The Weekly 2000 AD: Stront And Slade Together For The First Time

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

Well, it’s another extra special Prog, packed with eight strips instead of the usual five, all headlined, as the cover by John McCrea and Mike Spicer suggests, by the titanic meeting of the 2000 AD-verse’s primo bounty hunters as Johnny Alpha, the best of the Strontium Dogs, meets Sam Slade, the greatest Robo-Hunter.

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Under the cover, you’ve got a one-off Dredd, more from The Out, Rogue Trooper, and Nightmare New York, and the rather spectacular conclusion to Brink: Book Six. But you’ve also got the start of a second series of Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin’s Azimuth, alongside one-offs in the shape of a Terror Tale and that aforementioned Strontium Dog vs Robo-Hunter meet-up.

2000 AD Prog #2406 is out in the UK on 30 October in the UK. You American readers need to go to your local comic shop and get them to order in the monthly four-Prog bundles. Seriously, you won’t regret doing that for a moment.

So, onwards and upwards, let’s show you what’s happening in the latest Prog, a bumper crop of Tharg’s finest…

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JUDGE DREDD: RETURN OF THE DEAD CHIEF JUDGE’S SOCIETY- by Ken Niemand and Dan Cornwell. Colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Annie Parkhouse.

Niemand does have a habit of returning to the scene of the crime. Last Prog in was revisiting the Dredd and movie Dredd alt-universe tale, this Prog its returning to the events of Prog 2267 and the Dead Chief Judge’s Society, where one poor perp in the city has a cadre of Chief Judge ghosts following him around, beautifully brought to (after)life by Dan Cornwell.

Yes, it’s a playing it all for gags one, something Niemand’s got a good handle on, with this latest playing on just how insane life in the Big Meg can be for some of its inhabitants.

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It’s just six pages and done, strange things happening to this particular Cit, who keeps managing to break out of the iso-cubes. Why, it’s almost as if he’s got the combined brains of generations of Chief Judges giving him inside intel.

All he wants is them out of his head. But it’s another case of you can get what you want and still not be happy.

Yep, a load of fun, plenty of silliness here, all of it coming from the gathering of the greatest leaders of Mega-City One bickering and arguing like a bunch of annoying kids. Wonderful daftness indeed.

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THE OUT – BOOK FOUR – PART 6 -by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison. Letters by Simon Bowland 

Well, we’ve had five glorious episodes of Cyd and Bag just lounging around, letting us just enjoy the whole incredible relaxed vibe that makes The Out such a fabulous read. Like I always say, I’d have no problem if Abnett and Harrison just spent a whole series with Cyd and Bag doing nothing but hanging out, taking in the incredible alien sights all around them, and giving us the combination of Abnett’s perfectly naturalistic and sparklingly witty dialogue and Harrison’s quite incredibly over the top art, where every panel gives us something more spectacularly different than the last.

Except Abnett and Harrison keep managing, every book, to walk us sideways into a bigger picture, as a story develops despite itself. It’s that almost accidental narrative feeling of The Out that keeps it feeling so fresh and exciting, that sense of things happening here despite themselves.

Now, the last episode had Cyd getting way too close to the leader of the Space Raiders, the hideously and unbelievably realised Redbladder. Strangely, as they’re talking, Redbladder has a feeling he recognised where Cyd was from…

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And that’s where we get the latest moment of awesome from The Out, a series that’s already given us so many of them… here’s the last couple of panels of the last episode…

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Oh boy. No wonder she’s not been getting cheques from Global Neographic. This is really going to screw with Cyd’s head.

This episode, we’re back in time and many millions of miles away, back on Earth as Cyd says her goodbyes to friends, just after the divorce and the loss of Joey. She’s headed to ‘the Out’ and every moment here is laden with meaning, given all we know of Cyd’s future.

Oh, the moments here, so good, so portentous, especially given that big cliffhanger moment last episode.

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Nope. You won’t be back, Cyd. And, it turns out, the Earth won’t still be there either. Hell, it’s maybe a few years gone by, but it may as well be centuries. Everything’s changed and there’s just no going back. And that’s just the point, this is Abnett really pushing Cyd further and further, cutting all ties with everything she knew, really making her only way forward to go even more out there.

So, here she is. Truly out. No way back. Whatever comes next I have no idea, but goddam, this is some of the best stuff I’ve read in 2000 AD for so long. It’s truly an expansive, totally different sort of sci-fi, two creators just working so well together and continuing to produce something that I’m proud to say I recognised as a classic the moment the first few episodes landed.

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TERROR TALES: CELL THERAPY – by Ed Whiting and Dave Taylor. Letters by Jim Campbell

Another one-off Terror Tale, this time written by the 2024 2000 AD/Thought Bubble script contest winner Ed Whiting, who was last in the Prog with his contest-winning Terror Take in Prog 2388, ‘The Essence of the Piece’.

‘Cell Therapy’ is about bio-terrorists who use a new pathogen to off themselves if they’re about to get caught. This time though, the powers that be hade caught a live one. The only teensy-weensy little problem with that is that this particular member of the bio-terrorist cell has been dead for five decades plus.

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The other problem is that, now the powers that be have got a live one, they’ve attracted the attention of whoever, or whatever, is pushing the agents of S.A.N.E. to do all these terrible things. But, as the cop in charge of moving the prisoner’s about to find out, these are not things you want to mess with.

A tight, tense, brutal thing, ‘Cell Therapy’ is just a great little Terror Tale, screaming out for more episodes, that sense of something that, although these five pages give us a nicely done beginning, middle, end to things, it would be really good to see what Whiting has planned for the strange world he’s developed here. And as for the art, well, it’s Dave Taylor, so it looks absolutely stunning.

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NIGHTMARE NEW YORK – PART 6 – by Kek-W and David Roach. Colours by Peter Doherty, Letters by Annie Parkhouse

Poor lil’ Lil, trapped in the Five Points area of New York, unable to escape now she’s been anointed as the fifth point, the protector of Orange Street.

She’s trying to get out, but her choice to head down, down, down into the underneath of New York hadn’t exactly turned out all that well…

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Great art from Roach and Doherty that really gets the whole horror of the piece through, as Lil learns more about herself and what she’s becoming.

There’s more talk of ‘the Cailleach’ when Lil chats to an old, floating woman deep beneath New York. A quick Google on Wikipedia tells me that Cailleach is ‘ a divine hag and ancestor, associated with the creation of the landscape and with the weather, especially storms and winter. The word literally means ‘old woman, hag’.

So that’s where we are, Kek-W playing with Celtic myth in 19th Century New York. And playing really well, giving us something ancient magic and immediately accessible, an origin story, with Lil as the wide-eyed innocent caught up in it all. So far, it’s all working a treat, something strange and different and very readable.

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AZIMUTH: THE FABLED BASILISK – PART 1 – by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin. Colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Jim Campbell 

Okay, new strip time. Well, second series of a new strip anyway.

Here’s what the blurb on the contents page has to say…

“Welcome to the city of AZIMUTH, a data-driven metropolis, where anything is possible. Ruled by an aristocracy of the New Flesh, such concepts of life, death, and body-forms are fluid. The New Flesh masters have been troubled by strange dreams, which seem to have predicted the coming of a stranger — none other than Ramone Dexter, who’s teamed up with Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson to save Downlode…”

Yeah, this was a bit of a “What? Wait a minute,” moment when series one got going. Abnett and Bettin gave us a strange new world and then turned things on their head when Dexter, half of Sinister Dexter, turned up.

And then Anderson appeared and things got even weirder.

Yes, Anderson. Cassandra Anderson. Her. Yes. Weird.

So, when we left Azimuth, we’d had an introduction to another brilliantly realised Abnett world, wonderfully realised by Bettin, all strange experiences and different moments, populated by the likes of Suzi nine millimetre, perfectly off-kilter characters for a very bizarre world. And with the introduction of Dexter, the strange world of Azimuth gained meaning, a refuge of the rogue AI that’s taken over Downlode, or a haven from said rogue AI… we’re just not too sure. And that’s very much part of the fun of Azimuth.

Now, we’re here with Dexter and Anderson, although how it’s Anderson we’re not sure. Alt-world Anderson? Dredd’s Anderson displaced through time and space? Completely different Anderson who’s landed in Azimuth after contacting the rogue AI that’s taken over Downlode? We simply have no idea. And that’s all part of what makes Azimuth so wonderful. Everything’s up for grabs, anything can happen. It’s Abnett taking Sinister Dexter into someplace different and it’s so good.

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Oh yes, what happens in episode one here… I should maybe get around to that, right?

Dexter and whatever Anderson this is (and we get mention here of the Justice Department – so who knows where Abnett’s taking this – all I know is I want to find out) are looking for Suzi Nine Millimetre. Finding her’s going to involve a lot of Azimuth/Downlode deaths, with Dexter and Anderson gunning down a hell of a lot of whatever the hell these Azimuth residents are to get to Suzi.

Azimuth had always been a mystery. The first reveal was that it was part of Downlode, a hidden kingdom, maybe a part of the AI, maybe the last refuge from the AI, but having Dexter appear was that first WTF moment. And then Abnett really put the cat amongst the pigeons with the addition of whatever Anderson this is.

So, where it goes from here I have genuinely no idea. All I know is that I’m onboard with whatever strange and wonderful twist and turn this one takes next.

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ROBO-HUNTER VS STRONTIUM DOG – by Garth Ennis and Henry Flint. Letters by Rob Steen.

Well, we had Ennis and Flint do Dredd and Robo-Hunter, now it’s time to put the two meanest bounty hunters in the galaxy together and see what happens.

A tachyon herald of the High Over-Klang has found its way back in time to Sam Slade’s Brit-Cit, swiftly followed by Johnny Alpha – two bounty hunters and one bounty usually means things don’t go to swimmingly.

Except this times the exception. Common sense prevails, smart business heads all around, Alpha and Sam coming to an agreement, despite Stogie wanting something more heroic and epic and bloody.

Nope, this isn’t the Robo-Hunter vs Strontium Dog slugfest you thought it was going to be – and it’s all the better for it. Especially once the High Over-Klang makes an appearance…

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So, now’s where we get the titanic tussle, the bounty hunter beat-down, right? Well, not quite. Let’s just say this particular contest of champions isn’t exactly what you’re expecting.

And that’s where this one just shines, subverting everything you’re led to expect, throwing together two classic characters and going against their usual modus operandi. And in doing so, Ennis gives us something that’s cool and silly and downright fun, whilst Flint’s really doing his usual fine, fine work all the way through.

So, what next? Sam Slade and Rogue Trooper? Nemesis? Sláine? Who the hell knows. But I’d imagine whatever it is, based on the two so far, it’s going to be plenty fun.

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BRINK: CONSUMED – PART 28 – FINAL PART – by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard. Letters by Simon Bowland

Six months plus of this series of Brink and still there’s part of me that wishes it were longer. But no, all great things – and make no mistake, Brink is a great thing – come to an end.

Although really, the end came in the last couple of episode, first with the end to the ‘Red River Killer’ thread and then with Kurtis and Bonner rooting out the sect mole in Belleholme HabSec. Both of those were perfectly done things, neither of which I’m going to really spoiler here. All I’ll do is put this here, with a crop to save the spoilers…

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Yep, that’s Kurtis’s life all right.

Like that last panel says, having wrapped both threads of this storyline up quite perfectly, we’re into departures here on the last episode, a final episode that’s more coda than anything else, with Kurtis, Bonner, and Lind making final arrangements to head to Luna to take up their new roles at the special HSD Taskforce looking into Mercury and the sects – although they’re now taking Lauren Maslow along, as she’s an expert witness with who knows what info into the sect/corp/Mercury connection. And they’re also taking Castenada, because, as Kurtis says, ‘she’s looked Sect right in the face.’

But we end with something far more sinister, a taster for what’s to come, as we switch to Claudette Hab, under licence to the Interhab Intelligence Agency, and possibly the first time we’ve seen just what Kurtis et al are up against. And it’s another call-back to Book 5, the investigations of Lauren’s journalist husband, Nolan, and his dealings with Danny Reardon/Evan Leeden… shadows of the future to end a brilliant series, leaving me really looking forward to seeing the next wonderful chapter of Brink.

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As always, I’ve absolutely loved everything about Brink: Consumed. It really is unlike anything else in the Prog, allowed all the space it needs to play out its narrative, building up this world and these characters so perfectly, resulting in a bit of epic sci-fi crime procedural that will, surely, in years to come, be rightfully recognised as one of the greatest of all 2000 AD strips.

Seriously, if you’ve never bothered with it yet, do yourself a favour and go get book one. You’ll be hooked just like I was. And if you’re already like me, a zealot, maybe the end of this latest series is all the excuse you need to dive back in an do yet another re-read from the beginning. Because it’s a series that just keeps entertaining no matter how many times you’ve read it.

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WHEN A G.I. DIES – PART 6 – by Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard. Letters by Rob Steen

So, the mystery of Edvark keeps getting deeper and deeper. Right from the beginning of this one it’s been less about Rogue and more about the politics of the Southers and just what they’ll do, what they’ll sacrifice to win the war.

It’s a tightrope to walk, giving us a little Rogue and a little into the investigation of just what Edvark was doing. And it’s still one of those that I find myself, each week, needing to head back and do a re-read of all that’s gone before. Like I’ve said in Weekly 2000 ADs past, that’s either my failing memory or an indication that this really isn’t working in serialised form, and I don’t necessarily mean that as a criticism. Some stories simply don’t suit breaking down into five/six page chunks, they just don’t work that way. As it is, I reckon/already know that this is one that’s going to hang together so much better in collected form.

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This time round we begin in the past, I think, and Edvark’s harvesting of the dead GI’s bio-chips, only to switch to Milli-Com’s investigation division, running scared from whatever’s infecting the higher-ups of Souther command, putting their faith in the GI Dolls to be immune to it all and wanting to find out the truth.

There’s the idea that Edvark’s coordinating this somehow, a malware infection of Milli-Com that’s also responsible for the deaths of those in charge, for some reason we know not what. But they think it’s all connected, think it’s Edvark masterminding it, think it’s got something to do with the bio-chips. And there’s even the possibility that Edvark’s done something to Gunnar, one of the bio-chip’s close to Rogue.

So, still one of those that, although I can see the skill involved, although with Goddard’s art it looks absolutely great, although I can see glimpses of the overarching story and have a sense that I’m missing something really great here, this big political war tale delving deep into Rogue’s past, I’m increasingly if the opinion that it’s only going to come good when I read it as a whole. It happens sometimes in anthologies, I know that. And I also acknowledge that many of you reading this are going, ‘you idiot, it’s bloody obvious what’s going on, how can you not see it?’ Like I say, it happens. But for me? Well, this just isn’t connecting.