The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2415: Do You Know What Your Children Are?

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

Two weeks into the new year means we’re already deep into plenty of fabulous 2000 AD strips in the comics 48th year. Yes, nearly five decades and still going strong. There really is no better sci-fi anthology around. Maybe this could be the perfect time to start your 2000 AD experience?

After all, you’d be dropping into the already highly politically highly charged Judge Dredd: Soft by the writing team that brought you the very best story of 2024, Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt, following up on the incendiary events of ‘A Better World’. You’ll also be dipping into some classic sword and sorcery in Hawk The Slayer, Wild West action with a vampire’s bite in Fiends of the Western Front, more contemporary fiction in a world of hatred of the other in Portals & Black Goo, not to mention one of my all time favourite 2000 AD series, The Out.

Seriously, what are you waiting for? It’s the best thing out there, week in and week out. And it’s all underneath a typically gorgeous cover from Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague showing us just a little of what to expect in this week’s Portals & Black Goo…

.

2000 AD Prog #2415 is out in the UK on 15 January 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 inside…

.

.

JUDGE DREDD: SOFT – PART 2 – by Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt, and Henry Flint, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Wells, two episodes in and this one’s already got that important feel. It can’t really avoid it, seeing as it’s following up the events of A Better World and the fall of Maitland’s dream of transforming Mega-City One. That was the best Dredd for a long time, dealing with something that undermined the very foundations of the Law here, something doomed to fail yet nonetheless so powerful and heart-breaking when it did.

In ‘A Better World’, we were introduced to Judge Hernandez, one of the Council of Five, just below the Chief Judge in terms of power. Ambitious and willing to do whatever needs to do to get more power, Hernandez is a bad ‘un, we all know that going into Soft. We’re just not sure quite yet how he’s going to manage to manipulate his way through things here.

We know he’s after Dredd, pissed that Dredd disobeyed his order to bring in Major Domo alive. What we don’t know is how he’s going to do it and just how far he’s prepared to go. But here we sure get an idea. Of course, it plays into Hernandez’s hands that Chief Judge Logan is indebted to Dredd, a Chief Judge who’s never seemed all that comfortable or confident in the role. Williams and Wyatt get that over so brilliantly in the very first page, with an uncertain Logan prepping himself for a meeting with the Council of Five, knowing that difficult things are coming.

But he’s also coming out strong, knowing that Maitland’s experiment, one supported by Dredd (and by extension, Logan) has made the Justice Department seem soft – the violent crime numbers are up, pro-democracy vandalism is up, and terrorist groups are sending weakness. And then Logan makes a mistake and asks the question…

.

Because that just gives Hernandez the opportunity to play his ace. He’s after Dredd, putting him up as the sacrificial lamb for the Department of Law. Impossible? Well, politics is a dirty business.

In between the political heavy stuff, we have Dredd clamping down on Maitland’s experimental sector, still smarting from the loss of the dream. There’s forces at play here, and they’re all building to a confrontation.

There’s the feel of John Wagner about this, watching Dredd do his thing on the ground whilst the bigger things are happening around him. Williams and Wyatt have crafted something with a sense of big things happening already here in ‘Soft’. Big, big things, nasty and dangerous things where the politics of MC-1 come to the fore whilst still being in the background to what Dredd’s doing. It’s just building and building to the inevitable confrontation between Dredd, the epitome of the law on the streets, against Hernandez, the political agent playing the law for his own power play. Best Dredd of the year already? There’s a damn good chance. Oh, and of course there’s Jake Lynch’s art here, an artist I’ve long said is part of a modern group of Dredd artists making this a real golden age of making Dredd look better than he’s been for years.

.

HAWK THE SLAYER: THE LAST OF HER KIND – PART 3 – by Alec Worley and Simon Coleby, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

The continuation of the cult classic movie (and a rather fun one if you’ve never seen it) keeps on moving forwards, as Hawk ventures further into the magically corrupted world.

We’ve already had the intro to things, the Garth Ennis and Henry Flint 2023 sequel to the film, but if you haven’t read that – hell, if you haven’t even seen the film – it doesn’t matter, this is classic sword and sorcery stuff, where the hero is heroic and the villain villainous, just like you want it to be.

So, with Hawk knowing that dark magics are on the rise, he’s headed to Valensfort, the city-state ruled over by the Lady Morlaine. And now Hawk’s in Valensfort, looking for his way in, looking to just how he’s going to save things. His in here is one of the Lady Morlaine’s courtiers, who sneaks out every week for drinks, and plenty of them. But there’s much more to this drunkard, a tale of a man trapped by a Lady desperate to turn things back to a time before her daughter disappeared and a spell cast on the Lady by this man.

.

All we need is a hero willing to step up to take on the terrible curse of this city – and wouldn’t you know it, Hawk’s just that hero.

Yep, classic sword and sorcery stuff here, with Coleby’s art just perfect for all this, dark imagery done just right. And Worley’s playing this out just fine, the hero heading into peril, magic all around, doing all the swords, all the sorcery, just the way it should be.

.

PORTALS & BLACK GOO: A QUORUM OF FIENDS – PART 3 – by John Tomlinson and Eoin Coveney, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland

The multi-stranded Portals shifts its focus onto what’s happening with Magister Dain, who’s already, back in series 1, been talking of ‘an ancient fire rages anew in the land, a scourge that threatens to consume all who tread the occult paths.’

He’s joined by big brother, Cursitor Doom, a ’60s/’70s Brit character who’s played wonderfully for laughs by Tomlinson here – falling cupboards, improvised seers bowl, and a trip to the facilities for the purging – all part of the prep for a vision quest

Meanwhile, former Deliveroo rider Kroy is doing his podcast thing, only to find himself hijacked by a portal, and the sad little dead man, Bliss, gets a visitor, and a normal family prove to be not that normal after all…

.

What does it all mean? Well, right now, I’ve got no real idea. I mean, we’ve obviously got something nasty brewing with the right-wing hatemongers led by Tommy Willard rising up against the monsters and the weirdos, protecting the normal people. But where the four disparate strands of Cusitor & Magistor, Kroy, Bliss, and whatever’s happening with Nina’s dying vamp friend, plus whatever’s going on with ‘The Quorum of Fiends’ that we learned about last episode. But how it’s all going to tie together is something we’ll find out in time.

But the journey to get there is all part of the fun of this second series of Portals & Black Goo, with Tomlinson throwing plenty of characters and situations at us, all brought to life really well by Coveney. Right now there’s more questions than answers but when it’s all so intriguingly well done, there’s no problem with that.

.

FIENDS OF THE WESTERN FRONT: WILDE WEST – PART 3 – by Ian Edginton and Tiernen Trevallion, letters by Jim Campbell

Oh, this is just a great series, with Edginton and Trevallion really expanding on the ever-so-simple concept of Fiends of the Eastern Front’s vampire-war tale. They’ve built on it and built on it, until we get to here – the 19th Century Wild West, with the vampire Constanta accompanied (magnificently and ridiculously) by Oscar Wilde. Because why the hell not?

Oscar’s out here fleeing from what his ‘sight’ revealed, that Michael, Earl of Hatfield has an angelic demeanour, but unfortunately for Oscar, he’s an angel of the fallen variety, one of Lucifer’s gang. And that particular angel has made the trip over to the USA as well, hot on the heels of poor Oscar.

Meanwhile, the vampire Constanta is here in the wild, Wild West with bloody revenge in mind, hunting down the Count Kamarovsky, cousin of the Emperor of Russia, a monster hunter who’s pursuit of Constanta has caused the immortal warrior too much loss already.

In this episode we get to travel a while with both adversaries this time, as Angel Michael viciously tracks down Oscar…

.

… and Kamarovsky prepares magical weaponry in his hunt of Constanta…

.

None of that whip-smart and funny interplay this time round between Oscar and Constanta, which is a shame, but we certainly get more of an idea of what they’re both up against.

This one’s playing out very simply, all linear and easy – two monster hunters, monsters themselves, chasing down a poet and his monster protector. Yes, simple and straightforward, but made so much more fun with the fact that all four protagonists are just so well done, no one here is simple, no one is obvious, they’re all complex and complicated, all given so much character. And then you’ve got Trevallion’s artwork, colours so vivid yet toned down, his line all brooding and dark. It’s just perfectly matched to the storyline.

Fiends may have started as something one-dimensional and brilliant, but Edginton and Trevallion have put (rotting) flesh on the bones of the idea so very well.

.

THE OUT – BOOK FOUR – PART 15 – by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison. Letters by Simon Bowland

Again, surely we’re all growing tired of me telling you this is the greatest strip in 2000 AD for so many years and, along with that other Abnett-written strip, Brink, a story that will go down in history as one of 2000 AD’s greatest.

Yes, I do so love The Out.

We last saw Cyd deep in Alien territory, on the hunt for a missing guest onboard the luxury space cruise liner The Momodorpho. That hunt has taken her, and a particularly not keen on this at all Bag, down to the underdecks to investigate whatever it is that’s picking off the guests and crew. This was not a good idea at all, especially when something unspeakably large and toothy unfolds in front of her at the end of the last episode…

.

So far, so obvious, right? After all, we’re doing Alien, aren’t we?

But given this is The Out, this is about to take a sharp left turn into weird. Because that’s what makes thing in The Out so good. After all, when there’s so hideous beasty in front of Cyd, there’s a damn good chance that things aren’t going to go the obvious route.

And that’s just one of the reasons I so love this strip. It never goes where you think it’s going to go. And by the end of this one, we’re definitely going somewhere different.

As always, it’s all done perfectly, the synergy between Abnett and Harrison is just perfect, Harrison’s art so beautifully detailed and capturing all the alien it possibly can, alongside Abnett’s pitch perfect dialogue and the sense that this one can really go anywhere it wants to. And I’ll be along for the ride – because this is a glorious ride indeed.