Future Shock: The Story of 2000AD Review

Just got back from a UK premiere screening in London of this documentary. This is one I've not only been excited about for a while (perhaps appropriately, the most excited I've been about any feature since Dredd), but also something I strongly suspected wouldn't get a particularly wide release, especially as there's no actual release date for it. So I was so happy that I was able to get a ticket for it (with a Q&A with not only the film's producers, but also two men who worked heavily on the comic, including creator Pat Mills. Being only metres away from fucking legends was so awesome). Add to that a packed screening with an audience that clearly enjoyed themselves, and you've got one happy fanboy!

Now, onto the documentary itself. As I said, I had high expectations for this documentary, but even I was incredibly impressed at just how in-depth it all was. At approximately 2 hours long, the documentary covered a great deal of the entire run of the comic, including its creation in the 70s, its incredible high volume of originality, excellence and influence in the 80s, its shocking lows in the 90s, and its return to form and brand new highs in the 00s to now. Also covered in all of this is the comic's influence on American comics, especially the creation of Vertigo, as successful 2000AD writers and artists like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrisson and Dave Gibbons came to the attention of DC.

What really helped make the documentary so interesting is that so much of the material comes first hand from so many people who had worked directly on 2000AD, and all these interviews are hugely and refreshingly honest about everything. Yes, there's a lot of praise for the comic and how influential it was, but there's also a lot of points made regarding 2000AD's views on creative ownership which a lot of writers and artists are clearly pissed off with, or how terrible some decisions in the 90s truly were.

I think what makes this documentary worth watching is, more than anything, the story it's telling of an underdog, of a comic that was so unlikely to last as long as it did that it had the "futuristic" title of 2000AD. Even with fucking awful publishers, censorship issues and a declining British comics market, it's clear that a lot of people who worked at 2000AD had a lot of fun, not just despite the difficulties they had to face but even because of them. There's a lot of love and passion by everyone interviewed (including Anthrax member Scott Ian, who seems like a big kid when talking about his love of the comic), and it comes across well.

If there's one slight niggle I have with the documentary, it's a tiny one, and something I perhaps wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been done so well at the start: namely, just a little more context of the times the comic went through. We got plenty of information and footage of what 70s Britain was like and how its numerous problems influenced the creators particular punk style for 2000AD, it's just a bit of a shame that this didn't carry on for the rest of the documentary, as it really helped make it incredibly clear how much of a product of its culture 2000AD was when it started. But like I said, this is a tiny complaint.

Honestly, this is a documentary I'd recommend to anyone, whether you've read any 2000AD or even if you've never heard of it. It's an incredibly in-depth feature that's honest, refreshing, and even at times absolutely fucking hysterical (seriously, I lost count at how many times we in the audience laughed our arses off because of an anecdote or very strong opinion of a writer or artist), and while I doubt it will get a wide cinema release, I hope others can check it out asap. 10/10

Predator Versus Judge Dredd Versus Aliens Review

As cool a title as that is, two things should be kept in mind: one, it’s actually two different stories in one volume, with each story featuring Judge Dredd dealing with each of the two monster icons separately, and two, one story is clearly better than the other.

First things first. I liked Predator Versus Judge Dredd, but there were a few key things that could’ve been improved that could’ve turned it from an interesting crossover into a great one. 

First, the world of Dredd could’ve been introduced better, as an introduction to the world of the Judges feels a little clumsy within the narrative. Obviously, there’s always going to be readers brand new to the world of Dredd, and certainly, you should find ways within the narrative to do that, as long as you can make it feel natural. Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham was a perfect introduction to the world of Judge Dredd because we were seeing it through the eyes of Batman, and as such, bits and pieces of the insanity of this world are slowly explained to him, and therefore a new audience as a result. 

For Predator Versus Judge Dredd, the introduction of the world is one I’m kind of against: the narrator directly telling and explaining to the audience everything about the lead character and his world rather than letting us discover it ourselves piece by piece. And that’s kind of a shame, because the writer is none other than John Wagner, not just the creator of Judge Dredd but a writer of so many brilliantly told stories within that universe at least. Which is probably part of the problem – he’s aware that there’s likely to be a brand new audience, no matter how small, reading this comic and checking out the universe of Judge Dredd for the first time, but he’s been such an expert at developing Dredd and his world for so long that trying to see from a fresh viewpoint might be difficult. That’s the only explanation I can see for why the introduction for that fresh audience isn’t handled well. It also doesn’t help that the only point of view from outside Dredd’s world is the Predator, and let’s face it, he’s not a character who’s likely to be put off from the insanity of Mega-City 1 – on the contrary, it’s partly that insanity that’s why he’s drawn to it.

Another problem I have with this story is that not a lot of characters feel like they have a great deal of depth. There’s not many characters we get to know very well outside of Dredd, Psi-Judge Schaefer (great-great-granddaughter of Dutch Schaefer from the original Predator movie) and, oddly enough, the Predator itself, so the violence doesn’t quite sting as much as it should. This is something I’ll cover more when I get to the Aliens part of the collection, but for the moment, while the violence is still cool, the overall story and world lacks the certain depth that so many of the great comic stories gives us for Dredd’s world.

One final, but much smaller criticism I have is the artwork. While it’s ok, I don’t think it suits the multi-coloured insanity of Judge Dredd, or 2000AD in general. In fact, the first thing I think of when I see it is more 90s DC. Perhaps not surprising really, considering that one aim for the crossover was undoubtedly to try and sell Judge Dredd to an American audience, but still, I think the artwork just lacks a certain charm that some of the more regular artwork of Judge Dredd has, even in the 90s.

Now that the key criticisms I have for the Predator story are out of the way, overall, it’s really not that bad a Judge Dredd story or a Predator story. For Dredd’s part of the story, it’s the classic Judge Dredd case: a perfect alien hunter arrives in Mega-City 1 and starts killing the Judges for sport – it’s up to Dredd to track him down and stop him. For the Predator, it’s a story set in Earth’s future and more than a hundred years after earlier visitors hunted in the jungles of Earth, both tropical and urban. Now another has come to Earth to try and find a new type of prey, especially one as highly armed and trained as the Judges. And that’s one key thing that makes the crossover worth reading: Dredd and the Predator are really suited to each other. Not quite as perfectly as the Predator and Aliens, but still a worthy fit. They’re both universes that are full of action and are violent as fuck, both protagonists (whether hero or villain) are very smart and very efficient at what they do, especially when killing their targets, and both are perfectly matched. It’s just a shame that it’s only a good story overall, when with just a few key improvements, it could’ve been a great one.

This is where Judge Dredd Versus Aliens: Incubus comes in. Not only do I think that this succeeds so much where the previous story failed, I think, reading Aliens immediately after Predator, it probably highlights everything the previous story did wrong in the first place.

First, there’re the characters, and I think it’s this key strength that simultaneously make it a great Judge Dredd story and a great Aliens story. In both universes, a big reason that made us fans fall in love with the universes as much as we did wasn’t just the violence – it was how much it stung. And why it stung was for a very simple reason: how much we found ourselves already starting to care about the characters. How much they felt like they had lives outside of their jobs (not something that was easy to do perhaps in the Predator story when the victims were always the Judges, people whose jobs really didn’t allow them to have any kind of life outside of the job); how much they felt like three-dimensional human beings, even after knowing them for such a short time, and how shocking it always felt when an alien burst out of their chests or acid blood was suddenly sprayed all over them. This is what makes Wagner such a perfect fit for the Alien universe: he has always been absolutely brilliant at making us care about characters who get such nasty deaths in so little time, and it’s nice that, along with co-writer Andy Diggle, both are at their A-game.

What also helps is that the story has a lot more depth than Predator Versus Judge Dredd. Whereas the first story was very straightforward, with Dredd and the Predator effectively hunting each other, here, there’re a lot more sides to it. First, we’re given the mystery of how the aliens arrived in Mega-City 1, which also introduces us to the human criminals involved, all of whose motives are for a variety of reasons: some political, some pure greed, and some just for the evulz.

Surprisingly, the story actually adds a lot of decent mythology to the Dredd universe, including the return of a few significant characters and even the introduction of a new Judge: Sanchez, brand new to the job and full of nerves, to say the least. So much so in fact that you’re forced to wonder if she’s really cut out for it. Interestingly, her perspective is probably the closest thing to being the ‘new reader introduction’ we get, and honestly, that’s not much of one, as the story really does throw readers new to the world of Dredd in the deep end. Now, I’m a huge fan of everything Judge Dredd (bar the Stallone movie, of course), and as a result, it’s harder for me to assess how easy a story like this would be for new readers to jump on board with. In the long term, it’s an approach I prefer to the more heavy-handed introduction the Predator story gave us, and the story itself is simple enough to follow. Plus, if readers did need more of an introduction, at least the Predator story is included in this collection.

We also get to see more than just the Judges perspective, as a pest control team is sent in to initially deal with one single chestburster. Yeah, you can guess how well that goes, but, as an Aliens fan, the pest control team is a fantastic addition to the story – all of the characters feel like real people with lives and jobs back home who feel like they know completely what they’re doing when it comes to tracking one little pest. Again, very predictable, but in this case, it’s in a good way. While lacking any direct continuity to the Aliens series beyond the Xenomorphs themselves – no mention of Ripley or any of her direct descendents, no mention of the company etc – it’s the characters and their story that gives it a truly authentic Aliens feel.

Of course, what else gives it an authentic Aliens feel of course is violence, and lots of it! People get burned in acid, chests are burst, shot to shit, ripped to shreds...in short, the kind of violence that feels right at home in a Judge Dredd comic. With the added bonus of giving us characters to actually give a shit about, the extra sting makes that violence work even better.

I mentioned how well the universes of Predator and Dredd suit each other, and naturally, the same goes for Dredd and Aliens. The difference being in this crossover is that the best of both worlds are used to their full advantage. The Aliens are such a great fit for Dredd’s world, (especially considering all the crazy aliens he’s dealt with over the years,) and the story really gives us both fleshed out characters and a world with depth. It avoids being a random encounter for both universes and instead feels like something big for one in the case of Dredd, another great selling point. Add to that the artwork of Henry Flint, a veteran artist of the comics that gives us that mixture of gritty style with the mixture of bright and dark colours of Mega-City 1, and you have a great story that’s well presented. As far as Judge Dredd crossovers are concerned, outside those exclusive to the 2000AD universe, this is one of the very best, up there with Judgement on Gotham, the story that made me a fan of the character in the first place.

One final point: the book itself. Going for the price of £25 in the UK, this is a very pricey book. Is it completely worth that price? Maybe not quite. The quality of the hardback itself is very nice, with a dust-cover over a completely black cover with just the title in red letters, so it really does make quite the impression on the book shelf. But there’re no extras at the back or front, no interviews with the writers or artists on how a crossover like this happened, nothing revealed about any unused story ideas or what might’ve been. Covers for individual issues at least are shown at the start of each relevant ‘chapter’, including some alternative ones, which are welcome, but besides that, there’s not much new. So I’d say that if you’ve read these two stories before and in previous separately released trade paperbacks, I’m gonna be honest and say there’s really nothing new for you here. If, however, you’re like me and you’ve never read these two stories before, it’s definitely worth a look, especially if you’re a fan of any of the three major icons. Judge Dredd Versus Aliens: Incubus really is not just a fantastic crossover story, but a brilliant comic book story period, and even Predator Versus Judge Dredd, while not being quite as good, is still worth a look if you're a fan of both characters.

Predator Versus Judge Dredd: 6/10

Judge Dredd Versus Aliens: 9/10

Overall collection: 8/10