The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2359: Now That’s A Bloody Big Ship

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.

Another week, another five great strips. But this week we have the finale to Rob Williams and PJ Holden‘s rather damn great Judge Dredd: Poison. Plus, we get a bit of a mid-season break in The Fall of Deadworld: Retribution.

Alongside those, there’s the latest episodes of Helium: Scorched Earth, The Devil’s Railroad, and Feral & Foe.

 

Incredibly, we only have two more regular Progs before Prog #2362 and the end of the year/Christmas Prog hit. Where the hell did 2023 go?

Prog #2359 is out on Wednesday 22nd November in the UK. As always, North American readers should get to their local comic shops and demand they get the four-weekly Prog bundles in – you really are missing out on a treat!

Oh, and because it’s the end of Judge Dredd: Poison and there’s absolutely no way to do a preview without revealing the villain responsible for Hershey’s death… I’m putting that one right at the end here. And obviously… spoilers.

 

 

THE FALL OF DEADWORLD: RETRIBUTION – PART 7 – by Kek-W and Dave Kendall, letters by Simon Bowland

Seven parts and we’re taking a bit of a break till the new year for this latest installment of the strip where doom and horror are never too far away.

We’re in Sector House 13 with Judge Ava Eastwood and her not too keen on being there Sov Judges that she convinced needed to come along. The same Sector House 13 where Casey Tweed got purged last episode by Judge Fear and all that’s left is some particularly nasty entrails. It’s also the same Sector House where Sidney De’ath and Sister Eunomia are having a bit of a scuffle.

 

And now, all of it comes together. Where it’s going to go from there – I have no idea. And that’s one of the things I enjoy about the Fall of Deadworld, the absolute over-the-top insanity of it all. Well, that and all that perfectly nasty Dave Kendall artwork.

 

HELIUM: SCORCHED EARTH – PART 8 – Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, letters by Simon Bowland

Well, the peace and quiet for Hodge, Sol, and Bloom really didn’t last that long at all, did it?

Above the Fugue town, the Cruiser Ballerophon has begun making its presence felt as the shelling begins.

Whilst the mayor wants to fight and protect the newfound, no longer lost Princess, the folks outside are pretty scared and there’s a few who want to hand over the strangers in their midst. Hodge meanwhile, is having none of it, she can’t see herself as that lost princess, can only act as the brave cop that she’s always been, offering to turn herself in if that’s what it takes to keep the people of the Fugue town safe.

But… there’s another option… and another chance for a look at some of that glorious D’Israeli aeronautical artwork…

 

So, we’re deep into this one and it’s proving to be so much fun. Edginton’s keeping it all going so fast, with barely a moment to catch breath and D’israeli doing incredible work in building this wonderful world for us to enjoy.

 

THE DEVIL’S RAILROAD – PART 7 – by Peter Milligan and Rufus Dayglo, colours by Jose Villarrubia, letters by Jim Cambell

Rufus Dayglo’s artwork has always had a great look to it, great character work, able to do everything from totally silly and over the top to intense emotional stuff.

That opening panel of this episode though, well that’s a bit fabulous indeed…

And then there’s the final panel of this episode, one of those where he shifts his style just enough to give it a beautifully different look…

 

As for what’s going on, it’s every bit the fast-paced thing, but it’s also fast-paced and packed full of invention and ideas.

We get the problems of Constance, who’s finding herself deeper and deeper in trouble with Sister White’s remaining son. And then we get Palamon, desperate to find her, but also trying to do what he can to keep going on the Devil’s Railroad, including a little bit of selling part of his soul. Yep, you heard right.

 

FERAL & FOE: BAD GODESBERG – PART 8 – Dan Abnett and Richard Elson, letters by Jim Campbell

And to finish off the Prog, back to the lightness of Feral & Foe. And by lightness I mean nothing but praise. Abnett writes and Elson draws this great slice of fantasy just right, with the adventure never getting too grim and miserable but still delivering plenty of action, plus the usual amount of sparkling dialogue going on.

Everyone’s down in the cellars looking to deal with that jellied isohedron… which, in itself, is one of those wonderfully inventive and wonderfully ridiculous things. And then up pops something, someone that Wrath calls a Longaevi…

 

More strangeness, more mystery and more fun happening in Feral & Foe. Oh, and as for Bode, he’s up in the tower with problems of his own with yet another weird and wonderful monster of the hour turning up. But more on that next time.

 

And finally…

JUDGE DREDD: POISON – PART 8 – FINAL PART – Rob Williams and PJ Holden, colours by Peter Doherty, letters by Simon Bowland.

Okay then. As I said right up there at the top, there’s no way of doing a preview of this one without showing you the first two pages and those first two pages give it all away.

So. Your choice. If you want to keep reading and find out, fill your boots. If not… well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

As for the whole story, it’s been a rather great old-fashioned whodunnit combined with a good bit of Dredd globetrotting.

He’s been into space, into East-Meg Two, into the Cursed Earth, and is now back in MC-1, deep in the bowels of a secure facility for the worst of the worst.

 

We’ve had so many suspects and leads in this mystery of who it was that poisoned Hershey and now it all comes to an end with the finale. Williams does write a sweet Dredd, just the right tone all the way through, very little action, just good old police procedural, finding the leads, following the leads, running into a few red herrings, and having a hell of a lot of very un-Dredd-like doubts about things along the way.

 

And alongside Williams getting the tone just right, we have PJ Holden being absolutely perfect with the artwork. I’ve said it for a long time that his Dredds are superb, and so it was here. His linework is tight, the inking bold, and he’s benefiting from some really good colours from Pete Doherty. Over the course of the series we’ve had a huge variety of locales, all perfectly captured by Holden and Doherty.

Okay then… now time for that preview…

SPOILERS FOR THE FINALE OF JUDGE DREDD: POISON…

IN 3…

2…

1…