The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2470: In The Deep End With Herne & Shuck

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.

Well, after last week, where we bid farewell to Judge Dredd co-creator John Wagner, we’re moving inexorably onwards, such is the way of a weekly comic – the need for the new just never stops, and neither does the Weekly 2000 AD.

So, this week means we’re into the Post-Wagner Dreddworld, although with the likes of Ken Niemand, Rob Williams, and Mike Carroll, along with a few more, things look good for the future. Speaking of Niemand, he turns up with a new done-in-one Dredd this Prog with Rob Richardson. It’s rather good indeed, teasing something big coming later in the year for Dredd. Alongside that strip, we have more from Judge Dee and her demon troubles, Herne gets wet with a Selkie in Scotland in Herne & Shuck: Power Trip, and the junk world of Junkfall sees Banksy’s cop daughter finds herself deeper and deeper into it all in The Discarded. Finally, making up the five strips this week, a new one-off Future Shock by Ed Whiting and Peter Clinton.

All of that kicks off under a Clint Langley cover for Herne & Shuck – you’ve got to love those moody blues …

2000 AD Prog 2470 is out in the UK now. If you’re elsewhere in the world, various distributor woes means no physical Prog for you, I’m afraid. But there’s always the digital option from the 2000 AD web shop for now. Go on, take the plunge, 2000 AD is still the finest sci-fi anthology you’ll read.

So, with all that, time to get into this latest Prog…

JUDGE DREDD: THE FINDER OF LOST THINGS – BY KEN NIEMAND AND ROB RICHARDSON, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

As I keep saying, there’s something I love about Rob Richardson’s artwork. It sits in a place where there’s so much style to the work, not too realistic, not too cartoonish, a great line, expressive and full of really strong storytelling. But it’s the overall effect of it that really does it for me, how good his design sense and colour sense is, things that give any of his strips a moody, stylised, almost noir look, no matter what colour palette he uses.

And that’s exactly the case here. Right from that first page, I was sold. Something about those first couple of panels just grabbed me. It’s the framing of the door, the bright lights of the corridor beyond the doorway and the deep reds of the interior, lighting the woman just so — really impressive. Or the second panel, and how the brightness of the lava lamp pulls your eye from right to left across the background shadows. Glorious.

You know what else I do love?  The way he does fabrics. There’s this lived-in, natural look to them; the Judge’s uniforms look like proper clothes, not spray-on suits. It’s the little things that make me smile.

As for the tale, it’s all about citizen Lana Locke, a psi-div washout, but the Department always keeps an eye on those with powers, which is why Dredd, a med-Judge and a Psi-Judge are here at her door to check she’s keeping on the psi-suppressor meds. It’s either that or brain surgery to remove the psi-abilities. But with the residual low-level psi-abilities, she’s a PI, strictly small cases, just basically finding things.

So, with a little something nagging him, Dredd’s off out for a walk with Lana. Again, look at the lighting, look at the colours, those unnatural purples and oranges that just look perfect here. Oh, and look at the clothes. Gorgeous.

As for where it all ends up, there’s a little bit of something happens, nothing serious at all. Which might leave you wondering just why tell this story. Well, on the one hand, it’s just a perfect little ride-along (walk-along) thing, the kind that’s got a history in Dredd, the quiet night, the waiting bay, the sort of thing that’s been threaded into Dredd allthe waythrough. And Niemand nails it.

Or it could be that this Finder of Lost Things will crop up in the future. Again, Niemand’s good at doing that too.

Or, it could all be something to do with whatever Niemand’s got planned for 2026 and the whole ‘Oubliette’ thing.

Oh yes, there are big things coming with Niemand and his desire to bring the terrors back to Dreddworld – more on that later this year. It could well be that this is just a story constructed to allow Niemand to seed that ‘Oubliette’ reference at the end. I hope not. I hope we’ll be seeing more of the Finder of Lost Things. She’s too good to just be a throwaway character.

Whatever it is, this one just resonated with me as one of those perfectly constructed nothing Dredds. And I mean that as high praise indeed. The nothing Dredds are what’s given Dredd its colour and depth all these years. And this one is such a great example of the form. Seriously, this could well be up there in my strips of the year. It’s that good.

HERNE & SHUCK: POWER TRIP – PART 8 – BY DAVID BARNETT AND LEE MILMORE, COLOURS BY GARY CALDWELL, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Herne’s travels, his round-Britain trip, take him up to Scotland here, a round-Britain trip that his life depends on. If he can’t get the majority of the six old Gods and Goddesses to say yay to his ascension to Godhead as Herne the Hunter, he’s done for. So far, he’s four down, but only two votes in his favour, and one of those was already in his favour, the lady of the forest. So, as is pointed out to him on page 1 here, that’s really won one, lost two. Not so good so far.

So, off to Scotland for a swim. Luckily, Muir, the Selkie, has brought alonga pair of budgie smugglers for him. A rather disturbing sight. But again, showing us that, no matter how deep into Olde British lore Barnett takes us, he does so with a sense of humour about things. It’s what makes Herne & Shuck rise above the simple tale of magics it could have been and is a welcome addition, something that makes it all a load of fun.

This challenge is rather simple, but the next promises to be a damn sight harder, with one legend you always imagined Barnett would delve into.

Nothing this time about the other side of things, with what’s going on with Jordy and Shuck, the search for Caris, and the various higher ups in government who are, as usual, neck deep in the shit that the St Michael group are dealing in.

Another good episode, moving us on and on to Herne’s final bit of his quest, and then I’d imagine we’re going to get into the threat of St Michael proper.

Yes, as I say, plenty of fun, a good old-fashioned quest with a crusty magician and a few laughs along the way. Pretty good really

PSI JUDGE DEE – PART 4 – BY BEN WHEATLEY AND SIMON COLEBY, COLOURS BY JACK DAVIS, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

So, Dee’s off on another case, triggered by Psi-Judge Geller’s death and the presence of the demon Tamerlain back in MC-1. Her own personal demon, Klato, is busy doing his demon things, guiding Dee with the prospect of food in the shape of the perps she’s going to pull in. Like I’ve already said, it adds a dark depth to things, an interesting moral ambiguity to this particular Psi-Judge, and one that, you can only imagine, isn’t going to end all that well for her by the end of this.

Of course, things take a sharp left turn into what the hell when the Sovs turn up.

Now, seeing as Wheatley’s already linked this one back to the classic ‘Haunting of Sector House 9’, this could well be a call-back to something Dredd gone by. But if it is, it’s escaped me. And that rather throws a little spanner in the smooth running of this one, making me confused about who the hell this pair are. I’m sure it will all become clear, but just throwing them in like this seems just that bit clumsy right now. Of course, it may well just be me.

Anyhow, the Sovs know Dee’s secret, meaning she’s pulled further and further into the darkness, agreeing to things no Judge should ever agree to. And Klato, well, seeing as the Sovs havetheir own onboard demon who’s a damn sight bigger and nastier than Klato, he’s of little use here.

So, Dee’s corrupt in more than one way, her desperation to keep her secret safe meaning she’s forced into doing things no self-respecting Judge should do. It’s all about the moral dilemmas here, and Dee’s in way too deep to get out now. And bar the one glitch in the storytelling I mentioned, this is proving to be a damn good thing, made all the better, of course, by having Coleby on the art.

FUTURE SHOCKS: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWORLD – BY ED WHITING AND PETER CLINTON, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

Oh, the Future Shock, staple of 2000 AD for most of the time it’s been going. For those who don’t know, the Future Shock is a one-off, five pages usually, where the set-up, the story, and the inevitable twist in the tale have all got to be shoehorned into such a limited page count. It’s probably one of the most difficult gigs in comics.

Some of them are just superb, where masterful writers and artists get to play for a few pages and create something memorable. ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollyworld’, sadly, isn’t one of those. It’s okay. A tale of a future film industry that starts off promisingly enough, Whiting laying the puns and the humour on thick, as the studio’s ideas for a film starring a recently deceased superstar keeps going, the plan to imprint the dead thesp’s life force into the film forever. Except this is the movie, darling, and things never go smoothly.

But after the promising set-up, things just don’t really go anywhere. It’s all okay as it goes, but there’s nothing to really grab you here, sadly. Ed Whiting won the 2000 AD/Thought Bubble script search back in 2023, and his first three pieces for the Prog, the Terror Tale: The Essence of the Piece (Prog 2388), another Terror Tale, ‘Therapy’ (Prog 2406), and the Future Shock, ‘Infiltrator’ (Prog 2439) were all fine examples of just what he can do — and how he can do it real well. This one? Well, everyone’s got a strip in them that falls flat, and this appears, to me, to be Whiting’s. Clinton’s art might be a bit rough as yet, but it’s got potential, hopefully we’ll see him doing more in time.

THE DISCARDED – PART 8 – BY PETER MILLIGAN AND KIERAN MCKEOWN, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Back to the nightmarish off-world junk repository that is Junkfall, where a fascist Britain sends both its literal and human waste. As I keep saying, there’s a really strong political line running through The Discarded, a hell of a lot of potential future tales to be told. But right now, all that’s put on hold as Milligan and McKeown keep things tightly focused on Junkfall itself, where we’re on the ground with Detective Veera Banksy, daughter of the dissident she sent here, a dissident taken over by the AI chip sent here by mistake.

She’s been thrown in at the deep end, making her way through the various tribes found on this place of last resort. And she’s finding the ways of Junkfall getting to her, as she starts questioning those in power, as she discovers that the human detritus here have lives and ideals that are powerful and meaningful, despite them being at odds with those in charge who sent her here. Yes, she’s slipping her conditioning, seeing the good in those around her, questioning the reasons they were sent here.

But, as all that’s going on, there’s a more immediate problem, as the inevitable happens…

Yes, a cop on Junkfall was, sooner or later, going to fall foul of things and get recognised. Bad for Veera. She’s always at risk of being outed as the cop, and that’s just what happens here.

Meanwhile, her dear old dad, possessed by the chip, has his own plans, his own revolution taking place, and he’s taking action to kill the killer sent for him.

It’s a weird one is The Discarded. There’s a huge amount of potential here, so much that’s been introduced that’s fascinating and interesting running in the background. Trouble is, to get to that, maybe, we’re having to get through a by-the-numbers tale of a cop undercover in a strange world full of the sort of people she’s sent here. It’s in no way bad, Milligan’s far too good a writer for that, and McKeown’s doing a great job on the art. It’s just I have that feeling that there’s a bigger story aching to get out of this one, a story that has to go through this very much falling into an insert tab A into slot B sort of tale that we have here.