Cover: Mike Perkins
Publisher: Rebellion
Judge Dredd
Script: John Wagner
Art: Mike Perkins
Colours: Chris Blythe
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Chief Judge Logan calls Dredd to a meeting, at which they talk about reinstating the Mechanismos, citing soaring crime figures and plummeting popularity as the reason to bring them back.
Logan knows that Dredd was skeptical about the Mechanismos, but we see that Dredd was present for the death of Judge Farouk that morning, so he has no objections.
Death of a Judge begins with the Mechanismos returning, so what will be different this time? Well, the robots have no authority over human judges, and none will hold powerful positions, so they are purely put in a servant role, which on paper looks good, but I suspect this will lead to a robotic revolt.
Part 1 is a balanced start, blending exposition and action, and part 2 can’t come soon enough.
Herne & Shuck
Script: David Barnett
Art: Lee Milmore
Colours: Gary Caldwell
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Herne has to get the approval of six gods. The Lady of the Woods is the first. She informs him that the next god is Brigantia, Herne’s old flame. She’s in Newcastle and, conveniently, Herne can’t use Shuck’s ability to teleport, so he has to hitchhike the whole way.
It’s a sensible setup for a quest, but it takes nearly five pages to get Herne on the road. I find it quite dull. The strip thinks it’s a TV show. The camera just follows whoever is talking at the time, but in comics, you can do so much more by messing with time, perhaps by overlaying dialogue from the setup with visuals of Herne already on the way to Newcastle, for example.
I really do hate to be negative about a magazine I want to be published in, but Herne and Shuck has a tonne of potential which isn’t being realised.
Young Death
Script: Kek-W
Art: Mike Dowling
Letters: Simon Bowland
Sidney De’Ath discovers the latest victim of The Mortician, a murderer who strips the skin and the flesh away to reveal bones, and sees a kindred spirit.
In the Black Museum, Sidney convinces his new apprentice to refrain from killing for three months in exchange for guidance.
Dowling’s work gives the script a moody atmosphere with heavy yet precise shadows and a subtle and spooky watercolour feel, which suits the strange nature of the strip. He masterfully signals a new setting with a delicate change in palette: cool blues for the city, a warm yellow for Sidney’s domain, and the headquarters has a sickly light cast over it. The colours are perfect for Sidney, who straddles life and death.
The change in artist makes me wonder if each Death chapter will have a new artist, but I’m not worried. Each has been fantastic in their own way so far.
Azimuth
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: Tazio Bettin
Colours: Matt Soffe
Letters: Rob Steen
The Christmas prog showed that Anderson, Dexter and Suzi survived the Azimuthian apocalypse, but now they have to escape Lord Killfile’s old base before it disintegrates. The labyrinth is collapsing in on itself. As with the labyrinth of legend, this one has a minotaur too, but it’s called the Monitaur, as everything has a cyber pun in Azimuth (complimentary).
You may remember how much I gushed about the first part of Azimuth, so it is no surprise that I enjoyed this part. Tazio Bettin’s art remains phenomenal, rendering impossible geometry with believable solidity, so when the beasty pops up at the end, a digital, mythical monster who can navigate the nonsensical with ease, the drama pops off the page.
The Discarded
Script: Peter Milligan
Art: Kieran McKeown
Colours: Jim Boswell
Letters: Simon Bowland
Under the chip’s guidance, Aaxon “Red” Banksy has transformed into a psychokinetic revolutionary, but it has not made him omniscient. He has no idea that his daughter, Veera Banksy, has just landed on Junkfall to thwart him before he gets too powerful.
It’s a rich universe the creators are building here, and I will eat it up every week. The extra-long chapter at Christmas sowed the seeds for a bunch of different ex-cons on Junkfall, and yet we get treated to even more characters in this one. I can’t wait for them all to meet and bounce off each other.
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/
