The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2409: Azimuth Is The Upside Down World

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

Back again with all five strips once more, continuations of everything, meaning more Cursed Earth Law in Judge Dredd, more secretive goings-on in Rogue Trooper, more magical strangeness in Nightmare New York, another incredibly good episode of The Out where nothing and everything happens, and more explorations of the weird and wonderful world that is Azimuth.

And it’s Azimuth co-creator and series artist Tazio Bettin with the really rather striking cover…

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2000 AD Prog 2409 is out in the UK on 20th November 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. You can do it. I know you’re feeling a little shell-shocked right now and having to face up to four years of crazy (but then again, so is the rest of the world). But in a world where Judge Dredd seems less and less like speculative fiction and more like a prophecy, you really do need 2000 AD in your life.

So, onwards and upwards, let’s show you what’s happening in the latest Prog… it’s surprises and terror… and Cheesy Sniki-Snaks…

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JUDGE DREDD: THE COMFORT ZONE – PART 3 – by Mike Carroll and Ben Willsher. Letters by Annie Parkhouse

Dredd’s in the Cursed Earth with Judge Murphy, investigating the cyber-perp who hacked the Justice Department, with a trail heading out to the Squatsville encampments. Murphy’s out there working his own case, investigating the Plunderers merc gang working for Ma Sherry, gangster boss.

It opens with a gorgeous page of Willsher art, the contrast between the oranges (Willsher does love his orange) and the stark blues, this is a really lovely looking Dredd.

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But as for where it’s going, I’m still not sure which sort of Dredd Carroll’s playing this out as. It could be a Dredd goes into Cursed Earth, shuts down illegal stuff, heads back, the sort of Dredd procedural that’s just the meat and bones of the strip (although of course Carroll will make it a damn good Dredd romp). Or it could be something where the investigation leads to something else, something bigger.

Right now, it’s just a great little Wild West potboiler of a story where Dredd (and we) are operating in the dark, yet to put the pieces together. This time round, there’s a vigilante hunt, and deputies getting a little trigger-happy. All of it slowly developing, the story unfolding a little more each episode, all choreographed expertly by Willsher.

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AZIMUTH: THE FABLED BASILISK – PART 4 – by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin. Colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Jim Campbell

Back to the strangeness of Azimuth, a city existing outside of reality perhaps, or maybe just a place created to be outside of Downlode’s AI controller… like I say, it’s all a bit strange. But it’s also all a bit good.

Azimuth started as a stand-alone strip, following assassin/warrior for hire Suzi-Nine-Millimetre being contracted by the Kray Twins, Lords of the New Flesh, and just one (well, two) of the rulers of the domains found in Azimuth. But then it suddenly switched as ‘the Stranger’, long prophesied, turned up in Azimuth, who just happened to be Ramone Dexter, one half of the recently dissolved partnership of Sinister Dexter. And then we realised that Azimuth and Downlode were connected. Yes, stranger and stranger. And to make it stranger still, Dexter’s partnered up with Cassandra Anderson. But although ‘Andi’ has a familiar name and familiar psi-powers, and she’s wearing Judge’s uniform and carrying a lawgiver, it’s not a familiar Judge’s uniform and it’s a different-looking Anderson. Is she really the Anderson of Mega-City One? Or is it something stranger still?

Yes, the questions keep mounting up. But where this sort of uncertainty in the storytelling can be frustrating, Azimuth, beautifully controlled by Abnett’s plotting, is the sort of strip packed with questions that’s always been on the intriguing and fascinating side of things. It’s an enigma wrapped around in a mystery, as they say. And it’s a wonderful read.

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Right now, Dexter and Andi come before the Kray Twins, after a bit of psi-manipulation by ‘Andi’ to get the meeting. And we get the first mention of the title to this one, although right now it’s all, predictably mysterious.

But before we get to the bottom of that, we’re back with Suzi-Nine-Millimetre, looking for sanctuary away from Dexter, but finding only desolation, as more of Azimuth’s domains lie lost and destroyed. Next thing you know, she’s under attack from ‘the Overnaughts’, whatever they are – although they do look like very big, very technological things. Could this be where the Downlode AI starts to push into Azimuth? Or perhaps something different?

We just don’t know. We just really don’t know anything where it comes to Azimuth. And that’s all part and parcel of what makes this such a damn good story. I’m loving the mystery and the intrigue, loving the uncertainty, loving the strangeness. And I’ve read enough of Abnett’s work to know I’m right to trust him to play this out perfectly.

Of course, Abnett’s not alone in Azimuth. No comics writer can create alone, and Bettin’s artwork is such a huge part of what makes Azimuth so good. He’s giving us all the strangeness required, making Azimuth somewhere different with art that’s utilising a delightful fine line, with suitably otherworldly colours from Soffe. It’s every bit the visual treat to match the fascinating and enthralling story.

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NIGHTMARE NEW YORK – PART 9 – Kek-W and David Roach. Colours by Peter Doherty, Letters by Annie Parkhouse

And speaking of great artwork, as we were with Bettin and Soffe’s work on Azimuth, you turn the page and get more simply fabulous art from Roach and Doherty on Nightmare New York, really building on what the late, great John Burns developed for the look of this 19th Century magical mystery tale, the art giving all the dark vibes required to establish the nastiness going on in here.

Lil is held by Moloch’s men, although it’s not sure whether it’s Lilith or Lillian, my money’s on the former, given the magical relevance of that name. We get the first inkling of just what it was that Lil was running from that took her out onto the streets of New York in the first place, with daddy not exactly the nicest of men…

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What is clear is that Lil is wanted, by all sides, and that’s she’s a powerful player whether she knows it or wants it.

So, another mysterious moment in Nightmare New York, where things just don’t always play out in linear fashion. But it’s another example of things being all strange and nebulous yet not feeling frustrating at all. Instead, it’s all really mysterious and magical in all the right ways, a historical bit of intriguing storytelling that has me hooked and wanting to find out where it’s all headed, enjoying the uncertainty, enjoying Kek-W playing with the reader and me to build things up really well. And of course, every page is a beautiful thing to look at.

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THE OUT – BOOK FOUR – PART 9 – by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison. Letters by Simon Bowland

Here we go, another episode of The Out that’s just Cyd having a chat. Nothing more than that. Five pages of a two-handed conversation, talk, talk, and more talk. Yet it’s just the most enthralling and entertaining bit of comics I’ve read this week, such is the way that Abnett writes sparkling dialogue and Harrison accompanies it with spectacular visuals. I’ve said, again and again, that I’d cheerfully have a whole series of The Out where it’s nothing but Cyd experiencing alien cultures and this really is it.

We have Cyd ferrying the lion-like Slamboy Warriors to and now from a stag do on a pleasure planet. And now she’s in a late-night conversation with one of those Slamboy warriors about just why they needed the stag do – and also, just to keep the tension up, why this particular not sleepy Slamboy warrior isn’t satisfying his hunger for flesh on Cyd. (The answer is, injecting a bit of the funny that’s been in the Out all along, Cheesy Sniki-Snaks, just the thing for keeping the hungry, carnivorous lion alien from chowing down on some human flesh).

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That conversation brings up the reason the Slamboys needed this stag do. And it’s perhaps the first slight misstep we’ve had in The Out, in that it’s just too obvious a story driver, shoehorned into things, the obvious next step to things. Cyd gets told of ‘an edifice. Huge, sticking out through a rupture in the fabric of space.’

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It’s just too obviously a tempter, something to give Cyd the next thing to do, the next point on her journey. It’s a rare moment of obviousness in a story that’s been all about having Cyd wander sideways into the important stuff. And because The Out had been so perfectly good at making Cyd the one who happens upon the big things, unexpected and always surprising, having it spelt out to us in such an obvious way really seems just too easy, too signposted, and it’s a bit of let-down. Like I say, it’s a rare misstep in what has been just the perfect storyline, but The Out is such a great thing that I’m wiling to let this one go.

Despite the obviousness of things, Abnett and Harrison have built up so much credit in terms of storytelling that I’m still so invested in what Cyd’s going to walk into next that I’m still entranced by it all. It’s still a great, great strip, still one that’s up there with the finest 2000 AD has ever put out. One misstep doesn’t necessarily spoil all that’s gone before, and this five page two-hander is still, despite that big faux pas, quite the most wonderful bit of comics work, creating a genuine drama out of a simple conversation.

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ROGUE TROOPER: WHEN A G.I. DIES – PART 9 – by Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard. Letters by Rob Steen

Up on Milli-Com, GI Doll Azure is learning more of the horrors that Souther scientist and baddie Edvark had in mind for the GIs and the Southers, whilst the digital virus makes its way through Souther systems, with just the GIs and GI Dolls spared – although there’s still that mystery element of just what Edvark’s been up to with the GI Chip that is Gunnar, Rogue’s trusty weapon . And meanwhile, Rogue and the GI Doll Marcy are down in the Quartz, with Rogue’s chip-buddies all inactive and not responding.

We get some of this great Rogue and Marcy taking on the Norts action, Goddard’s artwork just so good and crisp in black and white…

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So, we’ve got this playing out on three fronts now, all giving us little insights into the bigger story unfolding – up on Milli-Com for one, where Azure is uncovering the facts, and then down on Nu-Earth with Rogue and Marcy advancing on Edvark’s position, whilst we’re also seeing Edvark’s take on it all…

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So, despite this one being overly confusing (at least to me) in the beginning, things have settled nicely into that three-pronged story, with Ennis obviously intending Edvark to be yet another monster in the world of Rogue Trooper, a role all too often taken up by the Traitor General, something that ended up limiting things, making Rogue too often a one-dimensional thing. Having these new threats in play in these Ennis and Goddard tales opens things up nicely, with plenty of action to go along with the more political storylines. And of course, Goddard’s art is just a joy to see on the page…