The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2371: This One Will Hurt — Can It Really Be A Better World In Judge Dredd?

Since 1977 2000 AD has been the UK’s greatest sci-fi weekly comic – now 47 years and counting – and every week we give you a glimpse inside the new Prog… it’s The Weekly 2000 AD.

Before we begin, we have to talk about that brilliant cover by Cliff Robinson, with colours by Dylan Teague. Robinson’s covers are always something special and he seems to take great delight in messing with the logo pretty regularly. Here, of course, we’re looking at the impact of Judge Maitland’s revolutionary plans for the future of Mega-City One in ‘A Better World‘, and Robinson takes great delight in showing us a city falling apart as the forces of disorder threaten to overwhelm the radical and, let’s not forget, successful steps taken by Maitland to create her vision of that better world. It’s one to study hard, taking in all the details, from the mob rule beating down on the Judges all the way down to the Steamboat Willy ring on the perp’s finger in the foreground. Quite magnificent.

You may notice as well that there’s been nothing online — or there shouldn’t have been anyway — about this Prog before publication. Normally, we like to run the Weekly 2000 AD a few days before the Prog appears, unless I happen to be late with it. But this week there’s an embargo on publishing anything about it before release day.

The reason for that? Well, I’m not telling you here. No way. The embargo and the lack of any particular details this week for A Better World are because something happens in the Dredd strip to completely upend the status quo and we and 2000 AD want to keep the whole thing for the readers to discover. Sure, we’ll do teasers, but there’s nothing that spoils THAT moment here. Trust me though, it’s a doozy.

Oh, and if you have seen anyone do a big spoiler reveal of what happens — shame on them for doing it. Some things deserve to be enjoyed on the comic page without spoilers.

Anyway, alongside the monumental events of the penultimate episode of ‘A Better World‘ in Judge Dredd, we have the continuing tales of weirdness in Indigo Prime, more sci-fi adventuring in Full Tilt Boogie, another look at a world falling towards destruction and death in The Fall Of Deadworld, and more folk horror chills in Thistlebone: The Dule Tree. It’s another week of absolute greatness for 2000 AD, one of Britain’s finest sci-fi anthologies for 47 years and counting!

Prog #2371 is out on 28th February in the UK. You 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! Like I said, there’s a quite sensible embargo on this until release day, and I’m not going to spoiler the Dredd strip for you – some things need to be read without spoiling them, all the better for THAT moment to really kick you in the gut.

JUDGE DREDD: A BETTER WORLD – PART 8 – by Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt and Henry Flint, letters by Annie Parkhouse

How many different ways do I have to say it? This is one of THOSE Dredd stories, one that will reverberate across the series for many years to come. Stellar plotting and scripts from Williams and Wyatt, coupled with career-high artwork from Flint (and that’s saying something for an artist who is undoubtedly the finest Dredd artist of his generation) have made this one just a great read.

The slow build of things have been delicious, the idea of Maitland’s vision of transforming Justice in MC-1 from punishment and judgement to one of social education and real change to reduce the crime rate has been so involving and perfectly reflecting the worst aspects of the modern world – just as the best sci-fi always has.

And the art… well it’s just been superb, Flint doing so much on each and every page, utilising a tight grid based on a 3×5, 15-panel per page layout that manages to be both claustrophobic and expansive at the same time. It’s simply one of the best Dredds for many, many years.

As for what’s happening in this one… well, things in Maitland’s test sector for her plan to change the way the Law is dealt with by reducing punishment and concentrating on social education is, quite simply, falling apart.

Not because it doesn’t work, far from it. She’s got the numbers to prove that it’s radically cutting crime and creating that better world that she’s striving for.

And on the first page we see the beautiful result of it all, one young girl whose life in Sector 304 has been hard but who’s finally seeing a change, where, “things had been different, people seemed kinder, nicer. People did not cower and scuttle through the streets, afraid of being stopped by criminals or the Judges.”And then we see the moment it all goes wrong, again perfectly captured by both writers and artist –

It all ended with a shaking of the Earth. That was the day the Judges rolled through in their tanks. The day Sector 304 burned.

No, this is an idea for the future and a way to make a better world that’s been cut down by external forces – whether it’s the agit-prop media led by Glen or the treachery of Hernadez on the Council. But their combined actions have brought chaos to Maitland’s previously peaceful streets.

As for the rest of this episode. I’m no way going to spoil it here. It’s far too well done, far too brutal, far too climactic to not give you the chance to read it in person. Because make no mistake, this is something so damn good.

INDIGO PRIME: BLACK MONDAY – PART 1 – by Kek-W and Lee Carter, letters by Jim Campbell

Indigo Prime is, and always has been, a twisty, confusing, time-spanning, dimension-spanning thing, whether by creators John Smith and Chris Weston or more recently by Kek-W and Lee Carter. This is not a bad thing at all though – who says that everything has to be laid out on a plate for you, nice and linear and simple?

Anyway, Indigo Prime was an organisation of multiversal troubleshooters to stop instability taking root. Founded by Clive Vista, it’s now in ruins – Vista dead, IP’s headquarters destroyed, and most of the organisation’s personnel and assets lost or acquired by the company ICP. But although he’s dead, that hasn’t stopped Vista putting plans in place to safeguard IP’s secrets aren’t stolen by ICP.

That’s where we are right now with ‘Black Monday’. Actor Johnny Depth, who yes, did look a hell of a lot like a certain Mr Depp, has, at the urging of Vista, taken on the role of psychotic lawyer for ICP, Bateman. Again, yes, he does now look an awful lot like Christian Bale in American Psycho. But hey, if anything can do meta stuff with aplomb, it’s Indigo Prime.

 

Bateman’s woken up to the news that Vista’s been killed and a financial crisis is sweeping the world. Like he says, ‘That wasn’t in the script.’ It means that he’s acting without the safety net and backup of IP now, “trapped in the wrong movie, miscast. Someone’s changed the script; they’re killing off characters, rewriting the dialogue.”

Into all this, we have Tyranny Rex, another John Smith creation, used here to recover vital data for ICP, all about how to survive “an upgrade event.”

It’s rather fabulous as a second episode, after the prologue last Prog, seeing everything completely fall apart so damn quickly and the world go to hell for Bateman/Depth with such spectacular speed. Kek-W’s writing is suitably deranged and quick-cut, whilst Carter’s art style suits the whole idea perfectly. A hugely enjoyable start to things.

FULL TILT BOOGIE: BOOK 2 – PART 5 – by Alex De Campi and Eduardo Ocana, colours by Eva De La Cruz, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Okay then, Tee’s off on her mission to pick up those crystals that Achilles is looking for, something to do with the body in the hospital he obviously cares a lot for and Grandma’s doing what she can to raise the funds to get the FTB repaired in a high-stakes game with the ship as a stake. But we open with something suitably dark and beautifully gothic from Ocana, whose work is just quite wonderful here, back in the Luxos Imperial Palace.

 

But the lion’s share of this episode is with Tee, finding out just how dangerous this little mission of hers can be. A ship full of weird physics and partially constructed humanoids on the attack.

It’s pretty perfect sci-fi with what I still feel is a European style and tone. Lots of different bits of world building going on in the early pages, plenty of balls in the air, all ending with some out-and-out action and a hell of a bad situation for Tee.

 

THE FALL OF DEADWORLD – RETRIBUTION – PART 9 – by Kek-W and Dave Kendall, letters by Simon Bowland

Deadworld is a pretty horrible place to be. Not that it’s Deadworld yet, but it’s sure headed that way – this is The FALL of Deadworld after all.

Right now though, we’re in Sector House 13 with Judge Eastwood dealing with the fight with Sidney De’Ath and the Sov forces outside. Judge Tanya, meanwhile, is off looking for the Sov-possessed agent, who has news of Judge Child – ‘in mortal danger! My sisters, Nausea and Phobia, have her.’ But more pressingly, it’s Judge Tanya who’s in mortal danger right now.

Plus, we get a moment of ‘earlier’ where we uncover something a little disturbing to do with Judge Fairfax. Let’s put it this way, you know the deal by now, there’s nothing good ever happening for long here on the planet that will become Deadworld, and this looks like being just that.

It’s another strip by Kek-W, completely different in style to Indigo Prime, with Dave Kendall really going out of his way to get every little grimy and gruesome detail onto the page – there’s really no one better to do this sort of strip. It’s a strip that’s doom-laden yet still managing to do good things, making it so you’re regularly lulled into thinking things might just work out here for the few survivors, only to have any hope whipped away every time.

THISTLEBONE: THE DULE TREE – PART 8 – by TC Eglington and Simon Davis, letters by Simon Bowlan

Ending the Prog, more quite wonderful folk horror of Thistlebone, where things just keep going darker and darker the further we get into all this.

The director of the ’70s horror film has already been shown to be a bit of a shit, always ready to manipulate his cast, especially his actresses, into doing things they really don’t want to. But now he’s seeing the whole thing as a cursed film and isn’t beyond using a little bit of roadkill to really hype up the publicity, no matter how much it rattles the cast and crew.

 

There’s no real obvious connection here to the seemingly supernatural events that have surrounded and seeped into the collective psyche of the people of Harrowvale, but that’s not to say it isn’t there, percolating away, slowly infecting things here. And that’s the absolute lure of Thistlebone, to be able to give you all the chills through a collection of seemingly unconnected moments, perfectly paced by Eglington and so beautifully and horrifically rendered to the page by Davis.