Cover: Boo Cook
Publisher: Rebellion
Judge Dredd
Writer: Rob Williams
Art: Henry Flint
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
The lighthouse glowers at Anderson and Tan from on high. Its crimson gaze casts a shadow on their mind.
On the dock, Dredd speaks with Hurst, who struggles to think in a straight line, but when they discover bloodstains where the festivalgoers ought to be, the truth of the town comes to light.
Anderson and Dredd each meet a sinister traveller…and then it ends!
I hate to be so vague, but this is a strip you really have to read for yourself. The tension is steadily building week-on-week, and despite revealing very little about the true nature of the force threatening the sector, I’m hooked.
Red Dragon
Writer: Rob Williams
Art: Patrick Goddard & Steve Yeowell
Colours: Dylan Teague
Letters: Simon Bowland
Her Majesty’s Submarine Auriga emerges off the coast of Aden, South Arabia, in colour. Siadwell Rhys, the Red Dragon, emerges into daylight and asks if Cloud 9 will rendez-vous on shore, only to find that his team refused the mission. The captain of the submarine deliberately withheld this information. A man who can conjure a terrifying, fiery Welsh dragon is valuable in a military operation.
Martin and Dee sit in modern Llangenech and move on to Rhys’ youth, when his headmaster placed a bet on him. The old master bet that Rhys could run from Llangenech to the chapel in the next valley before the kettle boiled. A local overhears their story and reveals that he was there when it happened.
It’s a chapter almost entirely expository, but the information is deployed dramatically, so the vital information doesn’t slow the strip down.
The isolation of both Siadwell and Martin crosses time and colour, and I hope that Martin meets a better end than Siadwell did.
Void Runners
Writer: David Hine
Art: Boo Cook
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Manjukaks lie dead after ingesting the viral water. Alice Shikari laments her fate, as she believes she provided the Kali dust which killed them, but they soon find that it is the Federation’s gunk to blame, a toxin lethal to only Manjukaks and Primas.
Despite the Primas agreeing to the Federation’s terms, the Feds withhold the vaccine anyway, given that the Manjukaks are the ones who produce the value. I don’t quite understand why the Federation needed to coerce the Primas into signing a dodgy deal if they were just going to kill the Primas anyway.
At the end, the Oracle of the Federation writes off Lord Phalaris’ haul of perfidium, as the Oracle only cares about dust, so I assume there will be some narrative drive to steal Alice’s dust, but as Phalaris himself says, “There is no great urgency.” Void Runners’ art is stunning, but the drama is lacking. At any moment, Alice could get back on her ship and fly off to another planet, and the story would peter out; there’s nothing binding the protagonist and antagonist together. A low point of the prog.
Brass Sun
Writer: Ian Edginton
Art: INJ Culbard
Letters: Simon Bowland
Brass Sun once again hops to a different POV in which Wren dreams of Idris, Cadwallader, her daughter, who died as a baby, and the watchmaker.
It’s pretty trippy, and though I don’t normally enjoy overly talky comics, this one is vibrant enough and creative enough in its approach that I’m hooked. Brass Sun is a highlight of the current prog, and I can’t wait to see the new world Wren and Ariel visit.
Rogue Trooper
Writer: Alex De Campi
Art: Neil Edwards
Colour: Matt Soffe
Letters: Jim Campbell
Disabled veteran Lee has a gun trained on Lieutenant Nygaard. He questions Nygaard about the real reason they’re here, and Nygaard reveals that he wants to find the base FOB Azure, where gene soldier research began. If they can find the base and bring back the method for creating the enhanced infantry, they can save all the starry-eyed recruits who have just landed on Nu Earth.
De Campi mixes action and exposition well, and while we’re learning about the stakes of the mission, it’s never boring. It’s full of life and little moments between people, the lives on the front line of the war. A satellite staffer saves a seat in the lifeboat for his female coworker, Doctor Harper. Could it be borne from romantic feelings for her? We never find out, because their lifeship fails, and they burn to death in the atmosphere. It’s a microcosm of the ongoing tragedy, so the mission to find FOB Azure is brimming with urgency.
Lee begins a story to rally the troops, and next week, I will hungrily gobble it up.
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/
