Devlin Waugh: Sirius Rising (2000AD #1168-1174)

"Happy doomsday Devlin" - Hekt

Time to wrap up a three volume plotline from the 2000AD Devlin Waugh series.  Devlin Waugh started out in the very early nineties as something of a parody deconstruction of the over-muscled, over-maco types in UK and US comics. Written by John Smith and painted by Sean Philips he was indeed a very muscular man who could get pretty violent in a fight.  He was also an openly gay, foppish dandy of a fellow highlighting the extreme homoeroticism that comics were often unwittingly depicting.  After his first story, Swimming in Blood in which he got turned into a vampire, he was forgotten for a while, before trimuphantly returning with a slightly less extreme look depicted by the highly talented artist Steve Yeowell who beautiful depicts the now more psychedelic world of Waugh. We got to see more of his backstory as a special occult investigator working for the Dredd-worlds equivalent of the Vatican which now monitors all occurances of magic and mystery.  After attempting to retire, the reluctant Devlin Waugh was pulled into an investigation which in the first volume resulted in the release of a creature called "The Herod" which is a huge monster impervious to harm and viciously violent under the control of "Lord Benjamen Hekt" who uses it as an assassin killing everyone born on July 23rd.  In the second book, a meeting of all the various occultists in the world comes to the realisation that someone has struck "the massmind of the world" Hekt attacks them and the rest of Earth with tidal waves.  Hekt is planning on bringing back something called "The Nommo" and is preparing the way for it by flooding the Earth.  The book culminates in an attempt by Devlin and companions to stop the Nommo, but they fail and flee the place it hatched in, they now have six days before the end of the world.  I don't think I've summed this very complex story up very well, so check out Book 1 Chasing Herod and Book 2, Reign Of Frogs if you haven't already.

Devlin contemplates the end of the world.

It begins in Brit Cit, there is panic and flames as the end of the world grows closer.  Devlin and a fellow occultist called Ralph are watching, depressed.   They realise the "Jack Of Knives" has activated another "Centre of Pestilance." Ralph notes this is true, "it's bedlam out there.  Power's down over half the city and the people are either crazy or in shock."  Even the animals in the zoo are affected and have broken out and running wild.

Devlin: "I can feel it even this far away.  The vibration getting higher... a popping and whizzing like water on a hot plate... Spacetime is growing then Ralph - and the closer we get to July 23rd.  The worse it's sure to become."

Back at the Vatican, Eddie Whyteman, a sort of seedy paranormal P.I. is admiring the new prosthetic hand he's been fitted by the Vatican boffins.  It has all sorts of functions, including a built in "Ferromagnetic bomb". Then he attends a recap meeting of what the situation is now, by Pussy Willow, another Vatican operative.

To sum up, the Earth Grid is a lattice of force "analogous energy meridians in the human body used in acupuncture."  The lines correspond to seismic faults and ocean ridges as well as atmospheric highs and lows. Where they intersect they form "chakras" seven of which are designated "Centres of Pestilance."  Five have already been triggered and one has just been activated, the one in Brit Cit.   So all that is left is the one at the North Pole.

Pussy: "On July 23rd these massing energies will stream into our atmosphere and Hekt plans to focus them in the Artic Circle where the Earth's magnetic field is weakest. That will be Ground Zero for the mutagenic changes that'll ripple out and reverberate through the grid."

Hekt has killed everyone born on July 23rd so he will become the sole focus for the Sirius Transmission.  But Pussy believes the changes will be triggered in everyone, humanity has gene sequences coded in it's DNA encoded by the Sirians millenia ago.

Eddie gets drafted.

One of the Bishops asks her how they acquired these "sleeper genes".  Pussy replies it was probably direct biological manipulation.  If Hekt activates the grid the danger is he'll activate these genes in everyone.  Eddie is somewhat dubious of "this ancient astronaut crap". Lucy tells him that's a shame because he is going to be going to the North Pole with Devlin., they didn't fix him back up for nothing.

In Brit Cit Devlin gets ready to travel in a ship, Ralph notes that the Vatican Psi-Teks are reverse engineering  start-up codes the Fakir's rope, a magical item that allows travel through space from one end to another. Raplh says they might stand a chance, though Devlin asks him not to bet on it.

Devlin: "I'm about to go traipsing round the Artic with an amatuer psychic sleuth in the dire hope we can prevent poleshift and save the Earth from invasion by amphibious extraterristrials.  We need more than a chance.  We need a bloody miracle."

And he takes off to meet Eddie. We cut to them using a sled and dogs to travel to the North Pole. They now are down to six hours to save the world.  Eddie complains the Fakir's rope is trying to strangle him.  He doesn't know why they have the damn thing, they still haven't cracked the codes.  Devlin tells him to quit whining, he's having to deal with sunlight which is "absolutely ravaging my skin".  They find the Vatican Tac-Team ready to try and stop this last Centre of Pestilence being activated.

The Vatican Tac-Team.

There are tanks and Judges there waiting, they are to defend the Centre while Devlin and Eddie infiltrate Hekt's underwater base. Devlin comments the sumersible is like a sarcophagus, Judge Luciano tells him that they have detected things in the water, "big things".

We then cut to Hekt, one of the Jack of Knives tells him he's sent the Herod to deal with the Judge troops and soon they will activate the final node when it's been purged. Hekt is looking a foetus in a jar saying he is remebering his birth, how they begin as amphibians on the way to growing into a man, "millions of years of evolution compressed into months". The womb is the "ultimate biological machine".

He asks if the "Jack of Mice" is ready to join them.  But he's still downloading his consciousness into his new body. Hekt says he is the first of his cloneselves, "the first of my sub-personalities to develop full autonomy".  So he wants him by his side when they trigger the deluge.

Hekt: "This is my crowning moment.  Twenty long years of planning and every piece is finally in place... rhyming and chiming in harmony.  We tremble on the brink of a new reality.  Soon I'll gaze upon the face of the deep."

We then return to Devlin and Eddie now diving deep down underwater, while a Judge-Inquistor asks Luciano if they stand a chance and Luciano says they better suceed, "I don't fancy the idea of waking up to find the world flooded and ruled by frogs from outer space.  Do you?"

Inside the submersible, Eddie notes Devlin's dapper clothing.  Devlin says it would be neglectful to face their nemesis in "anything less than Armani". He has a reputation to consider after all.  Eddie asks what they are looking for, and Devlin says their info is somewhat vague so they are looking for any anomalies.  Eddie finds one and they head off to investigate, Devlin grins and says, "I'd forgotten how exhilarating saving the world can be."

Mega Shark!

Eddie spots something big on the radar.  It turns out to be a huge shark. It smashes into their submersible and breaches it.  Eddie says these are no ordinary sharks, they are prehistoric ones. Extinct supposedly for three million years.  The shark turns to attack again. Devlin insigates a mind-link and they escape the stricken craft.

Back at the North Pole, the Judge-Inquisitors are battling the Herod.  They are throwing everything they have at it, but not even scratching it as it smashes the tanks and kills them. "It's like trying to stop a Earthquake" yells one of the Judges.

Eddie is sinking fast, going into shock due to the cold of the water.  Then one of the sharks swallows him. The story cuts between them and the devastation at the North Pole. Back at the Vatican they see the activating of the Centre of Pestilance. Lucy says they haven't lost yet, Devlin and Eddie might just make it.  She tells Psi-Tek to focus exclusively on cracking the codes of the Fakir's rope.

Eddie and Devlin are still in telepathic contact. The warmth of the shark's insides have revived Eddie.  Devlin draws some of his own blood to get himself eaten by the same shark while Eddie tells him not to throw his life away saving him. Inside they meet up.  Eddie's leg is injured and he's bleeding profusely.  Devlin fixes him up while noting his blood is AB negative, "the Dom Perignon of blood.  You're bringing out the gourmand in me."

In the belly of the beast.

Devlin the takes out his big blaster gun and blows a hole in the side of the shark.  The blood brings the other sharks to come and feast on it while Devlin lays a big mouth kiss on Eddie to allow him to breathe underwater.   They swim away and find the entrance to Hekt's iceberg lair.  Inside Hekt is being told the North Pole is theirs by the Jack of Knives. Now they are sending up the "Spirit Kites to activate the World Grid" this will allow them to open the outer gateways, "then it's time to meet our makers".

Devlin and Eddie surface inside Hekt's base.  Eddie notes that of all his debauched experiences, he's never had mouth-to-mouth with a vampire.  Devlin says it was his first time with "someone of the non-caucasion persuasion". They go and look for the poleshift generator. Eddie uses the EM scanner in his bionic hand to locate the generator which is being fired up as they speak, "well he might have lit the fuse but let's see if we can't put a stop to the fireworks." says Devlin.

As they walk, Eddie asks if the poleshift really results in mass extinction.  Devlin confirms it as well as jump-starting evolution as well.  If the dinosaurs hadn't become extinct they'd all still be living in trees. They come across the Jack of Mice being reborn in his new body.  Devlin takes great delight in killing him again quipping, "you only live twice."

Hekt.

Hekt is gleefully watching as the Jack of Knives gets ready to fully activate the North Pole Centre of Exellence.  He has the Nommo wit him who he calls "Ixaxxar".

Hekt: "It's opening hyperdimensions interlocking with our own. A great rusty gmte opening onto the future.  The deep is calling me home."

Then Devlin and Eddie arrive on the scene and Devlin points his blaster at Hekt, telling him he'll put him down "like the mad dog you are."

Hekt calls him a thorn in his side and becomes angry when he realises The Jack of Mice has been killed.  Eddie yells at Devlin to shoot him, but both are frozen in place by Hekt's new powers.  Hekt takes away the blaster saying he's paralysed his brain stem, "isn't it amazing the things you can do when you put your mind to it."

Hekt and Ixaxxar versus Eddie and Devlin.

We then cut to the Philippines where some Judge-Inquisitors are waiting on the edge of a volcano with the other end of the Fakir's rope. The code to it has been cracked so Eddie and Devlin can use it to escape. But is it too late, the nodes are activated and their chained up survivor of the Herod's July 23rd rampage is screaming. The "Sirius current" is about to ripple through the whole world grid.

Lucy: "Global switch-on. Everyone - everywhere - evolving into a new lifeform so we can survive the catastrophic earth changes caused by poleshift. Mutate or die."

Back in Hekt's base, he's starting to change physically.  The "Spirit Lens" is focusing and vibrating every cell preparing his body for ascension.  He shoots Eddie in the knee caps when Eddie tries to tell him he's wrong about the Nommo.  He transforms into a being made of blue light saying Ixaxxar has shown him the way.

Devlin yells at him that Ixaxxar is senile from being entombed from so long. But Hekt again says Ixaxaar has shown him the way.   Freed him from the shackles of everyday consciousness. And when the gateway opens, the rest of humanity will follow.  He's so close already, "they're coming to take me away."  Then he shoots Devlin three times in the chest.

Hekt, Jack of Knives, The Herod and Ixaxar then travel to the snowy surface as the born-on-the-23rd man back at the Vatican also starts mutating too. Soon everyone else on Earth will follow, and greeting Hekt, The Herod, Jack of Knives and Ixaaxar is a huge floating spherical object which declares it's "III greetings from the Sirius Corpus: III You have our attention".

This could be bad.

Back down inside Hekt's base, Devlin gets up.  Noting that being "nosferatu isn't completely without its uses", he asks how Eddy is.  Eddy is still bleeding from badly now from his ruined knees.  He hands the Fakir's rope to him so Devlin can use it later.  Eddie is going to try and shut off the EM scanner, while Devlin will head up and take on Hekt.  Devlin wishes his well saying they have travelled a hard road but he cherishes every step forever.  "Screw forever" says Eddie "let's just get through the next ten minutes".  And Devlin climbs up and away.

Hekt meanwhile is joyfully saying that Ixaxxar showed him how to "draw down the lightning.  Filled me with the fire of rapture".

Sirius Corpus: "III You have disrupted earth's presequenced evolutionary schedule: III Global grid disruption will trigger human psycho/somatic failsafes: III The decloaking of Sirius Conciousness in the Human Lifewave:"

Painfully Eddy drags himself through Hekt's base while Devlin finally reaches the surface and challenges Hekt, while the Sirians start to prepare for the turn on of the next phase of human evolution when the EM generator triggers the poleshift.

But before he can do anything, Hekt is cleared for ascension by the Sirians and disappears in a puff of blue flame along with Ixaxxar leaving Devlin with the Jack of Knives and The Herod. "Now prepare for the end of everything" says Jack as The Herod looms over them.  Jack doesn't intimidate Devlin who starts to kick his ass while dodging the attacks of The Herod.

Devlin makes his escape as Eddie makes the ultimate sacrifice.

Eddie reaches the EM generator as the countdown reaches under a minute but can't get close enough to shut it off.  Devlin activates the Fakir's rope and it also activates at the other end at the top of a volcano in the Philippines.  Devlin travels through the ropes space warp with The Herod behind him.  Meanwhile Eddy realises "who wants to live for ever anyway?" and just before the countdown ends he activates the bomb in his bionic arm and blows the EM generator and Hekt's base and himself to smithereens taking Jack of Knives on the surface out too.

The Sirians state "III Evolutionary shift parameters: stabilised DNA activation program on shutdown: : III Disengaging holosphere:"  Devlin realises what Eddie - "that poor sweet boy" - had done.  But they still have The Herod to deal with and it's halfway through the hole the rope made.

But this is it's downfall, they shut the rope off and the hole closes which neatly slices The Herod in half.  Then Devlin and the two others manning the rope push the half Herod into the volcano and for good measure blow it up sealing The Herod in the lava for good.

The bisected Herod entombed for good.

Lucy calls Devlin from The Vatican to tell him that things are returning to normal, the Centres of Pestilence are powering down and the Earth's Grid is restabilising, even though it will take months to fully become safe. Devlin notes that in the process thousands died by floods, earthquakes and disease not to mention "wholesale zodiacal genocide" it's not been a huge success.  They return to Pussy Willow's ship:

Devlin: "I'll fix us some Bloody Marys and we shall all get roaring drunk and toast another glorious day on Spaceship Earth".

There is a short sequence after this that shows what became of Hekt.  Now a Nommo himself he swims through the Sirius system and reflects that "I'm happy here.  For the first time in my life this is where I belong... Sirius rises".

Nommo!Hekt is sort of cute.

This is very much a story that only really makes sense as the last part of a larger storyline so I hope it's been read as such, with this concentrating pretty much purely on action and less on characterisation.  All the pieces fit together very well, I did realise what Eddie's fate would finally be when he revealed his Chekhov's bomb in his bionic hand.  It's a shame he died, because a shambling paranormal detective in a milieu where magic does exist could have remained an odd couple partner for the impeccable looking Vatican affiliated Devlin, their banter is excellent and I like how they can quip while also facing down the possible end of the world as they knew it. Killing The Herod off as well as allowing Devlin to escape the explosion was also a really clever way of taking down something that had been built up as completely unstoppable.  The Fakir's rope helped kick off the plotline only fair it helped end them too.  I even quite like how Hekt got a happy ending, the guy seemed to really hate being human and while it was a dick move to trigger the changes he experienced in all humanity, seeing him as a cute little Nommo at the end makes it hard to totally hate him.  Matching John Smith's boundlessly inventive imagination is Steve Yeowell's wonderful art which depicts all kind of weird and wonderful characters beautifully with crisp, firm detail.  This storyline overall was great stuff, filling out Devlin from the rather one note creation he was in Swimming In Blood and giving him allies, peers and enemies in abundance. Magic might feel a bit of a weird fit for Dredd's world, but Smith makes it work and the cheeky way he uses The Vatican as now the centre of tracking, investigating and dealing with occult threats is just highly amusing.  Devlin will return in the next collection, "Red Tide" when UK comics month comes around again.

Devlin Waugh: Reign of Frogs (2000AD #1158-1169)

"It was a bloodbath... it was all too ghastly for words" - Devlin Waugh

This is the middle part of a series of three linked storylines starring good old Devlin Waugh, following on from the first part Chasing Herod which I have covered previously.  If you don't know who Devlin is, he's a English gentleman, a flamboyantly gay man and a vampire (thanks to events that happened in his first storyline Swimming In Blood) who sort of works for the Dreddworld Vatican City as an expert in matters of the occult.  He keeps trying to retire, but events in Chasing Herod dragged him back into action.  In that storyline the Vatican was robbed and an item that summons a huge golem like creature called "The Herod" was stolen and auctioned.  Before Devlin and the Vatican City strike team could stop it, The Herod was summoned it killed several people and beat Devlin very badly before the others rescued him.  An avalanche temporarily brings it to a halt.  Now it is in the hands of a mysterious group who, at the end of the previous story, stated they will need to be ready for July 23rd, "and then.. we change the world".  Devlin, usually so smooth and composed is utterly terrified of The Herod, which he helped bring down in the past although we don't yet know how.  So before we find out what he is up too, there is a prologue introducing a new character to the series.  John Smith once again is writing, Steve Yeowell is also still doing the fantastically psychedelic art.

We're first introduced to one "Eddie Whyteman", a psychic detective from Megacity One who has been gambling and whoring in Indo-City.  "If luck was a lady, she was my goddamn ex-wife" he bemoans to himself as he is brought before Miss Kapoor of "Bollywood Heights" who is going to hire him so he can pay off his gambling debts faster than doing porn.

Eddie Whyteman

One of her prize Shi-Tzus has disappeared and she wants him to find it.  He drops in on the city's Grand Hall of Justice first but is told they can't even spare resources to find lost children let alone animals.  And dog flesh is tastier than rat.

He makes some inquiries on the streets and finds out a lot of dogs have been going missing, so he returns to his hotel room and gets out his old dollar bill so he could use the Illuminati Oracle and he performs the "XIII* ritual" to operate it.  It points him towards a meat packing district.

He hotwires a hover rickshaw and travels across the "radlands and mutant jungles of Western Ghats".  He ends up north in the uplands of Ahmadabad, "where my world came tumbling down".  He sees the dead dogs having their heads cut off and then the flesh removed in an acid vat.

Jack Of Knives.

A strange humanoid dressed like a clown with a distorted face and long knives for fingers is picking skulls out.  "It was Jack of Knives and he was building a bomb" thinks Eddie as he observes Jack putting together a pillar of dog skulls.  Jack starts the incantation to a spell, some sort of "spirit-bomb" synchronised with the lunar/cthonic current.

Unable to think of what else to do, Eddie pulls his gun and waits for a clear shot.  But Jack of Knives sees him.  It fires at him but in the long moment before the bullet hits  Eddie manages to send out a "garbled psychic distress flare."  Then the wind is punched out of him, the water comes up to meet him and all goes dark.

We then start the series proper with Devlin on his island off of East Samoa.  He's yelling at his two exquisite boys Luke and Phillipe that the haven't done the magical rites to protect his island properly.  They calm him down and he moodily says that "this place gets me so terribly down" and that "if this is life, I'm starting to envy the dead."

Devlin, hiding on a tropical island.

At the Vatican City a young man called Lazlo is making a presentation to the assembled Your Graces of footage of The Herod in action. It is shown tearing its way through a bunker designed to sit out a nuclear war in, a safehouse being used by targets, which are people born on the 23rd July.

We cut to Jenny, she is a woman who is very psychically sensitive and lies in a water tank in Vatican City. She starts detecting something.  Back with Lazlo he says when The Herod was last incarnate, Devlin and his brother Freddy defeated it.  Now Devlin is in self-imposed exile hiding from the The Herod it's up to the other Vatican operatives to stop it.

One of the cardinals asks how it is possible that The Herod has killed people in Cairo, Bejing, Istanbul and Buenos Airies in the last 24 hours.  Lazlo says it travels via mirrors.  Occultists know this but they haven't made it public in case they induce mass panic.

Jenny and Lazlo.

Lazlo is asked what this genocide means, Lazlo says they don't know yet but have several agents think it may concern "the world energy grid in some way" but they have no evidence yet. Then Jenny is hit first by Eddie Whyteman's psychic cry for help then the full force of what Jack Of Knives set off before the others detect it.

Lucy comes rushing over to Lazlo saying Jenny's had some kind of fit and he needs to come and look because the whole mainboard has lit up like a Christmas tree:

Lucy: "It's India. Psi-Sats and Groundwatch both confirm it!  The Centre of Pestilence in India has just gone critical!"

The effects of Jack Of Knive's "bomb" is shown.  At 200 miles, shockwaves and Earth tremors. AT 100 miles, hallucinations, blindness, temporal lobe seizures and spontaneous combustion.  50 miles, hysteria, madness,  anti-gravity effects, earthlights and poltergeist activity. At Ground Zero, death. "One down.  Six to go." thinks Jack.

Pussy Willow in action.

While this is going on Devlin is getting more drunk and self pitying.  Luke and Philipe get him to bed. At the Vatican City Lazlo and Lucy talk about what happened.  Lazlo says it's not confined to India so they have been given "full sanction to send in Pussy Willow". Lucy protests saying she's not right in the head, but Pussy calls in and says "his Holiness has spoken so you're stuck with me aren't you?"

Lazlo asks her what things are like where she is.  She says it was a "dirty bomb" and she can't get within a mile of the blast zone.

Pussy Willow: "I'm reading high radon and widecast Zothyrian level emanations and there's all kind of levitation effects showing up.  Feels like gravity keeps switching itself on and off."

Checking closer she finds that it's not just a  "grid point activation", they have gone deeper and "locked the original grid down." She goes in closer still. "I don't know whether this is hell or the foundation stones of heaven.  But we've got trouble."

Devlin is visited by the League of Shadows.

Devlin blearily wakes up and hearing a noise, goes and looks for Luke and Phillipe.  He finds them dead, frozen solid by a group of nefarious individuals who have transported in. The leader introduces himself as "Dr. Nevermind" and a white-suited man with a halo called "The Catechist" puts a vampire killing knife to Devlin's throat.

In India, Pussy Willow reports that she needs to be pulled out of there, her ship isn't able to stand up to what's happening.  Lazlo tells her about the message received from Eddie Whyteman and could she go and find him?  She uses her special earring to track him down via his heartbeat.

Back with Devlin, the assorted people who transported in are all wanted by the Vatican City.  But the threat of The Herod has caused them all to band together against the greater threat and they want Devlin on their side as well.  One of them says The Herod is just one piece of the puzzle and someone has "struck fear into the massmind of the world." They know enough that everyone is under threat.

Devlin won't play ball however.  He's content to sit in the dark and drink while the whole world falls apart. "That's precisely what I intend to do.  Chin chin!" snarls Devlin. Watching this, Ralph Beerbohm says he's going to have to "bring in Stella."

He refuses to play ball though.

At the Vatican, Lucy is performing a rite of "feeding the Exus" when Lazlo interrupts saying "The League of Shadows" have got in touch, their arch enemies have declared a truce. Lucy says it's great news, then goes back to her ritual.

Devlin is still being intransigent. The others try to talk him into coopertaing but he says nothing they could say will convince him.  Then Dr. Nevermind activates "the Eschersphere" and someone comes through it.  "Mother?" whispers Devlin:

Stella: "Don't you 'mother' me.  I was at a whist drive in Biarritz before they dragooned me into this and I'm not in the mood for any of your crap Devlin.  Now stop gawping and fix me a drink and we can get this whole bloody mess sorted out."

We then travel to Thailand.  A man in a flowery shirt is saying he sees drowned cities, "man crawling back to meet his maker".  Then a man with no legs informs him he's detected  unusual "aetheric activity" in the South Pacific where Devlin Waugh is.   The flowery shirted man orders an "earthquake level event" targetted at Devlin's location.  "They won't know what hit them" he says.

 Stella gives him a piece of her mind..

Devlin's mum Stella chews him out for his behaviour while Devlin protests.  She says he's "bringing shame" on the family name with his "grubby self-serving behaviour". Then the vatican City call and warn them something huge is headed their way. The man with four arms who was out on the beach runs in and says the tide has gone out, which is impossible on a small island.  And a huge tidal wave bears down on them.

We then jump forwards to Devlin, his mum and The League of Shadows safely at a hotel in Timbuk2.  Stella's diary records that they all managed to get in the Eschersphere before the wave crashed down.  She doesn't know how, "but he has my deepest respect."  Investigators up in space find the satellite that caused the wave, it's "HekTek".

Pussy Willow then shows up with Eddie Whyteman, he's injured but patched up enough to now to interact with people normally. Bewildered by all the strange people, Stella leaves them and goes to find something to drink.  Everyone else sits round a table and start to figure out what is going on.

Lazlo says that "Lord Benjamin Hekt" is behind everything. He apparently started to go off the rails with the building of Timbuk2, he's obsessed with the place.  Hekt has his fingers in many pies but his real interest is in "enviromental engineering".  He's been setting up satellite and ground based transmitter sites all over the world, but Pussy says they had no idea why until he suddenly powered up the "Centres of Pestilence." Eddie says that's when things get "seriously weird."

A loose end from part one tied up.

We then cut to a Vatican expedition on a boat where a wolf-headed man and a snake bodied woman are making out.  A Judge brings something they have found to their attention.  it's a floating shrine to Kali. Someone tried to escape through it and they shot him.  it's the Fakir from the first part of this storyline who stole the Herod skull and kicked everything off.

Timbuk2:  Eddie carries on talking.  He tells everyone about the "Dogon", an ancient people who migrated to Mali thousands of years ago from pre-dynastic Egypt.  They are "practically on their doorstep" and why Hekt chose this place to build Timbuk2. The Dogon's secret knowledge is about the dog star Sirius:

Eddie: "They believe civilisation was bought to Earth 15,000 years ago by amphibious extra-terrestrials from the Sirius system."

Others have heard of this alien race, the "Nommo". Eddie is asked what makes him such an expert and he says he is half Dogon himself on his father's side.  His father was a high priest before the "credit wars" forced him to relocate to Megacity One.

So he knows why Hekt is tripping the Centres of Pestilence.  He's "lighting the beacon that will summon the Nommo back to Earth".  The key is July the 23rd, which is when the hyperspace link between Sirius and Earth is at its strongest.  As well as other occult links with people born on that day being sensitive to "influences from the outside", July the 23rd is Hekt's birthday:

Pussy Willow: "And he's convinced that by snuffing out the competition he'll be the only channel to receive the Sirius transmission. An astral lightning conductor earthing the current himself."

Before the Nommo arrive, Hekt has to prepare the planet and that's what he's been doing setting up all the transmitter sites and seismic weapons.  Pussy Willow says he plans to flip the magnetic poles and flood the Earth.

The League and Vatican representatives try and figure out Hekt's plan.

Eddie says thousands of tonnes of meltwater will be released and there will be mile high tidal waves.  And when it ends the mass landings will begin.  Devlin however is somewhat dismissive of the idea of an alien invasion.  Pussy Willow admits maybe its not something to be taken literally, that it's something in their DNA.

The Catechist says maybe both are right, he sees it maybe a something to do with sex, "erotic symbolism which concealed intercourse with cosmic beings".  Devlin snaps at him that he doesn't believe his "satanic flim flam".  Eddie says they are all blinkered by their magickal dogma, "it's hard to know who's right and wrong".

Eddie then goes onto say that Hekt must have found out about the Nommo from "the Toad in the Stone".  A guardian left behind by the Nommo, which was to monitor mankind in their abscence.  It was sealed beneath the Spinx but is now somewhere under Timbuk2 and Hekt has tuned into its wavelength somehow.

So what does the Herod have to do with this?  It's the "Opener of the Way" killing everyone born on July 23rd.  But Hekt has been killing those people for decades now with specially engineered viruses which killed 40% of people born on that day. "A quiet war waged with silent weapons" muses Lucy.

Elsewhere in the hotel a couple have checked in, although they were told not to bring in a mirror, the woman has smuggled one in.  Bad move, the Herod comes through and crushes her, then goes rampaging in search of his real target. Dr Nevermind panics, he was born on July 23rd.  Lucy summons the tree-like Exus to fight The Herod as they run.  Dr. Nevermind flees at great speed and Lazlo admits July the 23rd is his birthday too.

The Herod squishes people with ease.

The Herod catches Dr. Nevermind and crushes him, then heads towards Devlin's mother.  Lazlo asks how Devlin and his brother stopped it last time.  Devlin says his brother sold his soul to the devil to find out its "protocult codes" and nuked it with an "art/life virus".

He then uses his amulet on the Herod even though he thinks a fertility spell won't be much use, but some things grow from the ground an attack it and another of the group uses an ice spell against it which temporarily slows it down and Devlin's mother can get to safety.  Another of the group has his cockatoo transform into a pterodon like monster which fights the recovered Herod as everyone runs again.

They leave the hotel and find The Catechist in a truck. He disses God and says he's not afraid to die and rams the truck into the Herod.  They carry on running but find they can go no further.  Lazlo decides to face death with dignity, but then Jenny in her mobile tank rams the Herod who tosses her to one side.  Then he murders Lazlo and departs through a nearby nightclub mirror.

Lazlo is killed, Jenny badly injured.

The final part of the story is narrated by Devlin in flashback.  When he cast his spell he left traces on The Herod that allowed them to track it down to where Hekt was hiding. His base was in the salt mines under Timbuk2. The team from the boat which found the floating shrine join them and they went to investigate hoping for a quick "snuff job".

Jenny, despite losing her body's arms and legs wass still alive and traveled with them via her astral projection. "There was a foetor to that place - a reek of dissolution - and as we pushed further onwards it grew interminably worse" he recounts.  Then they were attacked by creatures with many arms and legs.

They managed to wipe the creatures out but sustained casualities as they did so.  With no other options they pressed on.

Devlin: "For the longest time it was eerily quiet - the kind of quiet you only find underground - the sense of all that rock pressing down. Then Jenny muttered something in a strange fluting voice and I knew then we'd found it.  Our quarry's lair.  The heart of darkness.  The house that Hekt built".

There was a massive geode cracked open outside the perfectly normal looking house.  They ventured inside with weapons primed, but a voice warned them they shouldn't have come here.

Something was inside that thing...

The voice then said before they died would they "like to meet Ixnaar.  I know he'd like a word with you".  Then the lights went out and there was a "damburst of ultrasonics".   It caught them unawares and had a terrible effect on Jenny distorting her astral form before she could pull back to her body.

Devlin then admits he can't remember much of what happened next. But as he fled he glanced back and saw a giant frog-like monster, which is obviously the Nommo Monitor Eddie spoke of. Devlin says that how he got out he doesn't know, "some things are so terrible.  So big and sharp and ugly they're not meant to fit in our heads."

They sent "the movers" down there the next day but Hekt and the Nommo were gone.  Jenny never regained her higher brain functions.  Devlin says sadly that "he beat us.  Trounced us like we were amateurs".  Nevermind, Lazlo, The Cathechist, Furor all dead.  Jenny as good as dead.

Devlin: "We have six days before Sirius rises and the outer gateways flung open. Time to bury our dead and grieve before the final curtain".

And the mosnter is revealed.

And that brings this middle part of the trilogy to a doom-laden close.  This is not an easy read.  I must admit I only picked up on certain things when I was writing it up having missed them on my first casual perusuals.  Despite the serious nature of the overall story there is some humour with Devlin's mum being unleashed to get him to step up and help in the battle against Hekt.  Also Eddie Whyteman is an interesting character who I'd like to see more of, a shabbier and more low rent magician than the stylish gentleman Devlin.  Also once again praise is due for Devlin being depicted as an obviously gay man, we still need more of those in comics.  John Smith really goes wild with Escherspheres, monster clowns, killer golems and a range of weird and wonderful magical characters and Steve Yeowell depicts them all in a clean, crisp way.  More detailed than his hi-energy work on Zenith, he and Smith make an excellent pair.  If I had one criticism, the huge info-dump about the Nommo is somewhat inelegant, although obviously it was needed, I wonder if it could have been presented a bit more excitingly than people sitting round a table.  But I carp pettily.  This is great stuff and has really set up what seems to be an unbeatable enemy, so if you want to know how it all ends, I'll be covering the final part in mynext UK comics month.  This storyline is also collected in the first Devlin Waugh trade paperback "Swimming In Blood" too.

Devlin Waugh: Chasing Herod (2000AD #1149-1157)

"What were we thinking of all those years ago?" - Devlin Waugh

"Chasing Herod" is the first in a linked series of storylines starring the titular Mr. Waugh but I shall be eking them out across future UK comics months same as The Ballad Of Halo Jones, oh I am such a furious tease.  Rather like Devlin himself in fact, a flamoyantly gay, incredibly muscular and virile man who used to work for the Judge Dredd world's Vatican City dealing with matters of the occult.  During the events of Swimming In Blood, which I have covered previously, he became a vampire as well and retired from his Vatican post to enjoy a life of aesthetic pleasure and cat breeding in the company of handsome young men.  Becoming a vampire doesn't really affect him, it's just gives him one more fluid he likes to feed on (oo-er missus) and he has no shortage of admirers willing to let him sup from them.  "Chasing Herod" sees him somewhat unwillingly dragged back into the kinds of things his former job required him to deal with, but the inciting incident is such an immediate threat that he can't help but risk everything to try and stop it escalating into something far more horrific.  If you've checked out his first storyline you'll notice that the art style here is rather different.  I think it's because by design "Swimming in Blood" was a deliberately over-the-top homoerotic paen to muscles, blood and guns, parodying the then envogue fashion in comic book art for completely unironic muscles, blood and guns.  With this story coming several years after we all grew up a bit, and with the subject matter being more about spiritual horror than body horror, Steve Yeowell's art works that much better.  John Smith is back on writing duties as well, Devlin being very much His character.

We start with a prologue reintroducing the character of Devlin to the reader.  It's been narrated in the form of a last will and testement of a journalist called Ronson "Ratso" March.  It was twenty years ago he first encountered Devlin in action, in Brit Cit fighting "Ghost Dancers" inside a "Spirit Cage" round a church. 

He gets too close and is attacked by "qlippothic larvae" and spends three months in deep sedation, when he comes to, he is blind.  This proves to be a blessing in disguise, he gets enhanced bionic eyes and becomes one of the top five photo journalists in Europe.  He's followed Devlin's career ever since.

Devlin defends his 'tache.

His next big photoscoop was when "The Cult of the Purple Fist" kidnapped Devlin's mother and "threatened to expose her to the Black Mirror if he didn't shave his moustache off on world sat-TV".  However Devlin tracked them to their lair and defeated them.

Ratso goes through some more of Devlin's triumphs including Olympic Gold for Flower Arranging despite a scandal later when he was found having abused steroids.  His announcement of his retirement after the Aquatraz incident suprised everyone, but then he is discovered to be a vampire, "but that doesn't make me a bad person" says Devlin at a press conference confirming the rumours about him.

Outed!

Ratso is sad he retired, "the world was a duller, greyer place without him".  Devlin withdrew completely to his Cote D'Azur retreat, which was seven years ago.  Ratso writes that there have been "whispers and rumours of war".

Ratso: "They say something is coming.  Something from the outside.  Something hungry for the world.  I fear for the future.  Who's going to save us now?"

And he puts a gun in his mouth.  The next panel is black.  With that done, we start the story proper.  At Fortress Neuschwanstich in the Bavarian Alps, "Lady Fading Light" is welcoming "The Fakir".

The Fakir and Lady Fading Light.

She wants him to steal some occult relics deep in the Vatican's catacombs.  The psi-defences are state of the art, but they have a "sleeper" in place.

Lady Fading Light: "We're using Red Sect ritual in conjunction with Dreamshopper Voodootronics.  A Delta-T satellite array broadcasting the signal.  We can activate our Trojan Horse anytime during R.E.M sleep."

She says they relics are for an auction, the invitations have been sent and in three days time anyone who is anyone in the occult underworld will be there, "all we need now is the merchandise".

The Vatican night shift.

We then cut to the Vatican where the night shift is beginning. A dark skinned woman in tigerstriped clothes and glasses called Lucy Melmoth says "everyone in Rome is having nightmares".  They are picking up broadcasts of some kind of "EM Cypher pulsed at key brainwave rhythmns".  She says if she was paranoid they could be looking at "Mindwar".

We are introduced to "Jenny Hanniver" who lives in a flotation tank and "dreams of other places.  Soft places between worlds".  She babbles that "they're coming". Lazlo Fuerst checks the I Ching with trepidation. Then we meet a sleeping "Cardinal Agrest" who shouts "get out of my head!" as he has nightmares.  Lady Fading Light orders him to wake up, he is their Trojan Horse.

Then we join Devlin and his latest gentleman friend, Antonio as Antonio reads him the various begging letters Devlin gets asking him to perform exorcisms and the like.

Devlin: "Enough! Enough! Why should I be forever expected to martyr myself for the worlds misfortunes when I can't even decide which cravat to wear?  Whatever will they want next? Blood?"

And he grins, showing his fangs and asks Antonio is there is a chance of some "liquid refreshment" before the premiere?  Antonio says he is drained from last time, but allows Devlin to drink from him anyway.

How can you resist Devlin wanting your bodily fluids?

Back with Cardinal Agrest, now under Lady Fading Light's control, he dresses and walks down to the restricted area and gains starts to gain access.

At Canne a TV reporter is telling viewers that Devlin is making a rare public appearance because the film being premiered is called "Swimming In Blood" and based on the Aquatraz vampire outbreak seven years ago.  There are lots of fans there screaming for Devlin.

He walks down the red carpet basking in the adulation, with Antonio by his side.  Antonio is the actor playing Devlin in the film which, as a TV anchor says, "despite being a retro action flick, the film is hotly tipped to win the Palm D'Or."
At the Vatican City Cardinal Agrest is moving through the many levels of security to get to the relic room.  Meanwhile Jenny is freaking out, "the b-black rope! The King of Skin!  I can see him!"  Finally Cardinal Agrest reaches the relic vault.  Lady Fading Light asks if The Fakir is ready?  He says he's had thirty-six lifetimes to prepare for this, he is more than ready.

Cardinal Agrest, the sleeper.

At the party before the Cannes premiere, Devlin and Antonio are mingling with various guests and reporters.  They are bing bothered by a female reporter who snidely says to Antonio that she never expected him to be "fraternising with vampires."  Antonio responds that the entire industry is full of bloodsuckers, "at least Devlin's open about it".  She says they'll see if his devotion is warranted when the film goes on general release in three days time.

Devlin: "In three days you'll be killed in a car crash when your chauffuer has a heart attack at the wheel. So I'm afraid you'll have to do your gloating from the other end of a ouja board."

They leave her and move on while she is left lost for words.  While over at the Vatican, Cardinal Agrest is vomiting up a length of rope.

Rope vomit.

The rope stands up straight and a portal opens up at the top of it and The Fakir appears and climbs down it.  The Fakir then tells the bamboozled Cardinal Agrest "welcome to Kali Yuga.  The beginning of the end of the world."

The hugely fat man called Chubby in the control room with Lucy says he thinks something isn't right.  He says he feels sick and he is hearing Jenny shouting and screaming in his mind.  Lucy says it's probably the crazy signal, but she'll recheck the defence protocols just in case.

Then an alarm goes off, a foreign aura has been detected in the "Iso vault zero".  The Fakir using the still confused Cardinal Agrest takes the relics he has been tasked with stealing.  He says he's been detected and has three more minutes before the Judge Inquistor get to them.  As security rush there, Lucy puts the Vatican on full lock down, "the exus are on the prowl and this creep's out of luck..."

Deviln tires of his fans.

At Cannes Devlin is regaling a group of admirers with tales of his exploits.  They all demand more stories from him, but he makes his excuses and goes and joins Antonio saying they should go for a walk.

Devlin: "If I am forced to recount yet another dreary tale of my mispent middle age I will be violently sick all over the canapes."

In the Vatican's Iso-vault Zero, Cardinal Agrest's body has been found dead, but still warm, killed minutes ago.  Lazlo Fuerst demands to know where the killer is.  They have psi-blockers and teleport suppressors an every level and the vault was locked from the inside. "Could we be looking at a shining window?  Perhaps somekind of untradimensional entity?" he wonders. 

Checking what was stolen.

They recognise the cord that strangled Cardinal Agrest as belonging to a Thuggee cult that worships the death aspect of the Goddess Kali.  A Judge checking what was taken says it wasn't much, but it included a skull marked as Artefact 666.  Lazlo freaks and says they should have destroyed it thirteen years ago when they first acquired it.  Lucy says they better get in touch with Devlin, "if anyone needs to know about this it's him".

Devlin and Antonio are out for a stroll.  Devlin says he hasn't been this "deliriously happy" since boarding school.  Before Antonio came into his life, he had resigned himself to one of quiet desperation with his painting, cats and well-stocked wine cellar.

Devlin: "Now I shouldn't care if the moon fell or the stars stopped in their tracks, just as long as you were beside me.  Antonio, I think I might be falling..."

But he is cut off by an interuption from a messanger bringing him a phone with a call from the Vatican waiting to be answered.  Annoyed, Devlin says he is done with all that "beastliness" but he picks it up and speaks with Lucy anyway.

She get straight to the point and tells him, "it's the Herod... someone's stolen the Skull of The Herod".  This sends Devlin into a despairing panic as he remembers facing off against The Herod before, a huge creature he fought in Bahrain.

Narration: "The funeral pyres.  Oil fires in the nuclear desert.  Firestorms and black rain and corpses stacked like timber.  Charpits burning... Hell on Earth. Herod in the ruins."

All Devlin can say in reponse to this news is "God help us.  God help us all".

The prospect of the Herod getting loose turns Devlin serious.

The news media have got hold of the story that there was a security breach at the Vatican's occult tracking facility and that at the same time Devlin was called away from the Canne premiere, an admirer said "he's back in the driving seat just like the good old days."

Lucy and Lazlo are watching the news, Lucy grumbles about where these people get their information from, the 0800 psychic hotline?  Lazlo says it is probably the skull's doing:

Lazlo: "There's over two thousand years of sickness stored up in that thing.  Bringing it into the open must have scorched the massmind for miles around."

Chubby announces that Devlin is here.  Lucy says she's always wanted to meet him, he's been her hero since pre-school. 

Devlin comes storming in yelling "You utter bloody fools!" They've allowed the most dangerous destructive force since the A-Bomb to be stolen.  He says he should have fired it into the sun, "and to blazes with psychoarchaelogical study."  Lazlo says they still have a chance, the skull takes skill to reprogram, if they can intercept it before that the damage can be contained.  Devlin says he is afraid and wants to run away to a desert island and put his head in the sand:

Devlin: "But The Herod would murder the world if it could.  Where do you hide from something like that?"

At Lady Fading Light's fortress she thanks The Fakir for taking special effort to conceal his trail back there.  He asks if it is true about her "psychometric" talents.  She says yes, her people (the Masai) can "divine the history of an object by touch."  The Fakir tells her in that case be careful of the skull, "it bites."

The loot.

At the Vatican they figure out the thief used "tantric death magic" to open a door into the vault.  After praising Lucy's work on the case, Devlin says he had an expert of his own look over the cardinal's autopsy reports. The M.O. is the same as a killer they have been trying to catch for years, The Fakir:

Devlin: "I refuse to go into detail about his perverse yogic practices.  But he is able to fold himself through space like some kind of fantastical contortonist".

He think though he may have left traces in the astral fluid.  So with the help of Jenny he is going to go on an out-of-body reconnaissance mission, "we shall follow his spoor straight to his front door."  The all go down to where Jenny is.  Devlin asks what happened to her? Lazlo says:

Lazlo: "She was left quadriplegic six years ago after an allosaurus attack in dinosaur park.  She's been like this ever since.  She may seem spacey and strung, but when it comes ti the high strangeness cases she really knows her stuff."

Devlin links up with her and their astral projections fly of together and quickly find Castle Neuschwanstein.  He praises the place which was built by a lunatic, as a "marvellous location for a secret base."

Devlin and Jenny astrally project.

The auction attendees start arriving.  Devlin indentifies them or sends images of them back to Chubby to indentify as well.  A man with four arms is "Harry Kiri" who Devlin bested in a martial arts exhibtion match some years ago.  Chubby says the dwarf with him is "Vicomte Henri Labas" he was born in Paris in 1849, but catapaulted into their time during a sex magic ritual gone very wrong.

A man with four horns is "The Jack of Mice".  Devlin says he's killed him twice, but "you can't keep a good cloneshark down".  A parasite creature attached to a human body is one of "The Sunless Ones", a qlippothic lifeform that shouldn't be in their reality. A woman with the lower body of a snake is "Countess de Borjaque" and her lover is a werewolf called "Lovebite" who can only communicate in barks and growls so she translates for him.

The last one to arrive is "Mr. Zurich, The Blind Watchmaker" who seems to sense Jenny and Devlin watching them.  But he dismisses it after a moment.  Lady Fading Light assures him that the Castle itself is protected with "hunter/seeker systems at every level".  Devlin wants a look inside the castle, Jenny cautions against it:

Devlin: "The skull of Herod is down there somewhere and I refuse to be deterred by schlock horror fear frequences and infra-psionics".

Devlin tries to peek inside the castle but is repelled.

He starts to push his way through the black barrier surrounding the castle when a many mouthed and multi-tentacled creature attacks him sending his astral form fleeing back into his body.  Once there he collects himself then tells the others:

Devlin: "Assemble a strike team, right away.  We've done all we can in the spirit.  I think it's time we payed a visit in the flesh."

The guests for the auction are mingling and chatting.  Lady Fading Light goes to meet the final attendee, "The Catechist".  Now the auction can begin.  As the bidding starts on the various relics, The Jack of Mice tells the Countess he is after Herod's Skull.

Countess de Borjaque: "Not you too? Herod is the name on everyone's lips it seems.  I think we'd all give our pound of flesh to get our hands on that thing".

The auction continues, but before they get to the Skull a flying ship smashes into the castle and Devlin disembarks, armed, with Lazlo, Lucy and a group of Inquisitor Judges in tow.

Devlin and the Vatican team crash the auction.

Devlin orders the hand over of the Skull, but Lady Fading Light tells her guests the "antibodies are online" and for them to get as far away from the intruders as they can.  In the confusion, The Jack of Mice grabs the Skull of Herod and dodging gunfire, leaps through a window and races off.  Devlin jumps out of the window after him in hot pursuit. He chases The Jack of Mice through a snowy landscape as the Vatican forces withdraw from the castle to go and help him.

The Jack of Mice breaks into a house and kills the couple inside.  Using their blood he draws a magic circle.  Devlin catches up with him and says "if you don't put down that knife I'll kill you here and now".  The Jack of Mice just grins at him and says "too late Devlin.  Say hello to The Herod for me".  And he slashes his own throat.  His blood splashes on the Skull which starts to grown and sprout.  In horror, Devlin can only watch and pray to Christ until The Herod is restored and standing in front of him.

Uh-oh...

The Herod tosses Devlin through the window of another house with an elderly couple in it.  People come running from surrounding houses to investigate the noise, a badly beaten Devlin yells at them to get away.  But too late, The Herod comes crashing out and kills everyone, "bones shatter like toffee.  Meat of the chopping board. Murder by moonlight".
The Herod keeps killing until only Devlin is left, it starts to approach him but the Vatican ship flies overhead and drops down a line for Devlin to grab on to, which he does and they pull him aboard just as an avalanche hits The Herod.  As Lucy tends to him, he says "Oh God. Oh God.  It's still out there.  Hungry for the world. And it's still out there."

Devlin saved in the nick of time.

We jump forwards three weeks, The Herod is inert in a mystery location being discussed by a man and woman.  The woman says as it was activated by the Jack of Mice, they only had to use his "DNA Decrypt codes" to disarm it so they can get it ready for "The Deluge".  Which can't come soon enough for the man.  The Herod is not at full power yet, they plan on enhancing it too:

Man: "We need to interace it with ambient temperature superconductors and implat an aethyric skeleton key so it can travel via mirrors.  Then it is just a matter of reconfiguring its kill parameters"
And it will need to be ready for July 23rd, to user in an invasion, "and then.. we change the world".

The Herod offline... waits.

And that brings this first part of a three part storyline to a close.  It's not often a comic sends me scurrying for my dictionary but John Smith really goes all out with archaic and strange words which are well suited to a story on magical mayhem. It's interesting how humanising it is to see Devlin, something of a self-centred, overly confident bastard face something that utterly terrfies him.  It shows that a lot of his bluster is just that, bluster, he returns to his old job without a word of complaint once he knows the stakes involved and takes the lead in facing down the threat of The Herod despite his previous experiences with it causing him so much fear.  Once again it's refreshing to see an out and proud gay man starring in his own series, the UK was definitely ahead of the US on these matters.  It's also heartening to think in the future the Vatican would have no qualms about him working for them either.  The mixture of the religious and the occult is interesting, and that policing the realm of the supernatural would fall to the Vatican does make sense if you consider there are still priests out there in our time performing exorcisms and the like. Steve Yeowell's art deals with the psychedelic aspects of the storyline beautifully and the rest is good as well, it's quite different from his work on the Zenith series.  John Smith's scripts are complex, but do feel like the sort of things people would say when existing in that world and with The Herod has built up a creature that is obviously going to cause more trouble in the installments to come...