Cover: Stewart K. Moore
Publisher: Rebellion
Judge Dredd
Script: Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt
Art: Henry Flint
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Glenn, of Glenn News, ruminates on his monopoly, looking out on Mega City One. A hologram of himself waves at him. Elsewhere, Roth evades the Special Judicial Squad and sneaks into Glenn News HQ. There, he gets the information he needs and tries to escape the building, only to bump into Glenn himself. The last page features a number of continuing plot points involving Cits for Justice, The Church of Grud and Guns, Dynamic Clone Fluids Corp and Wanda Strank.
I’m unsure what Roth is after in Glenn News. Last prog he was blocked by the SJS, so my impression was that he had what he needed; he just needed to distribute it, so I’m keen to find out about his full plan. We’re still in the first act of The New Future though, so while I would like to see more forward momentum, the promise the creators are making by starting all these plotlines is very exciting indeed.
Ghosted
Script: Guy Adams
Art: Megan Huang
Letters: Simon Bowland
In the jungle, a soldier fights back against a team hunting her, but it is revealed that she is really fighting an alien. She frees the soldiers from their mental controllers.
Though the soldier character is re-introduced, her name isn’t said, so I have nothing easy to call her in this review. Even combing through the old progs to hand doesn’t offer up an answer. Regardless, it’s a decent slice of action with a minor twist in the middle, showing us who the real enemy is, but despite the solid storytelling, I still feel little excitement when I turn to this story in the prog. We’re on part four of this volume, and I still don’t know what the main thrust of the story is. Is it about how Chant deals with the aliens? How Acksley will get out of suicide bombing Kinshasa? Or about how the soldier from this part will de-program her comrades?
The story feels too excited to show off everything in its world, but in the process it’s bouncing between viewpoint characters too much for my taste. I would love the story to focus on fewer characters so that we can see their journey.
Durham Red
Script: Alec Worley
Art: Ben Willsher
Letters: Simon Bowland
Donnie Cacciatore raves madly at his consigliere and the head of a rival clan before killing them all. Durham wanders and finds where she was last night: a strip club, and walks in.
This part introduces Donnie well, leading us to believe that he’ll be the obstacle to his calmer comrades, but he establishes himself as the insane antagonist motivated to impress his dead father. It’s a good introduction, but Durham Red is a bit boring to me at the moment, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. It makes sense to have a more exposition-dense chapter after last week’s action-packed one, but the exposition doesn’t feel relevant to Durham’s quest to find out who hired her. And why does she need to? She seems to be able to evade anyone who comes after her, so can’t she just escape?
Azimuth
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: Tazio Bettin
Colours: Matt Soffe
Letters: Rob Steen
Suzi and Al talk about Anicca while Dexter and Andi get swallowed by a giant eel called Dagon.
I am a big fan of Al and how he’s teaching Suzi to open up, and that as he does so, he reverts to his humanoid form. Their conversation overlays the action happening underwater, so it feels very efficient, like you’re getting your money’s worth per page, since there’s not enough action above water and there’s not enough talking underwater, so mixing and matching is a clever way of getting the best of both worlds.
The one thing I don’t like is that there are more characters from other stories crossing over. Yes, this whole series is a crossover between Anderson and Dexter, but I feel like that is part of the core of the story now. I want to see more original characters from Azimuth, not characters from the VCs and Rogue Trooper. I hope I’ll look back on this review with shame, but the last page reveal took me out of the flow.
Herne & Shuck
Script: David Barnett
Art: Lee Milmore
Colours: Quinton Winter
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Herne and the gang have a nice long chat about how Alex is still possessed by Moloch. Then a gas grenade crashes through the window.
I don’t enjoy being negative in my little column, but I’m quite bored of Herne & Shuck. Their pages-long conversation interrupts the cliffhanger set up last chapter, completely ruining any sense of urgency, and retreads what we already know, purely for the benefit of the useless podcasters.
Meanwhile, Caris is probably in a demonic smoothie by now. If anyone reading this enjoys Herne & Shuck, I would love to hear why.
Overall: 4/10
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/
