Cover: Neil Roberts
Publisher: Rebellion
Judge Rico
Script: Ken Niemand
Art: Jake Lynch
Colours: Emily Roach
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Fargo and Locke make their way through the ruins of Mega City One in search of Dredd. Locke leads them into a fight before a robot picks them up and takes them to Marsha Hobbes, last seen in Iron Teeth, who also remembers Dredd.
Dynamic action follows Fargo and Locke as they lead us to a good cliffhanger, which leaves us wondering how Hobbes will help them. Some may criticise The Oubliette as aimless, but these epic, far-reaching quests are a huge part of the Dredd library. The Judge Child was a romp across the galaxy where the overall aim was to find the Judge Child, but along the way, anything could happen, so I hope that The Oubliette offers some madcap adventures with Dredd while Fargo and Locke try to find him.
Brink
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: INJ Culbard
Letters: Simon Bowland
Castanada hits a dead end; her suspect was found sprayed across a gravity plate. Between Castanada’s scenes is another of Kurtis and Bonner deliberating over how the crew member of the BRV 1 died.
My favourite scenes continue to be Castanada’s, which reveal more about Bowen’s ongoing scheme, but Kurtis’ scenes are filled with references to old cases and a grander scheme which I don’t know anything about, so the revelation I’m meant to appreciate falls flat. I must be missing something, so I’m going to put in the work and read all of Brink. Watch this space.
The Fall of Deadworld
Script: Kek-W
Art: Dave Kendall
Letters: Simon Bowland
The kids force Chief Judge Ava to release her prisoner, a man who seemingly can’t be killed. Dejected, the chief takes the long walk.
Again, The Fall of Deadworld presents a baffling chapter, but I can’t help but be sucked in. The characters have such distinctive voices that it makes me lean closer to the page to try to discern what they’re about. This is another series in which I need to invest time to fully “get it.”
Nightmare New York
Script: Kek-W
Art: David Roach
Colours: Peter Doherty
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Lil quickly recaps her magical background and family before looking for Mose, the fire boy. She asks his gang, but they attack her, and she fights back to get the info: Mose disappeared when they were robbing a house, but he returns at the end, before bursting into flames.
Nightmare New York quickly recaps the story so far and sets up its future well. David Roach’s art is detailed and moody, and Peter Doherty’s colouring quickly establishes the period before expertly changing the palette to denote a new scene. I hope John Burns would be happy with how the story is handled from now on.
Anderson, Psi Division
Script: Liam Johnson
Art: Rob Richardson
Letters: Rob Steen
Anderson cuts her sleep session short after having a nightmare. Her partner tries to convince her to get more sleep, but she takes off into the city instead and receives a far-off psychic signal from the dark tower.
This is great, confident storytelling. At such a low page count, taking two whole pages to set up Anderson is brave, and it gives us a great intro to this story, giving us an ambiguous reintroduction to Anderson. Is she avoiding sleep out of fear, or out of duty?
Rob Richardson’s art sells the supernatural heightening of reality. How this all ties into The Oubliette is a question I’m very keen to have answered.
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/
