Meg 237 - 15 Years Creep!

(Link to BARNEY)

This is a special edition Meg celebrating 15 years of existence. The cover comes in two parts; firstly Dredd in a frame surrounded by previous Megs in a black border, which you can see in the photo above. However, opening up the cover reveals a fun image of Dredd and fellow Judges burning copies of the Meg in a furnace (with the control panel showing a temperature of Farenheit 451!). It's great stuff from Cliff Robinson and is a fitting tribute to the Meg's birthday.

Inside we have a monster 36 page Dredd story called Flood's Thirteen written by John Wagner and drawn by the marvellous Henry Flint. Jonny Flood has just spent 21 years in the cubes serving an 18 year sentence (that's MC-1 Justice right there for you!) and is plotting the mother-of-all heists. He recruits his band of crooks and sets about executing his elaborate plan. His target is The Mirage. Not a Las Vegas casino (are you seeing the references to a certain Rat Pack movie here?) but a large spaceship returning to Earth after collecting tax revenues from the colonies. And a very bored looking Dredd is in charge of security. Will Jonny's audacious plan succeed or will Dredd stop him?

This is a great story and the longer format really gives it room to develop. Of course, it could have been split over three Megs but the fact the editorial team did something different for this special issue is to be commended. Great stuff from both Wagner and Flint.

Having been missing from the last Meg, Devlin Waugh concluded in a double episode of fiery glory. Lots of action and intrigue as heroes and villains swap sides and use their special powers in their battle for supremacy. I liked it. The first episode didn't go well for me, but since then I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

The issue concluded with a one-off Simping Detective special called Fifteen. One of the big crime bosses is celebrating 15 years at the top and is throwing a big party. Jack gets wind that someone is going to try and take out this big boss and prepares to enjoy the show. However, 'a friend' informs him that the assassin is someone close to Jack from his past. What should he do? As always, and you are probably sick of hearing this, it's fabulous stuff from Si Spurrier and Frazer Irving. Despite the shorter story format, it is perfectly paced and well executed. Comic gold!

And that was it for the comic strips. We had two parts of David Bishop's new series 15 Years Creep tracing the Megazine's origins to present day (2005 that is!). It's in a similar style to Thrill Power Overload, with inset boxes detailing the history of some if the characters and stories. Obviously, I jumped on to the Meg quite late, but it was still interesting reading how the comic came about.

And that was it really! Quite a different style of Megazine, but interesting nonetheless...

And finally... If you do try and secure a copy of this one for yourself a number of copies were printed with a duplicate page in the Dredd story and the last page from The Simping Detective missing. I got both copies in the bundle I bought (from an old subscriber) so do check before you buy!