Can a vampire survive this hostile environment?
It’s been quite a few weeks since I’ve delved into the Thrillverse. While my reviews of the “Galaxy’s Greatest’ have taken a hiatus, I’ve still been enjoying the Prog and all it’s thrills. So with last last weeks Regend putting a pause on proceedings, I thought what better time to make a return!
And with that, let’s get on with the show!
Stewart Kennedy Moore is on cover duties this week. It’s always a pleasure seeing Moore’s work, and his Portals & Black Goo inspiration this week takes a different style to his usual psychedelic delights.
Meanwhile, under the hood and we find…
Dredd gets closer to Kyle Asher in Judge Dredd: A Fallen Man, we say goodbye to Portals & Black Goo, Dexter blasts his way through the new world in Azimuth, Hershey’s past returns with a bang in Cold In The Bones, and finally, Tharg returns with another 3Riller.
Judge Dredd: A Fallen Man - Part 6 ( Ken Niemand, Tom Foster, Chris Blyth, Annie Parkhouse)
It’s been a cracking few weeks for Kyle Asher as Ken Niemand seems to have turned the ex-Judge into Mega-City One’s version of The Punisher. Asher’s been cleaning up the Mega-Cities underworld, while Dredd slowly pieces things together.
With Asher still dealing with his own penances by helping out the young daughter of the Cit he unlawfully killed - is this the week link that Dredd needs to bring him down?
The whole Kyle Asher trilogy has been a great read, and this last chapter hasn’t let up. While I can’t help but shake the feeling that Asher could be working for the Justice Department (crazier things have happened!), Niemand isn’t letting anything slip. Tom Foster’s artwork has also been brilliant throughout the chapter. Along with Chris Blyth, the duo have given a murky look to the Meg which perfectly follows the tone to this dark redemption story.
Portals & Black Goo: Night Shift - Part 7 [Final Part] (John Tomlinson, Eion Coveney, Jim Boswell, Simon Bowland)
And after just seven parts we say goodbye to Portals & Black Goo. While I was initially sceptical, Tomlinson, Coveney, and the team have created a refreshing and original strip.
With their troubles seeming to be behind them, Kroy and Nona start to plan their futures. However, with Nona talking up the origins of the “exotic stuff” that Kroy delivers, you know it’s leading into that second series. Elsewhere and we finally get to see Magistar Dain’s brother, and while I won’t spoil who it is, it comes as a bit of a surprise!
Overall, it’s a fitting end to the series. Tomlinson starts to tease us with the plot threads that could drive the next outing. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait long.
Hershey: The Cold In The Bones - Book II - Part 6 (Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Simon Bowland)
Hershey’s nightmare in Antarctic City maybe coming to an end, but her journey is coming full circle. After Dredd’s arrival last week, it was only a matter of time before Hersey went back to where this all began - Mega-City One. With links to Smiley’s Encheladus experiments still deep within the Meg, there’s only one place for her to go. While Dredd has his reservations that a Judge can’t come back from their Long Walk, the former Chief Judge reminds him of the events leading up to Necropolis.
While things may be coming to an end for Barbara Hershey, I can’t help but think that Rob Williams still has a few surprises up his sleeves. After all, the character has died once already. But the other side to this is that with Hershey’s return to Mega-City One we could be seeing a epilogue playing out for the long running character. Could her death draw the line under the whole Small House affair once and for all? Or could we see another series with the ex-Chief Judge heading out to Titan?
Well with a couple more parts to go we’ll have to wait and see.
Tharg’s 3Rillers: Die Horde - Part 1 (Eddie Robinson, Nick Brokenshire, Annie Parkhouse)
After a devistating war with an alien race sees most of humanities history destroyed, finding a slither of this lost history is a big thing. So, when a group of scavengers stumble across a treasure trove of human records within the property of a recently deceased recluse - well let’s just say it’s like showing red to a bull.
With the deceased's relative wanting a quick sale of the property, she’s not really bothered about hordes of lost information and just wants it all gone. But, when a locked door comes into play - things take a chilling turn.
I often find that the 3Rillers can be a bit hit and miss. With having to tell a full tale in just three parts, details can often be glossed over, or lost in the pace of the strips format. With Die Horde it’s a little different. Where it’s opening page does speed through an overview of past events, it then spends the rest of this opening allowing the cast to recount this history while keeping things moving.
Moving on to the next three parts things could get interesting, but I hope we don’t get a simple ‘haunted house’ tale.
Azimuth: The Stranger - Part 5 (Dan Abnett, Tazio Bettin, Matt Soffe, Jim Campbell)
How Azimuth ties into the wider SinDex ecosystem is further explored this week. Dexter sees himself in the thick of it battling one of the Lords of the New Flesh. However on doing so the Lord reveals that all isn’t as it appears to be.
As Dexter digs deeper into this past, the lines between reality and the digital world really start to blur. Could Azimuth be the reality of Downloade after the Rogue A.I.s uprising? It’s a question that Dan Abnett seems close to answering, but he could easily spin this answer into another web of action-oriented intrigue.
While the twist in the Azimuth tale was a bit of a sting for most readers, you have to admit that Abnett played it well. The opening chapter featured this strange new world that certainly slotted straight into Abnett’s storytelling style. Then, to hit us with the realisation that we were in Downlode all along was a huge twist that I don’t think anyone saw coming. Just how it all comes together? Well that’s up to Abnett, but either way Dexter isn’t out of the woods yet.
Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow us on X/Facebook @GeekCultureRev, TikTok/YouTube @Geekculturereviews, and BlueSky @geekculturereviews.bsky.social
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