Review by Frank Plowright
Most of the obvious selections were used in the first hundred volumes of 2000AD: The Ultimate Collection, meaning a joy as it’s continued has been the appearance of material either long out of print, or stories that were never likely to be collected as more traditional paperbacks. Thirteen combines both. The title story was part of 2000AD’s blink and you missed it arrangement with DC as 13 in 2005, while the remainder is new to books.
While not subtitled as such, Thirteen presents all Mike Carey’s 2000AD work. The title story’s escalation from just another day on the London Underground to a planetary existential threat occupies about half the book. It’s followed by a shorter serial starring mystic Carver Hale and rounded out by a few twist in the tail SF stories.
The protagonists of the two serials are cut from the same cloth, Carver Hale being older, wiser and lacking psychic gifts, but very much London working class, as is Joe, with dialogue written to indicate it. It shows a level of care for a comic where a distinctive voice isn’t generally prioritised.
‘Thirteen’ is predictable, something Carey eventually acknowledges in his narrative captions, but the work put in on developing distinct personalities for the cast pays off. Lowlife Joe isn’t greatly likeable, but fellow psychic Daksha is, while the third primary character is interesting for being the digital recreation of an ancient alien warrior. Joe’s psychic powers are amplified when he makes contact with a bead, and it pushes him into ever greater danger. There’s something of Alan Davis in Andy Clarke’s design for alien warrior Aden, while the remainder of the cast are designed as distinctive, and as the strip broadens Clarke steps up the designs.
Mike Perkins on ‘Carver Hale’ can avoid SF trappings in what’s essentially a gangster story with supernatural intrusions, yet as these are disembodied he takes the old fashioned route of having them hovering over the people they possess. It’s a story that echoes the early days of 2000AD where one brave man leads against impossible odds in a grave situation, except Carey narrows the situation, and Hale has plenty on his conscience. There are a couple of twists, but otherwise this is a straightforward A to Z tale, with Hale not far removed from John Constantine. He’s a character with potential, though, and there’s the feeling that had there been further stories that potential would have been unlocked.
All four of the shorts have creative ideas behind them, the most disturbing being an alien insect wanting to impregnate a human with eggs, that nicely drawn by Cliff Robinson. John Charles is also good, contributing twice, but Ben McCloud early in his career is far from the finished article, a raw talent needing guidance.
Lucifer alone cements Carey’s place in comic history, and his fans will enjoy his eventual gathering of all his 2000AD work. However while Clarke and Perkins hold their ends up, this is okay rather than great.
