The Mean Arena Volume One: All To Slay For - Rebellion [Part Five]

THE MEAN ARENA VOLUME ONE: ALL TO SLAY FOR, March 2021

Whilst Tom Tully’s final storyline for this weighty tome somewhat strangely doesn’t depict Slater’s Slayers competing in an actual match, “The Jensens” does still maintain the British writer’s modus operandi for “scrotnig” shenanigans involving plenty of death and destruction. In fact, despite almost the entire narrative being set inside the club’s training complex, it is this six-part adventure which notches up Matt Tallon’s most kills since "the finest street footballer in the world" first started upon his merciless quest for revenge upon the people responsible for his younger brother’s death; “You defended yourself so well, Mister. You wiped out the whole family! Five dead and it’ll be a long time before the Jensen girls get out of hospital.”

Such a heavy death-toll really does show how violent a world the Shadow of the Slayers lives in, and ably demonstrates just why the ‘Big-Shot’ isn’t all that popular with his team-mates despite having elevated them into the national spotlight through his lucrative sponsorship deal with Kosi-Flex Sportswear. In addition, Tully takes the opportunity to use this homage to High Noon as a vehicle for introducing Sheena Lloyd and Ryk Rogan to the comic strip’s audience, as well as providing some much-needed ‘pen pictures’ of Mike Slater’s other players, such as Hangman, Sourpuss, Screaming Sid, Dirty Nigel and Crazy Lil.

Of course the highlight of Tallon’s confrontation against the Malevolent Seven is his no holds barred battle within the Slayer’s drill ground, and how Matt manages to utilise his street smarts so as to outwit his truly vicious opponents. Whether it be simply attaching a ten-second timed limpet mine to a game ball, or simply spooking Hazell into making a rash move by booing at her through a garage window, the author shows this book’s central protagonist exploiting every trick the man has ever learnt during his highly successful sport’s career in order to survive his seemingly deadly ordeal.

Perhaps this tale’s greatest asset however, lies with Steve Dillon’s impressive layouts, and the way in which his pencilling adds enormously to both the sheer sense of Jarl Jensen’s physical menace, as well as the entire criminal crew’s evident notoriety. The Bedfordshire-born artist’s depiction of the aggressive gang gunning down hapless store keepers and chopping up practice droids quickly denotes just how noxious they can be, and arguably makes the way they are subsequently whittled down one-by-one by an equally mercenary Matt all the more impressive.

Script Robot: Tom Tully, Art Robot: Steve Dillon, and Lettering Robot: Pete Knight

The Mean Arena Volume One: All To Slay For - Rebellion [Part Four]

THE MEAN ARENA VOLUME ONE: ALL TO SLAY FOR, March 2021

Following on from a fascinating two-part interim tale based upon incidents taken from left-flank blocker J.T. Venner’s biographical book “With A Mate Like This, Who Needs Enemies?”, Tom Tully’s sense-shattering conclusion to the Slater Slayers’ heavily-sponsored challenge match against the Southampton Sharks is certainly well worth the wait. For whilst the game’s disappointingly short-lived night-session isn’t covered anywhere near as long as the first-half, its narrative debatably gets as dark as Street Football can probably get following Matt Tallon’s truck with a savage gang of armed Fan-actics; “Mindless vermin who use sport as a tribal war! Any other time I wouldn’t even spit on them! But now..! Maybe they can help me to rid his game of the biggest street-rat of all..!”

Interestingly however, despite this pulse-raising romp towards the old Saints Soccer Stadium arguably portraying the Slayer as actually being even more of a cold-hearted killer than the players and officials he has vowed to hunt down, “the longest-running writer of the popular football-themed strip Roy of the Rovers” still somehow manages to make the central character somewhat sympathetic to the reader. This quite disconcerting feeling is probably in part due to the sheer sense of poetic justice the storyline’s road takes as the audience discovers just how Jaws Jensen got rid of Port Vale Pirates’ Paul Simpson by messaging a bunch of crazed Southampton followers to mercilessly ambush the player when he was isolated and without help.

The fact that Tallon manages to almost engineer a similar fate for the Sharks’ captain somehow allows the anti-hero to seemingly get away with badly breaking both the game rules and the actual law. Indeed, by the time an absolutely terrified Jensen is ruthlessly dispatched by a “gun-happy old codger” who simply refused to leave his shop unattended during the match, many bibliophiles were probably elated at Matt’s nefarious actions, even though the star Striker had clearly conspired with a bunch of brainless thugs to commit premeditated murder.

Sadly however, this cataclysmic conclusion does contain something of a sole disappointment following John Richardson’s replacement as Art Robot by Johnny Johnson for the very last part. What with Steve Dillon pencilling the aforementioned interlude spotlighting Venner, this substitution means that no less than three different artists end up sketching four successive instalments, and despite Johnson’s similarity in style to his predecessor, definitely jars the mind away from Tully’s storytelling.

Script Robot: Tom Tully, and Art Robots: Steve Dillon, John Richardson & Johnny Johnson

The Mean Arena Volume One: All To Slay For - Rebellion [Part Three]

THE MEAN ARENA VOLUME ONE: ALL TO SLAY FOR, March 2021

Quite possibly the most memorable match from this early Eighties “Rollerball-meets Roy Of The Rovers” comic strip series, Tom Tully’s thoroughly absorbing depiction of the events surrounding the Slater Slayers’ challenge game against the Southampton Sharks justifiably forms the back bone of this “digital-only” release from “Rebellion”, and arguably doesn’t let up until smart-mouthed commentator Kevin O’Connor provides a player profile piece on J.T. Venner during half-time. Up until this point, whether the spotlight be on either the housing estate-sized pitch or just Matt Tallon’s revenge-fuelled machinations, the British author is almost relentless in his depiction as to just how brutal and deadly a sport Street Football can be.

For starters it seems even the wealthy world of Kosi-Flex owner Rollo Hartie can be highly dangerous, as the hover-chair bound magnate agrees a lucrative sponsorship deal with the Slayer just seconds after one of his hirelings has had his head turned to gory pulp testing out the tycoon’s experimental ram-suit. This "grotesque product of Twenty-First Century medical science" imbues everything disdainful about the sport as he contemptuously arranges for another minion to replace poor aforementioned Wilson without batting an eyelid. But the corpulent cyborg also demonstrates just how low Tallon will evidently go so as to ensure he can have his payback against the people who apparently caused his younger brother to die.

Equally as mercilessly mercenary is Matt’s behaviour in Southampton as he repeatedly goads his opponent’s squad-leader Jaws Jensen into mistake-after-mistake. Whether it be at a staged press conference where the star Striker slaps an abusive banner on his target’s forehead right in front of an audience packed-out with the press, or later when his scoring talent drives the Sharks’ player to sacrifice one of this own team-mates between the deadly steel teeth of the Slayers’ gaping-mouth goal, Tully’s penmanship makes it abundantly clear that the former Louis Leopard is willing to wade in blood as deep as those unfortunates he is targeting; “You’re not interested in crowds! All you care about is nailing the people who helped put your kid brother Paul in his grave..!”

John Richardson’s layouts also help enormously with this storyline’s excellent pacing, whether he’s illustrating a truly fascinating flashback sequence as to the history of Street Football, or pencilling the impressive new Slayer uniforms. Indeed, one of the match’s opening highlights is the way the artist sketches the physical ease with which “The Shadow” silkily evades the opposition’s best efforts to unsuccessfully bring him down, and having “left three Sharks for dead” subsequently puts Mike Slater’s club into a well-deserved lead.

Script Robot: Tom Tully, Art Robot: John Richardson, and Lettering Robot: Pete Knight

The Mean Arena Volume One: All To Slay For - Rebellion [Part Two]

THE MEAN ARENA VOLUME ONE: ALL TO SLAY FOR, March 2021

Firmly focused upon Matt Tallon’s account “of the last, terrifying game he played for St. Louis Leopards against Florida Fiends”, Tom Tully’s second storyline inside “The Mean Arena Volume One: All To Slay For” certainly provides its readers with a thoroughly compelling comprehension as to the flawed character of the legendary American Street Football Star. Indeed, considering just how arrogantly reckless the Slayer comes across from this publication’s printed pages, it probably isn’t all that surprising that some within this tale’s opposing team decide to set aside any notion of winning the actual ball-game in order to murder the “King of the Road” with a masonry-drill looted from a local builders’ yard.

Fortunately for this graphic novels’ sports fans however, this plot to rid Archie Sugrue of his main rival is enthrallingly intermixed with plenty of thrilling football action too, with the “noted British comic writer” even going so far as to pointing out all the regulation differences between the English game and those from across the Pond; “That was another reason why I’d decided to quit Street Football – The Fliers. The latest rule change allowed two of them per squad…” These insights into just how the deadly game is played “American-style” really add an authentic air to some of the narrative’s more science-fiction based elements, and arguably consistently ensnare the audience into believing that they’re listening to a commentator broadcasting a play-by-play account of the Superleague title contest.

Perhaps this tale’s biggest draw though is the Arch-fiend’s ultimately unwise decision to play the Death-Card at the start of the match in an effort to win a million dollars by scoring. The fact Sugrue could be shot dead by the Leopards’ rifle-armed Longstop packs every appearance made by Archie with some extra tension, especially when the “Grexnix” manages to extract himself from the teeth of a shopping mall’s pedi-ramp and appears on the verge of outwitting Tallon with a stunning goal. Artist John Richardson’s ability to imbue this zarjaz sequence’s panels with plenty of pace will genuinely cause bibliophiles everywhere to momentarily hold their breath as a head-strong Matt ignores the sage advice of his manager and attempts to stop the badly crippled striker on his own at the very last second.

Script Robot: Tom Tully, Art Robot: John Richardson, and Lettering Robot: Pete Knight

The Mean Arena Volume One: All To Slay For - Rebellion [Part One]

THE MEAN ARENA VOLUME ONE: ALL TO SLAY FOR, March 2021

The latest title by “Rebellion” in their “brand new series of digital-only 2000 A.D. collections for 2021”, this bumper one hundred page periodical opens with a sense-shattering insight into the final twenty minutes of Slater’s Slayers’ Third Division Street Football match against the increasingly dominant Wakeford Warriors, and arguably doesn’t let up with its high-octane antics until the full-time flare is fired. In fact, apart from a momentary pause to witness Matt Tallon losing his temper at the sudden death of the Slayers’ latest signing, Paul Simpson, whilst watching the match at a local bar, this comic strip initially simply sticks to depicting all the action which takes place on the streets.

Enjoyably, Tom Tully’s successful technique of plunging this book’s audience straight into the thick of things really works well as an inescapable hook, and alongside all the rule clarifications and sporting lingo, creates an enthralling atmosphere which appears as authentic as the ball game is clearly fatally violent. Admittedly, there is the odd occasion when the writing debatably seems to waiver into the utterly fantastic, such as when the Slayer suddenly starts seeing one of his opponents shockingly transform into a bizarre-looking slavering monster and cowers in the corner like a quivering coward. But in the main the exciting passes, bombs, Droid gun blasts and wall-vaulting acrobatics are as realistically grounded as any perusing Squaxx dek Thargo could demand.

Rather delightfully, the Glasgow-born author also immediately demonstrates that Tallon has plenty of faults of his own rather than lazily being depicted as some sort of super-human star player who’ll effortlessly score with every opportunity. The gifted striker’s forgetfulness not to wear an “approved suppressor” over his bionic thumb almost gets the man shot on suspicion of being a droid. Whilst Matt’s poorly-played decoy run late in the match results in him getting dangerously struck in the neck by the ball and later suffers the aforementioned hallucination that he was about to be torn to shreds by some giant horned beast; ““No! N-No..! You… You can’t take me now! Not now! I paid for what I did!”

Additionally adding plenty of grittiness to the street football shenanigans of this sport are John Richardson’s somewhat scratchily-sketched layouts. The artist’s pencilling provides all of the characters with lots of dynamism and athletic ability; albeit it’s probably the way he sympathetically draws the sad facial features on Wakeford’s Joe when the player disconcertingly realises his best friend, Harry Carpenter, was nothing more than a robot, which is this storyline’s most memorable scene.

Script Robot: Tom Tully, Art Robot: John Richardson, and Lettering Robot: Pete Knight