The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2473: Dredd Gets On Top Of The Weather Problem He’s Been Having

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 set of five strips in what I keep telling you is the best weekly sci-fi anthology comic you’ll ever find. Now, granted, there really aren’t that many weekly sci-fi anthologies out there, so perhaps that’s not a ringing endorsement. But let’s go wider than that and just say it’s the best damn sci-fi anthology there’s ever been.

Inside this week, we have the second part of the new Brink strip, one of my all-time favourite 2000 AD strips – and yours too, I promise you that you’ll absolutely love it, just sink into the long game that Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard are playing out here. Alongside that, there’s more from the Judge Dredd strip, ‘Climate Crisis’, where Dredd’s storming the weather satellite, and there’s an old familiar face coordinating the badness down in the Mega-City. We’ve then got the latest part of Milligan and McKeown’s The Discarded, the final part of this current series of Herne & Shuck, and a brand-new Tharg’s 3Riller beginning its short run of three episodes as Liam Johnson and Steven Austin ask the question, ‘Who is Adrian Apollo?’.

So, there you go. a perfect example of what makes 2000 AD this perfect thing. The weekly format means that, no matter whether you’re a huge fan of a strip or not, there’s always going to be something replacing it not that many weeks down the line. Thing is, I reckon you’re going to like a lot more than you won’t. And I also reckon that, if you give it a go for a while, you’re going to find something you absolutely love. I know that’s what happened with me when I took the plunge many years ago.

All this opens up under a very Steve Dillon-esque looking cover by Mark Sexton — and that’s never a criticism…

2000 AD Prog 2473 is out in the UK on the 11th of March. If you’re in the Americas, you’re still waiting for the new Lunar Distribution deal that will start shipping weekly Progs to your local comic shop sometime in May, two weeks after the UK gets the Prog. In the meantime, do yourselves a favour and head to the 2000 AD webshop and get yourself the digital copies. You really won’t regret it.

JUDGE DREDD: CLIMATE CRISIS — PART 3 — BY ROB WILLIAMS, NED HARTLEY AND PJ HOLDEN, COLOURS BY JACK DAVIES, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

So far, the op to get into the hijacked weather satellite hasn’t exactly gone to plan. And I can’t help but feel that there’s been some glee at play on behalf of Williams, Hartley and Holden in dispatching the various non-Dredd characters here in as gruesome a way as possible. Seriously, last episode we had Henderson and Campbell smashed into the satellite on the para drop in and the new HEIST Gear’s magnetised gloves were so strong that they ripped a Judge’s arm off. This time, it’s not the Judges who get the nasty deaths– Lane just gets sucker-killed by Facechange, and White catches a bullet from the turncoat Tek Judge. But nevermind, Dredd (and Williams, Hartley and Holden) has a particularly nasty end to that particular traitor…

Oh, that’s particularly gruesome, and excellently done by Holden.

Up on the weather satellite, both sides are down troops, but that’s just part of the plan as far as Facechange is concerned. Although, of course, it’s not actually his plan. It’s actually the mystery woman down in MC-1 convincing the billionaires of the cartel to part with a few million (hey, they can afford it). It’s on to Phase 2 of the plan, Facechange planning his escape as Dredd finds out just how dangerous a little weather can be…

And did you guess who the woman in black is? The reveal on the final page of this episode. A familiar name for long-time readers, last seen, I think, in 2007. No reveals here quite yet. But it’s just another example of Dredd writers casting back well. After all, there’s no need to have the knowledge of the continuity to get the gist of things — bad, bad woman who’s caused trouble before — but for those who do know or want to find out, it just adds a neat extra layer.

Climate Crisis just keeps bouldering along, action-packed indeed. One of those great little Dredds where there’s just a real thrill to sitting back and enjoying a little popcorn as the whole thing unfolds, explosively, in front of your eyes.

HERNE & SHUCK: POWER TRIP — PART 11 — FINAL PART — BY DAVID BARNETT AND LEE MILMORE, COLOURS BY GARY CALDWELL, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

And here we are at the end of what’s been another really enjoyable, really fun Herne & Shuck adventure. The raggle-taggle magician and his black dog, pretty much the black dog, have been fighting the good fight on two fronts. First, there’s Herne racing round the myths and legends and Gods and Goddesses of olde Britain to get the nod on whether he’s worthy of holding the mantle of Herne the Hunter. Then there’s Jordy, Shuck and the rest of them, who’ve managed to let young Caris slip through their hands and into the clutches of the St Michael organisation.

Now, at the end, everyone’s back in the same place, with the magical Council having given Herne its verdict, with the Lady of the Woods, whom Herne always thought was a vote in the bag, putting the nail in the coffin at the end of the last episode…

And in case you’d forgotten — Herne certainly hasn’t — if he loses, the end result for him is death.

So, cue Herne spending quite a bit of this final episode of Power Trip trying his damndest to wriggle out of that little bind …

By the end of ‘Power Trip’, we’re at one of those partial endings, with the fate of Caris up in the air, and the merry little band of weirdos Herne’s assembled is off for a rescue. Except that will be next time.

Hopefully it will be soon, as Herne & Shuck fill a great place in the Prog, something that’s just full of irreverent fun and rooted in plenty of British mythology. Think John Constantine if he’d listened to less punk and more Levellers (go look them up – particularly their version of the Devil went down to Georgia).

Yep, a great series, just the right amount of peril and threat, all mixed in with a lightness that results in just a damn good time.

THARG’S 3RILLERS: WHO IS ADRIAN APOLLO? — PART 1 — BY LIAM JOHNSON AND STEVEN AUSTIN, COLOURS BY JOHN CHARLES, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

Another Tharg’s 3Rillers now — that’s a fairly regular feature here in the Prog, the next level up from a Future Shock and a Terror Tale. Instead of getting it all done in five pages, here there’s the relative luxury of three episodes, a whole 15 pages to get things introduced, established, and resolved, all in less page space than your average US comic.

Sometimes these 3Rillers are one and done, a one-off tale. But, with a fairly regular frequency, there’s a history of 3Rillers either coming back for a second shot or graduating to full series. In fact, Herne & Shuck is a classic example of just that.

Here, we’re in the realms of the super secret agent, as Johnson and Austin ask us ‘Who is Adrian Apollo?’ A classic super spy given the futuristic treatment. Apollo appears, on what we see here in this first episode, to be very much in the James Bond with a sci-fi twist. All insufferably cool, even here in this debrief, as we flashback to one of his many sexual conquests on the job, only this time he gets caught with his hand in the safe on this most recent job, all of which leads to this…

Turns out the contents of the safe, according to Apollo at least, is a necklace that acts as a key to unlocking some kind of planet-destroying weapon — you know, just like a Bond movie but with a bit bigger scale.

So, end of episode 1, and it’s all very straight-laced so far, the impression is that Johnson has rammed his tongue hard into his cheek on this one, deliberately playing things straight in this first episode. I’d suspect there’s a switch coming down the line next week. But hey, I could be wrong.

So far, so good, Johnson and Austin both doing good things, setting it all up rather well, leaving me wondering just where this one’s going.

BRINK: BOOK 7: THE CALL OF THE VOID — PART 2 — BY DAN ABNETT AND INJ CULBARD, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Again, Brink is up there in my all-time top 10 2000 AD strips of all time. So, having it back in the Prog for this seventh book is just a real treat for me. And it’s welcome to stick around for as long as it wants, playing out whatever devious bit of storytelling Abnett has in mind. And all along, I’ll be oohing and aahing at what Culbard does with the art here. Expect every week to be me being impressed and then some.

Where we’re at — Bridget Kurtis is on Luna Hab, where the Habitat Security Division has finally been given the green light to investigate the Mercury Event. That’s the complete disappearance of Mercury and many orbiting Habs (the huge space stations holding the last of humanity).

HSD has set up the Special Detail Taskforce for the purpose, and Bridge is here on Luna to take the next step, heading to the Mercury Zone to start the investigation. Against them, we have the InterHab Intelligence Agency (IIA), who are very, very invested in keeping HSD well away from Mercury. They are very much the shadowy agency willing to play very dirty to get exactly what they want.

Anyway, Bridge got here late, which means that she missed the launch of BRV1, commanded by her friend and colleague Gita. Bridge is keen to get onto BSV2 and head straight out to the Mercury Zone. But, as Taskforce Director Vittori explained at the end of that first episode last week, that’s not going to be happening any time soon…

So, yes, the stakes have already been raised. They don’t know who’s behind it — could be Sect, could be IIA, could be something else. But seeing as IIA higher up Danny Reardon/Evan Leeden is already on Luna Hab, the smart money’s right there in the early part of Brink Book 7.

After the big moments of the first episode, we take a little step back here in episode 2, catching up with the other players that Bridge has brought along to Luna Hab. Private Investigator Regina Castanada and journalist Lauren Steers Maslow.

Here we’re following Regina, getting a buzz cut and checking in with Bridge. Except there’s that mystery voiceover all through this — although not so much the mystery, as he’s talking to ‘Bill’, meaning we’re about to see IIA agent/director (we’re still not sure) Danny Reardon make his play.

Complex, intriguing, fascinating, involving, and quite brilliant, Brink Book 7 has come out of the gate absolutely killing it. Things are already as tense as they can get, with Reardon stalking his prey already, the setup just perfectly done, Culbard’s art matching Abnett’s storytelling every step of the way.

It is, as you’re going to get bored with me telling you, quite brilliantly done. I beseech you, go buy Books 1-6 and just immerse yourself in this great, great series.

THE DISCARDED — PART 11 — BY PETER MILLIGAN AND KIERAN MCKEOWN, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

It starts with a flashback of Veera Banksy getting a kill chip embedded, an IED — Intelligent Explosive Device — designed to activate only once she’s within 100m of her target. All she’s got to do then is extract it and detonate it, killing everything around her whilst leaving her alive — in theory.

Of course, the kicker is that Veera’s target is Aaron Banksy, her dad. He’s a dissident sent to Junkfall as part of the discarded, the way the brutal regime running Britain rids itself of those it doesn’t want cluttering up the place and getting in the way of its plans for the future. The complicating factor is that daddy, Aaron, has been taken over by a rogue bit of tech, AI gone mad, with plans for conquest — first of Junkfall, and then maybe more.

And right now, down on Junkfall, Veera’s face-to-face with her dad, and there’s all manner of conflicting emotions happening right now. On Veera’s side, there’s the training and conditioning of what she was, a cop who shopped her own dad. But there’s also her experiences here on Junkfall, opening her eyes to the fact that the regime back in Britain is far from benevolent, having seen the good in the people sent up here. And then there’s Aaron, fighting against his takeover by the ‘chip.’ And the ‘chip’ has picked up on that…

As things stand, we’re past the action phase of The Discarded, into a time where the two sides are questioning just what they stand for, fighting against what they’ve been taught, realising there are many different sides to things.

Milligan and McKeown have made this a fascinating tale, lots of action all the way through, but also plenty of ethical, moral, and political quandaries at play. There’s a hell of a lot going on in The Discarded, and a hell of a lot that’s being flagged to come. I canonically hope this one gets a second series and we get the chance to dive deeper into the complexities that have always been there in the background.