"In Orbit Every Wednesday!"

It’s week two of the big spring/summer relaunch, and by this time you know whether a new strip is worth sticking with, or sticking two fingers up at. So…let’s have a look.

Judge Dredd: The Edgar Case, Part 2 by Wagner & Goddard looks like it’ll turn into a lengthy story – an old nemesis bequeaths some bombshell historical evidence to Dredd, and this chapter is basically Dredd beginning to follow it up, and us getting some inkling that one of the Council of Five is not what he appears to be. If he turns out to be a Skrull, I’ll be pissed.

Defoe: Brethren of the Night, Part 2 by Mills and Gallagher doesn’t work for me – it’s mostly a stream of violence for the sake of it: OK, so it hits all the right buttons for your average fanboy, but disengage brain on entering, you know what I mean?

The Vort, Part 2 by Powell and D’Israeli also doesn’t work for me. The problem is that this has been done so much better in Vertigo’s DMZ book, and even if this isn’t a direct rip of that, it feels like it is – photojournalist covers a warzone. The Vort is in an alien setting, sure, but DMZ has 22 pages per installment or so and has much more depth to it.

Sinister Dexter: Yer Ass From Yer Elbow, Part 2 by Abnett and Williams is strangely entertaining – after expecting it to be awful again, it rattles along at a good clip, develops characters and sets up future plots neatly…possibly this is because it’s focused on Kal Cutter and the title characters appear only for one panel! Good.

Nikolai Dante: Amerika, Part 2 by Morrison and Fraser brings up the rear, and unfortunately it’s lost me as a reader – this storyline is a hugely heavy handed tale about terrorism and suicide bombers, but bloody Battlestar Galactica got there over a year before this tale, and did it so much better.

Craig Johnson