The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2254: Cyd’s Doing The Monster Mash
by Richard Bruton
Time to head out to the land of 2000 AD, the UK’s greatest sci-fi weekly comic for four decades and counting… it’s the Weekly 2000 AD…
This Prog… more of everything, meaning more strange assassins after Dredd & Maitland in ‘The Hard Way‘, more trouble in the Vatican in The Diaboliks, Pandora goes into the sausage mine in ‘Mystery Moon‘, the battle for Earth continues over in Scarlet Traces, and we get more, so much more from the brilliance that is The OUT.
So… what you waiting for? 2000 AD Prog #2254 in store and online from Wednesday 20th October.
Ready for a look inside? You know you are…
JUDGE DREDD: THE HARD WAY – PART 5 – Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt, Jake Lynch, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Annie Parkhouse.
Well, I suppose given how much like a fun video game this one has read like, we should’ve expected a Boss at the end of it – which is exactly what Dredd and Maitland find themselves up against now.
Like I’ve been saying all through this, this one is old-school Dredd. Great villains, lots of Dredd in peril, even the chance for Lunch to get his “I Am The Law” moment.
Yeah, I reckon he carried that one off pretty damn well.
This one’s been nothing but unadulterated fun, one of those great Dredds where there’s nothing big going on (well, apart from it all tying into Wyatt’s ‘La Reine Rouge’ storyline), nothing doom-laden, nothing ultra-serious, just great times with Dredd being all Dredd.
THE DIABOLIKS – ARRIVEDERCI ROMA – PART 5 – Gordon Rennie, Antonio Fuso, letters by Jim Campbell.
It’s time to head inside the Vatican, with Jenny taking a bit of decisive action in her quest to free all those kids holding the Codices, down deep in the Vatican archives.
Jenny’s gone to the heart of the matter. Which is why she’s holding His Holiness hostage right now.
Trouble is, this isn’t exactly what her employers this time round, the one’s getting their instructions from below, had in mind. Could be a bit of trouble coming The Diaboliks way, from both heaven and hell.
PANDORA PERFECT – MYSTERY MOON – PART 5 – Roger Langridge, Brett Parson, letters by Simon Bowland.
We’ve had diamond heists, double-crosses, Gort being kidnapped, a prison break… and now we’re down a sausage mine where Spugg’s been mass-producing Gorts… memory-wiped Gorts.
Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t time for a bit of a sing-a-long moment.
And then. Well, then we get to find out the reason this one’s called ‘Mystery Moon’.
It’s lightweight, it’s silly, it’s fast and it’s daft. And dammit, it’s exactly what 2000 AD needs every once in a while. A good bit of silliness in amongst all the sci-fi and the fantasy.
SCARLET TRACES – STORM FRONT – PART 5 – Ian Edginton, D’Israeli, letters by Simon Bowland.
Earth… it’s the Martians against Ahron, Ikarys, the massed ranks of the Jovian forces and anyone on Earth up for a bit of resistance.
But having delivered the first salvo in the war to free the Earth, the Martians have sealed their defences and it’s time for the Jovians, along with a couple of Earth heroes to mount that final assault.
Yes, it’s playing into all the sci-fi tropes right now, but that’s so much of the fun, seeing Edginton play around with all the familiar storylines, right from the very start. And now, right here at what’s most likely the end of the main Scarlet Traces storyline, we’re getting the whole big sci-fi spectacular, the space battles, the last-ditch missions, the works.
Isn’t it just bloody glorious?
THE OUT – BOOK TWO – PART 5 – Dan Abnett, Mark Harrison, letters by Annie Parkhouse.
Lesson to learn Cyd, when the diplomatic representative tells you it’s not a great idea to go outside the zone on the weird planet, take their word for it.
Instead, Cyd lost her bag and went looking. Which is how she finds herself kidnapped by a black-market gang out there in the wilderness.
And a massive massive battle thing between two… well, two massive massive things.
Plus side… she gets Bag back…
Minus side… the options for here aren’t looking that great…
But then we get the best dialogue of the series so far – and it’s a series packed with such glorious dialogue…
And then. Well then there’s a weird thing happens and it’s all a bit mysterious and it’s all completely wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
Just the dialogue alone makes this one worth it, all that back and forth between Cyd and the slavers, all the stuff with the bag. And then there’s Mark Harrison. So much stuff packed into this one, so many incredible little moments, so many incredible massive moments. Dammit, this is a stunning series.
