Tick, Tock, Tick… Farewell To Hershey — The Finale Of “The Cold In The Bones” In ‘2000 AD’ Prog 2349

We’ve been getting to this point for a long time now, but with Prog 2349, out 13 September, and the finale to ‘The Cold In The Bones’, Judge Barbara Hershey’s tale comes to an end. And what an end it is.

 

Rob Williams and Simon Fraser’s Hershey series ends with the finale to ‘The Cold In The Bones’ in the forthcoming 2000 AD Prog 2349 (out 13 September).

And it definitely ends. Completely, totally, brutally, and quite brilliantly.

Okay, 2000 AD sent this out to us and I’ll try to keep the spoilers light up here, even though, if you’ve been following Williams and Fraser’s Hershey series, you should know where it’s all leading to.

Created by John Wagner and Brian Bolland in 1980, Hershey has been a mainstay of Judge Dredd’s world ever since – a street Judge who attained the city’s highest position, Chief Judge. Over the years she’s been both friend and foe to Dredd, the one person she never dreamed would turn on her. But when that happened, it was painful and traumatic, for her and for readers.

Over the course of the last couple of years, Hershey’s been travelling the world and attempting to undo the damage and the evil wrought by Judge Smiley, something she carries with her through her guilt in her involvement with Smiley and allowing him to operate unseen, unchecked, for so long.

After the Smiley affair, Hershey’s downfall was complete. Her command critically weakened after the memorable confrontation with Dredd in ‘The Small House‘ (written by Williams, art by Henry Flint, 2000 AD Progs 2100-2109)

 

She stayed to do her duty for her city, eventually passing the mantle of Chief Judge to Logan. But there was one final twist in her story, or so we all thought.

Somewhere, she had caught an incurable virus whose destructive progression through her body could just be slowed, not stopped.  And she died, or at least that was the story we saw in Guatemala (written by Wagner, art by Colin MacNeil, Progs 2150-2157).

 

But no, Hershey’s tale simply wasn’t done. Not yet, not when she had so much to atone for, so many wrongs she still had to right.

And that was when Williams and Fraser brought her back in Hershey. She had faked her death, with the knowledge of Logan and Dredd, just to see the effects of Smiley’s manipulations brought to justice. She was still dying, there was no way to defeat the virus, but she could do this last thing.

And over the course of three storylines, that’s just what she’s done. She’s even managed to get some answers to questions long puzzling her, a final confrontation with Dredd…

 

Now, she’s seen the curse of Smiley defeated. She’s saved her beloved Mega-City One once more. She’s confronted ghosts of her past, and understood what happened to her in the grand context of the history of MC-1.

Now, her lifetime of service ends with the conclusion of this tale of revenge and retribution.

 

So, now a little art before we really get into the spoilers for this one.

Although, those who are already 2000 AD fans will know that this isn’t a world of Marvel and DC where miraculous recoveries or where death is merely a temporary blip in a character’s long history. But anyway…

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW…

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW…

SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS ARE COMING…

 

 

SPOILER TIME… 

Ever since her diagnosis and faked death, we knew that Hershey was living on borrowed time, knew that death in Judge Dredd is a thing that happens to all in the end.

And with the final pages of ‘The Cold In The Bones‘, Williams and Fraser bring it all to a close with the death of Barbara Hershey.

It is a perfectly done finale, six pages of low-key, brutal, real death of a legendary character. In fact, you can see the low-key, almost surprising nature of it being the sort of thing to annoy those who think that their favourites should have some amazing send-off. But that’s other comics, not 2000 AD.

No, this is sharp, painful, and as nasty as death always is. But it’s also done perfectly in story, the finale to a great character’s tale with a memorable death that’s most memorable for the simplicity and cold reality of how it takes place.

Of course, the death of Hershey is something that few will know the truth of – most believed she died when she faked her own death. But her death now will have a long-lasting impact both on and off the pages of 2000 AD.

Because through all the recent tales, one question hasn’t been asked. Not yet, not until now. Just who was it that infected Hershey with the virus in the first place?

The answers to that will play out from 2000 AD Prog 2351, out on the 27th September, where Judge Dredd begins a new mission: to find out just who gave Hershey her death sentence and bring them to justice.

In the meantime, read and enjoy Prog 2349 and celebrate the life and the death of a classic 2000 AD character. A death done just right.

 

And now the first two pages of that final Hershey tale…