City Fads and we’ve all just got to hope that we get more Mega-City Max to see more of Ebrey’s brilliance.

 

HARLEM HEROES VS THE VENETIAN VIPERS – Story by RAMZEE, art by Korinna Mei Veropoulou, letters by Simon Bowland

The most popular sport of the future is aeroball – a mixture of football, jetpacks, basketball and fighting all rolled into one. While the name Harlem Heroes evokes a long history of trophy-winning success, the current roster of players (led by ex-Judge Cadet Gem Giant) are a team of rough-around-the-edges rookies and have a lot to live up to.

Now, the final strip is one you’ve seen before. Well, you might have.

Because Ramzee and Veropoulou’s reinvention of Harlem Heroes made their grand entrance as an extra new strip in 2000 AD Regened Volume 3, with a second appearance in the pages of Regened Volume 4. I can see the idea behind an exclusive strip in a collection for a marketing strategy but there’s always part of me that bemoans it as it can rather hide a bit of greatness somewhere that may well be missed.

And make no mistake about it, Harlem Heroes really is a great, great strip.

 

The concept dates all the way back to 2000 AD Prog #1, created by Pat Mills, Carlos Trigo, and Dave Gibbons, and is absolutely perfect for a sports Manga reboot – and that’s exactly what’s been done, so cleverly, here. Ramzee and Veropoulou have taken everything that worked with the original and transformed it for today’s readers. They did it with the Regened episodes and they’ve done it here with the Mega-City Max episode where the Harlem Heroes team heads to the Mega-City Cup, facing off against the best Aeroball players of the world, all beginning with the Vipers, who aren’t above using whatever advantage, legal or not, to stomp the Heroes into the ground.

 

It’s a hi-energy delight of a strip. Ramzee writing it for an older audience hasn’t lost any of the bounce or the thrills and Veropoulou’s artwork is every bit the kinetic, colours popping off the page work that it’s always been.

So, the only thing to ask is when are we going to get more Harlem Heroes?