The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2418: Dredd’s Getting Scary In New Thrill ‘The Shift’

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

This week there’s a brand new Dredd multi-parter, The Shift,  by Ken Niemand and Nick Percival, continuing their push to bring back the horror to Dredd’s world. It’s damn good. Elsewhere, we’ve got the third and final series of the epic, galaxy-spanning Full Tilt Boogie by Alex de Campi and Eduardo Ocana. Plus, continuing episodes of the classic sword and sorcery of Hawk The Slayer, the supernatural and political complexities of Portals & Black Goo, and more magnificent adventures of Oscar Wilde and the vampire Constanta in the Wild(e) West of the USA in Fiends of the Western Front. Yep, another five strips, another perfect illustration of why this is one of the best, most diverse sci-fi anthology of them all.

You’ll find it all underneath a typically stunning Nick Percival cover…

And yes, it is another gorgeously dark wraparound cover–

2000 AD Prog 2418 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… get yourself to a comic shop and put in an order. I know you won’t regret it. This week’s listening was Bowie, all Bowie. Do yerself a favour and go stream most everything he’s done.

So, onwards and upwards, let’s show you what’s happening inside…

JUDGE DREDD: THE SHIFT -PART 1 – by Ken Niemand and Nick Percival, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Oh yes, Niemand and Percival are back and delving further into the horrors of Dredd’s world. Of course, it’s something perfect for Percival, an artist who lives and breathes nasty and horrific in every panel of his art.

Here, we get Dredd getting a message from Professor Marsha Hobbes, last heard from in 2024’s Iron Teeth. She’s got a missing student and a strange message…

Oh yes, a message from Dredd in the future, the first mention of The Shift, and the start of something brilliantly nightmarish happening in the Mega-City.

As you’d expect, there’s strange things happening, the Professor’s hearing things, things giggling, things with claws, and a student’s notes on juve-craze games that she’s become convinced can open gateways into something she called The Shift.

A perfect opener, full of menace and mystery, packed with Percival’s wonderfully grotesque art. The final page of the city is just gorgeous in all its menace. Yes, this one should be a really great one.

FULL TILT BOOGIE – BOOK THREE – PART 1 – by Alex de Campi and Eduardo Ocana, colours by Giulia Brusco, letters by Simon Bowland

Right then, the third and final volume of Full Tilt Boogie. The story so far…

Tee — together with her grandmother and cat — is a bounty hunter/hired help, operating from her spaceship the FULL TILT BOOGIE. Tee was paid to rescue the Luxine Prince Iran from his debtors’ prison. In the process, she encountered a resurrected Anubite warrior, a member of the enemy race with whom the Luxine Empire battled. Now, Tee and her allies must take on the Empress herself, who is once again going to war…

Yep, if that sounds very much like a fast-paced, epic bit of sci-fi, you’d be right. The first two books brought all these vibrant characters together into play. This third one promises to blow things up as we really get into the sort of galaxy-spanning, empire-overrowing way this has always been building up to.

On the one side, the Luxine Empire, holding on to their power and privilege and expecting this latest conflict to run just like all the others. On the other, Tee and her little gang, the small rebel force with a plan to change things.

Of course, there’s the small matter of the bounty on Tee’s head to deal with first.

Yep, this one’s got the feel of one that’s going to move very fast and cover a hell of a lot of ground. Hopefully that’s going to work. But hey, if you’ve enjoyed the first two series, you’ll be enjoying this one.

PORTALS & BLACK GOO: A QUORUM OF FIENDS – PART 6 – by John Tomlinson and Eoin Coveney, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland

We get deeper and deeper into things in Portals & Black Goo now. Where the first series was all about Kroy, delivery rider for Deliveroo, getting the entrails and the blood meals to the various supernatural beings who live alongside the ‘norms’ in this world, this second series is building on every little strand of life here, all just introduced in that first series.

It’s, as all good sci-fi is, a precautionary tale that echoes the world we’re living in right now. All those supernatural entities trying to live in (relative) peace amongst humanity find themselves on the receiving end of a xenophobic, politically motivated movement – all of the hatred and anger building and building here as we play out several fascinating plot threads at once, all of it promising to explode in, as Cursitor Doom puts it, ‘a maelstrom of hate at the heart of Battle Hill’.

Of course, all that’s very dark and heavy, but don’t forget that Portals & Black Goo has, from the off, dealt with these things with a healthy serving of tongue-in-cheek. And that’s where we begin this episode, with a version of Cursitor and Magister that you’ve definitely not seen before, an absolutely awful TV show based on their misadventures…

Super silly, of course, but it does bring in the demon Zur’gat, a particularly nasty demonic specimen that’s been haunting the dreams of both Cursitor and Magister for weeks now. That bodes ill indeed.

After that, it’s catching up with Kroy making his apologies to his vamp friend Nona after slagging off her unexpectedly dying vamp boyfriend last time. Plus, the sad little dead guy has Nona in his sights and a bag full of stakes and other vamp-killing stuff.

All of it’s building up to a massive coming together in time, but there’s a hell of a lot to enjoy in every part, so many different points of view, different strands to a thoroughly enjoyable tale.

HAWK THE SLAYER: THE LAST OF HER KIND – PART 6 – by Alec Worley and Simon Coleby, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Hawk’s plan to confront the evil Lady Morlaine, ruler of Valensfort, didn’t quite go to plan, getting in one good shot before she exited him from a tall window. Of course he gets away, he’s the hero and this isn’t the sort of tale where the hero’s going to die, let’s be honest about it.

But that one good shot has left the Lady in need of healing – and healing means feeding. Feeding upon one of her not so loyal any more guards, she perhaps takes in what he has to say of how she used to be, or perhaps not —

As for Hawk, he’s made his escape and is now skulking and plotting down in the castle’s depths, ready to make his next move.

It’s all very sword and sorcery indeed, which may not be your particular cup of tea, but hold off before you skip it, as Worley and Coleby are having a blast doing something very simple yet very well here. It’s nothing but out and out sword and sorcery and that’s just fine and dandy by me.

FIENDS OF THE WESTERN FRONT: WILDE WEST – PART 6 – by Ian Edginton and Tiernen Trevallion, letters by Jim Campbell

Oh, and speaking of dandy, as we were, time to check in with the most unlikely pairing in these pages for a long time, as poet and playwright Oscar Wilde ventures into the depths of America with the ancient and deadly vampire Constanta.

The relatively slow pace of this one has meant that we’ve had plenty of time to delight in the surprisingly effective double act of Wilde and Constanta, with Edginton obviously having plenty of fun doing the back-and-forth between the pair as they make their way into America, both pursued by enemies. For Oscar, it’s the fallen angel Michael, for Constanta, it’s the monster hunting Count Kamarovsky.

Their latest stop-off has them in a literal ghost town, the spectres of this abandoned outpost, with Constanta’s advice to ignore them and keep riding totally ignored by Oscar, much to the vampire’s disdain.

Oscar hears tell of a Mister Peck, someone/something who hurts, kills, and then hurts some more, nesting on the bones of the dead and not letting them pass over to peace.

Against Constanta’s better judgement, persuaded by another revealing look into Oscar’s soul, off they go to see just what Mister Peck is… and then we get Tiernen Trevallion really outdoing himself, exploding from the lush but subtle nighttime pale blue hues into this…

Oh yes, Mister Peck, demonic toad, what else would you be expecting? Again, Edginton and Trevallion’s Fiends has been really good at showing us the mythology surrounding Constanta and his origins, so should it really be a surprise that we get to have a distinctly American-flavoured immigrant demonology going on here.

It’s an excellent series, unexpected paths taken, strange allegiances made, all the better to show us more and more of this Fiend, all the better for Edginton and Trevallion to expand upon a classic, yet short-lived, 2000 AD series and give it such life.