The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2378: Aquila Makes His Bloody Way Through Hades

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.

 

Well, the big news this Prog is the beginning of the sixth book of Brink – widely praised as one of the very best things we’ve seen in the Prog for decades, a truly epic bit of space brilliance from Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard. Damn, it’s good to have it back!

Everything else here carries on – which means there’s more of Dredd and his really rather disastrous mission to the Northern Radlands, more of Aquila hacking his way out of Hades, more multiversal strangeness in Indigo Prime, and a lot more space epicness in the latest episode of the great Proteus Vex.

Prog #2378 comes out on 17th April in the UK. . You North American readers should get to their local comic shops and demand they get the 4-weekly Prog bundles in – it’s the right thing to do. Once more, ahead of myself with these previews – but don’t hold your breath on it continuing. It’s 80 degrees out here at Bruton Mansions US version, the puppy’s still careering around like the mad thing she is, and we’re gearing up for an election that could turn the country into something akin to Dredd’s world – just more orange.

 

 

JUDGE DREDD: REND & TEAR WITH TOOTH & CLAW – PART 3 – by Rob Williams and RM Guera, colours by Giulia Brusco, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Dredd, Cadet Moon, and the last of the Radland muties are still being pursued by that giant bear in what’s become one really incredibly crafted long action sequence. Williams is keeping things so tight and letting Guera do all that’s needed to give us some absolutely beautiful scenes that have so much to them. It’s another great Dredd, completely different obviously from Williams’ last big Dredd, A Better World, of course, but there’s always space in Dredd’s world for a damn fine mix of stories and this action-adventure-wilderness horror is so damn fine.

 

Storywise, we’re still on the run with Dredd, Cadet Moon, and the Radland mutie bloke, with bear in fast pursuit. In terms of the actual plot, that’s pretty much it for this episode. But within that is everything that turns this from your run-of-the-mill Dredd action episode and into something so much better.

Williams has clicked, again, with an artist because the way they’re sharing the load, building on what the other is doing is so well, the action sequence running through all seven pages here just full of absolute thrills. And Guera’s art is just perfect, the way that he’s composing the panels and driving the action forwards with so much detail yet never deviating from pushing it on at breathless pace is sublime stuff.

 

BRINK: BOOK 6 – CONSUMED – by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

After the detour of last book which gave us more on the events seen way back in book 1, as reporter Nolan Maslow’s investigation into Sect activity coincided with the Mercury event, we’re back with HSD officer Bridget Kurtis here in Consumed, with her in transit and stopping off at Belleholme Habitat where there’s about to be a thing going on with a spate of murders.

That’s the set-up here for us to dive into yet another of these magnificent Brink series that Abnett and Culbard really are doing some of their very best work on. Seriously, if you haven’t caught up with the series so far you’re missing one of the finest things in 2000 AD for so many years, a series that rewards careful reading.

Here it’s opening with a mystery, blood bags maybe? Definitely someone or something strange, deadly, and with a set of fangs that just scream nightmare. After that, the second-page shifts to a counselling session, a safe space for those living on Sofia Hab at the time of … the incident.

And then, for the main bit of this opener, it’s off-world and a mass conveyance en route to Luna Hab via Belleholme Hab, with Bridget Kurtis, Hab Security Division, now seconded to the Special Detail Taskforce, and Pasqual Bonner, Internal Review Inspector For HabSec, similarly seconded to the Special Detail Taskforce. Neither of them are enjoying this overly long space flight, the stop at Belleholme means they still have 12 weeks together before Luna Hab. Oh, there’s one more to this little team, Lars Lind, Financial Analytics for HabSec, also seconded to the Special Detail Taskforce.

Special Detail Taskforce? Well that would have something to do with Sects and with the Mercury incident no doubt.

So, with a quick stop off at Belleholme, Kurtis is edgy and wants to get things started, Lind’s just looking after the finances, and Bonner just wants to get off the ship and away from Bridge’s moaning, maybe play a little golf. After all, he says, it’s a nice place and there’s nothing they can do but wait for the trip to get restarted in 10 days.

 

Of course, with the way trouble seems to follow Bridge around, 10 days is a hell of a long time to sit around without something nasty like we saw on the very first page getting involved.

It’s just a five-page opener so of course there’s nothing but set-up and conversation here. But that’s the point of Brink, it’s never been one to explode from the off, it’s always about the slow build. And that’s why some readers don’t get it, perhaps unwilling to just let it flow and take the time. Because when you do, Brink is just sublime. Nothing but set-up and conversation I said? Well all the more time to sink into Culbard’s wonderful art, from that first page of nightmares to come, to the perfectly composed and set bright lights and hab living spaces, through to seeing what does for mass transit in this future world and watching Bridge, Bonner, and Lind bounce off each other after weeks or more in space with each other for company. Everything about Brink just works so well and it’s damn good to have it back.

 

AQUILA: THE RIVERS OF HADES BOOK TWO – PART 2 – by Gordon Rennie and Patrick Goddard, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Now, if Brink’s a slow burn, Aquila’s its opposite, Roman Gladiators in Hades and all the blood and battle you could want. Again, that’s the appeal of 2000 AD, five incredible strips every Prog and a healthy range of genres and strips to appeal to everyone.

Aquila’s the slave-turned-gladiator granted immortality by the demon Ammit the Devourer who wants out of his demonic contract. To do this, he’s had to travel to Hades to find out where he can find and kill Ammit.

Now Aquila’s aiming to raise an army from the souls of the damned sons and daughters of Spartacus. First though, he’s got to get past the demonic slavemaster you’ve seen on Goddard’s cover already…

 

Okay, that didn’t take too long.

Aquila the soul-less gladiator gets to ride with his wife, a hundred years here in the depths of hell. But this man without a soul turns her away, rejects her pleas to find their children. As Nero says, ‘I knew he was a cold one, but this is something else!’ Nero might be a bastard but he’s one that speaks the truth.

And against all of that, there’s still the small matter of Cruciata. Again, last page, with her building her own army to be led by a particularly big bastard from Carthage.

Aquila’s not a particular favourite of mine if I’m honest, but that’s not to say each episode doesn’t do the job it’s meant to, a good bit of sword and sorcery, a dollop of blood, and a pinch (or more) of violence, all so gorgeously drawn (as usual) by Goddard.

 

INDIGO PRIME: BLACK MONDAY – PART 8 – by Kek-W and Lee Carter, letters by Jim Campbell

There’s strips in 2000 AD I know are going to fill me with joy (your Brink, Out, Proteus Vex, those sorts of things), there’s strips like Aquila that are good but don’t really grab me all that much, and then there’s the Indigo Prime’s of the Prog, the sort of strips that can surprise me. It’s not something that I’d ever been particularly fond of to be honest, maybe too young or not into that sort of thing in the John Smith years.

But (and you knew there’d be a but) this latest series has just made me a fan. Perhaps it’s even time to pull out the originals and head back?). Kek-W and Lee Carter’s Indigo Prime is a wild experience indeed, full of the strange and bizarre, never knowingly underplaying anything, always taking the path of the weird. But it does it with such gusto and sheer out-there fun that I can’t help but get all swept along with it.

 

After a few episodes of black and white following Clive Vista’s kid across to another ‘verse, here, it’s back to the technicolour world of Tyranny Rex and the damage she’s caused to ICP – damage that’s looking pretty bad right now. We’re also back with the IP agent Johnny Depth, disguised as ICP’s head lawyer, Bateman, someone who looks and acting a lot like Christian Bale in a certain movie. Oh, except the original Bateman is now back, the plastic sheets are down, and there’s a drill involved. Yep, things are getting messier and messier in Indigo Prime.

Or at least they would be, could be, if the whole thing wasn’t being held together neatly by both writer and artist here, making it all feel over the top and out there but still keeping a tight leash on what they’re doing, and what they’re doing is damn enjoyable.

 

PROTEUS VES: DEVIOUS – PART 4 – by Mike Carroll and Jake Lynch, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland

So, that’s a great action Dredd, the opening of the slow-build brilliance of another Brink, tab A into slot B gladiatorial action that does just what it says in Aquila, and weirdness held in control in Indigo Prime. How better to end another great 30+ pages of 2000 AD than with a galaxy-spanning epic of ancient civilisations and perfect universe-building with a sparklingly original alien cast and plenty of thrills? Well yes, it’s obviously Proteus Vex.

 

Carroll and Lynch are just doing masterful things on this one. Lynch has taken all the alienness and unusual designs of Henry Flint from the original, first series and just gone with it, pulling out multiple worlds worth of alien designs that make this one look like nothing else. That couples with Carroll’s mix of current events and the narration from some time well into the future, putting it all into context and giving us the background to all that’s going on. It’s a heady mix of really great sci-fi – one that especially rewards repeated reading.

Here, we’re back in the heart of the action and the search for Proteus Vex, who still hasn’t really shown up in Devious – there’s a mighty fine price offered by both the Imperium and Hive Regalis for bringing him in and that’s attracting a hell of a lot of bounty hunters. It’s another little interlude in a way, but one that just continues to bring out the richness and the sheer diversity of the species that we’re dealing with. And by the end, we have a tight and very fine bit of a twist in the tale to boot.