The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2338: Run, Rogue, Run!

Since 1977 2000 AD has been the UK’s greatest sci-fi weekly comic, and every week we give you a glimpse inside the new Prog… it’s the Weekly 2000 AD.

 

Okay, the cover first – that’s Colin Wilson providing the art. THE Colin Wilson, whose Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper amazed readers back in the early ’80s before going on to huge success in Europe (being hand-picked by Moebius/Jean Girard take over the art of Lt. Blueberry for a start) and the USA.

No new series this week, after Azimuth last Prog and Void Runners a couple before that. But there is an ending, with the latest Worley/Willsher Durham Red reaching a conclusion, plus the Ennis/Goddard Rogue Trooper on its penultimate episode. Alongside them, the latest episodes in the mob-tastic Dredd and the new strips really get into their stride, Void Runners more than halfway through its way too short six-part run and Azimuth expanding into its second episode.

Like I keep saying, five superb strips in one great comic. Or, as Tharg says about his ‘Mighty Organ’ (his words, not mine), ‘Can any other title give you such breadth and variation in styles and subject matter?’ No, they can’t, and that’s why I keep shouting out just how good 2000 AD really is.

Prog #2338 is out in the UK and on digital on Wednesday 28th June. In the USA things are, of course, different, and you’d be best to insist your local comic shop orders you the regular monthly bundle of Progs through the distributor. This week has been accompanied by the ‘and another fee’ that goes along with arranging a funeral. Seriously, I’m surprised they aren’t billing us for the spades. And I have to write a eulogy. Never easy but worth the blood, sweat, and tears to send off a wonderful old lady.

Okay, enough… let’s have a look inside…

 

JUDGE DREDD: IN THE EVENT OF MY UNTIMELY DEMISE – PART 6 – by Mike Caroll and Jake Lynch, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Well, thankfully my worry about this being six episodes and done wasn’t right, meaning we can enjoy more of this one, letting Carroll’s storyline unfold at the pace it’s meant to.

Although we do have another artist this time, although seeing as it’s Jake Lynch jumping onboard this one I have absolutely no problems with that. Lynch is one of the great new Dredd artists of the past few years, always giving us great scenes and really leaning into the whole McMahon style here. Gorgeous stuff.

 

The whole Dredd versus the mob storyline here has been all about the structure of the mob here, putting the story on them rather than Dredd, who’s all reactive so far here. And that works really well for me, I do love it when Carroll takes on a thing and runs with it, deconstructing MC-1 life, including, in this case, the criminal organisations that run rife under the Judge’s radar. So yes, it’s a great little Dredd tale that’s light on the Dredd.

A thoroughly good Dredd tale from Carroll and Marshall, and now Lynch, that can, as far as I’m concerned, run as long as it likes, I’m enjoying seeing all the connections being made here.

 

VOID RUNNERS – PART 4 – by David Hine and Boo Cook, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Bloody Hell, already four episodes into this six-parter and yet there’s so much more to explore. This is one of those that you hope already has a sequel planned and scheduled already.

Because it really is everything it was trailed as, a psychedelic sci-fi ride into the unknown, with Boo Cook drawing his career-best artwork and David Hine coming up with characters and ideas that allow Cook to go out there – and it’s all working for me so far.

Plot-wise, it’s simple – big galactic empire, the Ankorites, need more Kali’s Dust, the intoxicating, visionary drug that makes the universe work and keeps them in power. But the dust supplies are running out, which is why they’ve had to turn to Capt. Shikari, everything they abhor, someone who uses the dust for themselves, someone in tune with the creatures that make the dust, the Pleroma, someone just not under their control. So, with Shikari leading a mission to harvest the dust, there’s all sorts of ways this could go massively wrong.

And here is where it does take a right turn, with Shikari wanting to harvest the dust here gently and the Ankorites, having realised that this is the literal mother lode – enough dust for the foreseeable future – they’ve decided it’s time to harvest the lot, even when it will mean killing the host – not to mention Shikari and her crew.

 

But don’t let that simple plot description disguise the fact that this one’s a real rush. Hine and Cook’s vision runs deep here, it’s packed with invention, great characterisation, full of humour from the contrast between Shikari and her crew and the overbearing and overly serious oppressors. Void Runners really is one of those that you shouldn’t miss.

 

DURHAM RED: MAD DOGS – PART 12 – FINAL PART – Alec Worley and Ben Willsher, letters by Simon Bowland

The end of what’s been the latest and the best of Worley and Willsher’s Durham Red rejuvenation – and that’s exactly what it is, bringing back a classic, underused, maybe even misused character and giving her new life – and it’s a corker.

Alec Worley’s really been playing into the hunger here, Red’s hunger for blood and all the ways that she overcomes it. She’s never been a glittery cute vamp, never been nice. Instead, when she’s done right, just as she is here, she’s nasty, she’s bloodthirsty, and it’s only the better parts of her that manage to (just) keep all that at bay. Case in point in the first few pages of the finale, as she faces the choice between killing Kanka or using him, it’s always touch and go which way she’s going to go.

 

So, when the end comes, we’re left with many possibilities as to the future of Red. And no matter what they are, if Worley and Willsher are at the helm, it’s going to be worth reading.

 

AZIMUTH: A JOB FOR SUZI NINE – PART 2 – by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Jim Campbell

Just like Void Runners, this one comes at you, something new, something interesting, fascinating, expansive.

Azimuth is the city, ‘a data-driven metropolis, where anything is possible.‘ The Lords of the New Flesh rule the city and two of their number, the Cray-Cray twins, have a job for Suzi Nine Millimetre – find out why their dreams have gone bad.

Again, like Void Runners, that sets this up to be deceptively simple, another go find out stuff quest wrapped up in alien trappings. But, as with Void Runners, it’s all about the way Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin flesh this one out – and right now it’s looking so damn good.

 

So now Suzi’s on the case, has the job, on the hunt for what it is that’s making the Cray Cray twins have nightmares. Deceptively simple, excellently executed.

Bettin’s artwork was good with his last outing with Abnett on Sinister Dexter but here, well here it’s sublime. It’s the thing of giving an artist new worlds and new characters to play around with, it seems to bring out the very best of them. And so it is here. Where his art was good on SinDex, it’s just brilliant here, the world that he and Abnett bring before our eyes is beautiful and strange, excellently alien in all its forms.

Yep, Azimuth is playing with familiar ideas, the basic structure is simple, but the way Abnett and Bettin have made it come to life is where this one wins out.

 

ROGUE TROOPER: BLIGHTY VALLEY – PART 12 – Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard, letters by Rob Steen

The penultimate episode and we’re getting to what the hell is going on and why it’s been the Rogue Trooper meets Charley’s War strip you didn’t know you needed.

Ennis writes a good war tale, we always knew that. And of course, Rogue Trooper is nothing if not a war tale, so it’s no surprise that this one’s worked so well. Add to that Patrick Goddard’s artwork, in perfectly stark b&w, and we have something excellent, a new Rogue Trooper that works where so many of the new RT tales haven’t. Ennis taking us outside of the confines that constrained most Rogue tales means it has the chance to be what it is, be different and yet key into all the classic elements that made Rogue such a great read back in the day.

 

So, where are we? Why are the Tommy’s here in Rogue’s world? Or is it that Rogue’s in their world? Or could it be that we’re someplace else, someplace strange and new? This is Night’s Horizon and all bets are off here. But with one episode to go, Ennis and Goddard are going out in some fine, fine style.