The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2348: Have Gun, Will Do Law … Dredd’s On The Lookout For You, Perp!

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.

We’re very, very close to the big change Prog #2350, which is another of 2000 AD‘s crossover tales with the Megazine. Last time it was the big zombie takeover, this time it’s another ‘what-if’ idea – what would the comic be like if, in some alternate past, Battle Action merged with 2000 AD and the likes of Major Eazy, Hellman, and El Mestizo joined the comic. Should be lots of fun.

However, to make that happen we’re now in wrapping things up territory, with the penultimate parts to Judge Dredd: A Fallen Man, Azimuth, the 3Riller: Die Hoard, and Hershey‘s finale in The Cold in the Bones. Joining those four we have a brand-new Future Shock – Fear & Loathing Of Las Vegas. (Poor old Vegas, always getting a bad rep! Honestly, it’s a lovely place.)

Prog #2348 is out in the UK and on digital on Wednesday 6th September. 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. We’re now pretty much post-meningitis in Bruton Mansions (Dudley version). Which means now it’s a panicked rush towards packing and heading back home to Bruton Mansions (Vegas version). Somehow, despite there just being the two of us, we have enough stuff for four cases. One of which appears to consist entirely of Cadbury’s chocolate – yes, stereotypical Brits in the USA.

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

 

JUDGE DREDD: A FALLEN MAN – PART  7 – by Ken Niemand and Tom Foster, colurs by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Part seven and we’re at the penultimate part of the Kyle Asher trilogy. We’ve seen this ex-Judge return from Titan trying to make a go of things in a city where he’s distrusted by all, Dredd most of all. And in this third part, we’ve seen him fall – perhaps. Depends on how you look at it really. Yes, he’s killed for the mob, but he’s also feeding the Justice Department vital information.

Problem is, Dredd’s still on his case and I don’t think Dredd’s going to go easy on him. And neither does Asher. Which is why he’s desperately trying to get everything in order. Now he and Zoola, the kid of the guy he killed that landed him on Titan, his guilt given flesh, are trying to escape to somewhere safe, Asher relying on all he’s done to cause enough confusion and chaos to slip the net.

Dredd’s piecing it together, going after the young girl Asher’s been looking after, the daughter of the victim that sent him to Titan, the way he’s working out his guilt.

So, all going to work out fine for Asher – right? Yeah, I don’t think he believed it would either.

 

Penultimate episode and it’s all coming together. The three Asher series have been Niemand and Foster doing a seriously good Dredd, the sort where Dredd’s the big bad in the background, as we focus on Asher and his struggles. And damn, it’s been good.

Like I say, a fine, fine Dredd. The way Niemand and Foster have worked together on the whole Asher trilogy has been classic Dredd. And this end part isn’t letting up at all.

 

FUTURE SHOCKS: FEAR & LOATHING OF LAS VEGAS – by Ned Hartley and Joe Currie, letters by Simon Bowland

Oh poor old Las Vegas, it does get a bad rep. Honestly, it’s a lovely place. Well, mostly.

Anyway, Ned Hartley and Joe Currie bring us a simple tale of a different sort of Vegas, one given over to AI (yes, there’s a lot of AI cropping up in 2000 AD’s Future Shocks and other stories right now, isn’t there?)

DIVA the AI (Digital Intelligence for Vegas Activities) transforms the city for sure but (and of course there’s a but, it’s a Future Shock, there’s always going to be a but), it doesn’t exactly work out the way the man behind it hoped – as suddenly people start disappearing.

Joe Currie made his Dredd debut with Cadet Dredd in the Regened a couple of Progs back and that was a delight, an absolute delight. This has bits of that same delight but also bits that look a little rougher, a little raw. Still good, just not the same high standards (not quite) that came on that Cadet Dredd. And as for the story, well it’s a simple and pretty predictable little FS for you. Sometimes they work wonderfully, sometimes they just fill a gap.

 

AZIMUTH: THE STRANGER – PART 6 – by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Jim Campbell

Last episode, Dexter showed one of the Lords of the New Flesh the truth of the thing, how he/it was actually some sad little hacker in his room. Well, that didn’t go down too well as you can imagine.

Although there’s still a lot up in the air about just what is and isn’t real here, as the rogue AI is so deep into things that so much has changed. And it’s stuff like that, and this, that’s messing with Dex’s mind…

 

All of which means Abnett’s got one Prog after this to sort things out. Although given how things end up with this episode, I’m beginning to think that we might, just might, not be finished with Azimuth quite yet.

And you know what, I would love that. Another series of Azimuth would be great, as there’s no doubt so much to explore here, with Abnett finding new possibilities for Dexter here and seemingly relishing creating something new from the ground up. Likewise, Tazio Bettin’s artwork really has shone with the new setting, allowing him to dazzle so much with every episode.

I’m hoping that, however Abnett and Bettin manage it, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Azimuth next Prog.

 

THARG’S 3RILLERS: DIE HOARD – PART 2 – by Eddie Robson and Nick Brokenshire, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Back with the info-miners of Die Hoard, where the 22nd Century Earth is living through the aftermath of a brutal war with an alien race called the Imishio that destroyed so much information across the world.

The info-miners/salvage experts, call them what you want, are in a dead man’s house (with that suspiciously going to come back and be important Propaganda virus vial that gets dropped as he died) where there’s a huge repository of data and information.

There’s also a locked door and something has turned on the house’s security systems. In fact, it’s the House’s AI that’s doing all this (yes, more AI, twice in one Prog? Three times if you count the rogue AI that’s always in the background of Azimuth/Dexter – isn’t that a bit much?)

 

So, there’s a bit of switching of allegiances, accusations, revelations… and yes, the Propaganda virals comes back into it, as we all knew they would.

But then it all shifts again, and suddenly we’re in world-threatening territory in an unusual and interesting way. Credit to Eddie Robson here by taking the obvious of the Propaganda virals and spinning them off into a very different fashion. It does set things up really well for the finale of what may have started off slow but really gets interesting from here.

 

HERSHEY: THE COLD IN THE BONES – PART II – EPISODE 7 – by Rob Williams and Simon Fraser, letters by Simon Bowland

We just have this and the final episode to go now, and it’s all so good.

This is Hershey seeing things through, dealing with the problems she caused the world with Judge Smiley and Enceladus.

We’ve had Dredd and the Judges coming, cavalry fashion, to the rescue down in Antarctic City. And we’ve had Hershey tracking it all back to MC-1… giving us this amazing moment from the previous episode…

 

But as Barbara finds, even though she’s out on the streets and an anonymous Judge, even though she’s there when the bust goes down and the last of Smiley’s poison is dealt with… It’s not enough, not when she’s there this way…

 

And that’s the brutally low-key way that Williams deals with Hershey here, the way it had to be, the way the system makes it, the way this type of Justice demands.

It has been, across the three series, a brilliantly written and beautifully drawn strip, glorious in how both Williams and Fraser have executed things. The bringing back of Hershey may have been that little bit tricky, a little controversial. But here, as we get to the end, the end of Hershey, we’re seeing the finale this Judge needed. And it is a superb thing.