The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2361: Dredd Snarls, Perps 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.

Yep, great cover by John McCrea – it’s just wonderfully loose and free, all about the attitude and less about the anatomy. Just really damn good.

 

Okay, that’s the cover. Inside, we have the same five good strips as last week. There’s the second and final part to Judge Dredd: Clanker where Dredd’s looking to take down the weird extraterrestrial entity that’s currently in a Mechanismo unit. Alongside the Dredd, there’s the second part to the everything always goes wrong serial Enemy Earth, more pulp action adventure with a colour palette to swoon over in Helium: Scorched Earth, more fast-paced immigrant tales as Constance and Palamon finally get reunited in The Devil’s Railroad, and more fabulous fantasy with a smile in Feral & Foe: Bad Godesberg.

Next week, it’s the big Christmas Prog, with continuations of Devil’s Railroad, Helium, Enemy Earth, and Feral & Foe along with a whole load of one-off strips, including Rogue Trooper, Anderson, Strontium Dog, and Fiends of the Eastern Front.

Prog #2361 is out on Wednesday 6th December in the UK. As always, North American readers should get to their local comic shops and demand they get the 4-weekly Prog bundles in – you really are missing out on a treat! Somehow, it’s December already. I’ve got packing to do, a plane to catch, and family to go see. And I suppose I should really do something about Christmas presents. In the meantime, enjoy the latest Prog…

 

JUDGE DREDD: CLANKER – PART 2 – FINAL PART – by Ken Niemand and Nick Dyer, colours by John Charles, letters by Annie Parkhouse

After taking over the garbage disposal and the toilet, the weird extraterrestrial entity that wants to bring the law of the New Flesh to Mega-City One is not inside an old Mark I Mechanismo unit.

Trouble is, there’s still the Mechanismo programming in there, which means Clanker’s got a bit of a problem. Sure, it wants to be an MC-1 vigilante and bring the New Flesh into being, but all the while the Mech program is trying to rebel.

Meanwhile, Dredd and a small team, including the not all that great Psi-Judge Kaspian (Anderson was busy) are hunting Clanker down. Will it be the end of Clanker? Perhaps. Will it be the end of Niemand and Dyer doing more of these – oh, I hope not.

A very quick, done in two Dredd but well in keeping with the sort of goofy Dredds that have filled the Progs over the years and very welcome. Silly and loads of fun.

 

HELIUM: SCORCHED EARTH – PART 10 – Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, letters by Simon Bowland

Again, just have to start with fulsome praise of what D’Israeli does on the pages of Helium, episode after episode. The colours in the first few pages here are just stunning, a really different palette that just looks incredible.

After rescuing the crew of the Ballerophon from the Fugue town’s colossal cryptid thing, Hodge, Sol, and Bloom now find themselves being pursued by the ungrateful buggers from Ris. So, it’s up, up, up for them… and yet another moment to go ooooohhhhh at the art…

 

So, we’re back in the clear blue skies of the world above the Fugue and Hodge is desperately hoping that’s enough to keep Ris off their tale. Or maybe not.

More fast-paced thrills with that whole pulp feel from Edginton and D’Israeli, sumptuous artwork, great story. And it’s not finished any time soon yet.

 

THE DEVIL’S RAILROAD – PART 9 – by Peter Milligan and Rufus Dayglo, colours by Jose Villarrubia, letters by Jim Cambell

Palamon’s on the trampoline, which runs on improbability physics, uncertainty fusion, and anxiety thrust. Palamon has no idea how it all works, just that it’s the last stage of the journey to Earth and sanctuary. But without Constance and their unborn child, it’s a bit of a hollow achievement. However, it is a damn fine example of how Milligan is delighting in throwing in all these little bits in to add so much to The Devil’s Railroad and give it a hell of a lot of depth. Likewise, Dayglo’s filling the pages with so much great artistic detailing.

Case in point, as Palamon gets to the end of the trampoline and arrives at the Earth Terminal, we get Milligan and Dayglo going overboard to show us that Earth might not be the great end to the journey they thought it was…

 

Anyway, while Palamon was on the trampoline for six months, thanks to the weird physics of it all, Constance has just managed to get out of the clutches of Sister White. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Constance left her diary pod and now Sister White knows it was Palamon who killed her beloved son.

And that’s why Constance’s cousin ends up doing this…

Again, more of that great artwork that Dayglo is doing here, switching up the styles so easily to really make the pages work.

After this, well… that’s for next time. Let’s just say that all will not be well for the new immigrants for any time soon.

Again, loads of great action, Milligan and Dayglo working as a great team once more, keeping it all pushing on, the undercurrent of political stuff coming in once more as they finally make Earth.

 

ENEMY EARTH: BOOK THREE – PART 1 – by Cavan Scott and Luke Horsman, letters by Simon Bowland

Okay then, second part of the third and final series of Enemy Earth, where the world’s flora and fauna have mutated, violently, and wiped out most of the Earth’s population.

Zoe, a mutating Jules, and Jule’s dad were attempting to get to India in a plane, with Jules’ dad, the Prime Minister, convinced that there’s the cure for the mutations there.

I say were attempting, because this happened right at the end of last episode…

 

First off, that’s possibly my favourite page Horsman’s done on this series, so far advanced in every way from where he started with the series. Absolutely great work.

Anyway, after surviving the crash landing, Jules’ mutations just get more out of control, which is absolutely not a good thing as they’ve landed in India with a group of humans who don’t look fondly on mutants at all.

 

FERAL & FOE: BAD GODESBERG – PART 10 – Dan Abnett and Richard Elson, letters by Jim Campbell

Wrath and Bode are Feral & Foe, in service to the Wretchfinder General as penance for being on the wrong side in the big war. Currently, they’re part of a team looking to figure out just how the magical citadel of Godesberg has been overrun by bad magics.

 

Right now, Bode is trying to dry out essential magical texts that are covered in Roving Eye gloop and Wrath has discovered another Longaevi like her, Poor Celine and has entered into an alliance.

And while they’re all busy doing all that, we get this, the epitome of the series in so many ways…

 

Yep, that’s everything that Feral & Foe is about, all the sass and the great dialogue and plenty of really well done characters. Sure, it’s fantasy and I’ve never been that much of a fan, but when it’s this good, this funny, I’m definitely all in with it.