The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2465: Herne’s God Quest Turns Into Herne’s Pint & A Fight

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.

Okay then, two Progs into 2026 already, with everything carrying on. Five strips, five good ‘uns, including the second part of that brand-new, possibly his last ever, John Wagner-written Judge Dredd, Death of a Judge. Alongside that, more on Herne‘s quest to win the approval of the lost Gods of Britain in Herne & Shuck: Power Trip, Dexter et al find things as confusing and treacherous as ever in Azimuth: Cornered, and there’s more from the garbage island/prison of Junkfall in The Discarded. Making up the quintet is another one-off Young Death story from Kek-W, this week joined by Tom Foster for yet another look at what turned young Sidney De’ath into the most vile of villains on the world that will become Deadworld.

As I keep on saying, 2000 AD has been good throughout it’s near five decade run, the best sci-fi anthology you could read. And over recent years, it’s given us some really classic strips. Right now, we’re in the early parts of four strips, a perfect time to get onboard, especially that new Wagner Dredd.

Everything starts off under a Toby Willsmer Herne cover…

2000 AD Prog 2465 came out in the UK on 14th January. Yes, yes, yes, two Progs in and already I’m late getting this preview out. That bodes well for the year, don’t you think? As for getting hold of it over in the Americas and further afield … well, it’s complicated, and even more so these days with all the distributor troubles. Head into your local comics shop and see if they can order in the four-weekly packs for you. If that doesn’t work, head to the 2000 AD webshop and get it digitally. Bruton Mansions, NV chapter remained in the grip of viral overload this week. Bloody cold just won’t go, and the mountain of snot rags just grows and grows.

So, with that lovely image filling your heads, let’s take a look inside the latest Prog…

JUDGE DREDD: DEATH OF A JUDGE – PART 2 – BY JOHN WAGNER AND MIKE PERKINS, COLOURS BY CHRIS BLYTHE, LETTTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Wagner’s out of his semi-retirement to return to Dredd, maybe one last time? Hopefully not. I mean, is there another writer out there who deserves all the praise we can heap on him? Frankly, that Wagner’s name isn’t more often spoken of by more people as one of the greatest comic writers of all time is beyond me.

Anyway, back to this Dredd. Mike Perkins joins Wagner on this one, with Wagner returning to his themes of the Mechanismo robo-Judges. After their failed coup in 2024’s Machine Rule, they’d been taken out of service, only for Chief Judge Logan, perhaps in his final significant act, to bring them back. Oh yes, that was a shocker dropped in the very first episode, Logan intending to step down, take the long walk. A brilliant bit of drama thrown into things to add gravitas to the whole saga.

Yes, the Mechs are back on the streets, Logan’s response to crime skyrocketing and street Judge casualties worse than ever. Dredd, never keen on the Mechs in the first place, had reluctantly come round to them being for the good of his City, only to find his worst fears realised when they went bad. Now… well, he’s grudgingly accepting that they have their place…

Yes, that ‘and yet…’ is doing a lot of work there, isn’t it?

The Mechs are back, and the people are already getting behind them, thanks to their chillingly effective dealing with a hostage situation at a Juvie day care centre…

So, the Mechs are beloved once more — oh, how fickle is the MC-1 population? And even Dredd’s seeing their benefit.

So far, two perfect chapters of Wagner Dredd. What else did you expect? Mixing high politics, street level action, and just the sort of intense procedural stuff Wagner’s always done, Death of a Judge might not have brought us the big event heralded by that title, but that’s not a problem in the slightest, not when what we’re reading is so damn good. Of course, the final page might change all that, as Dredd gets himself in just a wee bit of trouble.

HERNE & SHUCK: POWER TRIP – PART 3 – BY DAVID BARNETT AND LEE MILMORE, COLOURS BY GARY CALDWELL, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

The magician is on a quest, find the Gods, convince them to agree to him ascending to the mantle of Herne the Hunter. If not, well, it’s not good news for Herne.

Here, he’s off to see the first of the Gods, Brigantia, a Celtic Goddess once worshipped by so many. Now, with her followers all gone, she finds herself making ends meet by working in a pub in Newcastle. Oh, how the mighty do fall. Worse yet, she’s come to the attention of the Duergar, who’ve moved from fleecing travellers in the bogs to running protection rackets on the magical community in the city.

Cue a bar fight. Herne versus the Duergar, ancient dwarf species of myth, now dressed in football tops and trackies…

And there you have it, so many of the things that makes Herne & Shuck, albeit this story has a distinct lack of Shuck bar that first episode, work so well. It’s a tale of old magics, ancient Gods and Goddesses, long forgotten mythic beasts, but it’s never above mercilessly taking the piss out of them at the same time.

It’s fun. Lots of fun. Has been since it first started. As the series have gone on, Barnett and Milmore have explored both the characters and their flaws and also the rich magical and mythical history of Britain. Sending Herne off on his little trip to gather yay votes for his ascent to Godhood (and avoid dying) merely acts as a neat little way to explore more of Britain’s lost magical past.

YOUNG DREDD: FITTING IN – BY KEK-W AND TOM FOSTER, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

This series of connected one-off Young Death tales is really working for me. So much so that I think it’s re-energised the whole Fall of Deadworld saga that Kek-W and Dave Kendall will be coming back to soon.

The Fall of Deadworld is such a simple thing, all of it tracking the inevitable descent into death, madness and destruction of the planet that would become Deadworld at the hands of the Dark Judges, led by Judge Death. But knowing where the world will end, in a world purged of the living, found guilty of the crime of life by Judge Death and his fellows, doesn’t mean that there aren’t stories to tell in the getting there.

So it is here, Kek-W taking us way, way back in history of Deadworld, before young Sydney De’Ath became Judge Death, before Deadworld fell, before the Dark Judges would cast their eye to other alternate worlds and attempt to extinguish all life there as well.

In Fitting In, Sidney De’Ath’s got a new partner, Judge Jaines, who proves to be a bad influence – yes, even on this nastiest and darkest of Judges.

Kek-W and Foster take us through, in a mere six pages, a riotous night out for the pair, packing the pages with detail in both plot and art. I mean, the opening three panels of De’Ath playing chess against himself gives us plenty of all that’s to come. But this is a night where Sidney decides he needs to fit in with the corruption at the heart of this world’s Justice Department, and where Jaines’s words, ‘The real problem is people,’ plant the seed for all the nightmares and death that’s to come for young Sidney, truly setting him on his path.

AZIMUTH: CORNERED – PART 2 – BY DAN ABNETT AND TAZIO BETTIN, COLOURS BY MATT SOFFE, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

Five pages of Azimuth, where Dexter, Suzi, and Andi wander through the labyrinth of this world. And … well, that’s it. That’s all that happens here. Except, of course, that might be all that’s physically happening, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

First of all, kudos to Bettin for giving us all the paranoia and intensity of the labyrinth as all three face their nightmares. Truly brilliant artwork from an artist who’s always excelled in this strange world of Azimuth. And of course, Abnett’s writing is just perfect here. It may be a little side tale in the grand scheme of things, but Abnett’s always been one, first in Sinister Dexter and now here in its offshoot, to revel in playing with the story in little chunks of gorgeously done storytelling.

As they run from the nasty here in Lord Killfile’s encryption, secrets are revealed, the links to Downlode revealed, and even more questions posed. That’s been the joy of Azimuth, of course, as Abnett simply refuses to give us the truth in one go, instead taking the time to tease things out, briliantly.

THE DISCARDED – PART 3 – BY PETER MILLIGAN AND KIERAN MCKEOWN, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

We’re deep into the world of Junkfall now, we know it’s a dumping ground, both for the waste that a toxic Britain ruled by a toxic, authoritarian regime wants rid of, both literally (it is a huge trash world after all) and metaphorically, with Junkfall being where this fascist state Britain gets rid of its undesirables, casting them aside on a prison they can’t escape from.

Into this, Milligan’s thrown the rogue ‘chip’, the one inhabiting Aaxon Banksy, former political dissident, now mouthpiece and voice for the machinations of the ‘chip.’

Right now though, we’re with Banksy’s daughter, Veera, the cop that sent him here to Junkfall, sent in on a mission to contain what never should have been set loose on this world, searching for what was her father, only to get taken by what’s become of another of those arrivals we saw in episode 1.

There’s a lot going on behind the obvious here in The Discarded, Milligan setting up a hell of a lot in the background, playing with the notions of what thisworld means and what Junkfall represents, a wider political idea, and I can’t help but think this first series is merely an intro to him doing something more with that dictatorial Britain far away from this place. But, in the meantime, we have what’s become something of a quest-type thing, as Veera seeks out her dad, attempting to contain what he’s become. I could be wrong, but I reckon there’s a hell of a lot more to come from The Discarded in series 2 and beyond.