Cover: Mike Dowling
Publisher: Rebellion
Judge Dredd
Script: Rob Williams
Art: Henry Flint
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
As the psychic worm-infested mist approaches Mega City One, Judge Tan tumbles out of a rowboat, addled by drugs, but resistant to the wrigglers.
Dredd finds Guthrie, but he’s completely infested with worms. Poor guy. Guthrie’s been through a lot. A thousand progs ago, he defied his suicidal urge to lead The Barge, but it ultimately led to this. Dredd shoots him in the head. “Pity,” says Dredd.
Dredd and Hurst search for Anderson, but it’s too late, and we finally get to see Skolex.
While this part is an inbreath before the action next prog, there’s still a lot here to chew on. As Tan and Hurst disembark the boat, the lighthouse still shines, and we still haven’t seen the inside of it, so it leads me to wonder if that’s the ultimate endpoint. I suspect Enoch will be there when we return to shore.
Red Dragon
Script: Rob Williams
Art: Stever Yeowell & Patrick Goddard
Colours: Dylan Teague
Letters: Simon Bowland
Crikey, lots going on here. I normally read through the prog, taking notes on each page, but this chapter throws up a mystery on each turn.
Martin takes an early morning stroll up a hill and finds a bearded lunatic up there, who rants in Welsh and English about Brexit, about the Lloegr, and about Llangenech. I almost wonder, in my manic hypervigilance for connections, whether Martin was called there psychically, as this scene is placed next to another in which Peter St John explains things to Siadwell about how Peyne has organised Cloud 9 into orgying Homo Novus into prominence.
While Martin receives the knowledge, Tanya attempts to leave Llangenech, but Morgan interrupts her and promises to show her something special. Perhaps something concerning Siadwell?
It feels like Red Dragon has set all of the pieces on the board and we’re now ready to play.
Big-Ass Sword
Script, Art and Letters: Andreas Butzbach
This story acts as a trailer for the upcoming graphic novel. Two cybernetically animated corps of corpses clash. For why, they do not know.
It’s an effective demonstration of what the graphic novel will entail: some futuristic action, some social comment, and gorgeous art. I can see why it will be released in OGN format, as the focus seems to be on the action taking place over a long period, rather than the shot glass of rocket fuel which the weekly anthology format requires. Of course, a violent sci-fi action comic is within the purview of 2000AD, so it’s clever to use the prog as a showcase of what the OGN will be, rather than forcing a story into the 2000AD paradigm.
I, for one, hope that Rebellion continues to showcase bigger stories in the prog while selling the whole thing as its own separate book.
Void Runners
Script: David Hine
Art: Boo Cook
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
The squish takes place. The first god person speaks to the leader of the manjukaks and shatters their belief in the book of truth.
When the veil is ripped away, the meek and mild manjukaks suddenly become these murderous, vengeful people. I totally understand why they would act that way in the real world, but it’s such a jump in the story that it’s hard to believe. You’re telling me that these devoutly religious people, who don’t know how to defend themselves at all, suddenly turn feral?
Anything could happen, which is normally great, but in this case, there’s so little foreshadowing that I, as a reader, can’t look forward to or anticipate anything. I want to like this story, as the scale and the art is attractive, but it’s a bit too zany for me.
Nightmare New York
Script: Kek-W
Art: David Roach
Colours: Peter Doherty
Letters: Jim Campbell
Edgar Allan Poe gets thrown out of a theatre in New York. In the chaos, Lil goes incorporeal and drops through the street before forcing herself to rematerialise in a bakery basement.
Lil trains at the bakery, and in time is asked to deliver to her old house, where she sees her mother and a sigil-inscribed skull, at which point she receives a vision of a mermaid, a prisoner and a magical 12-sided die. We transition to a flash forward to 1899, where we’re told that this mad die is important. In this story, using a D12 is a fun detail, as each face of it has five points, as in Five Point, Manhattan, where Nightmare New York was last set.
It’s another fun use of a teaser comic for the upcoming return of the series in 2026
Brass Sun
Script: Ian Edginton
Art: INJ Culbard
Letters: Simon Bowland
Ariel urges Wren to let the family die, but she can’t do that. Seeing that Wren won’t stand by, Ariel works with her, and together they save the family.
Almost inadvertently, really. Ariel wanted to shoot coolant at them as a distraction, but it seems to disincorporate them entirely. Combined with the atmosphere and an energy weapon, things get a bit more serious.
Brass Sun has convinced me that steampunk is worth another go. Culbard’s clean and chunky design sense makes everything clear and functional, and makes me see that steampunk isn’t just sticking cogs on top hats.
Rogue Trooper
Script: Alex De Campi
Art: Neil Edwards
Colours: Matt Soffe
Letters: Jim Campbell
What a barn burner. Supreme action here from everyone involved.
Souther forces are about to be assaulted by a virus which forces their weapons to repaint friendly targets as hostile, and Rogue needs to stop the upload before Southers start shooting each other.
To do this, Rogue crashes through the control station. On the roof, Bagman cuts off the future equivalent of Wi-Fi.
In the process, the Nort uploader is revealed to be an android (a gynoid, if you’re being pedantic, which I am), and we find that that is the real threat, not the virus. The androids are being kept at FOB Azure, so that’s where the squad are off to next.
I enjoy that they could have just cut the cable, as the squaddie accompanying Bagman said, but Rogue has to get up close and dirty with the Norts.
Overall: 8/10
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/
