The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2471: Climate Change Hits Mega-City One Hard

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.

49 years ago this week, that’s when the very first Prog landed. Since then, it’s been delivering consistent thrills, consistently the greatest weekly sci-fi anthology you could wish for. You should really be reading it.

This week, we have the start of a brand-new Judge Dredd series, ‘Climate Crisis’, more from Herne & Shuck, Judge Dee, and The Discarded, and another one-off Terror Tale. That’s the usual five strips. And I pretty much guarantee you’ll find something that you’ll love in here. Hell, you may find you love them all. They’re certainly all of incredibly high quality. But the greatness of 2000 AD over the years is that knowledge that there’s such diversity and variety of work in here that there’s always going to be something incredible either in this Prog or in Progs to come. Seriously, you can’t get a better sci-fi anthology than this.

It all begins under a suitably great Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague Dredd cover that looks a lot like this…

2000 AD Prog 2471 is out now in the UK. And that means I’m almost — almost — back on track with getting these things to you in a timely fashion.

(Well, it would have been earlier, if I had got to it on Friday — Olly MacNamee)

If you’re elsewhere in the world, there’s been a whole load of distributor troubles that have meant you can’t get hold of the Prog. Things in the Americas have taken a turn for the good with the recent announcement that Lunar Distributors will be shipping weekly copies of the Prog to comic shops sometime in the not-too-distant future. But, in the meantime, there’s always the option of getting digital copies from the 2000 AD web shop.

So, after all that, we really should be getting on…

JUDGE DREDD: CLIMATE CRISIS – PART 1 – BY ROB WILLIAMS, NED HARTLEY AND PJ HOLDEN, COLOURS BY JACK DAVIES, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Rob Williams does like his collaborations, doesn’t he? First, it was with Arthur Wyatt, giving us the whole Maitland saga – something we’ll be returning to later this year with Judge Dredd: The New Future. Now, though, it’s ‘Climate Crisis’ with Ned Hartley sharing writing duties, along with the welcome return of PJ Holden on art.

I love PJ’s art, and think he’s one of the top Dredd artists of now. Completely different style and look, but always just so damn good — and so it is here.

We’re having a bit of a day in Mega-City One, as the Control computers have gone wild, meaning Weather control is going crazy — tornadoes, flash flooding, arctic blasts, all hitting at once. Total systems fail.

So, Renfro Adams, architect of the updated systems on Weather Control, is off, along with a group of Judges, to Weather Control 4. And then things really go south…

Oh yes, it’s a hijack. The thing known as ‘Facechange’ and his crew are up on the Weather Control satellite holding MC-1 to ransom. As usual, the response involves Dredd.

So, Williams, Hartley and Holden give us a good old-fashioned Dredd saves the City tale. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. And, from the opener, it’s going to be a hell of a great Dredd.

HERNE & SHUCK: POWER TRIP – PART 9 – BY DAVID BARNETT AND LEE MILMORE, COLOURS BY GARY CALDWELL, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Where we’re at — Herne and Shuck have been split up, as Herne’s off on a round Britain quest to get the approval of the old Gods and Goddesses of these isles. If he does, he’s set to keep his newfound role as Herne the Hunter. If he doesn’t, he’s dead. It’s going okay; three out of five have voted yay so far.

Meanwhile, Shuck and the others are dealing with the threat of the St Michael group, who’ve kidnapped young Caris for their own evil ends.

Okay then, back to the now. Herne’s final bit of myth and legend to deal with, as he found out at the end of the last episode…

Arthur Pendragon.

Well, of course, they’re going to set him up against the Pendragon. We get a quick cameo from Alan Garner along the way (nice touch), and then it’s off down below to meet with the once and future King of all Britain…

Arthur’s holding up things down there, looking for assistance from this new, strange wandering knight. Oh, you can certainly see where this one’s going, can’t you? And so it goes … you’d think Herne would have learned not to be so damntrusting after all these brushes with the Gods by now.

And then, at the end, time to catch up with Jordy, who’s taken a detour to London to catch up with old mates – one old Tory MP mate in particular, who we already know is deep into the whole St Michael thing, and now we learn is host to his own particular demon to boot. Plus, old Alex and Herne have history.

Yes, all the ducks are being lined up in a row for the conclusion of this one. Herne’s adventures are sure to come in line with the whole St Michael plot going on. The whole thing, across the multiple series so far, has and is a whole load of fun. This one carries all that on, albeitwith Barnett taking the time to give us a quick tour round the perhaps forgotten legends of Britain.

PSI JUDGE DEE – PART 5 – BY BEN WHEATLEY AND SIMON COLEBY, COLOURS BY JACK DAVIS, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Debut writer Ben Wheatley — debutant to comics writing, although far from a new writer (you must check out his movies) — brings a new Judge character to life in Judge Dee, ably assisted with Simon Coleby providing his usual brilliant artwork, all that heavy linework and so good storytelling at play.

Dee’s a Psi-Judge with a difference, thanks to her hosting the demon Klato, giving him the souls of the perps he helps her put away. But now they’re working a big case, one that’s already seen off senior Psi-Judge Geller, and the demon Tamerlain is back in Mega-City One right now, something that just shows you what a fan Wheatley is, harking all the way back to the classic Haunting of Sector House 9.

We’ve got demons, Sovs, and a Judge seemingly willing to do anything she can to keep her secret from her superiors. All together a thoroughly entertaining and pretty dark tale of a Judge on the edge, far too compromised to uphold the Law now, just going along with it all. And it’s been, so far, rather damn good.

Except, at the end of this one, we get a ‘the story continues … soon’ tagline. So, looks like Judge Dee’s really enthralling first adventure may be taking one of those infuriating mid-season breaks. Damn shame, just as it was really ramping up and giving us a hell of a lot to get our teeth into.

TERROR TALES: FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH – BY ANDI EWINGTON AND MIKE WALTERS, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

The Terror Tale, another one-off thing, just like a Future Shock, done in one, five pages to do it all, beginning, middle, end.

Here, it’s all about wishes — and a particular wish on the part of one kid to be older. And, as you’d imagine, a Terror Tale all about being damn careful about what you wish for.

Young Zack wakes up to find he’s not all that young anymore, leading us down a rabbit hole of ageing, with all the trouble that entails. Zack, young no more, finds himself desperate to pass on the curse of his wish to some poor unsuspecting young thing.

It’s a neat enough Terror Tale, but there’s that sense that it’s doing things that we’ve seen plenty of times before. Good, not great. But hey, that’s the thing with Future Shocks and Terror Tales — sometimes you get the great, sometimes just the good.

THE DISCARDED – PART 9 – BY PETER MILLIGAN AND KIERAN MCKEOWN, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Another one we’re deep into now, as The Discarded feels like it’s running to its conclusion of what, I hope, will be just the first series. After all, there’s so much potential in this tale of the junkheap where a new fascist Britain sends its unwanted trash, both literally a dumping ground for all the waste it’s not willing to deal with, and also where they send the unwanted souls — the criminals, the dissidents, the truly discarded.

But that’s all untapped potential right now. There’s plenty of story in dealing with this new regime, but it’s all here in the background. What this first series of the Discarded is right now is a very simple, linear thing, a closed-off tale all set on Junkfall.

And it’s a pretty good tale, just one that I don’t think really, as yet, has unwrapped all that aforementioned potential I keep banging on about. We’re closely following Detective Veera Banksy, dropped undercover here to track down her dad, Aaron Banksy, one of those dissidents this new Britain is so keen to be rid of. He’s been taken over by a bit of rogue AI that was mistakenly dumped here on Junkfall, now leading the insurrection of sorts. Yeah, there’s a lot going on.

As is the way of these things, Veera’s found herself predictably questioning things, finding her rigid ideas of what’s right breaking down, ideas born of both her Brit cop of the new regime background and from her rebellion against her dad’s own set of counter-cultural ideas. You knew from the off that she’d find Junkfall a place that asked her questions, and those questions are erodingin her belief that all was right in her world.

Of course, right now, she’s got to deal with the fact that someone’s made her as a cop. Bad thing. You’d think.

But no. One mention that she’s Aaron Banksy’s daughter, and all seems to be forgiven. The man really is held in high esteem on Junkfall.

So yes, The Discarded is a good strip, the art’s really good, McKeown doing career-high things here, perfectly suited to all the action the strip’s geared to. It’s one of those strips I need to stop expecting to be more than it is, to just settle back and enjoy it for what it is rather than wishing for something more.