Cover: Cliff Robinson & Dylan Teague
Publisher: Rebellion
Damn, what a cover. Avoid the magazine aisle, Earthlets, lest you be drawn in by magnetic thrillpower!
Judge Rico
Script: Ken Niemand
Art: Jake Lynch
Colours: Emily Roach
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Fargo and Locke head to Alientown in search of Dredd, but they’re ambushed by Watchers from Necros. Judge Giant rescues them, and they set off together to find Dredd.
When Fargo nearly gets stabbed, it’s a lovely homage to The Judge Child Saga in which the Watchers killed Dredd briefly before being resurrected for a ritual. It’s a nice reference, and it makes me wonder how many other times Dredd has died and what it means for Dredd and The Oubliette. Indeed, what does it mean for Fargo? We know that he’s an alternate version of Dredd, but does he represent all of Dredd’s deaths? All his major moments? I have a feeling that we’ll find out soon
Young Death: Frederick
Script: Kek-W
Art: Lee Carter
Letters: Rob Steen
Sidney De’Ath remembers how he came into possession of the book. He and his father are captured by Frederick, a killer cannibal in the wilderness, the last owner of the book, but they kill the killer and they escape.
The muted watercolours serve the bizarreness of the story well. Sidney, his father and Frederick are all psychopaths operating on a different wavelength to you and me, I hope, so when the blood flows brightly, it tells us what Sidney focuses on, what excites him. This chapter of Young Death shows us that the masters of the book were looking for a worthy successor, which may have been expanded on in other stories, so you’ll have to recommend more like this to me
Brink
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: INJ Culbard
Letters: Simon Bowland
Chief Vittori informs Kurtis that Leeden is in custody, but she’s on a Thereshare call with Gita on the BRV 2, so they both see when a monstrous, holographic ghost appears.
Things are starting to cohere in Brink. What’s interesting to me is that in the Thereshare call, Kurtis and the Chief see the monster, and THEN Gita, so it doesn’t happen at the same time, which could suggest that it travelled from HSD HQ to BRV 2. That’s just a theory, but HQ could be the origin of the monster signal. Then again, the last few Brink chapters have suggested that there are more rational explanations for what’s happening. Time will tell
Nightmare New York
Script: Kek-W
Art: Dave Roach
Colours: Jim Boswell
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Praetorian tells Lil and Mose the plan: summon a Duke of Hell to flog them, Lil. Meanwhile, the Fodors arrive to rescue them.
This is a fine episode, with a good mix of humour, hellish action (the full page of celestial war is gorgeous) and exposition, but I do feel like this is the third week running of Praetorian explaining his plan, so I hope he follows through soon, preferably foiled by the gomboc riding Lil’s rat. They’re the true heroes here.
The Fall of Deadworld
Script: Kek-W
Art: Dave Kendall
Letters: Simon Bowland
Judges Fire and Fairfax do battle above, while Eastwood below interrupts the Dark Judge mutiny to rob them of their corporeal forms.
The action in Fairfax’s scene is a gorgeous, fiery red punctuated by almost pure magenta. Again, you’ll have to educate me if this has been covered, but it feels like a vendetta is being settled here, and I count myself lucky to see its conclusion. In Eastwood’s skirmish, the art feels appropriately claustrophobic. Eastwood storms their base at the least convenient time. It’s as delightfully chaotic as Mentos in a glass Coke bottle, so bravo to the creators.
I’ve been doing this for a year now, and I’m very grateful that anyone reads these. My true goal is to write comics for a living, and I feel like doing these reviews has sharpened my thinking about comics, so if you want to see if I’ve benefited whatsoever, please take a look at my website in my bio and let me know what you think!
Overall: 7/10
Tony Holdsworth is a comics writer based in Dundee, Scotland, who reviews 2000AD each week.
His comics can be found here: https://tonyholdsworth2.wordpress.com/category/portfolio/
