The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2379: Brink Bites Back

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.

It’s all as last week in the latest Prog – meaning another five strips giving you a healthy dose of diverse strips. And that’s always been my favourite thing about 2000 AD – the sheer range of what strips you can find. This week we have a thrilling race through the freezing wastes in Judge Dredd, out-and-out swords and sorcery Roman style in Aquila, absolutely edge of your seat slow build sci-fi procedural brilliance in Brink, mind-bending multiversal madness in Indigo Prime, and epic space opera unfolding in Proteus Vex. It’s a really healthy mix of genres and styles, something for absolutely everyone!

(Another INJ Culbard that wants to leap off the shelves and grab you by the throat.)

Prog #2379 comes out on 24 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. Now, it’s out on 24 April and I’m tap-tap-tapping this very line at 4am UK time, 8pm Bruton Mansions USA time on said 24 April – so somehow I don’t think this one’s winging your way before the release date! Blame life. So, once more, a rather late look at the latest Prog…

 

JUDGE DREDD: REND & TEAR WITH TOOTH & CLAW – PART 4 – by Rob Williams and RM Guera, colours by Giulia Brusco, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Damn, this is just so good. Dredd on a pure wilderness adventure, on the run from a huge mutated snow bear with a real taste for Judges, making alliances with the same Radlanders who killed some of his small team, and desperately trying to survive – not to mention trying to keep his latest protégé, Cadet Moon, hand-picked for this one, alive…

 

It’s simply thrilling from start to finish, every single episode flies by, the action across six pages simply electric. Sure, we’ve seen Dredd in the wilderness before – after all, ‘The Cursed Earth’ is a classic of its type. But this one has a more driven, singular feel to it, the bear and the Judges, lots of snow, a frozen wasteland, an unrelenting pursuit.

So yes, I’m enjoying this one so much. And a big reason is, of course, the art by RM Guera which is nothing short of incredible. It’s been great fun seeing Rob Williams’ reactions to each new episode and how much he’s loving Guera’s art as well. So say we all Rob, so say we all.

 

You can take any panel of Guera’s art and just sink into it. So here’s one of those that might pass you by as the action overtakes you – that snowy scene above is just one example of the incredible detail and just the wonderful things Guera’s doing with absolutely everything in ‘Rend & Tear With Tooth & Claw’.

But like I say, on first read-through it’s so easy to just get swept up in the action and the perfect flow of panels that Guera imbues every page with.

But do yourself a favour and take a second look and really dwell on every panel and just go deep into the art – it’s so worth it.

 

AQUILA: THE RIVERS OF HADES BOOK TWO – PART 3 – by Gordon Rennie and Patrick Goddard, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Annie Parkhouse

More hack and slash and blood and entrails now, with another strip that simply motors along each episode, following the immortal ex-gladiator Aquila in his quest to free himself from the curse of Ammit the Devourer.

To do this, he’s travelled down to Hades to find the soul of Nero, the one man who knows just where to find Ammit and give Aquila the chance to renegotiate his deal. Although with Aquila, it’s going to be a bloody and nasty renegotiation.

So, we’re down in Hades, Aquila and Spartacus have formed their own army of the damned, another slave revolt, a completely new concept to hell, that of the rebellious damned.

But theirs is just one army in hell, as witch Cruciata is also seeking vengeance against Aquila and has formed her own army, led by Hannibal. And from here, it’s just going to be one absolutely bloody massive battle.

I can’t really show you here but Patrick Goddard’s on fire with a simple beautiful double page spread of the two armies facing off, Spartacus and Hannibal reflecting each other’s words as they prepare to head into absolute carnage. But trust me, it’s stunning. Here’s just a little of the two sides…

 

 

Isn’t that just fabulous? Next Prog it looks like we’ll be having one of those episodes where the artist has to simply strap themselves in and try to not kill their writer who’s given them directions such as ‘five pages of incredible Roman demon action as two unbelievably large armies clash against the fiery backdrop of hell’ and then sit back and expect the artist to just have at it.

Thing is, Goddard will. And he’ll do it bloody justice so well. His art is perfect for Aquila, something solid and realistic, kinetic but able to convey fine detail, all the way down to two warring armies of lost souls in hell. It looks quite wonderful.

 

BRINK: BOOK 6 – CONSUMED – PART 2 – by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Okay, Dredd and Aquila are just out-and-out action and Brink couldn’t be further from that. In truth, it’s a Marmite strip, with some loving everything about it and really getting it and others… well, not so much, calling it slow, boring, criticising the art, the pacing, and just not getting it at all.

Well, I’m firmly in the former camp and have been right since the very beginning of Brink. And frankly, too many of the critics of Brink are those same dear readers who complain every time their beloved 2000 AD isn’t making the same sort of strips they were into in the ’70s and ’80s. Honestly, Brink is one of the best things to come out from 2000 AD in the last few decades, probably up there as one of my favourite strips of all time in 2000 AD. It really is that damn good.

Yes, it’s no quick read. Don’t expect to find every episode packed with action. No, this is the equivalent of a great TV show that builds the tension, sets the scene, makes you look deeply into the world and the characters here. Except with Culbard’s visuals, this one makes full use of the limitless SFX budget that only comics can allow. Seriously, just take a look at this blow up of a panel and absolutely be amazed at the detail and the staging and the sheer brilliance of it all…

 

As for what’s going on, well we’re still very much into the set-up of it all here. Of course we are, this is Brink, where the more episodes per book the better as far as I’m concerned.

We have HabSec Officers Bridget Kurtis, Pasqual Bonner, and financial analytics officer Lars Lind, all seconded to the Special Detail Taskforce, en route to Luna Hab via Belleholme Hab, which is where they are right now – a 10-day stop-off where Bonner is keen to get a bit of golf in and just chill out. Except there’s that small matter of the toothsome and terrifying presence on the station that we’re finding a little more of each episode. And this episode introduces us to a new character, private investigator Regina Castanada.

As for the whole Special Detail Taskforce and just why they’re headed to Luna Hab, well, that’s all part of the long game of Brink…

 

Yep, all to do with Mercury. And yes, the golf is becoming something of a recurring joke here.

So, if you haven’t already done so, why not spend some time exploring Books 1-5 of Brink and discovering just how incredible the series is – it’s one of the most pleasurable ways I can figure to get into the new series.

And once you get into Brink, you’ll be shouting from the rooftops along with me that it’s just essential 2000 AD and always has been.

 

INDIGO PRIME: BLACK MONDAY – PART 9 – by Kek-W and Lee Carter, letters by Jim Campbell

Another strip that some get and some don’t and it’s been like that right from the moment John Smith created it – Indigo Prime. And full credit to Kek-W for taking on something that could be seen as a poisoned chalice here and making it work. Well, I think it’s working. I’m not entirely sure I’m completely there with everything that’s happening but I’m enjoying it anyway, as it wends its way through crazy multiversal shenanigans and cosmic craziness.

Part of the enjoyment comes from just letting it all wash over you and really just going with it, helped so much by some of Lee Carter’s greatest art to date, where his fine detail and somewhat sharp-looking figure work is working better than it’s ever done.

We’ve got an alt-universe Clive Vista and son of the Vista we knew, Mickey Challis, on a cosmic swan pedallo traversing the multiverses and getting back to the universe we know, the one where Vista’s dead and his Indigo Prime is under threat of hostile takeover from ICP, that might be run by the other Vista’s sister. I think. Then we have a ‘multiversal bleedbreach’ with a handful of realities in Mickeys universe are converging… and that’s really bad news…

 

Plus, more with Tyranny Rex and with IP agent Johnny Depth, now playing Jack Starling and breaking into the ICP boardroom. Yes, there’s a hell of a lot going on in Indigo Prime in here, multiverses, multiple characters, blasts from the past, and anything else Kek-W fancies throwing at the page to have Carter draw the hell out of.

And you know what? I’m really rather enjoying the brilliant chaos of it all.

 

PROTEUS VES: DEVIOUS – PART 5 – by Mike Carroll and Jake Lynch, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland

Five parts in and we still aren’t really sure what’s happened to Proteus Vex… well, sort of, there’s another little tease right at the end of this one, but no more than that. And the reason Proteus Vex works so well without Proteus Vex is that Carroll and Lynch are steering the ship of this one so well – there’s world building on a galactic scale and so many vibrant characters have been introduced that Vex hasn’t been about one character for the longest time.

Here it’s back to check in with my favourite, Midnight Indicating Shame, Vex’s former comrade and currently Citheronian princess leading a growing rebellion against Hive Regalis. It’s another chance for us to see just how great Lynch’s art on Vex is, all the unusual shapes, all the fascinating looks and, where it’s needed, some absolutely nightmarish stuff going on…

 

As you can guess, as Midnight lands on an outpost to attempt a few conversions to the cause and finds another Imperium agent telling her she’s going back to Hive Regalis the hard way or the easy way – well, things get messy very fast.

Like I say, superb storyline that really does repay a bit of thinking about things and letting yourself really accept what a thing of massive scope this is, art to die for from Lynch, and just a damn fine space opera epic unfolding.