Way back in my comic-buying youth, I would pick up issues of 2000 A.D. whenever I got a chance, mainly for the strips of Judge Dredd. Now, Peter J. Evans’ novel BLACK DAWN is derived from another property in the 2000 A.D. universe, that of Stronium Dog. But this book is the last of Evans’ “Chronicles of Durham Red” trilogy, and being completely lost in the first two chapters, I felt like someone told me to start Tolkien with THE RETURN OF THE KING.
In those opening pages, lots of backstory refers to previous exploits, leaving my head spinning. It seems that Durham Red was a female bounty hunter who had vampire tendencies. She was frozen for more than a thousand years, and when she awoke, there were humans who have become “the Iconoclast” and considered her a threat to their way of life. Conversely, the mutants think of her as their holy messiah, coming back to bring them glory. Red’s crew is comprised of one of each of these types. Confused? So was I. I guess she must have bitten an Iconoclast and made him her slave of some sort.
Onto the story, in which they crash-land onto a planet that has abolished all technology, like the Amish in space. Once they arrive, strange happening occur in town – namely, people being killed by some unseen force that rips them to shreds. The trio of travelers is thought to be part of the rebellion of people who want to bring technology back to the planet. From here, the group is split up, with the mutant captured and forced to work in a dungeon filled with decrepit technology tracking the rebellion, while Durham and Godoklin the Iconoclast try to figure out what’s going on.
There is plenty of action going down to make the read fly by, and actually, once they reach the planet, the story is pretty straightforward. I just wish I had the other books to know what the hell they were talking about. Nothing against the cover, but I felt like I should have been hanging out in front of Hot Topic, wearing a Bauhaus T-shirt. –Bruce Grossman
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