The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2390: Who Is, What Is Silver?

Since 1977 2000 AD has been the UK’s greatest sci-fi weekly comic, here’s our weekly look inside – it’s the Weekly 2000 AD.

More bam-pot silliness in Dredd, more brilliant slow-burn sci-fi in Brink, Rogue on the trail of the Souther Belle, and two new strips for this week’s 2000 AD. You have a really nice and tight little Future Shock from Honor Vincent and Mike Walters, along with a brand-new strip, Silver, from Mike Carroll and Joe Currie.

Prog 2390 comes out on 10 July 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 won’t regret jumping onboard. It’s the week after the UK went to the polls and we’re now living in a brand new world – let’s not hold our collective breath over everything getting better though, that would be too much to hope for.

Anyway, shall we take a look inside?
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JUDGE DREDD: THE BAM-HUNTERS – PART 2 – by Ken Niemand and Richard Elson, letters by Annie Parkhouse

So, more CalHab silliness now as we’re with CalHab immigrants Moira and Callum, a couple of ‘evil mad bampots’ running Deadworld Designs, who’ve featured in a number of Niemand- written Dredds over the years.

But now we have a new problem for them, as Hieronymus Skelly’s come from CalHab with the specific intent of causing them trouble, cause he’s the ‘Bam-Hunter’.

Anyway, you remember how Skelly came into MC-1 looking for those two and did that thing to puzzle and perplex the immigration Judge last episode?

Well, now Dredd’s got a weird feeling about something, a half-memory he can’t shake that something’s wrong.

It takes him a whole 58 minutes to piece it together – 58 minutes of that classic Dredd doing his thing dispensing Justice while mulling something over, just little bits of his day-to-day. It’s a great couple of pages that really do so much and do it so well.

But 58 minutes later and well, you wouldn’t want to be Hieronymus Skelly when Dredd catches up with him is all I’m saying…

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As before, with all these inter-related tales of Callum and Moira, it’s full of daft little touches and gags that work perfectly, the Niemand tone just great, spinning out a silly thing yet always using Dredd in a super-serious way, the unstoppable force letting nothing stand in his way. And Elson’s art is just as perfect to capture it all, great in the Dredd sequences, full of energy and menace, capturing the strange uncertainty of Dredd not knowing, getting the gears going round, and then switching to the comedy seamlessly.

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BRINK: BOOK 6 – CONSUMED – PART 12 – by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

A problem with Brink for me is that with every chapter I keep on with the praise – justified praise of course, it really is just a perfect strip after all – but there comes a time when you almost run out of ways to praise it.

Here, for example, we have Kurtis’s investigations into the sect crimes on Belleholme landing her in hot water with both the Belleholme Hab Sec boss and with her own boss, Bonner, who really isn’t too pleased with her…

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No, not happy in the slightest.

But the way it’s played out, again just a series of perfectly choreographed sequences of three people in a room, is so perfectly done, with Culbard’s mastery of body language, staging, and expressions matching Abnett’s ability to make every scene come off as absolutely real is just the epitome of how to do excellent drama, no matter what the setting.

And then there’s the way that the thing gets thrown in with the last two pages, and suddenly there’s a switch, a change, that’s injected even more drama into it all. Damn, it really is just superb.

And hey, guess I haven’t quite run out of ways to praise it yet after all.

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ROGUE TROOPER: SOUTHER BELLE – PART 5 – by Geoffrey D. Wessel and Dan Cornwell, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Jim Campbell

Those first two pages below really do demonstrate how damn good Dan Cornwell is. They really do. Sure, Souther Belle is one of those insert tab A into slot B type of things – and enjoyable nonetheless, a decently done Rogue that ticks all the boxes, but Cornwell’s art is elevating it so much.

I mean, just look at it below – page 1 is a stunning bit of future war writ large whilst page 2 just goes deep into the strangeness of what’s happening in Rogue’s head as he comes under attack from Souther Belle. Two pages that couldn’t be more different and Cornwell nails them both.

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As for what’s going on here, as I say, it’s Rogue under attack from Souther Belle, revealed as yet another part of the Traitor General’s plot to kill off every G.I. – meaning Rogue of course.

By the end, it’s all dealt with nice and neatly, and seemingly very quickly. Although despite everything being sorted there’s still the question of… well, let’s leave that till we find out next week.

As I say, it’s a simple Rogue but hey, nothing wrong with a nicely constructed Rogue – and now we’re here, time to take a look at the Dan Cornwell art I was talking about…

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FUTURE SHOCKS: STATION MADNESS – by Honor Vincent and Mike Walters, letters by Annie Parkhouse

A bit of paranoid space stuff for a Future Shock here, tightly and nicely done by Vincent and Walters.

It’s one of those last hopes of humanity type things with a ship containing what’s left of the human race in ice, all controlled by ‘the Guardian’ – yes, there’s always a bit of sentient A.I. around nowadays and it’s rarely a good thing.

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Anyway, all prior attempts at colonisation have been too much and the humans went mad. So the decision’s been made to only unfreeze them one by one now. Which means Vincent and Walters get to tell a nasty little piece of paranoia that really doesn’t go where you think it’s going to go.

So, a really nicely done little Future Shock indeed, with something of a classic twist in the end.

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SILVER BOOK ONE: UNEARTHED: PART 1 – by Mike Carroll and Joe Currie, letters by Simon Bowland

In the editorial to this new strip from Mike Carroll, fresh off Proteus Vex, and Joe Currie, an artist I’ve been really impressed by in recent appearances, we’re told it’s one of those that’s best experienced cold, just dive right in.

And I reckon that’s right, so let’s do this by telling you almost sod all about Silver… well, nearly…

It’s 2001 and a group of armed survivors have arrived at the ruins of a burned-out house. And they’re looking for something, something they’re planning on taking away with them in the cage on the back of their truck.

So, they start digging. Only knowing that what they’re digging for could hold the key to saving the human race.

Okay then, there’s your set-up. From the two preview pages below you’ll see that the thing they’re digging for looks rather supernatural, something old, something dangerous. And you’ll see it’s not getting in that cage easily.

And that’s all I’ll tell/show you.

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But what I can say is that it’s got the feel of something good – another great series in a year that’s already had plenty of them. Carroll only just finished Proteus Vex, the last great thing he created, and it seems he’s not one to stand still. Plus, I’ve already extolled Currie’s artwork every time I’ve seen it recently, so it’s damn good to see him really get the chance to make a make with something very much his own.

I’ve always said there’s a real art to getting a first issue right. It’s got to sell the whole thing yet not give too much away, it’s got to draw you in and give you just enough to really want to pick up part two, and it’s got to grab you from the off. Of course, usually I’m talking about a 20-page comic there, not a five-page opening episode.

Yet in those five pages of Silver part one, Carroll and Currie get it absolutely right. Far more so than no end of 20-page opening issues do.

It reads great, loads of potential, interesting ideas done well, setting up Silver brilliantly in just those five pages. This could be really, really good.