The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2443: Thelema And Louija Look Into The Future Of ‘Azimuth’

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

Yes, 48 years young and 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, we have the third and final part of the Tharg’s 3Riller, Relict: Invasive Species by Honor Vincent and Lee Milmore, as we bid a farewell to hyper-intelligent mouse Stephen, as he desperately attempts to keep his post-apocalyptic wasteland home from slipping further into nightmare. Alongside that, there’s four strips keeping on keeping on. They start off with the quite brilliant Judge Dredd tale, Tunnels, by Rob Williams and RM Guera, surely one of the best Dredds you’re going to read all year? Then there’s more mobster meets magical demonic naughtiness in The Ravilious Pact, the continuing mystery of the world of Azimuth, and the Victorian steampunk adventures to be found in Scarlet Traces: Empire of Blood. And all this underneath the latest Azimuth cover by Tazio Bettin….

Cover by Tazio Bettin

2000 AD Prog 2443 is out in the UK now. If you’re out in the Americas, things get tricky. Best thing would be just to walk into your local comic shop and ask them, very nicely, to order in the four-weekly bundles for you. Seriously, as a Prog convert of many, many years now, I can tell you it’s a decision you really won’t regret.

Currently, Bruton Mansions, NV, has a bit of an ant problem. The little buggers are everywhere, and seem to be absolutely resistant to anything we try. So, time to bring out the big guns.

But anyway, time for a quick spin through this weeks Prog… and the latest bit of Dredd chin from RM Guera in Dredd: Tunnels…

JUDGE DREDD: TUNNELS – PART 5 – BY ROB WILLIAMS AND RM GUERA ,COLOURS BY GIULIA BRUSCO, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Well, this one started out as an all-out action thriller, and it’s just refused to let up one bit. Williams and Guera are doing great things here, make no mistake.

We’ve had Dredd down in Ciudad Barranquilla, looking for Silva, the crime boss under Banana City protection, who Dredd believes can lead him to finding ex-Wally Squad Judge Skowronski, now a Total War poster boy who’s responsible for the decimation of a MC-1 Sector House.

It’s all about pushing on, never letting up. And although this is the first episode we’ve really had to catch our breath, with Dredd finally getting his moment to interrogate Silva, in his own particular way…

Yep, that’s just Dredd being Dredd. Just Rob Williams getting to the core of the character yet again. But there’s another tale being told here, the undercurrent to this one, the continued focus on MC-1 being vulnerable to things now, no longer the world power it once was. Silva makes it plain right here, just before Dredd does the interrogation thing…. ‘I guess they’re not intimidated by Mega-City Judges any longer.’ And that’s a truth that has the feel of something that’s going to be playing out in Dredd for the future. But, that’s one for the future. Right now, there’s Dredd down in this shit-hole country where corruption is the rule, tracking down the Total War perps. This might have been the quiet moment, but I’ll be expecting the action to kick in, quite brilliantly as before, with the next episode.

THE RAVILIOUS PACT – PART 4 – BY TC EGLINGTON AND STEVEN AUSTIN, COLOURS BY JOHN CHARLES, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Well, Jason Ravilious’s life isn’t quite going how he imagined right now. As an enforcer for the Boucher family, he had a good thing going, managing to keep work and family life nicely separate. Now, though, after the death of the biggest mobster in London, his boss, Archie Boucher, it’s all going to hell – quite literally, seeing as the Boucher crime family’s power base all comes from the many demonic pacts they’ve made over the years. And you can’t help but feel, as things begin their inevitable spiral out of control, that those demonic presences might be looking to call in their chips. Right now, he’s having to deal with Archie’s psychotic kid, Todd and his plans for the new Boucher family. It’s not looking good. And that’s before his wife, already slightly pissed at him, figures out that her brother’s the latest poor bastard to make a deal to be a demon host. Oh, Jason, she’s really not going to be happy with you for that.

So, Jason’s bro-in-law, Lee, he’s the one with the demon warping him, is leading the raid on a magical artifact, and Jason’s really not enjoying being along for the ride.

Again, this one’s doing everything right. Steven Austin’s art is perfect for it, getting over all the grotesquerie of the demonic possession, whilst Eglington writes it with style, playing to the ridiculousness of it all, but doing so as a straight down-the-line mob crime tale all the way. The seriousness and the ridiculousness works so well.

RELICT: INVASIVE SPECIES – PART 3 – FINAL PART – BY HONOR VINCENT AND LEE MILMORE, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Hubris. That’s where Stephen’s at here. As he desperately attempts to stop his actions destroying what little he’s managed to creaste here, his voioceover makes it plain that things are not going well, and it really is all his fault. As one of the few chosen Mice left, and the only one, he thought, capable of intelligent thought to go along with his unnaturally long life, he put in place a plan to deal with the nightmarish insects threatening the future of what he’d built. But yeah, hubris, just as Stephen found out at the end of the second episode…

Stephen thought he was doing the right thing of course. In freeing Grizz, one of the uncontrollable ‘biters’, he genuinely believed his plan would free his colony from the threat of the insects that have been picking off the original mice he freed from their captivity a century and more ago. But he was wrong, as Grizz has led the insects back to his colony, and as the deaths mount up, he’s dealing with hubris in spades.

So yes, things go very wrong, so very wrong, and we’re left with Stephen having to come to terms with his failure.

When Relict first appeared, as a Future Shock, it was notable for being so emotive and heartbreaking. Now, with this expanded three-parter, we’ve had more chance to experience the new world that Stephen’s both found himself in and built. And it’s every bit as heartbreaking come the ending of this one. Vincent and Milmore have given us everything I hoped they would here, all the way to the ending, where poor Stephen finds himself dealing with the fallout from his actions.

Right now, at the end of this one, all I can hope is that Vincent and Milmore get a chance to continue the wonderful adventures of Stephen some time in the future. There’s definitely more to be told here.

AZIMUTH: ABANDONED BY GOD – PART 4 – BY DAN ABNETT AND TAZIO BETTIN, COLOURS BY MATT SOFFE, LETTERS BY JIM CAMPBELL

Well, the cover heralds the arrival of two new characters, Thelema and Louija (who we briefly met last episode), characters Bettin’s desribed as the best puns Abnett’s ever come up with. And seeing as Abnett really does have a way with puns, that’s really saying something. Now, although Thelema and Luija only actually have two panels here, it’s still worth heading down the same Internet rabbit hole of research I went down with the names. Seriously, you’ll be enlightened.

As for what happens apart from those two panels of Thelema and Louija, who I have to hope will feature far more in furture episodes, we have poor old Ramone Dexter in the Faraday Boxing Ring, a place that neutralises all powers, exploits, and tech anyone has. That means very bad things for Andi, as the ring is doing its best to fry her brain. But to be honest, Dexter’s got more pressing matters to deal with, in the shape of a really big nasty bastard with the name of Megahurts… this from the end of the last episode…

Yeah, you’d really not fancy his chances here, would you?

But that’s just the opening two pages here, to be returned to, no doubt, next episode. After that, we have more on Suxzi Nine, currently part of the Lords of the New Flesh’s army setting up to go into war against the Gods of Azimuth. There’s mystery here as well, as Suzi’s new comrade in arms, Crazy Hate, talking of Dexter as if she knew him in the world outside, questioning Suzi about why she doesn’t remember her ‘old life, your before life,’ where she remebers Ramone from before, even though ‘the constant n-tech rebirths erase most of it.’ Her love of Dexter as Tracy Weld in Downlode has been twisted to hate here in Azimuth, all to do with the Necrotech, all to do with Anicca. Yep, just another intriguing little strand of the mystery that is Azimuth, playing out perfectly with Abnett and Bettin calling the shots.

SCARLET TRACES: EMPIRE OF BLOOD – PART 12 – BY IAN EDGINTON AND D’ISRAELI, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Well, things continue apace here in Scarlet Traces. And so far, that pace has been determinably rather slow. But that’s one of the things that’s so good about what Edginton and D’Israeli are doing here. The pace is slow for sure, but it just fits the tale they’re telling so well.

In the last episode, the German spies inadvertantly set off a chain of events, something that reaches out to all involved here, including the lone Martian sitting underneath London’s streets. They’re now in the process of moving out, ditching the plan to capture what they can of the alien tech that we know will catapult the new British Empire into the stars.

Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Bey, Constable Stranks, and their newfound companion Sergeant Penny, once of the Thunderchild, have heard the war machine’s wail and are busy investigating things. Bey’s putting it all together, ‘the stolen precious metals, the churned earth, the tunnelling thing, the missing persons,’ it’s all brought them to this point. And then things really kick off, as Bey and his lot come face to face with the Germans attempting to get the hell out. It’s war, and it’s all coming to a head.

Again, there’s such a joy in the carefully controlled way that Edginton and D’Israeli have brought this one to the boil here. We’ve spent episode after episode seeing things gradually come together, all leading us to this point where two of the threads come together in explosive fashion. It’s been controlled with such careful precision, only making the finale to this episode all the more effective. I’ve no idea how many episodes of this one we have, but I’m sure every single one will be sublime.