The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2414: Starting The New Year In Fine 2000 AD Style

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

After the traditional two weeks off over Christmas, 2000 AD returns for its 48th year. Yes, 48 years of thrill power, and consistently the best comics anthology out there. That’s some record. And it’s headed into 2025 in fine form, with the start of the next incredible chapter of Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt’s Judge Dredd saga that carries on from the events of 2024’s incendiary ‘A Better World’, plus continuations of three strips that made their debut in the Christmas Prog – Fiends of the Western Front: Wilde West, Hawk The Slayer: The Last Of Her Kind, Portals and Black Goo: A Quorum of Fiends, and the continuing incredible adventures of Cyd in The Out Book IV.

It’s a packed lineup, all behind a typically gorgeous Tiernen Trevallion cover for Fiends of the Western Front…

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2000 AD Prog 2414 is out now in the UK . If you’re in the Americas or anywhere else the Prog’s sold, the release date’s not quite as fixed… the best thing to do is head to your local comic shop and get them to order it in for you. Trust me, it’s worth it. Why not make this the year you finally succumb to the lure of 2000 AD?

So, onwards and upwards, let’s show you what’s happening now we’re into 2000 AD 2025…

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JUDGE DREDD: SOFT – PART 1 – by Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt, and Henry Flint, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

What Williams and Wyatt have been putting together in the last few years on Dredd has been nothing short of incredible. So this is one great way to start the new year.

If you haven’t already read their work, later this month sees the collection of Judge Dredd: A Better World. It’s, quite simply, up there with the finest of all Dredds, a story that deals with Accounts Judge Maitland and her attempts to fundamentally change the way the law works here in Mega-City One and, with that, also addresses just how Dredd and his system works. It’s absolutely essential, a quite brilliant thing.

Now, with this new storyline, ‘Soft’, they’re continuing the story with the fallout from Maitland’s failed dream of transforming the Mega-City, with the return of Judge Hernandez, a member of the Council of Five, one of the most powerful men in the Mega-City. And also instrumental in bringing about the failure of Maitland’s dream.

Hernandez is bad news, a Judge ascending to power by political means, allying himself with the rich and the powerful, not bothering too much with what that means in terms of the Law. Last time we saw him, Hernandez and Dredd were at odds over what to do with Major Domo, something that ended with Dredd disobeying a direct order from Hernandez. And Hernandez isn’t letting it lie.

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Like I say, Williams and Wyatt have a history of making damn good Dredds, the sort that feel important from the off. And they’ve also benefitted from a number of the best Dredd artists, of which there are a hell of a lot right now. Here they’ve got the angular and inventive stylings of Jake Lynch doing great things here.

‘A Better World\ really turned things on their head, now it’s the fallout and a return to dark politics in Mega-City One. Really looking forward to how this one develops.

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HAWK THE SLAYER: THE LAST OF HER KIND – PART 2 – by Alec Worley and Simon Coleby, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

If you’re a fan of the cult classic movie or just a fan of really good fantasy, Hawk the Slayer is going to be a real treat for you.

We’ve already had the Garth Ennis and Henry Flint 2023 sequel to the film, but here we get Alec Worley and Simon Coleby giving us their take on all things swords and sorcery. Hawk’s watching dark magic making a resurgence with dangerous creatures prowling the countryside, something this particular hero’s going to do something about.

Coleby’s art is particularly suited to the dark fantasy thing, with Worley’s fantasy credentials already proven with Black Beth (again, you have read that, haven’t you?) Between them, they’re putting in a damn fine shift here.

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Last episode was all about the dark forces rising with Hawk doing his hero thing, on his way to getting involved with things he probably shouldn’t but, seeing as he’s the hero, is sort of contractually obliged to do something about.

He’s on the way to Valensfort, cruelly ruled by the Lady Morlaine. This episode… still on his way, getting close enough to piss off Morlaine’s goons doing bad things that Hawk just has to step in and stop. But two episodes in and the tone is all set. It’s got classic sword and sorcery going through it like a stick of rock.

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PORTALS & BLACK GOO: A QUORUM OF FIENDS – PART 2 – by John Tomlinson and Eoin Coveney, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland

This was another great debut in 2024, moving into what’s looking like a great sophomore season for 2025. It’s the near future and a world where the monsters of magic and myth coexist rather uncomfortably with the regular folk. And those monsters need to eat, which is where Deliveroo comes in, providing food deliveries to the vampires, the demons, and the things with way too many tentacles. Our hero in this is Kroy Plemons, a Deliveroo rider, another poor sap working the gig economy. It’s just this particular gig economy job has the added risk of the client preferring to eat the delivery guy rather than the order.

It’s all set against an increasingly volatile backdrop where there’s a xenophobic backlash to the monsters in the midst of the regular folk, Tomlinson using this supernatural setting as a way to satirise what’s happening out in the world today, where right-wing agitators stir up hatred of the other, using any platform they can to drive wedges and point fingers in the wrong direction. It’s that classic satirical political sci-fi thing, using something out there to mirror the horrors of the now. And Tomlinson is doing it damn well here.

The far-right, anti-monster, anti-minority is represented by Tommy Willard, the true monster of the piece. He’s manipulating the growing threat of violence, pushing the hatred, all talk of sticking up for the normal folks.

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As for the title of this one, we get Kroy and a mate talking of the Quorum of Fiends, of which Kory’s mate, Wes, reckons Tommy is definitely a part of. It’s all Illuminati stuff, the power behind the world sort of thing, with Tommy, man of the people, being deep into the magical monstrous stuff he’s meant to be so against. Yes, who’d have thought it, a politician who lies and deceives and manipulates.

Aside from all that political backdrop, which is really damn well done, we also get just that little more of the story of Kory’s vampire friend, Nona, and her vamp pal who’s dying of something suspiciously important.

Yes, so many threads running through this second series of Portals and Black Goo, all of them intriguing. And that’s not even mentioning the reappearance of a very familiar name to fans of classic Brit comics on the final page.

2000 AD works so well because it’s always been about new strips. Never resting, always moving forwards with new things. Portals and Black Goo is one of those really great things.

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FIENDS OF THE WESTERN FRONT: WILDE WEST – PART 2 – by Ian Edginton and Tiernen Trevallion, letters by Jim Campbell

It’s the vampire Constanta in the 19th Century Wild West, accompanied by Oscar Wilde (of course). And it’s all rather bloody brilliant.

The original Fiends of the Eastern Front was a fabulous, done-in-one-series thing by Gerry Finley-Day and Carlos Ezquerra, putting vampires into a war story. But that was just one tale. Since then, Edginton and Trevallion have done superb things with the character of Constanta, expanding on the long undead life of the vampire, taking in his origin, Russian mythology, ancient evils, and plenty of really cool vampire tales from history, ancient and modern.

But now we’re into a very different world, with a fascinating travelling companion for Constanta… the one and only Oscar Wilde.

It all began in 1977 with a bank raid where one deposit box reveals an unusual Wildean connection, leading to the reveal of Oscar’s gift of the ‘sight’ from his mother, something that’s caused him nothing but trouble. And trouble doesn’t get any worse that Oscar finding out that Michael, Earl of Hatfield happens to be a fallen angel, one of Lucifer’s mob, and one who’s not too pleased that Oscar knows his secret. That’s why the poet’s fled to the USA, and that’s why he’s in company with Constanta, the vamp and the poet in cahoots, an odd couple for sure.

There’s so much fun that Edginton’s having with the whole thing in this second episode, playing on the contrast between the vampire and Oscar, really luxuriating in the dialogue. You know, stuff like this…

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Constanta’s on the hunt for Count Kamarovsky, cousin of the Emperor of Russia, and Oscar’s helping all he can. The two spar so delightfully, two very different characters finding common ground in very strange circumstances. Turns out Kamarovsky is something of a monster hunter, one who got too close for comfort – and that’s got Constanta really pissed off. So, it’s Kamarovsky first and then they’ll take on Oscar’s angel.

It’s all perfectly well done, the dichotomy between a monster and a poet played so well, and all with all those beautifully done tones and colours from Trevallion, just the perfect artist for this.

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THE OUT – BOOK FOUR – PART 14 – by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison. Letters by Simon Bowland

C’mon, need I really say it? The Out is still my favourite thing of 2000 AD, alongside Brink, in the last God knows how many years. You know that because I tell you every single week. Love the way Abnett and Harrison combine, love the ideas they come up with, love Harrison’s artwork that shows so much and does so in such beautiful detail, love the quality of Abnett’s dialogue. It’s just so close to perfect.

As for where Book Four is taking us, we’ve been shunted into yet more unexpected territory right here, as Abnett and Harrison (and Cyd and Bag) are deep into Alien territory now – as in Alien the movie, as referenced by Cyd herself in the pages…

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It’s all come about from her being forced by the Routelegger boss, Redbladder, to do a missing persons investigation, looking for a Mrs Billiphent Grobb on board the luxury space cruise liner The Momodorpho. See, that’s what you get when you pretend to be something you’re not Cyd. It’s always going to get you into trouble.

And trouble is just what she’s found herself in. Down in the underdecks. The very, very dark underdecks. Without a torch. Although both her and Bag are sure there’s one somewhere, if only they could find it. But, down here in the underdecks, as Cyd puts it, ‘There maaaaay be something down here that’s picking off the crew,’ and, ‘also means I’m poking around looking for something nasty and potentially, you know, lethal in the dark.’

Luckily, there’s an odd-looking lamp appeared…

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And here’s where Abnett just steps back, having done all the set up for this, giving us page after page of creepy build-up, and just lets Harrison’s art, really playing deliciously with the darkness here, to absolutely give us the final bit of nasty…

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Yep, that’s just superb, so good. Every bit the shiver down the spine moment that this storyline demanded.

But, just like every other episode, every series of the Out so far, Abnett and Harrison just wouldn’t dream of letting you down.

Have I told you already how good this is?