The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2466: Dredd’s Down In Death Of A Judge

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, 2026, the 49th year of 2000 AD, which has been Britain’s best sci-fi anthology since 1977. Actually, strike that, over those years, I reckon 2000 AD has set the high bar for sci-fi anthologies.

Here, we have the rare treat nowadays of a John Wagner-written Judge Dredd, as he’s joined by Mike Perkins on ‘Death of a Judge‘. It is, as you’d expect, seeing as how Wagner is still the greatest of all Dredd writers, a thing of beauty. Alongside that, we have the Pagan chancer Herne off on his quest for acceptance by the Gods in Herne & Shuck: Power Trip, more of the strange world of Azimuth with Dexter, Suzi-Nine and Anderson finding themselves Cornered, and more adventures on the garbage island/prison called Junkfall in The Discarded. And, making up the quintet of tales this week, a one-off Future Shock, ‘The State of Nostalgia’ by Ned Hartley and Steve Roberts.

So yes, join us in our love of all things 2000 AD! It’s well worth taking the plunge.

Everything starts off this week under one of those rather bloody great Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague covers…

2000 AD Prog 2466 came out in the UK on 21st January. Again, I’m pushing the definition of preview here, but hey, let’s blame the stinking cold we’ve been suffering here. As usual, if you’re in the Americas and further afield… well, right now things are a little difficult. As always, your first port of call is your local comics shop to see if they can order in the four-weekly Prog packs. If they can’t, there’s always the digital option over at the 2000 AD shop. As mentioned, Bruton Mansions, NV, is still snotty. Very snotty. This head cold is just lasting and lingering. Snot, tissues, cough meds, sinus meds. Oh, welcome to 2026.

So, whilst I blow my nose once more, time to take a look inside the latest Prog…

JUDGE DREDD: DEATH OF A JUDGE – PART 3 – BY JOHN WAGNER AND MIKE PERKINS, COLOURS BY CHRIS BLYTHE, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Like I keep saying, someone recognise John Wagner as one of the greatest living comic writers we have. It’s so long overdue.

Death of a Judge might be Wagner’s swansong on Dredd, the character he co-created with Carlos Ezquerra. I say ‘might be’ as Wagner’s in his semi-retirement right now, and every Dredd series he gives us now is a bonus, every one possibly his last.

But oh, let’s just enjoy it while it’s here, as ‘Death of a Judge’ has everything you could want from a Wagner Dredd, picking up on the threads of all he’s been doing over the past so many years with the whole ‘Mechanismo’ storyline, most recently in ‘Machine Rule’ in 2024.

We’ve got those Mech units back on the streets, Chief Judge Logan making the decision, perhaps the last thing he’ll do as Chief Judge. But more pertinent to what’s going on here is where we left Dredd last Prog…

Yes, as usual, there’s someone gunning for Dredd. And it’s a bad enough injury to put him into rehab for weeks — that is, if the people who want him dead don’t get to him first…

Yes, three episodes in and we’re in the middle of a perfect Wagnerian procedural, still hitting that perfect mix of plot, character, dramatic beats, and action. The thing Wagner does that’s so incredible is how he makes doing it this well seem so simple. But as with everything that feels simple, there’s so much work, so much genius that goes into the making of a Wagner Dredd. Damn, it’s so very, very good. All of that, of course, given form on the page by Mike Perkins, doing a bloody impressive job of making this look like the classic Dredd it so obviously is.

I mean, I have that feeling that this one’s a shorter one, maybe six parts, maybe a few more if we’re lucky. Thing is, reading the first three episodes, getting that vibe of a classic Wagner Dredd, I just want more. I want this one to stretch out for 12, 15, or more parts. I’d love, absolutely love to read a Wagner procedural that just stretched out to many months. Hell, I can dream, can’t I? As it is, whatever the length of ‘Death of a Judge’, it’s unmissable.

HERNE & SHUCK: POWER TRIP – PART 4 – BY DAVID BARNETT AND LEE MILMORE, COLOURS BY GARY CALDWELL, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

So, Herne, our raggedy magician, the wanderer, is currently at large across Britain, given a quest (a power trip if you will) where he needs to get the votes of the Gods to allow him to take up the mantle of Herne the Hunter. Oh, and if he doesn’t, he’s going to die. So, no pressure.

Last episode, he put one vote in the yes column. This episode, we get a little catch-up with the other half of the Herne & Shuck partnership — Shuck, a demon in dog form. Shuck’s having a bit of downtime, along with Jordy, Caris, and Zombeth. Yeah, that bit of R&R just isn’t going to last.

But after that, we’re back with Herne, off to take up his next challenge — Cernunnos, nature deity. Again, Barnett’s delving deep into the myths and legends of ancient Britain, Cernunnos being ‘the Horned God’ of Celtic myth, all about nature, fertility, prosperity, and the underworld.

Cue Herne off on a hunt set by Cernunnos, giving us a beautiful bit of Milmore artwork, eight panels set against the woodland backdrop, an incredible sequence that compresses the hunt so perfectly, Milmore using the panels to tell us all we need to know. Gorgeous stuff.

Herne & Shuck is just a great series, full of legendary stuff, all wrapped up in great characters and a great mix of the fun and the serious.

FUTURE SHOCKS: THE STATE OF NOSTALGIA – BY NED HARTLEY AND STEVE ROBERTS, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Such a pleasure seeing Steve Roberts back in the Prog. His art is always different, always a delight, and that’s just the case right here in this one-off Future Shock.

It’s all about Sana, who’s not finding the job she wants. So, in desperation, she heads into the shop with the help wanted sign — Nostalgia, a shop specialising in all things past, where everyone who walks through its doors seems to find that special something from their childhood. Run by the mysterious Mr Call, she’s obviously getting in at the right time, with expansion and management beckoning, as Nostalgia creeps across this world. First, it’s the chain of shops, then it’s the whole vibe of Nostalgia, creeping into everything, luring in those that wish for a simpler time.

By the end, Sana gets a choice, having seen just what Mr Call is up to, what plans he has for this world and why. Will she take it? Will she accept Nostalgia? Or will she blow it all up and doom the world?

A different kind of Future Shock in a lot of ways, where, instead of the twist at the end, we get a question, a choice, an open-ended final panel that just works really well with all that’s gone before. A really great little Future Shock.

AZIMUTH: CORNERED – PART 3 – FINAL PART – BY DAN ABNETT AND TAZIO BETTIN, COLOURS BY MATT SOFFE, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

And there we go, another five pages of Azimuth and we’re done. For now. Another five pages that, like all the Azimuth that’s gone before, sees Abnett teasing us with questions and possibilities, just adding to the mystery of it all, building on things, taking this Sinister Dexter offshoot and building it up so much.

Right now, Dexter, gunshark on the run from Downlode’s AI, the same AI that created Azimuth for whatever reason; Suzi-Nine, one of Azimuth’s creations whose original form is there, somewhere, in Downlode, and Andi, some form of Judge Anderson, yes, that Judge Anderson, and no, I have no idea how the connection to Dreddworld and Azimuth works, are trapped in the labyrinth of one of the Lords of the New Flesh.

It’s a game of cat and mouse, where Bettin just excels in showing us all the strange angles and shifting reality of the labyrinth, as perfectly strange as everything he’s been called on to draw thanks to the devious mind of Abnett. The three are lost, hunted (there’s always something nasty in a labyrinth after all), and Andi’s the bait. After all, this techno Minotaur might know Dexter, might know Suzi-Nine, but it’s every bit as confused by the existence of Andi here in Azimuth as we are…

As always, it’s a strange trip, so many questions still to be answered, but we’ll get more of Azimuth in the next series, ‘How to Train Your Dagon!’ I’ll be looking forward to that.

THE DISCARDED – PART 4 – BY PETER MILLIGAN AND KIERAN MCKEOWN, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Back to Junkfall, the dumping ground for the literal trash of a fascist Britain and where the country also sends its discarded people — the criminals, the dissidents, the political opposition.

Milligan’s perhaps playing the long game with this, concentrating in this first series on the events of Junkfall, but always with the shadow of what this near-future Britain has become.

As for the now, we’re strictly concentrating on those dumped on Junkfall. As dissident Banksey gets subsumed and controlled by the rogue ‘chip’ that should never have left the experimental lab back on Earth, his daughter, Veera, the cop that put him here, finds herself a prisoner of another of the crop of newcomers we saw in episode 1, Ezekiel, sent here thanks to his preaching restricted religion, and now recast as ‘the cyber prophet.’

The Discarded is very tightly constrained, all about the events on Junkfall, where it’s every man and woman for themselves, as Veera finds herself pitched into a gladitorial arena with another of the Discarded’s newly dumped residents. Whether Milligan goes deeper into this world is up for question. The seeds have been planted for sure, but right now it’s all about the very real, very down and dirty existence on Junkfall.