Cover: Joe Currie
Publisher: Rebellion
Judge Dredd
Script: Ken Niemand
Art: Dan Cornwell
Colours: Chris Blythe
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
After the castellan rescues Dredd, the healer tells him what’s what: below lies the cauldron and above lies ever greater pain, but the possibility of escape. Sarah Kopp appears and confirms that there is a way out, but before they head out, Dredd cobbles his arsenal together from discarded armour and weapons, making himself look like a medieval mercenary, which Dan Cornwell draws with massive gravity. Cornwell’s brushstrokes give the Oubliette an oppressive atmosphere.
The Oubliette sets the mind whirring, making connections, trying to work out the rules and its history. Who made it? Why? Why is Dredd there? How will he escape? And how is Sarah Kopp linked to all this?
Brink
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: INJ Culbard
Letters: Simon Bowland
Kurtis, Bonner, Cutwell and Hahn all have a meeting to discuss the death on the BRV 1, a supposed suicide, but it’s not confirmed. Kurtis is confined to barracks until the investigation is finished, so she deputises Castenada in order to look for the saboteur of the BRV 2.
Brink continues to be a glacially slow burn. It’s nice to see some outright conflict between Cutwell and Kurtis, and it’s nice to see Castenada get to do something, as she is my favourite part of Brink, but these cliffhangers strike me as dreadfully dull. Each part ends with the promise of action next time, but it rarely arrives. Maybe next time.
Silver
Script: Mike Carroll
Art: Joe Currie
Letters: Simon Bowland
Yelena wants to leave, but her brother Esteban won’t let her. They fight, and Yelena wins, but it’s a hollow victory, as Esteban called the Procurator eleven minutes ago.
As Yelena and Esteban fight, their relationship plays out in front of us in the most bombastic way possible. Yelena dominates her brother physically, but Esteban wins in the battle of wits; yet both forms of conflict are drawn beautifully by Currie.
Future Shock: An Alien Invasion Alphabet
Script: James Lovegrove
Art: Steve Roberts
Letters: Rob Steen
Wonderful little story here in which an alien invasion happens, and humanity retaliates. The art and text read like a children’s book, which counterpoints the actual events of the story, which are grim. Each panel begins with the next letter of the alphabet, so as I was reading, I thought Jesus Christ, what are they going to do for X, Y and Z? But they turned it on its head and rhymed “dead” with “zed,” indeed a subversion of expectations.
Helium
Script: Ian Edginton
Art: D’Israeli
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
This episode of Helium focuses on the rescue of Professor Bloom. Hodge and Grimsby arrive in the kitchens to find the entire staff butchered. What happened here? What brute is capable of such things? Professor Bloom is.
Moments before, Bloom killed the crew with pots, pans, cutlery, anything to hand, really, and Hodge and Grimsby are left to wonder how safe they are in someone so changed.
Again, it’s brilliant stuff. Edginton sets up a marvellous puzzle box on page one, launching our curiosity, before D’Israeli shows us Bloom’s battle in a sickeningly gorgeous purple palette. There’s something wrong with Bloom, and I am ravenous to find out what.
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/
