thecommonswings's review
5.0
Nothing will quite match the slow dawning realisation of reading this in the prog that Ewing, Spurrier and Williams were pulling one of the all time great twists off without us noticing, but every reread shows how cleverly - like expert magicians - they seed their big moment, so it doesn’t really lose impact on repeated readings at all. In fact, future stories like the Small House give this added nuance and - even better - Sensitive Klegg would become one of the great Dredd supporting characters in very little time
In the early days, when Wagner initially pulled back from the weekly Dredd stories, there was a definite sense of flailing about trying to find people who could effectively match the creator. Grant Morrison and Mark Millar failed hugely (the former because he couldn’t subvert anything, the latter because he’s an idiot hack). Ennis struggled. But since 2000, there’s been a real sense of creators who not only understand what Dredd is (and he’s a tricky character, because he is essentially monolithic) but can find new ways to tell stories. What Trifecta does so brilliantly is show three of those ways at their best, but with an added oomph that I would like to think even Wagner applauded. A masterpiece
In the early days, when Wagner initially pulled back from the weekly Dredd stories, there was a definite sense of flailing about trying to find people who could effectively match the creator. Grant Morrison and Mark Millar failed hugely (the former because he couldn’t subvert anything, the latter because he’s an idiot hack). Ennis struggled. But since 2000, there’s been a real sense of creators who not only understand what Dredd is (and he’s a tricky character, because he is essentially monolithic) but can find new ways to tell stories. What Trifecta does so brilliantly is show three of those ways at their best, but with an added oomph that I would like to think even Wagner applauded. A masterpiece
nearit's review
4.0
This stealth crossover loses its surprise value when it's packaged like this instead of as a series of seemingly disparate 2000AD strips, but even read with the knowledge that it's all going to tie in it's still a solid crime story, a fast-paced conspiracy thriller, and a decent bit of sci-fi slapstick at the same time.
The clash between genres and art styles is the most compelling part of Trifecta as it's currently constructed, with the interplay between the endless gnarled close-ups of Henry Flint's Dredd strips, the immaculate noir landscapes of Simon Coleby's The Simping Detective, and the exploded absurdity of D'Israeli's Low Life providing a trio of perspectives on Mega-City One.
The trio of writers involved ("Affable" Al Ewing, "Seductive" Si Spurrier and "REDACTED" Rob Williams) keep everything moving behind the scenes, and they make sure that these different stories come together to present us with three different reasons why people might give a shit whether Mega-City One survives in the process.
If Trifecta loses something in its final chapter, which brings our three protagonists together in a more traditional action story illustrated by Carl Critchlow, then that's okay because it feels like the story has earned the right for a swaggering pay off.
After all, by that point we've been made to see hard-headed political manoeuvring, bewildered laughter and absurdist melancholia as three entirely valid ways of responding to the same series of events... hard to grudge a story that can do that a more traditional resolution, especially not when it just about manages to honour everything that came before.
The clash between genres and art styles is the most compelling part of Trifecta as it's currently constructed, with the interplay between the endless gnarled close-ups of Henry Flint's Dredd strips, the immaculate noir landscapes of Simon Coleby's The Simping Detective, and the exploded absurdity of D'Israeli's Low Life providing a trio of perspectives on Mega-City One.
The trio of writers involved ("Affable" Al Ewing, "Seductive" Si Spurrier and "REDACTED" Rob Williams) keep everything moving behind the scenes, and they make sure that these different stories come together to present us with three different reasons why people might give a shit whether Mega-City One survives in the process.
If Trifecta loses something in its final chapter, which brings our three protagonists together in a more traditional action story illustrated by Carl Critchlow, then that's okay because it feels like the story has earned the right for a swaggering pay off.
After all, by that point we've been made to see hard-headed political manoeuvring, bewildered laughter and absurdist melancholia as three entirely valid ways of responding to the same series of events... hard to grudge a story that can do that a more traditional resolution, especially not when it just about manages to honour everything that came before.
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