The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2339: It’s The Mob Vs Dredd… I Know Who My Money’s On

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.

More finales this Prog, as we bid farewell to Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard’s Rogue Trooper, a series that’s brought back the core of a classic character. And good news in the editorial, this won’t be the last we see of Rogue as Ennis and Goddard are reported as having another Nu-Earth tale in the pipeline.

Taking the place of Durham Red, we have a brilliantly retro-styled Future Shock by Elizabeth Sandifer and Jimmy Broxton, we have more of the excellent long-running Judge Dredd vs the mob tale, and there’s continuations of those two brilliant strips that started recently, Azimuth and Void Runners.

Five strips, all damn good. 2000 AD really is knocking it out of the park right now.

Prog #2339 is out in the UK and on digital on Wednesday 5th July. 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, it’s all been a bit calm before the storm, where the calm involves phone calls, organising things, and writing eulogies, and the storm involves the actual funeral looming on the horizon.

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

 

JUDGE DREDD: IN THE EVENT OF MY UNTIMELY DEMISE – PART 7 – by Mike Caroll and Jake Lynch, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Oh yes, a long Carroll Dredd, I do enjoy them. We’re into part seven now and the extended run has allowed the whole thing to breathe, for Carroll’s way of drawing out the threads of a tale in most enjoyable fashion to take hold nicely.

Jake Lynch, of course, is doing stunning stuff on Dredd again, but anyone who’s seen just how he’s developed over the last few years will know that. Angular, inventive, so readable, it’s just packed with moments of greatness.

Plot-wise, Dredd’s closing in on the mob, but the mob are playing a longer game and they’ve got help from the inside… you remember Judge Hart, right?

 

He’s been under Dredd’s nose all this time, trusted, part of his team. But we saw early on that he was in the pocket of the Parliament, a great bit of storytelling from Carroll – introduce the twist early and have us all expectantly waiting for it all to blow up later in the story.

 

ROGUE TROOPER: BLIGHTY VALLEY – PART 13 – FINAL PART – Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard, letters by Rob Steen

After 12 episodes of ‘Blighty Valley’, definitely the best Rogue Trooper we’ve seen for so, so many years, Ennis and Goddard bring it to a close in a suitably horrific fashion. Because that’s been the thing with Blighty Valley, it’s always been about the horrors of war, something that’s hammered home through the visions the Tommys and Rogue have been experiencing. As I’ve said before, it’s very much Rogue doing Charley’s War here, and it’s an approach that’s absolutely worked all the way through.

 

We never truly find out why all this happened, why the Brits turned up, what effects Night Horizon had, but the contrast between the horrors the Tommy’s experience and the simple get it done, kill the Norts approach of Rogue that we see here, complete with a downbeat ending that really sees Goddard elevated to the short but illustrious list of Rogue Trooper artists, including this week’s cover artist, the great Colin Wilson.

Of course, the good news is that Ennis and Goddard are already planning a return to Nu-Earth, presumably with more Rogue Trooper. Given the success of Blighty Valley, this can only be a good, good thing.

 

VOID RUNNERS – PART 5 – by David Hine and Boo Cook, letters by Annie Parkhouse

How are there only six episodes to this one? It really will be a case, next week, of farewell Void Runners, we barely knew you. But something this good, I imagine Tharg’s already getting Hine and Cook busy on series two.

Anyway, the psychedelic ride into an alien world continues apace, this week we have Shikari and Moondog inside the Pleroma, the source of all that hallucinogenic Kali’s Dust that the Ankorites use to impose their rule. And inside we get to learn that Moondog’s not what he seems, not at all. And Shikari, well let’s just say that Shikari’s about to have her mind blown.

 

It’s all over way too quickly, both the episode and the series, and that’s a shame, as there’s enough material here to fill so many pages of wonderment. Hine’s writing and Cook’s art are in perfect synergy, the ridiculousness, the cosmic scale, the comedy, the dire threat over it all, everything adds to the heady mix.

And of course, as you can see from any of the art on show, this is just superb work from Cook. And here he absolutely explodes into vivid colour as Shikari takes her trip through the Pleroma and Cook takes us with her on a double-page spread that’s just incredible.

So, one more episode to go – and then, please, please, please, a second series coming very soon!

 

FUTURE SHOCKS: LASER LENNOX IN THE LAIR OF THE SINISTER SKULL – by Elizabeth Sandifer and Jimmy Broxton, lettters by Simon Bowland

This is only Sandifer’s second Future Shock, after the quite wonderful ‘Look At Your Hands‘ with art from Laura Helsby in Prog #2230, but with this much quality, I’m sure we’ll be seeing the Sandifer name on many more things for 2000 AD.

This time, with Jimmy Broxton going all wonderful black and white, we’re off to a world of pulp superheroes languishing in retirement, Laser Lennox and his arch nemesis, The Sinister Skull. Well, not exactly languishing, more enjoying a quiet game of golf together while the Skull twists Lennox’s arm about coming to the theme park Skull’s opened up after selling the rights to Lennox’s likeness (A likeness that’s particularly close to the great Cary Grant thanks to Broxton’s stylings.)

 

And then comes the twist, because it’s a Future Shock and there has to be one. But it’s a fine little twist, playing on the nature of villainy and a lifetime of being the one one the end of the hero beatings. But the twist isn’t the thing here, it’s the things leading up to it, the interplay between two old adversaries, the casual dialogue, the ear that Sandifer has for conversation, and of course all that gloriously detailed Broxton artwork.

 

AZIMUTH: A JOB FOR SUZI NINE – PART 3 – by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Jim Campbell

Well, things for Suzi Nine Millimetre got complicated straight out of the gate didn’t they? One moment she’s taking on the job for the Cray Cray twins to find out what it is that’s disturbing their dreams and the next she’s off battling the outliers, the shadow things in the realms Suzi’s wandering through, the snow zone shortcuts between the realms of the Cray Crays and Lord Trinary’s Augmentina.

Again, there’s so much sheer stuff coming at you here in Azimuth, Abnett and Bettin just piling on the layers without explanation, just giving enough for the reader to see what’s going on, take in the strange vistas surrounding them and enjoy the hell out of it all. It’s quite magnificent.

It’s little things like Agatha Krispie’s domain having closed its borders and air-gapped them, or the
snow zones themselves, ominously described as appearing more and more and no one knows why. Then there’s the war that gets mentioned, the possibility that Azimuth, a data kingdom, is at war and it’s the resources and power used for that that are causing all the snow zones. So, data city, at war, with something outside?

 

But enough on the things going on, let’s talk about how they’re going on and just how good Bettin’s artwork is here. We knew what he could do from his prior outings on Sinister Dexter. But here he’s absolutely letting loose. The flow and motion in those first few pages as Suzi battles the Outliers is frankly incredible, kinetic storytelling at its finest. Suzi’s chase to a recharge is just masterful stuff

As for where the desperate chase to a recharge out of the snow zone takes her, well that’s one we’ll get to next time. It’s certainly a sight.