The Monthly Megazine Issue #473: Jump On To All-New Thrills

by Richard Bruton

Welcome once more to The Monthly Megazine – doing just what it says, taking you through the latest goings-on in the sister monthly to 2000 AD.

This month we’ve got a massive set of new strips in the Megazine, six in all, together with the finale for Pandora Perfect and a couple of reprints. All that and the usual interviews and articles to make this a massive 132-page read.

Judge Dredd Megazine #473 out now in the UK and at some point in the future in the Americas – ask your LCS to put an order in now!

It’s all contained under the latest incredible cover from Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague…

A great cover showcasing new strip Fargo & McBane, telling a tale of one of Dredd’s ancestors kicking in doors as the law in ’70s NYC – and a cover that’s already had the pitiful little incels online up in arms. Seriously, if you’re reading 2000 AD or the Megazine and can’t cope with a black woman taking centre stage, you can just do one right now. You really haven’t ever understood what 2000 AD is all about and frankly you’re just not anywhere near evolved enough to be reading this. Christ, the comics fandom never fails to disappoint, doesn’t it?

Anyway, for those of you who can cope with things, let’s take a look inside…

My goodness, indeed – just what’s gotten into Devlin Waugh?

JUDGE DREDD: LAWMEN OF THE FUTURE – by Ken Niemand and Dan Cornwell, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Another case of Niemand revisiting things, in this case, it’s Prog #2262’s Judge Dredd: Trinity that brought comic Dredd, Karl Urban Dredd from the 2012 movie, and Stallone’s Dredd from the impossible to believe it’s 30 years ago next year film.

Lawmen of the Future brings us the rematch, just Dredd and Stallone Dredd this time though – five of them, as Sly’s lawman’s done the dimension-hopping thing to track down four of his errant clones…

Yep, tongue jammed in cheek for this one again, Niemand joined by Dan Cornwell for another stupidly fun thing full of multiple Stallones being Stallone and Dredd being Dredd.

A one-off, but a one-off that comes complete with a two-page ending that means Niemand’s setting up for more dimension-hopping hi-jinx some time in the future.

DEATH CAP: FRONTIER JUSTICE – PART 1 – by TC Eglington and Boo Cook, letters by Simon Bowland

The first series of Death Cap really looked like it was going to be the only series, as things sure looked damn nasty for ex-Texas City Judge Goya mixing her bloody revenge with fungal horror as she tried to fend off a Grubbs Disease infection long enough to see off those who’d murdered her family out here in the Cursed Earth.

But no, here we go with a second series and yes, somehow, Goya’s still in it, albeit not in anything like her best look…

I loved the first series of this one, saying this about for what I genuinely believed was the final part of it…

‘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.’

So yes, a really unexpected pleasure to see it reappear. Where they’ll take it, I have no idea, but I’m damn sure it’s going to be great

FARGO & MCBANE: NEW YORK’S FINEST – PART 1 – by Ken Niemand and Anna Readman. Colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Last year’s ‘One-Eyed Jack’ tale in Dredd took us back to 1970s New York in a cross-time caper featuring Jack McBane (One-Eyed Jack from classic Valiant/Battle Action Weekly comics of the ’70s) and fellow cop, Eartha Fargo. Yes, Fargo, as in ancestor of Chief Judge Fargo and his clone sons, including Judge Dredd. So yes, pretty damn important – and you could sure see where the fighting spirit came from.

Now, although that was very much a Dredd thing, you just knew that Niemand was enjoying this nostalgia-fest far too much to leave it there. So, this one comes as no surprise – all the 70s cop good stuff should be here in episodes to come, as Fargo heads back to New York after getting out to be with her family, dragged back by McBane. He’s on the run, escaped from Rykers, claiming the murder that put him there was a set-up to keep him quiet, all because of something ‘they’ think he knows.

Whilst the fact Niemand brought this one back might not have been a surprise, it was a damn fine surprise to see Anna Readman’s art here. She’s already been in 2000 AD a few times now, but this is her first series, and it’s all looking great.

Readman brings a different look to this one, but it’s good different, with a handle on all the grit and grime needed to show off 79s NYC at its worst and two great characters at their best.

So, two great characters, a classic set-up for a story, and the prospect of so much fun to come.

DEVLIN WAUGH: TWO MONTH’S OFF – PART 1 – by Ales Kot and PJ Holden. Colours by Jack Davies, letters by Jim Campbell

‘What can I say, I’m on holiday! I can’t discuss business! I’m already being fed the finest intravenous cocktail of vitamins and other such substances as we speak – horse tranquiliser? Yes, but only in homeopathic doses… at least until we arrive, then it’s the full Epsom Derby,darling!’

And so begins another Ales Kot Devlin Waugh, a magnificently queer feast of dandy debauchery and supernatural sexiness. This time drawn, brilliantly as always, by PJ Holden.

Oh, this is going to really rile up the folks who dislike the strong black woman on the cover and don’t think the Megazine is any place for this sort of thing. Well, tough luck you little sad man-boys, as Devlin’s back and he’s dialling up the pleasure to orgasmic levels.

It’s a holiday for Devlin and his three boyfriends, a polycule where at least one of them seems really fixated on being the primary partner – way too fixated. And you get the feeling that, once the fun, frolics, and down-and-dirty stuff is done, there’s going to be something very dark and disturbing interrupting Devlin’s two months off.

Yep, absolutely ridiculously over the top, loaded with sexuality, gloriously queer… it’s going to be fabulous, darling.

PANDORA PERFECT: PERFECT SOUNDS – PART 5 – FINAL PART – by Roger Langridge and Gary Welsh, colours by John Charles, letters by Simon Bowland

‘Gort cracked the code and got inside the vault!
The vicious Vince Throbber shot off like a bolt!
Pink Frost and Spink Bingley are in hot pursuit…
The great Byron Beech’s brain holds all the loot…’

More ridiculous rhyme there from Langridge to start this finale off, the latest of the sort of fun, funny, and super silly strips that have always featured in the long history of 2000 AD. And Pandora Perfect fits the bill practically perfectly in every way.

‘Perfect Sounds‘ has been a riotous romp of a thing, playing around with The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, lost albums, and the unexpected backstory to Miss Pandora. And with Roger Langridge writing it, ably assisted by Gary Welsh, it’s been a real caper indeed.

There’s so much to love here with Pandora, as the whole thing comes to an end. Still lots of really funny stuff in amongst the adventure drawing to a close, but then, just to throw us off, a final page that takes a different perspective, and the smack of wistful what-if hits all the harder after all this seriously silly stuff.

It’s the end of this Pandora Perfect tale, but I really hope it’s not the last we’ll see of this particularly clever bit of 2000 AD silliness.

CADET RICO: THE CYCLE – by Liam Johnson and Rob Richardson. Letters by Jim Campbell

Was this one of the Regened strips that’s found its way into the Megazine? Because it sort of feels like it and it sort of doesn’t. On the one hand, sure, it’s a Cadet story, which fits the Regened brand. But on the other hand, it’s a take with a darkness to it, really perfectly shown by Richardson’s atmospheric visuals bringing Johnson’s script to life.

Whether it was originally Regened or not is immaterial, what you have here is the start of what looks and reads like a great little thriller.

Rico’s off on a Cadet thing, getting first-hand experience of where the perps end up in a new, state-of-the-art iso-cube facility, only to have it have a power out, meaning that he’s about to get up close and personal with some of those he’s put away.

Really good opener to this one, made so much better by everything Richardson’s doing with the art, dark, atmospheric, stylish stuff.

LAWLESS: A TOWN CALLED BADROCK – by Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade. Letters by Simon Bowland

If you’ve been reading Lawless since the start, you know it’s so damn good, a cowboy tale of frontier life and the law doing its best to keep everything going south, just all done in the world of Dredd, where the cowboys are packing blasters, and the bad guys are everywhere.

And if you’re new to Lawless, welcome to one of the greatest strips the Megazine’s ever put out. Yea, you’re way deep in the story at this point (seriously, pick up the collections), but all you really need to know is that we’re in the town of Badrock, a frontier town where law isn’t all that popular or all that fixed, and that Colonial Marshal Metta Lawson has been the law here for a while. Oh, and trust me, it’s a bloody brilliant series.

Right now, we’re in the aftermath of Lawson’s latest thing, where she went undercover to take down the mob stringarming their way into Badrock, and she’s now back as the law in Badrock.

But like all great tales, ‘A Town Called Badrock’ isn’t going to give up its big story right yet. Instead, as Dan Abnett always does so wonderfully well, we’re getting the intro here, looking at Badrock through the eyes of innocent visitors, the family of Royal Wilty, only recently the Mayor of Badrock and now sweeping the floors of Badrock’s hostelry. It’s innocent’s abroad, giving us a look into everything Badrock is about. And oh boy, is it a great intro.

And of course, the art is just quite an incredible thing, Phil Winslade just puts in detail, detail, and more detail to every panel and page. It’s something quite spectacular to see.

So, welcome to Badrock. Welcome to Lawless. You’re going to love it here.

Okay, that’s the originals sorted, now for the reprints…

The Treasury of British Comics preview this month is another gem from Scream! – Tom Tully and Dave Gibbons sharing ‘Tales of the Nightcomer‘ from Scream! Holiday Special 1986, plus we’ve got another episode of the IDW Dredd, ‘False Witness‘.

TALES OF THE NIGHTCOMER – by Tom Tully and Dave Gibbons