The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2395: Slash Fiction At Its Finest

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

Another week, another set of five very different, very good strips, with 2000 AD continuing to set the standard of just how to do a diverse anthology, week after week, month after month, year after year.

There’s more of Judge Dredd dealing with a Mechanismo insurrection in Machine Rule, more incredible sci-fi cop procedural in Brink, more folk horror in the heart of England in Herne and Shuck, more of everyone’s favourite blue GI with Rogue Trooper, and more of the great new strip where humanity’s last hope against alien invaders comes from an ancient supernatural evil in Silver.

Yep, five very different strips, making one great read. Prog 2395 is out on 14 August in the UK. You North American readers should get to their local comic shops and demand they get the 4-weekly Prog bundles in – you really won’t regret jumping onboard. Olympics over, Paralympics a couple of weeks away, there’s an elite sport-shaped hole in Bruton mansions right now. Guess there’s nothing for it but to break out the athleisure wear, grab a piece of cardboard, and practice my breaking.

JUDGE DREDD: MACHINE RULE – PART 4 – by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Okay, this has turned, very fast, way too fast perhaps, from a simple Dredd versus rogue Mechanismos into something far more important – yes, we might not get as much Wagner-written Dredd anymore, but when we do, it’s always just so damn good.

Anyway, last episode ended with one of those simply beautiful MacNeil full pagers that I couldn’t show you last week but I’m damn sure I’m showing you now – as the true threat of the Mechanismo insurrection rolls out onto the streets…

Now that is, I think we can all agree, just bloody brilliant and a perfect image to get over just how big things are getting here in Machine Rule.

What was a single sector problem that Dredd was sent in to sort out has become something way bigger, as the Mech Judges roll out their idea of Justice on the streets across the Mega-City. Like I say, this one’s got huge ramifications written all over it.

The art by MacNeil is just wonderful to see, as you’d expect, every page has just such energy and threat to it, all the action, all the import of what Wagner’s spinning out perfectly brought to the page.

My only problem with it is the speed it’s going. On one hand, I get it, something like this has been playing out in all of Wagner’s Mechanismo tales for years now, with this just the thing that it was all leading to. But I’m being greedy, something this good should be savoured, we should be looking forward to a massive storyline where things play out over so many Progs. I can’t help but feel this one will be over way too soon. But hey, I’ll take whatever Wagner and MacNeil greatness I can get!

ROGUE TROOPER: RECON – PART 3 – by Geoffrey D. Wessel and Paul Marshall, greytones by Pippa Bowland, letters by Jim Campbell

Again, we’re going to be getting a lot of Rogue Trooper, methinks, with the upcoming 2025 release of the Duncan Jones movie. And Wessel is busy staking a good claim on being the writer to deliver them.

Just as with Souther Belle, this one’s not particularly complex, just a good old-fashioned Rogue taking time out from his personal revenge mission to react to something new. Here, the something new is the alien creature that blasted through the black hole and made landfall on Nu-Earth, not caring whether it killed Norts or Southers in the process…

So, with Rogue in the middle, we have Souther troops suspicious of the AWOL GI, and Norts incoming, AND a very close encounter. Well, it’s all set up for another classic sci-fi/war trope of ‘the enemy of my enemy’ – and that’s just what happens here. But just because it’s easy to figure out where Wessel’s taking it and what beats we’re going to hit along the way, doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of good stuff to be read here.

Course, it helps that Marshall’s art, given such zip from Bowland’s great greytones, is an absolute lesson in clarity and dynamism, doing everything simply but doing the simple so bloody well.

HERNE & SHUCK: SUFFER THE CHILDREN – PART 4 – by David Barnett and Lee Milmore, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

When we first met Herne & Shuck in the couple of 3Riller 3-parters (Progs 2297-2299 & 2343-2345) you just knew that Barnett had a hell of a lot more to tell of this particular tale. There were always those questions left hanging, just who was the travelling magician Herne and just how did he come to be in the company of a demon in dog form anyway?

Well, Suffer the Children is busy as hell answering those questions and throwing up a hell of a lot more. Turns out Herne’s a Cudd baby of way back, rescued by Shuck from the villager’s desire to burn the powerful babies that their cursed village desires. But all that just throws up so many more questions, particularly for Herne, who’s now doubting the major relationship in his life – and when the major relationship in your life is a demonic black dog, you really know things aren’t going all that well.

Anyhow, that’s where we’re at. The St Michael’s shock troops have brought out the truth and Herne, Shuck, Caris, and Jordy are all going to hate to deal with the fallout from that.

Folk Horror’s taken root at 20000 AD of late, first with Thistlebone and now with Herne and Shuck. But that’s all they share, as H&S feels more freewheeling, perhaps sharing more with classic John Constantine Hellblazer stuff than the real darkness of Thistlebone. In fact, H&S really does have a classic Vertigo vibe running through it. And I certainly don’t mean that as anything other than a huge compliment.

Yep, it’s a really damn fine series, made all the better by some absolutely wonderful Milmore artwork, that fine line work only adding to the Hellblazer vibe of things as comparisons to Ridgeway and Piers-Raynor can’t be avoided. But make no mistake, Milmore’s art might remind me of those two greats, but it’s got its own very special, very good look all its own.

BRINK: BOOK 6 – CONSUMED – PART 18 – by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Oh, things are building, building, building here in Brink to the sort of magnificent climax you only get from something that’s just burned so slowly over the past four months of incredible sci-fi drama.

Kurtis has been missing six hours now after she went off in pursuit of another lead. All of which led to this heart-stopping moment in the last episode…

Not to mention this moment from just before she was taken – with the question of just what she’s seeing as the grav turns off – such is the way Abnett and Culbard have twisted and turned things that you can’t help but read sect imagery into this moment… such is the way things have been perfectly done here…

But right now, we’re back with Bonner, Lind, Wade, and Castenada, in the aftermath of Kurtis’s disappearance – questions are asked, accusations are made, fingers are pointed. And none of it gets them any closer to finding Bridge, and there’s that horrible thought that the Red River Killer has her.

Yes, the slow burn has given way to the climactic build-up, the tension is just ramping up, there’s that palpable sense of terror building up – damn, this is just so very, very good. No, not good, absolutely perfect.

SILVER BOOK ONE: UNEARTHED: PART 6 – by Mike Carroll and Joe Currie, letters by Simon Bowland

An all-out action episode now, as Bishop’s resistance fighters go after the Sepsis harvester vehicle, with the Baroness DeSilva leading the charge.

It’s five pages of Currie showing off his action chops, panel after panel of just the best kinetic artwork, still with all that fine linework that’s marked out Silver all the way through.

It’s a series that’s really hit the ground running and shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. But Carroll’s doing it so well that it doesn’t have a sense of mindless action, instead, I find myself asking all the same questions of what’s really happening here, yet the absence of answers isn’t at all frustrating, they’re just a bigger part of the bigger story here, a story I have no doubt that will play out in time. And for now? Well, for now I get to really enjoy seeing five pages of perfectly choreographed action play out.

I’ll save the questions for later, right now there’s a harvester to take over, Sepsis to destroy, and a lot of blood to be shed in such fine style.