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Just thought that after finishing the story I'd give Cradlegrave a review thread of its own here, instead of the Prog Review section. Mainly because it's an all-time 2000ad classic, up there with Halo Jones in my book anyway, and deserves it.
The characters - no superpowers, special guns, extra heads, or anything else gimmicky. Just normal, working-class lads, and fair play to John Smith for treating the 'chav' types as normal human beings that the reader can care about, rather than 2-dimensional stereotypes.
The setting - an all-too-realistic place that's probably familiar to most of us here. Though a middle-class blow-in, I used to rent a house in one of the dodgiest areas in Dublin and the characters in Cradlegrave are pretty close to the mark. (Although Cradlegrave seems not to have TOO much of a heroin problem, despite Skully's best efforts. Mind you, an eyelid-gluing / torso-cooking problem isn't good either).
The supernatural aspect - slow burning and unsettling. I was slightly disappointed at first that there was a supernatural aspect to the story at all, but its unpleasant but muted malign influence fit the story perfectly, unlike, say, that story 13 a few years ago where a jobless young punk (of the type that hasn't been about since the 80's, and where did he get such a nice apartment of his own anyway?) gets suddenly mixed up in garish sci-fi.
The ending - questions are unanswered, but in a good way. Despite mary being the cause of the whole thing, we begin to feel for her as a character (and hers was, I think, one of the most emotional death scenes 2000ad has ever had - and it's not often I feel deep sympathy for a warped, disgusting monster that's slowly destroying normal people's lives).
All in all, looking forward to the film. You never know - it's definitely good movie material.
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