The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2298: The Crawly Man Creeps Into Your Nightmares

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.

We’re in wind-up mode at the Prog here, with the upcoming Prog #2300, another one of the regular jumping-on Progs.

So, it’s part 2 of 3 for Judge Dredd: Sentientoid’s Big Idea, Tharg’s 3Rillers: The Crawly Man, and Dexter: The End Of The Pier Show, and penultimate episodes for Skip Tracer: Valhalla and Jaegir: Ferox.

2000 AD Prog #2298 is out on Wednesday 7th September, which means it’s time to take a little look through for you…

 

JUDGE DREDD: SENTIENTOID’S BIG IDEA – PART 2 – Rob Williams, Jake Lynch, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

What does a Sov Sentientoid do when it’s all alone in the Big Meg, its country destroyed, mission over, and a newfound sentience meaning it knows it’s all alone? Well, there’s always TV.

All of which sort of explains just why the Sentientoid’s Big Idea is to become a Made Man – yep, that’s right. And why not?

In the meantime, Dredd’s on the case… as you’d expect. Slowly picking up clues and headed to a meeting with a familiar face from back in End of Days, now in MC-1 and in charge of ‘experiments in the unusual.’

 

It’s one of those in-between tales, with Williams making use of characters from both ‘The Hard Way’ and ‘End of Days’ to push on with things in MC-1. Something that, if you’ve seen the solicits for future Progs, you know is happening in the new Dredd, ‘Buratino Must Die.’

As such, it’s got that good but not wow feel about it, one of those that will sit a lot better when read in conjunction with the rest of the storylines – and with the whole ‘End of Days’, ‘Carry the Nine’, ‘The Hard Way’, and all the rest of them from both Williams and Arthur Wyatt, that’s going to be a lot of good reading. As it is, this is just one of those short Dredds that exist as building blocks to something bigger, something that’s always been part of Dredd over the years.

 

THARG’S 3RILLERS: THE CRAWLY MAN – PART 2 – David Barnett, Lee Millmore, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Simon Bowland

The Tharg’s 3Rillers have always been a bit hit and miss, an extended Future Shock with the expanded page count, although still only 15 pages long, meaning it’s turned into something of a try-out for new series.

The Crawly Man might not be the continuing series Barnett and Millmore are after though, seeing as the end to the Crawly Man will definitely be some sort of end. No, it’s Herne and Shuck who will be the characters that could and should emerge from this one with a longer tale to tell.

 

Anyway, after our introductions last episode, neatly summarised with a cheeky wink from Barnett in the first panel, we’re back on the search for young Caris, part of a strange little cult village in Wales where the Elders have their own ways of dealing with things like this.

Meanwhile, Caris is being held hostage by certain folks who really have no idea who (or what) she is – but the Crawly Man’s about to show them just what they’re dealing with.

 

It’s a great 3Riller, concise, fast-paced, giving us all the info without making it feel like overdone exposition, full of strange things happening. Barnett’s writing is sharp and knowing, building characters up whilst spinning a fine tale. And Millmore’s art is doing a fine job of creating the world we’re watching unfold so well in front of our eyes. It’s also one that you’ll not only be wanting to see how it turns out next Prog but how it’s going to return for a future series.

 

SKIP TRACER: VALHALLA – PART 11 – James Peaty, Paul Marshall, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Simon Bowland

When the whole thing comes down around his ears, as the Blackstar’s influence has taken over everyone on the Cube and Djinndorah’s ready to deliver the final blow, Eden comes to his rescue – pretty much as we’d always knew would happen.

But now that she’s saved him, he’s got a decision to make – as the Blackstar and the Cube are still a terrible threat.

 

So yes, the final Skip Tracer is going exactly where we thought it would, with a final episode showdown that it’s unlikely Nolan Blake’s going to escape from. It’s all about Valhalla after all.

Again, Skip Tracer’s doing nothing revolutionary here, but it’s doing it rather well – an old-fashioned bit of sci-fi adventure. And what’s so wrong with that?

 

DEXTER: BULLETOPIA CHAPTER 11: THE END OF THE PIER SHOW – PART 2 – Dan Abnett, Steve Yeowell, colours by John Charles, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Well, now that Dexter, Carrie Hosanna, Billie Octavo, and Kalinka have reached the coast, it’s time for just that little bit of R&R before they head off for the sanctuary of Mangapore – although that lasts about three and a half pages, such is the way of these things. (After all, it’s no surprise that this wasn’t always called Dexter).

 

Along the way, we do finally get to figure out just who or what’s inside Dexter’s head these past few months. And it’s one that might, just might be able to help Dexter et al – although there are a couple of problems you meet on the final couple of pages.

Seeing Steve Yeowell on art again is a joy, even though Tazio Bettin’s been doing such a fine job on Bulletopia up to now, and seeing Abnett wind up his thoroughly entertaining spin through these various little tales has been a blast.

 

JAEGIR: FEROX – PART 7 – Gordon Rennie, Simon Coleby, colours by Len O’Grady, letters by Jim Campbell

Kapiten-Inspector Atalia Jaegir General Kurga, her comrades, the captured Souther GI, the Southers bearing down on the Misama… all of it about to come together and all of it tying back into the Jaegir family and the Kali bio-weapon.

And it all ends in – well, that’s one for you to find out.

 

As with every single episode of Jaegir, Coleby’s artwork and O’Grady’s colour work is just superb as the story of Jaegir moves ever forward. There’s a real sense of Rennie having some grand plan behind it all, tied into Kali of course, but it’s one that plays out each time in something very simple, Rennie giving us more depth to the world of Nu Earth than Rogue Trooper ever managed – again, like Skip Tracer, it’s old school storytelling, a simple tale played out so very well – just as 2000 AD has always done.