The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2392: It’s Machine Rule For Dredd

Taking a look inside the UK’s greatest sci-fi comic, the Galaxy’s Greatest… it’s the Weekly 2000 AD:

The cover shows you the big news of this Prog, brand-new Dredd by the team of John Wagner and Colin MacNeil as the living embodiment of the Law in MC-1 tackles his Mechanismo problem… or perhaps it’s the Mechanismo Judges with their Dredd problem. Either way, Wagner and MacNeil on a new Dredd multi-parter, the world is a good place.

Aside from that new Dredd, we have David Barnett and Lee Milmore’s Herne & Shuck graduating from their 3Rillers to a full series of folk horror and there’s a new Future Shock by James Peaty and Andrea Mutti.

And making up the quintet, although given that those two are the always excellent slow-burn of Brink and the already hit-the-ground running new strip Silver, they’re doing a heck of a lot more than merely making up the numbers.

Prog #2392 comes out now 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 been another of those ‘May you live in interesting times’ moments this week as the world watched in wonder at the USA. But as we watch and ponder just how quickly Dredd’s world come become a reality , shall we take a look inside the Prog?
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JUDGE DREDD: MACHINE RULE – PART 1 – by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, letters by Annie Parkhouse

There used to be a time when we were spoilt with new Wagner Dredds many times a year. Now, John’s semi-retired and only blesses us with something new every once in a while. But that just makes it all the more special.

And so it is here, brand-new Wagner Dredd with the added lure of all that great MacNeil artwork, as Dredd rides into Sector 99 and into a whole new work of Mechanismo trouble.

It’s no secret that Dredd hasn’t exactly been keen on seeing the Mechanismo Mark 8 Judges on the streets. But they have been doing rather a good job out there. In Machine Law, Wagner and MacNeil take it one step further – just what happens if the Mechanismo Judges of one Sector decide they can do a better job than the regular Judges and become THE Law on the streets?

Oh yes, it’s set up to be a damn good one, with Dredd riding into the Mechanismo-controlled Sector and being told to stand down. As you can imagine, he’s none too pleased with this turn of events…

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And his mood’s not improved when he discovers the Deputy Chief Sector Judge is a Mech, handed control of the Sector by a Chief Sector Judge all too eager to agree that the human Judges stay off the streets and leave it all to the Mechs.

Oh yes, Dredd versus Machine rule by Wagner and MacNeil. Tell me you’re not excited by that particular setup for a story.

Oh, it may be a rare thing, but have the Wagner and MacNeil team back in the Prog is a great thing, with all the signs of classic Wagner writing working so well with MacNeil’s always so very good artwork.

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BRINK: BOOK 6 – CONSUMED – PART 15 – by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Nearly three months into this latest Brink story and everything’s going so very Brink-like. By which I mean it’s been nearly three months of the finest drama, the very best sci-fi police procedural comic you’ll ever read. It really is the epitome of a story unfolding with perfect drama, illustrated by an artist capable of showing you so much, so well, in the sort of scenes few comic artists could get the sort tension and excitement out of scenes that Culbard does here.

Not everyone thinks that way of course, in fact I’ll still read comments on some socials complaining about Brink for all the reasons I love it. But trust me, dive in, let it unfold, give yourself to it – this really is the sort of strip that we’ll all be putting up there with the very best strips 2000 AD has ever published.

Anyway, it’s Kurtis interrogating the PI, Regina Castenada, finding out more and more about her horrific connection to the Red Reservoir Killer. And it is horrific, made more so in the way it’s revealed, not by gore or action but teased out through the interview…

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Look at how good Culbard is at showing us the true horror of the events through just the focus on Castenada, the split panels somehow claustrophobic and intrusive, we’re willing participants in this woman being made to reveal what was done – just incredible work as always, every artistic beat matching and accentuating the tension and the drama in Abnett’s storytelling.

Yep, still the finest strip in modern 2000 AD history.

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HERNE & SHUCK: SUFFER THE CHILDREN – PART 1 – by David Barnett and Lee Milmore, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Well, after a couple of really good 3Riller three-parters (Progs 2297-2299 & 2343-2345), getting a full series starring Herne and Shuck is a damn fine thing.

Herne’s the human, wandering magician, and magical troubleshooter picking up whatever work he can get, not all of it all that honourable in the past. As for Shuck, he’s a demon in dog form, always coming out with some of the best lines.

One of their last gigs was for the not so pleasant little village of Cudd, who wanted Herne & Shuck to rescue a missing child, Caris. Trouble is, the villagers of Cudd had a whole Wicker Man, ritual sacrifice thing planned for Caris, who’s actually a powerful summoner, and Herne’s employment there was short lived. So, they’re now on the run, Herne looking for a safe haven for the girl with an army of folk-horror nasties on their trail right now, not the least of which is Herne’s former lover, Jordy.

There you go, all caught up. And those couple of series were damn fine things, dark folk horror stuff on the one side and a lighter vein of buddy comedy between one magician and his demon-dog.

All of which leads into this new series, where they’re still hunting for sanctuary, Caris having nightmares of trapped children (which, given the title, will no doubt play a big part down the line), and Jordy still on their trail. The next stop is to ask for help from ‘The Lady of the Woods’…

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Cue trouble, cybernetic little nasties threatening her Dryad children, a mention of St. Michael who’s somehow connected to all of this, and time to move on… if they can.

Yep, all good, with Milmore’s art just getting better and better, the incredibly fine lines he’s using here just gorgeous to see.

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FUTURE SHOCKS: FACESHOPPING – by James Peaty and Andrea Mutti, letters by Jim Campbell

Another Future Shock from Peaty now, two in a row, with Mutti joining on art that’s very much a loose and flowing thing.

As for what it’s all about, we’re in a world of the future, near future most likely, where the same idiotic influencers are trying to get ahead by doing bugger all. This time, this one’s wanting some new facial work done, all the better to get ahead in the world. Except she’s tried them all, and doesn’t know where to fo next.

And then someone mentions Faceshopping, the latest thing so it seems, getting a donor face incredibly quick – suspiciously quick in fact…

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But this one doesn’t care, all she’s thinking about is the doors that she’ll be able to open with a new, beautiful face.

But of course, this being a Future Shock, there’s a nasty sting in the tail coming, but although it’s telegraphed pretty much in the early pages, it’s still one that works well for the story, a story that’s very much one for now, picking up on all the worst of modern humanity and it’s desire for success at no cost to themselves.

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SILVER BOOK ONE: UNEARTHED: PART 3 – by Mike Carroll and Joe Currie, letters by Simon Bowland

Three parts in now and this one’s turning into a hell of a great series – another one from Carroll, but a first for Joe Currie, whose art just has this incredible style, very different, European in its lines perhaps.

It’s just been full of gorgeous art from the off, just like this…

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Silver’s a more contained thing compared to Carroll’s recently finished Proteus Vex, all happening on Earth of 2001, where humanity’s been invaded and subjugated by the alien race, the Sepsis. After more than a billion died in the first strike, what’s left of humankind lives under Sepsis control, needed as slaves to construct roads and spaceports, some collaborate as the Sepsis’ enforcers, betraying their species for the modicum of power that comes with it.

Of the few humans that are willing to resist, one group has a plan, a plan that involved digging up something very old and distinctly supernatural… Baroness Yelena Honoree DeSilva…

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What she is we’re not really sure, but she’s already shown that she’s supernaturally strong, the only thing on Earth capable of fighting the Sepsis. Now we’re finding out more of her recent past, how her people need semi-regular regenerative hibernation, what they call ‘the Slumber’. It was meant to last just four months, but that was back when the moon landings happened.

Silver’s just a great series that’s really hit the ground running, with each new episode giving us more and more of the history fo Earth and the Sepsis, whilst we’re still in the dark about just what the Baroness is, how the resistance knew about her and her race, and just what the bigger picture is.

Yes, I reckon this one’s got the legs to really run and run, with Carroll’s storytelling as great as it usually is, and Currie’s art just quite wonderful to behold.