The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2459: Don’t Mess With The Red Dragon

Taking a look inside the UK’s greatest sci-fi comic, the Galaxy’s Greatest, fast approaching 50 years of brilliance —it’s the Weekly 2000 AD.

Another week, another rather great line-up of strips. This week we bid farewell to two strips, as both Judge Dredd: And To The Sea Return and Void Runners: Book Two bow out, both having done such great things. Sad to see both of them go. We’ve also got the penultimate episode of Red Dragon, which ends with a double-length finale next Prog. And then there’s the continuations of both Brass Sun: Pavane and Rogue Trooper: Ghost Patrol, both winding up towards their own ends as we come careering towards the end of the year.

All of it starts under another classic Red Dragon cover by Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague…

2000 AD Prog 2459 is out now in the UK. If you’re in the Americas, well, I just don’t know what’s going on there right now. It always used to be that you could order in the four-packs of Progs and they’d eventually get to you. Right now, though, what with the distributor troubles, who knows? Of course, I’d always recommend you head into your local comic shop and see what they can do for you. But, if you can’t get them physically right now, then you can still get them digitally from the 2000 AD shop. It’s always worth it, and there’s honestly no better sci-fi anthology out there. Here in Bruton Mansions, Nevada, it’s been raining. Now, coming from the UK, I’m not unacustomed to rain, but let’s just say it’s all a bit different here. Chaos ensues. Everyone goes a little bit more mad. On the plus side, it’s fun watching the weather people on the TV get really excited that they’ve actually got some weather at last.

Anyway, time to head inside the latest Prog…

JUDGE DREDD: AND TO THE SEA RETURN – PART 10 – FINAL PART – BY ROB WILLIAMS AND HENRY FLINT, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

There’s only so many ways you can praise something. And over the past nine episodes, I’ve been praising this one all I can. It’s just a stunning piece of Dredd, expertly written by Williams, perfect art from the greatest of a really great crop of Dredd artists, Flint. Seriously, the range of artwork he brings to this is just incredible. You can see that on every page. But there’s a moment on page 2 here, as Tan realises how screwed he is, that Flint zooms in on his face and gives us a perfect exercise in how to do it so right…

So, seeing as you’ve already heard me talk about how great this is, let’s move on to the one criticism I’ve got with this one.

10 parts just wasn’t enough. It was never going to be enough. The good news is, as we find out in the editorial this Prog, that Williams, along with Arthur Wyatt, and Flint will return to Dredd for another epic tale, ‘The New Future‘, in 2026. I’d expect that one, seeing as Wyatt’s onboard and given the title, to explore all the post-Maitland experiment ramifications on Mega-City One. I’d imagine it will also take in all the seeds Williams has been planting along the way in both this one and in Tunnels of the weakness of MC-1. But that’s for 2026.

But as for ‘And To The Sea Return’, 10 parts just wasn’t enough. Not as in the ending is rushed, it really isn’t. Dredd tales have a habit of building to a grand crescendo and then finishing just like that. I mean, you only have to look at Wagner’s epic ‘Chaos Day’ for that. And so it is with ‘And To The Sea Return’. After nine episodes where we’ve had first folk horror Lovecraft-vibes and then all-out action, things come crashing to an end here. And it’s a fitting finale, it really is, brought to a close with the end of Skolex, sacrifice, and the requisite amount of deaths.

No, it’s simply not enough because I’d have absolutely loved, as greedy as I am, to have seen this all play out over many, many more episodes. I could have luxuriated in so much more of Flint’s art, could have loved more of Williams’s tight and tense storytelling. But no, sometimes it ends when it ends. And this one ends good.

I still want to see 2000 AD put out a “Die you wormfood bastard” t-shirt though. If they don’t, I may have to make one of my own.

RED DRAGON – PART 9 – BY ROB WILLIAMS, STEVE YEOWELL, PATRICK GODDARD, COLOURS BY DYLAN TEAGUE, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Well, this one ends with a double-part episode next week and, just as with the Dredd story, I really could have done with more of this. Again, not because it’s rushed, just because it’s been so damn good that I don’t want it to end.

As it is, the initial wariness I had over Williams, Yeowell, and Goddard revisiting the strange superhero world of Zenith was quickly banished. It’s turned out to be this fantastic exploration of so many things. Primarily, it’s all about the tragic life and the terrible legacy of Siadwell Rhys, the Red Dragon, one of a handful of powerful superheroes that made up the British superhero project Cloud 9. But it’s also been about the legacy of the Red Dragon, as discovered by the investigative journalist doing research for a TV series on the Red Dragon, as they dive deep into the Welsh valleys where Siadwell retreated into the bottle for so many years. And it’s been absolutely superb. All the thoughts I had about this being just a bit of Zenith exploitation were gone by the end of the first episode. Since then, the twin threads of Red Dragon’s sixties experience, finding himself cast out of Cloud 9 and the modern-day investigation into the hero’s legacy have played out quite brilliantly.

Here, we get the opener of Cloud 9 welcoming a baby Zenith, all those plans being put in place that we’d see come to fruition in the Zenith series – which you should really, really read. But then there’s poor, doomed Siadwell, on his way back to the valleys, not knowing what terrible consequences his actions will have.

And in the other thread, Howe finds himself in real deep shit… as seen in the final panels of last episode…

I’ll not spoiler any of the things we learn here right now. I’ll talk about it more next week. Suffice to say that I was finding myself cursing that I hadn’t seen it coming, really impressed by how Williams had seeded things all the way through the whole series.

Next week, a double-length finale. Cannot wait for that one.

VOID RUNNERS: BOOK TWO – PART 10 – FINAL PART – BY DAVID HINE AND BOOK COOK, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

So, the finale, opening with Moondog in a hospital bed, waxing lyrical on his exploits in the past with the wonderful Captain Shikari. It’s harking back to the finale of the first series, where Moondog’s words ring prophetic…

“And chaos there was. The name of Shikari became known throughout the Federation. Hated and reviled, loved and revered in equal measure. A prophet, a saviour, a destroyer, a lunatic. She was all of these and more… I blame her mother… and myself… promised to take care of her… always did my best… bloody subjugators… if we’d never gone to Rigel-16…”

Well, they did go to Rigel-16, and it all went rather wrong. Shikari’s plan to bring enlightenment to the poor subjugated masses has led to a genocidal uprising. Absolutely not what Shikari, the embodiment of a good time, hallucinogenics and good vibes a speciality, enraptured by the idea of saving these worlds from the Ankorites and the Federation – “Peace, love and respect.”

Anyway, when we left her and Moondog, they were about to head back to the Federation homeworld to make a desperate, perhaps suicidal attempt to save the lives of five young Pleroma, the miraculous beings who generate Dust, the psychedelic delight that fuels the Ankorite’s domination of these worlds.

Again, the comedy just flows so well here. Both in Hine’s words….

…. and Cook’s wonderful command of a good reaction shot….

As for how it all went, well, Moondog’s tale doesn’t exactly fill us in, but we do get a look at a future Rigel-16, where things absolutely hadn’t gone how Shikari wanted them to. As Moondog puts it, ‘At that moment, in my mind, I could hear Shikari’s voice echoing my own feelings… “Total pass-the-barf-bag-bummer!”

As for the whole mission to save the Pleroma babies, well, again, as an aged Moondog reflects, ‘There is indeed an epic legend known as “Shikari Strikes Back”… ‘That will have to be a tale for another day.’

Yes, it’s a cliff hanger of sorts, a downbeat wrap-up to what’s been a wonderful second series. It’s fun the way Hine references the link to this being a play on the classic sci-fi quest with the ‘Shikari Strikes Back’ thing, shades of Star Wars and all that. After all, when you strip it back to its core, Void Runners is just another tale of the big galactic empire and the plucky rebels. Yet that’s not the point, never has been. Instead, it’s all about the way that Hine and Cook has done this, taking that basic and oh so familiar frame to hang a story off and filling it with all the wonders and delights of completely alien worlds and characters. It’s been, as was Book One, an absolute joyous blast of a thing. Roll on Book Three.

BRASS SUN: PAVANE – PART 10 – BY IAN EDGINTON AND INJ CULBARD, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Whilst Dredd and Void Runners are ending, and Red Dragon is ending next Prog, Brass Sun is definitely not anywhere near ending. Or at least I hope not. Because Brass Sun is another one of those rare 2000 AD strips that needs, deserves, a long, long run, all the better for Edginton and Culbard to slowly, deliciously, play out their vision of this strange, beautiful, deadly world, full of so much invention and imagination.

Frankly, this can do a Brink for me, as in run for 20 or more episodes, whatever it takes to spin out its tale.

As it is, this 10th part has us returning to the frozen wastes of Hind Leg, the planet on the edge of things, Wren’s home, made cold by the dying of the brass sun. All of which means we plunge into a completely different colour palette for Culbard to amaze us with, all shockingly bright white and blue, where you can feel the cold in your bones through the artwork. Damn, it’s so good.

After their adventures on other worlds, Wren and Ariel are here seeking refuge from the Inquisitors, the cold making them slow and vulnerable, meaning they avoid the outer worlds like Hind Leg. And that’s why Ariel set up the Resistance out here, a resistance that Wren’s now part of, whether she likes it or not. Hell, she’s somewhat of a legend on Hind World…

Here on Hind Leg, Wren finally gets to see what she’s created, her quest filling so many with hope, creating the resistance. Now, what she makes of that… well, that’s going to come in time.

But let’s just enjoy Brass Sun for what it is – pulp sci-fi with heart and soul, an epic quest given a twist and new life thanks to the enforced layoff of the strip thanks to Edginton having a writer’s moment leading to this one taking a long pause. And that pause is what’s transformed this one into something even better than it was the first time around. Add in the art, the gorgeous art of INJ Culbard, art that I’ve loved for so many years now, art that just fills the page with expression and style, and you’ve got a long-running (hopefully) strip that is just the epitome of epic sci-fi.

ROGUE TROOPER: GHOST PATROL – PART 10 – BY ALEX DE CAMPI AND NEIL EDWARDS, COLOURS BY MATT SOFFE, LETTERS BY JIM CAMPBELL

Okay then, back to Rogue Trooper and De Campi and Edwards taking us way, way back, creating something that plays off the very moment of creation of the Genetic Infantrymen, the elite shock troops massacred by the actions of the Souther traitor general.

Alongside that, they’ve crafted a mystery of Souther veteran Macinrow, brought back to the wastelands of Nu Earth a decade since he was witness to the Quartz massacre.

It’s structured in a way that pays homage to the Rogue Trooper tales of old, where the driving story was there in the background, but each short adventure had Rogue dealing with some threat in the now. Here, we have Macinrow and Rogue’s missions coming together, a new threat coming every couple of episodes, to be dealt with and then moving on, everything pushing them towards Fob Azure, the origin point for the whole GI project, a decade ago.

We’ve had the Nort virus taking over the Souther weapons, we’ve had the Nort super soldiers, we’ve had Helm taken over by that virus. Now, as we move ever nearly to Fob Azure, it’s time for De Campi and Edwards to bring in another classic bit of Rogue Trooper mythos. Well, two classic characters…

Yes, what would any trawl through the history of Rogue Trooper, as Ghost Patrol most definitely is, be without at least a cameo from Mr Brass (the tall one) and Mr Bland (the short one), the former an ex-Nort party member, the latter an ex-pay corps grunt for the Southers. But together, they’re a formidable independent force taking advantage of whatever they find to make a quick buck.

And right now, with Macinrow and Rogue in their grip, that means a treasure hunt of sorts, for cash (of course), where the Southers are just something to be hunted.

Another great little interlude in the bigger picture, like I say, De Campi and Edwards are really bringing every bit of Rogue Trooper lore into this one.