The Weekly 2000 AD: Dredd Versus The Mech Insurrection In The Bumper Prog 2396

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

Another one of the semi-regular stuffed fill and then some Progs, gathering up what feels/looks like already commissioned all-ages Regened to join the five ongoing strips.

So that means we get more of the brilliant Wagner & MacNeil Machine Rule Dredd series, as MC-1 falls to the Mechanismo Judges. There’s more incredible action in Silver as the resistance fights back against the Sepsis, more brilliance as Brink drops an absolutely perfect moment of revelation, Rogue Trooper tackles the alien threat in Nu-Earth, and Herne & Shuck go deeper into the folk horror that’s taking them back to Cudd. As for the extras, it’s two rather good self-contained strips, a really good new Future Shock and the complete this Prog All Aboard The Nova Express.

So, seven to look at this week in Prog 2396, out on 21 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.

.JUDGE DREDD: MACHINE RULE – PART 5 – by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Still motoring along, as the Mechanismo takeover of MC-1 really ramps up, shockingly fast in fact, but then again, Wagner’s been planting the seeds of this for years now, making the Mech units more and more efficient, more and more indispensable to the city.

Now it all comes to a head, Dredd on the loose, a couple of rogue Mech units with him, disinformation and hacking meaning the Law Department response is too slow, disconnected. As takeovers go, this one’s been way too easy so far.

From the simple setup of what if the Mechs took the next step and seized control for the good of the city and the human Judges, Wagner and MacNeil have given us a perfect, fast-moving, action-packed story that’s just full of the best of both writer and artist. It’s written so tight, Wagner not wasting a moment, doing more on a single page than others would do with 10, playing up to the many, many strengths of MacNeil’s art, meaning we get page after page of action choreographed beautifully yet still with plenty that moves the plot along, something Wagner’s always been a master of.

I mean, just have a look at this as an example…

The mastery of pacing to do everything MacNeil does in just the six weekly pages is just amazing. The use of those full-page width horizontal panels is so effective, getting over the speed and thrill of the chase, perfectly showing you all that’s needed, controlling it all, but being so economical with the real estate limits of the pages – like I say, mastery.

Yep, this started off with the promise of being a big Dredd, and it’s absolutely not disappointing.

ROGUE TROOPER: RECON – PART 4 – by Geoffrey D. Wessel and Paul Marshall, greytones by Pippa Bowland, letters by Jim Campbell

A very different sort of action in Rogue Trooper, bigger imagery, faster, but it feels right in the context of the character and story so far.

Wessel does seem to have a handle on Rogue, doing perhaps the best thing of keeping his tales simple.

This one’s swiftly turned into Rogue and a sword-wielding Nort tracking the alien entity that’s so far showed no preference whether it massacres Nort or Souther forces after it appeared through the Nu-Earth adjacent black hole.

So, an uncertain alliance forms, as both find they’re in a fair bit of trouble, Rogue first…

.So yes, all moving along nicely.

And is it just me, or does the combination of Marshall’s art and Bowland’s greytones give this the clean simple look of Steve Dillon’s Rogue? And that’s always high praise indeed.

ALL ABOARD THE NOVA EXPRESS – by James Peaty and Steve Roberts, letters by Jim Campbell

A done-in-one now, 10 pages long, looking very much as though it’s a Regened-commissioned strip, both in length and style. But that’s not the terrible thing some of the Regened naysayers would have you think it is.

All Aboard the Nova Express is the tale of The 400 Blows, a band with all the ambition but not all too much success. And with unscrupulous manager Vox Ulterior booking them into every dodgy divebar, success looks a long way away for lead singer Candy Darling and the rest of the band, Slowbert, Zaireeka, and Cans.

After one terrible audience too many and finding out firing their manager’s not an option – contracts, you know – they’re on the Nova Express, a galactic cruise ship, playing the wrong tunes, wearing the wrong clothes, to the wrong crowd. And that wrong crowd makes its displeasure known just as surely as the rogue crowds of old did for The 400 Blows.

Things can’t get any worse, surely? Well, there’s always the Space Lane Pirates…

So, All Aboard The Nova Express is 10 pages of silliness, complete with some great art from Roberts and, although it’s not quite the sort of strip that sits easily alongside Dredd, Rogue, Brink, Silver, and Herne & Suck, it’s still quite a bit of fun. And yes, there’s always space in the Prog for plenty of different strips, as should always be the way with any great anthology.

BRINK: BOOK 6 – CONSUMED – PART 19 – by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

So, Consumed is just an interlude, right? Bridge and her crew on Belleholme Hab as a stop-off on their way to join the division looking into the Mercury Event. Same as the previous book, the one going right back to the beginning and taking a look at the events of Book 1, all leading up to said Mercury Event from a different viewpoint of investigative reporter, Nolan Maslow. That was an interlude as well, right?

Wrong. Oh so wrong. And here in Part 19 of Consumed is where the connections all really come together.

Here, Bonner, Lind, and the ex-HabSec officer, now PI, Castenanda are on the trail of Casenada’s anonymous client who had her look out for Bridge – who’s still missing and presumed taken by the Red River Killer.

And the anonymous client who they’ve tracked down and confront here? Janice Bowrey.

Janice Bowrey? Who the hell is Janice Bowrey?

Well, I could tell you. I could give you the moment, on the very next page where Lind tells you who she is, and all she has to say is ‘You got me.’ But I won’t.

I’ll just show you this, with a couple of redacted names…

I won’t spoiler it because I just want you to have the major wow moment that I did. And again, it’s a case of never underestimate the way that Abnett and Culbard have such control over absolutely everything in Brink, right from the beginning. And that’s why it’s just the finest of strips.

So, whoever Janice Bowrey turns out to be, she’s living in fear of being discovered. Convinced they’re here to kill her – ‘Everyone wants to hurt me. Everyone wants me dead. Every three-letter agency on the Brink, every Sect xxxxer.’ She’s been in hiding for three years now – and she’s got a whole lot of info because of just who she is.

Perfect reveal moment, really opening up things, putting this little interlude right back into the big Brink picture. Absolutely magnificent surprise, one that makes you just shout to the heavens how great Brink is.

And of course, as everything comes together, there’s still the small matter of figuring out just where Bridge is and getting to her before the Red River Killer does the terrible things to her.

Perfection. Simple perfection.

HERNE & SHUCK: SUFFER THE CHILDREN – PART 5 – by David Barnett and Lee Milmore, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Back to the travelling magician and his black dog. So far, we’ve had them rescue Caris from Cudd and go on the run, with plenty of magical mercs for hire on their trail.

Last couple of episodes we had the reveal that Herne himself was a Cudd baby, just like Caris, and that Shuck had taken him in, raised him, kept him safe, all the while knowing Cudd would be looking for him. And there were also the teases that Herne’s someone very, very special.

Anyway, now they’re on their way back to Cudd. Herne’s idea – although perhaps not his best one, surely?

Well, if they’re going to go there, they need a way to get there – opening a portal is out, too much of an alarm bell. So, it’s through the Green – or whatever we’re calling it here… like I said last time, this one definitely has that whole Swamp Thing/Constantine Vertigo vibe to it all, in a very good way as well.

At least Herne and Shuck are talking again now, although there are a hell of a lot of unanswered questions that need resolving…

So, off to Cudd it is. What they’re going to find there, who knows. Pretty sure it’s not going to be all that good for any of them. And then there’s the threat of the St. Michael organisation that are still there in the background.

But that’s for next time, this episode’s a simple pushing the plot on and giving them a way to get to Cudd. But even in that, there’s still plenty of absolutely well-done character-building, something that’s run all the way through Herne & Shuck. I’m really hoping that Barnett’s got plenty more to do with this one, and that Tharg’s already green-lit the next series.

As always, the art of Lee Milmore is quite wonderful. Again, as I said last time, there’s a real Vertigo feel to this, a very fine line to it all that reminds me particularly of Richard Piers-Raynor on Hellblazer, a Vertigo feel that really comes out as Barnett brings us his own version of Swamp Thing, or something like him anyway, as the gang are trying to get themselves to Cudd.

FUTURE SHOCKS: JUST STOP EVIL – by Alan Kerr, letters by Annie Parkhouse

By the art, and given that it’s the second of the extras in this bumper-sized Prog, I’d go with this as a Regened-destined strip that’s found a home here.

But the thing is, it’s a great little Future Shock. There’s no age limit to being able to do an inventive story of energy generation with a difference and riffing off current social movements about oil (Just Stop Evil – great title!) and pulling off a really cool twist in the ending. If it’s done really well, there’s no reason it can’t be all-ages.

Although, second guessing myself here, perhaps it’s not a Regened-commissioned thing, given the ripping a person in half moment that happens two pages in, and that was one of the implicit no-nos that we learned about Regened – robots being shredded, absolutely fine, humans… not so much.

But let’s stop speculating and just look at the damn thing for what it is. And like I say, it’s a great little Future Shock, it really is.

It’s got everything it needs to really work – a perfectly offbeat and strange concept – an oil rig that’s got a giant sleeping demon-god on top of it that’s generating all that much-needed energy – energy that, wouldn’t you know it, ends up causing a hell of a lot of weirdness and nastiness.

Then it’s got the switcheroo moment when the newbie rig worker and the 20-year veteran just a couple of weeks away from retirement and a hefty bonus get caught up in said weirdness, as the energy starts mutating the rig workers, meaning it’s down to a few humans left to save the world…

.And then there’s the twist in all this… which of course I’m not giving away to you. Let’s just say it’s everything a classic Future Shock should be – a neat twist playing on the worst of humanity.

So, whether it’s a Regened-commissioned strip or not, it’s still a cracking little Future Shock from Kerr. Hopefully we’ll see way more of his work in here.

SILVER BOOK ONE: UNEARTHED: PART 7 – by Mike Carroll and Joe Currie, letters by Simon Bowland

I only recently figured out that everything in Silver actually takes place, up until here, in one day – starting at night with the digging up of the Baroness DeSilva, and moving into the daytime with the attack on the Sepsis harvester. It’s a minor thing but it shows you just how tight and full of action Silver is – it’s all just a great ride to really be enjoyed.

Of course, having Carroll at the reins of it means that there’s a hell of a lot happening in all this action, plenty of moments that have us questioning so many things that will, no doubt, play out either in this first Book or in the next. I’ve read enough of Carroll’s work to trust that he’s absolutely on top of all this and just look forward to reading another really great new series.

As for what’s happening right now in Silver, the Baroness has made her way into the Harvester – giving Joe Currie yet more opportunity to display his artistic skills, of which, I hope you’re all in agreement with me here, there are many. Seeing the incredibly rough (deliberately so) yet detailed innards is just a moment of great art, really tapping into the whole Euro-sci-fi vibe that’s running all the way through Currie’s art here.

It’s five pages – five incredibly good pages – of the Baroness hacking her way through the Harvester and taking on the humans inside and then the Sepsis themselves, incredibly well-choreographed action, yet again, by Caroll and Currie.

Silver really is something great, fantastically fast-paced action sci-fi, packed with characters you can’t wait to find out more abaout, and a strip that’s taken an old concept of humanity fighting back against a conquering alien force and injected something new and fascinating into it. Again, just great, great work from all involved.