The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2434: The Baroness Burns Bright In Silver

Taking a look inside the UK’s greatest sci-fi comic, the Galaxy’s Greatest, now 48 years young —it’s the (late) Weekly 2000 AD.

48 years young, consistently the finest sci-fi anthology you could wish to read. There’s so much in store for you inside the pages of the weekly Prog, it’s about time you dived in!

This week, More Dan Abnett-written Dredd, this time with the always stunning art of Colin MacNeil, more Rogue Trooper travellling upriver in ‘Tides of War’, more from the oh so strange yet oh so fascinating Ghosted, more evil alien invasion action in Silver, and more from Ian Edginton and D’Israeli‘s Scarlet Traces showing us the aftemath of the Martian invasion.

It all takes place under a Clint Langley Silver cover….

2000 AD Prog 2434 was out in the UK on 28th May. If you’re in the Americas, the best way to get it would be to pop into your local comic shop and ask the nice folks in there to order it in for you. I became a convert over a decade ago and haven’t looked back since.

Now, this one is late, very late. The reason? Well, living in a desert where it’s just hitting the 100F mark daily in May means its vital that your air conditioning works. And ours… well, it didn’t. So, after selling the odd kidney or two, we had the nice men in and have, after a lot of chaos and stress, cool air once more. But it’s rather meant that other things have slipped, this Weekly 2000 AD being one of them. So, very late indeed, and we’re taking this one at a clip…

JUDGE DREDD: THE FIRST 100 – PART 1 – BY DAN ABNETT AND COLIN MACNEIL, COLOURS BY CHRIS BLYTHE, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

MacNeil brings the art, excellent as always, to this one, giving lie to the line I wrote a few Progs back about Abnett rarely writing Dredd.

But Abnett writes Dredd here in a way that seems effortless, but it’s not, it’s masterful storytelling, really giving us a run-through of all that Dredd is. And artistically, it’s quite beautiful, MacNeil using the shadows and light perfectly, and getting in some ever so good chin action in the bargain…

It’s all about a rookie on their first 100, asking her instructor, Senior Judge Gable, about her first 100 hours on the job, overseen by Dredd. The first 100 referring to the mandatory 100 hours a rookie Judge must do in their first six months after probation in the company of a senior officer.

Cue a flashback where we get to see Dredd through a rookie’s eyes, see the sheer gravity of him, how he commands a situation with willpower and reputation almost doing the job before him. She’s a smart one, learning from him, analysing him, almost slipping into reverence at times, and knowing that this is going to be a hell of a tough few days.

This one’s just a damn fine little Dredd. Perfectly executed by two masters of what they do.

ROGUE TROOPER: TIDES OF WAR – PART 6 -ANDI EWINGTON AND PAUL MARSHALL, COLOURS BY PIPPA BOWLAND, LETTERS BY JIM CAMPBELL

Rogue’s in the company of the crew of the not-so-good ship Dauntless on its mission to find the new Nort superweapon, the Iron Leviathan. One tiny, decrepit boat against the Leviathan? It’s a fool’s errand surely?

The continuing stress of the mission is taking its toll though…

So, disguised as floating junk, the Dauntless and its payload floats by the Leviathan’s defences, Rogue’s plan seemingly working, but it can’t be that easy, can it?

Again, this is nothing more and nothing less than a bit of classic Rogue Trooper on a mission kind of tale. Yet it’s enjoyable for what it is. Ewington leaning wholeheartedly into the whole Hearts of Darkness/Apocalypse Now thing with the tiny crew all going through their own nightmares along the way. And Marshall’s art, all lovely black and white and tones, coupled with Pippa Bowland’s subtle colours elevates it to a fine tale.

GHOSTED: BOOK ONE: PART 8 – BY GUY ADAMS AND MEGAN HUANG. LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Eight episodes in now, and still a huge mystery from Adams and Huang. But, as I keep saying, not one of those mysterious for its own sake kind of things, not the sort of trying to be way too clever with the layers of strangeness, but one that keeps teasing me fascinated and intrigued, letting it all play out with the questions always there.

Sure, it might not be for all, those who like neat linear storytelling where the mystery is way past unfolding at this point will no doubt be hating this one. But I’m damn well enjoying it.

Here, we’re back with the ghost girl that’s been haunting rich, spoilt Benu’s dreams, the one press-ganged into war against an alien race hidden from the comfortable lifestyles of the well-off in the African future world of the kingdom of Kinshahsa. But the war’s very real, fought by the unfortunates plucked off the streets and experimented on. It’s all to do with ‘The Trust’, the rulers of this place, throwing those unfortunates into war whilst keeping the rest of the kingdom in the dark.

The ghost girl’s in trouble, the aliens getting the upper hand, only for Adams to switch the scene once more, to another warrior wanting to show everyone what’s been going on – well, perhaps. Such is the way of Ghosted. Complex, difficult, inpenetrable, but still making me turn the page, needing to know what’s going on, but enjoying the maddening chaos of the whole thing.

SILVER: BOOK TWO: PERFIDIOUS (PART 1) – PART 8 – BY MIKE CARROLL AND JOE CURRIE. LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Compared to the wonderfully maddening chaos of Ghosted, Silver’s really simple – one alien conquering race, the Sepsis, have enslaved Earth and turned it into a breeding ground. Against them and their collaborators, we have the resistance, a tiny group led, perhaps, by Bishop, who’s dug up (quite literally) his secret weapon, the centuries-old vampire Baroness da Silva. That’s it really. Simple, straightforward, but bloody well done indeed. Carroll usually writes complex, multi-layered things – and whilst I know there’s layers here to be explored, he’s deliberately writing this at pace, each series taking place incredibly quickly, the first series barely a 24-hour thing, this one only slightly longer. He’s joined in this by Joe Currie, whose art has a lovely Euro feel to it, all thin line and great on both action and detail.

Anyway, right now, the resistance’s secret weapon is slowly and tortuously being ripped apart by Louise Chamberlain, a collaborator who knows just how to deal with the vampires; she’s done it before, and she’s very good at it. And that’s one of the little dangling plot threads that Carroll’s managed to throw into Silver, just what is the history of the Baroness and Louise? Maybe we’ll get to that, maybe the pace of it all means that’s just a little tease we have to imagine the backstory to.

All of which means the Baroness is currently being ripped apart, something Bishop seems okay with – ‘sometimes soldiers don’t come back.’ But he’s got hold of the Sepsis transmission data and can tap into what’s going on with the Baroness and Louise, who’s decided she wants to finish the Baroness with her bare hands.

And Bishop, well, Bishop’s just discovered something that has him asking just what the hell he’s done. What that might be, we’ll just have to wait till next episode to find out.

Yep, it’s fast and it’s furious, but it’s damn good. Simple never needs to be boring when it’s done this well.

SCARLET TRACES: EMPIRE OF BLOOD – PART 3 – BY IAN EDGINTON AND D’ISRAELI, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Another strip, another completely different bit of sci-fi, it’s the 2000 AD way. Every Prog is full of so much variety and so many wonderfully different takes on what sci-fi can be.

Scarlet Traces was done and dusted, Edginton and D’Israeli have told their grand tale of the aftermath of the Martian invasion and the great new British Empire that went out into the stars with the Martian tech at their command. But all that’s in the future here. This is a prelude, a tale just after the Martian invaders fell. And it’s a decidedly small tale so far, all about a copper and his investigation into a bank job.

Detective Sergeant Bey been given a new case, tracking down one of his own, who’s involved in the bank job we saw in the first episode of this new Scarlet Traces. A Sergeant Jones has taken off with the loot, and it’s down to Bey to catch him.

Of course, all this happens in the wake of what we saw in the first episode, the Martian whatever it was getting loose. So, we’re a touch ahead of Bey in all this, meaning we get to watch as things slowly come together in a perfectly done procedural of wonderful Englishness in a Victorian age.

And of course, there’s still that little twist we saw last episode ot the Germans making a move on getting hold of the Martian tech they know the Brits have their hands on. But all that’s surely to come.