This is the last of Rebellion’s ‘Best Of’ compilations which have revived the great and the good (and in a couple of cases the ok) from 2000AD’s proud history.  As from the next issue, the Judge Dredd Megazine will be accompanied by a 64 page graphic novel collection, which will be taking over the function of the Extreme Editions.

At this point I thought I would share a few ideas about the series, which has been never short of interesting, but like the history of tooth itself has been a bit of a mixed bag, and wave a fond goodbye to it.  Amongst the gems from the past that they excavated for the readers of today have been such classics as ‘Meltdown Man’ spread over two issues – an absolute joy to reread – and the better than I remembered ‘Mean Arena’, but in my opinion there have been massive omissions, for example, in the form of ‘The VCs’, especially given their rather disappointing return in the main comic, not to mention ‘Halo Jones’ or ‘DR and Quinch’.

Still, enough of the previous issues, what of this final one?  It is disappointingly lightweight, to be honest.  The issue is a showcase for the superbly light and agile artwork of Ian Gibson, who is given free rein to demonstrate his talents in drawing robots, action and hot women.  And quite frankly what more could you want from a comic…  Well, possibly more substantial scripts.  The two main ‘Robo-Hunter’ stories are fun and lightly satirise health farms and gambling addiction, but they lack the real sharp satirical bite of the first Robo-Hunter Verdus story, or even the God-Droid saga.  The Hoagy short is a bit of a filler from the 1984 Annual, fun but the twist is hardly that.  The two ‘Anderson Psi Division’ stories are from the 1986 Annual and the 1988 Winter Special and are nice little stories.  To round it off, there are two Tharg scripted tales and a ‘Walter the Wobot’ one pager, which are amusing.

I don’t want to sound too harsh in my judgement on this issue as I did enjoy reading all of the stories, I am always happy to look at Ian Gibson’s artwork and I would have been more than happy for it to have been a previous Extreme Edition, but I’m afraid it is not a final issue.  Oh well.

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