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lukewhenderson's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
thecommonswings's review
3.0
Recently revived by Aleš Kot in the Megazine, this is the not quite successful debut of everybody’s favourite flamboyantly homosexual vampiric Vatican operative, Devlin Waugh. Smith has created a wonderful character for the Dreddverse but Waugh is top arch and silly here to really work: instead it feels like a thriller that is almost bold enough to have a strikingly different hero than you would expect in this universe but one that’s bottled by the endless annoying cliches and nonsense. Instead it seems to be Kot who has realised the potential of Waugh of late which is pretty unprecedented
The first story is very good, with excellent art by Sean Phillips and the second... is just annoying and this and the African story proves how hard Dredd is to write well. Smith really has no understanding of the character at all and he’s not helped by Siku’s art which is just awful, muddy, confused nonsense with no sense of anatomy and that whole nightmarish belief of the nineties that painted art was somehow elevating to comics, even if the basic art skills were lacking. Thank god for the modest, but well drawn by Michael Gaydos, final story that is far better. Flawed but fascinating
The first story is very good, with excellent art by Sean Phillips and the second... is just annoying and this and the African story proves how hard Dredd is to write well. Smith really has no understanding of the character at all and he’s not helped by Siku’s art which is just awful, muddy, confused nonsense with no sense of anatomy and that whole nightmarish belief of the nineties that painted art was somehow elevating to comics, even if the basic art skills were lacking. Thank god for the modest, but well drawn by Michael Gaydos, final story that is far better. Flawed but fascinating
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