The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2292 – Atlantis Assault To Break The Special Relationship?

by Richard Bruton

45 years and better than ever – it’s the UK’s greatest sci-fi weekly comic, 2000 AD and we’re here with The Weekly 2000 AD to give you a preview.

No change to the five strips this week, meaning it’s more from Judge Dredd: Special Relationship, Brink: Mercury Retrograde, Skip Tracer: Valhalla, Dexter: Malice in Plunderland, and Jaegir: Ferox.

Another superb Cliff Robinson cover with one of those rare logo as part of the art covers

2000 AD Prog #2292 is out on Wednesday 27th July so it’s probably time for a preview…

JUDGE DREDD: SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP – PART 4 – Rob Williams, Patrick Goddard, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

JUDGE DREDD: SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP – PART 4 – Rob Williams, Patrick Goddard, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

We’re four parts into the six of ‘Special Relationship’ and no, I can’t see how they’re going to finish this in time either. Then again, that hopefully means that Williams will be exploring the ramifications of this one in further stories, something that he and Arthur Wyatt, together with plenty of great artists, including the excellent Patrick Goddard here, have been playing out in the pages of both the Prog and the Megazine in the last couple of years.

Anyway, back to the Special Relationship, with it’s complex multiple timeline storytelling that’s just adding to the tension. As I say, four parts into it and Williams adds even more political double-dealing in – you can see that in the two preview pages below. But what you don’t see is this…

New friends? Hmmm… Sov friends perhaps? After all, they were the ones behind the leak of the footage that set this all off.

Anyway, it’s still Dredd versus the Brit Cit commandos on Atlantis Colony base – and Dredd isn’t doing too well. And then we have the finale of this one and yet another twist to things on the Brit Cit side… we go deeper and deeper into things with only two short – yet, I’m imagining, rather damn good – episodes remaining.

SKIP TRACER: VALHALLA – PART 6 – James Peaty, Paul Marshall, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Simon Bowland

With the Cube under the malignant influence of a black-star, Nolan Blake and his friends have gone in on a mission and they’ve just wandered into a hell of a lot of trouble with an entire station full of red-eyed, ‘Valhalla’ speaking, zombie-looking things.

So, on we go with the tale, and what looked like a simple Skip fights his way up to the right level while losing everyone else to the battle has now taken on another, quite surprising dimension with events on the last page here.

DEXTER: BULLETOPIA CHAPTER 10: MALICE IN PLUNDERLAND – PART 4 – Dan Abnett, Tazio Bettin, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

The problem with doing the Yojimbo thing for Dexter and Carrie here is that sometimes the crooks being conned into it have that pesky habit of thinking for themselves.

Case in point…

And that third way, well, let’s just say it’s not a good way for either Dexter or Carrie.

This whole ‘Bulletopia’ storyline has been a perfect example of what it’s like when a talented writer gets to play around a little and include all those little things they’ve been maybe wanting to do for a long time. At least that’s what it feels like for me.

‘Murder in Plunderland’ though, well, this one’s the best yet, with Abnett doing a perfect job of telling things from every possible side and Bettin absolutely delighting with his artwork.

BRINK: MERCURY RETROGRADE – PART 21 – Dan Abnett, INJ Culbard, leters by Simon Bowland

Last week I started looking at that episode of Brink with this, “20 episodes in and I just don’t want this one to end – it’s just that outstanding.” Maybe each week I’ll just open with that and simply change the episode number?

Has there ever been a series anywhere that does so much incredible work, builds all the tension, puts you on the edge of your seat, and yet pretty much consists of a hell of a lot of conversations? No, nothing is like Brink.

Here, we take up the reins from last episode where Mas, our investigative Journo, is meeting with Evan Leeden – and we still don’t really know exactly who he is. He’s posing as union, but here he’s inviting Mas to blow the story wide open, admitting he works for a ‘three-letter agency’ but nothing more than that. Mas reckons he’s Interhab Intelligence but nothing’s confirmed and, in Brink, we’ve all learned not to take anything for granted. But he tells Mas of corporate overreach, interhab security, the involvement of the big Corps in things, including, possibly, the Mercury event.

Like I say, five pages of talking, yet it’s as thrilling as anything you’ll read this year. And so much of the credit for making it so has to lie with Culbard’s artwork, so perfectly full of everything needed, all the characterisation in the faces, all that exquisite body language, all set against a beautifully detailed backdrop.

JAEGIR: FEROX – PART 2 – Gordon Rennie, Simon Coleby, colours by Len O’Grady, letters by Jim Campbell

Welcome back to the Greater Nordland Republic where the Norts are in a galaxy-wide war with the Southers. This is the world of Rogue Trooper and the other Souther genetically enhanced G.I.s. Yet Rogue Trooper, as great as it was, was always a bit one-dimensional.

So, far more interestingly, the Nort-Souther war has been completely opened up with the world of Kapiten-Inspector Atalia Jaegir of the Nordland State Security Police, investigating war criminals amongst her own ranks.

Right now, Jaegir has entered the Miasma, determined to wipe out the enemy, but as Jaegir has found out before, sometimes the enemy comes from her own side.

Again, Simon Coleby’s artwork, given so much life by Len O’Grady’s colours here, is perfect for the dark and nasty world of Jaegir, as we follow one of the Souther GIs through the toxic environment of Nu-Earth, coming into explosive contact with some of Jaegir’s group, lost in the toxic wastes as Jaegir herself meets General Kurga and we’re in something of a Heart of Drakness feeling storyline.