The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2211: Illegal Use Of A Flower, Simp, Gets You 10 Years

The Weekly 2000 AD, week in, week out, our look at Britain’s longest-running sci-fi comic, 2000 AD. Five strips a week, all previewed right here.

Running to the end of the year now, with the big double Prog and the latest jumping on point coming up next week. All of which means we’re saying farewell to Judge Dredd in his Simp tale, ‘Simply Normal’ and we get to see the end of the vamp’s origins in Fiends of the Eastern Front; Constanta. We get the second of those one-off Visions of Deadworld, the conclusion to the latest (Sinister-less) Sinister Dexter tale with Dexter getting The Funt Outta Town. And rounding it all off, it’s time for another Future Shock.

Next week, the start of what’s most likely the last ever Slaine from Pat Mills and Leonardo Manco, more Proteus Vex, more Hershey, more Durham Red, and the return of that fabulous simian saviour of MC-1, Noam Chimpsky, plus a one-off Strontium Dog and much more in the famous end of the year Prog.

2000 AD Prog 2209 was out on Wednesday 9th December, you can find it in all good newsagents, comic shops and digital stores.

JUDGE DREDD: SIMPLY NORMAL – PART 5 – FINAL PART – Kenneth Niemand, Steven Austin, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

The finale of the sad tale of Daisy and Pansy concludes, with Dredd and his troops raiding the Simply Normal site at the same time the Radical Simp Underground are making a noise.

We have our young heroines, we have a true love story… and we’re headed for a happy ending, right? Oh, come on people… this is Romeo & Juliet through the medium of Simping here in MC-1. What do you reckon?

Five and out, a decent enough little inconsequential Dredd showcasing Steven Austin, another good new Dredd artist I imagine Tharg will be using a lot more in future.

VISIONS OF DEADWORLD – THE GOOD SAMARITAN – Kek-W, Dave Kendall, letters by Simon Bowland

Another done in one Deadworld vision, with Kendall’s artwork showing us a sweet tale of an expectant daddy and mummy making the last-minute dash to the hospital for the birth of their bouncing baby boy.

Or maybe not.

Where the first part last Prog was a small meditation on the world, this one actually gives us a real note of true horror as realisation dawns on both the protagonist and us readers just how bad things are here.

DEXTER: BULLETOPIA CHAPTER 4: THE FUNT OUTTA TOWN – PART 2 – FINAL PART – Dan Abnett, Steve Yeowell, colours by John Charles, letters by Simon Bowland

Another quick Sinister Dexter adventure all as part of the longer Bulletopia saga. I’m personally not sure it wouldn’t be a damn site better all delivered as one serial, but such is the way.

Anyhow, Sinister Dexter are no more, the two best hitmen in Downlode have been reduced to one, with Dexter leading his group through the mall of zombies… well, not really zombies, but it’s sure got that Living Dead vibe going on.

Basically, two episodes of Dexter coming to sort of terms with losing his buddy and a plan to escape that sort of makes sense.

Oh, and a great gag about mall musak to end.

FUTURE SHOCKS – INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM… – Joseph Elliott-Coleman, Richard Elson, letters by Jim Campbell

Some Future Shocks are dense things, twisting and turning to get to that final shock ending, that all too often isn’t really that much of a shock ending. Others are just snatched moments in a bigger story. This is one of those, as a futuristic knight goes after some big beastie. Always good seeing Elson’s art here, but the actual story itself is a throwaway thing.

FIENDS OF THE EASTERN FRONT – CONSTANTA – PART 10 – FINAL PART – Ian Edginton, Tiernen Trevallion, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Well, this really has been something of a triumph, watching Edginton and Trevallion go way, way back in the history of that vamp we first met in the early days of 2000 AD in Fiends of the Eastern Front. Since then, it seems Edginton has been bitten by Constanta and taken the saga on, probably already doing more pages than the original. But it’s been a pleasure to see, especially with this current strip. It would have been oh so easy to just do a different war every series, but here they’ve taken it a different way, going back for the origin of the beast.

Yet even here, with this final episode, they’ve managed to turn things around from just the great storyline we’ve had so far, giving us yet another twist and another jumping-off point to take things in yet another direction.

And, of course, Trevallion’s artwork here has been something so good, a delight in every bit of blood, every wonderfully nasty moment. It’s been a fantastic series to end the regular 2000 AD year with.