The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2476: Latest Bumper Jumping On Prog & New Thrills Galore

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.

Right then, the bumper Prog, a 52-page thing, that means new strips get introduced, and we get various one-off strips – all to tempt in new readers.

Which means we’ve got a brand new multi-part (and rather promising) Dredd starting here, Flames & White Phosphorus by TC Eglinton and Paul Marshall, a double-length intro to the latest series of Helium by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, plus one-off tales of Red Dragon and Rogue Trooper. And then we have Brink, brilliant, wonderful Brink, by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard. 52 pages and all rather damn fine indeed.

The thing is, I know why 2000 AD do these jumping on Progs, they’re designed to attract new readers. The promise of the new and all that. Thing is, the real draw of 2000 AD is that its weekly format means that there’s always a jumping-on point, and that’s whenever you decide it is. Frankly, you pick up a copy, you read the strips, you find yourself enjoying one, not enjoying another, possibly confused by another. But that’s all part of it. With most strips in the Prog lasting 10-12 episodes, there’s always something else coming up soon. And that something may well be the thing that draws you in and makes you a reader for life. So, jumping on Prog or not, there’s nothing stopping you from actually picking up the greatest weekly sci-fi anthology there’s ever been.

Right then – this Prog all kicks off under a suitably great Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague cover…

2000 AD Prog 2476 is out in the UK on Wednesday the 1st of April. There’s a few weeks to go until you American folks will be able to get hold of it – so, be sure to pick it up digitally from the 2000 AD webshop. But make sure you also head down to your local comic shop to ask them very nicely to add the weekly Prog to your pull list. In case you were wondering, this week at Bruton Mansions, Nevada, has been decidedly less hospital-based than last week. Too complicated to explain, unfortunately, but let’s just say all is, thankfully, sorted. Still waiting on the medical bill, of course. How on Earth is one of the world’s greatest countries still a place where healthcare isn’t a basic right?

Okay then, all that done, shall we take a look inside this latest Prog?

Judge Dredd: Flames & White Phosphorus — Part 1 — by T.C. Eglington and Paul Marshall, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Okay then, brand-new Dredd tale. And something of a different style from Marshall on art. Way different from when last in the Prog with Rogue Trooper: Tides of War nearly a year ago. And different again from last we saw his art on Dredd in Megazine 475 back at the end of 2024. Although there is a similarity between the Dredd work then and the Dredd work here, the same looser, more cartoonish style, it’s his line that seems to have changed, taking a simpler path here perhaps. Of course, it could be a change of colourist as well that’s made some of the difference. But no, I think it’s the line, and it’s a change I like. The stripping back works quite beautifully if you ask me, giving this a sense of real style, a distinction from other Dredd artists.

Of course, it might be a change he’s taken on just for the tone of the storyline here. As Eglington’s doing a two little mad girls on a bombing campaign tale here, going for the quirky end of the Dredd spectrum. Two girls on a bombing mission for justice, for revenge for the death of the sister of one of them, something to do with the mega-rich in Mega-City and their propensity for young girls, all of whom are either missing or dead. Yes, Dredd doing that mirroring of society’s ills once more.

Dredd, of course, is being Dredd. If they’re perps, they’re perps, no matter how high up it goes. And that doesn’t sit well with the mysterious Miss Onsleigh and her dangerous gardener. She’s obviously connected, and there’s talk of Judges on the payroll.

Yep, first episode and already looking pretty damn good. Eglington’s set it all out really well, and Marshall’s art is really a step up here. I think I’m going to enjoy this one.

 

Helium: Red October — Part 1 — by Ian Edginton and D’Israelli, letters by Annie Parkhouse

A double-length opener for this new series of Helium, picking up right where the last series, ‘Scorched Earth’, ended back in Progs 2351-2362.

You know, here …

Just to give you a catch-up, Helium‘s taking place on a far future Earth, some three hundred years since the Great War ended, leaving 85% of the surface of the planet covered in a great gaseous ocean known as the poisonbelt. The survivors live above the belt, either atop the highest mountains or in all manner of airships. Foundling Hodge is a tenth-generation law officer for her town above the belt, an adopted daughter with strange greenish hair and pallid skin. Working with ‘revenant’ Solace Grimsby, ‘Sol’ to Hodge, we saw her investigate attacks coming from below the Poison Belt in series 1, alongside Professor Pontius Bloom, who appeared from under the Belt with a story of how he could save the world, bring Earth back to what it once was. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s got the self-same green hair.

After that first series, we were forced to endure an eight-year wait for a second series, where we finally got the resolution of the cliffhanger – surprise! Hodge and Sol didn’t die! But that second series did introduce us to the Ris, the kingdom of terranium cities beneath the Poison Belt. We learned that Hodge was a lost princess of Ris, Sol her protector, spiriting her away when a bloody revolution happened. The series ended with the loss of Hodge’s adopted town and all its inhabitants, and the Prime Minister giving them that ultimatum.

So, all caught up, time to plunge into the next series of this wonderfully pulpy adventure, where Edginton plays with things so well, and D’Israeli, well, D’Israeli does wonders with the art and his ever-changing palette of colours.

Right now, Hodge has to deal with the loss of all souls of New Castle, souls under her protection. And Sol, well, Sol says what needs to be said…

And from then, it’s into the Prime Minister’s palatial rooms, where he lays it out that Hodge has a debt to pay, as does Bloom, that the city of Ris is a threat to the Commonwealth, and that that debt will involve them heading back down beneath the Poison Belt to infiltrate Ris.

Cue the wonders of D’Israeli’s artwork, beautiful sky ships in pink and orange cloud-filled skies, leading to strange cryptid-type killing beasts from the skies. And Edginton, well, Edginton just piles on the mysteries and the drama and the wonderful pulpy action.

Oh, Helium, so good to have it back.

 

Red Dragon: The Llangenech Incident – by Rob Williams, Steve Yeowell, Patrick Goddard, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Simon Bowland

Well, here’s a surprise. When it was announced that Williams, Yeowell, and Goddard would be venturing back into the world of Grant Morrison and Yeowell’s Zenith, there was, from me included, a rather sharp intake of breath. After all, Zenith was the perfect ’80s superhero tale, Morrison in his early career, all bluster and wonderful arrogance, resulting in a pop star hero who spoke to the times in a wonderfully ever-expanding series of adventures. So, there was a sense of why mess with it, why add something to a thing that’s so perfectly formed and done? I mean, look at Before Watchmen.

But no, Williams managed to craft something in the Red Dragon series of 2025 that added depth and meaning, tragedy and pathos to the story of one of the bit-part characters of Zenith. We ended up with a tale of sadness, betrayal, potential wasted, and a long descent into alcoholism, all presented as two separate narratives of the then and the now. It was, it is, quite a brilliant addition to the Zenith mythos.

And here, we have the coda to it all.

When we left Red Dragon, we were at the point where it had all gone wrong, where Siadwell Rhys realised that he was no longer part of the group he’d found what he thought was friendship and love.

Now, we pick things up a little later, 1979, Thatcher in power, and everything is ready to change — as we saw in the Zenith saga. Siadwell’s been left alone for a while, sinking to the bottom of a glass in the Welsh Valleys. But now, as politics changes, as the grand scheme of things for these rare 2000 AD superheroes changes, it’s time to bring him back into the fold …

Which is why there’s a squad of Brit soldiers advancing on a Welsh town, breaking into Siadwell’s house, demanding the ‘good little Taff” comes with them for a ‘little holiday away from this pit.’

But, as we saw in Red Dragon, things are not as those in power thought, leading to a dangerous moment for both the soldiers and the government, all, eventually, leading to the moment when Zenith and Ruby Fox rediscover the sad, alcoholic shell of the man who had once been the Red Dragon back in Zenith Phase I.

It is, as you’d expect after all that went before in Red Dragon, just the perfect little coda to the series. Closing everything off and ending Siadwell’s tragic tale. Perfectly done by all.

 

Brink: Book 7: The Call of the Void — Part 5 — by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Here we go again, more talking heads, more moving the drama along, more of Abnett and Culbard just doing everything so perfectly to give me another episode of what I continue to maintain is one of the greatest of all 2000 AD strips.

Quick recap time. Bridge Kurtis, Habitat Security Officer for the last remnants of humanity forced into massive Habitat vessels following the devastation of Earth, is deep into the Sect Crimes that proliferate onboard the claustrophobic Habs.

But right now, she’s on LunaHab, the Hab on the moon, meant to be en route to where Mercury once was — it mysteriously vanished way back in Book One of this magnificent series. But now she’s stuck here, a potential saboteur of HabSec’s Special Detail Taskforce, now in charge of the Mercury Event investigation.

Yeah, that’s about what you need to know. Although, as I do keep telling you, you’re missing so much if you haven’t read the last six incredible books of Brink.

Right now, though, Bridge is all about investigating what’s happening here on LunaHab. She’s just met her colleagues in the Behavioural Analysis Unit, and she’s been freaked out by how au fait they are with the sort of terminology she fought long and hard to even partially understand. And that’s immediately put her on high alert, ready to see Sect influence anywhere and everywhere. But then again, as her new colleagues point out, ‘It’s right here with us. Everywhere.’

Layer upon layer upon layer, just as you’d expect by now in Brink.

As for the other thread developing here, we’ve got InterHab Intelligence Agency (IIA) higher up, Danny Reardon on LunaHab, posing as Bowen Carter, working his way into Regina Castanada’s good books. That’s Reggie, whom Bridge personally vouched for and brought along after the events on Belleholme Hab in Book Six. Reardon’s a nasty piece of work, we already know that from past events, deadly events, and it’s chilling watching him make his moves, stalking Reggie, looking for the in to sabotage HabSec’s Mercury Event mission, for god only knows what ends.

Again and again – damn, this is just the best thing. Perfect procedural sci-fi, Abnett and Culbard just doing it all so perfectly. I’m on the edge of my seat already. And that’s knowing there’s a long, long way to go in this.

 

Rogue Trooper: Enemy Mind – by Andi Ewington and Karl Richardson, letters by Rob Steen

Rogue Trooper, having been absent for a long, long time in the Prog, is now a semi-regular feature. Why, it’s almost like a movie’s coming out later in the year.

But, given that, more often than not, these stand-alone Rogue Trooper tales are pretty good, all of the best of them keying into moments in-between the search for the Traitor General, the essential bit of Rogue Trooper lore, it’s been interesting seeing how various writers and artists have found that little space on the battlefield to insert their tales. As I continually say, that Traitor General saga was both the high point of Rogue and its downfall. Such a tight concept, so well told, so well executed, that there was no room before or after to spin out any more decent Rogue tales. Beginning, middle, end. Once it was done, so was Rogue.

But by inserting all these new Rogue tales during that Traitor General saga, we’ve had the opportunity to see a number of weird war tales. And here, Ewington and Richardson give us another, and a damn good one at that.

So, what we get in ‘Enemy Mined’ is one of those war-is-hell, but there are moments where the enemy surprises you, sort of things. But just because it’s easily categorisable, doesn’t mean it’s not good. Far from it. It’s not so much the content and the idea, but how it’s executed that pays off here.

So, it’s Rogue on the battlefields of Nu-Earth, coming across a Nort signal from a disabled Nort Amok droid unit, a Nort droid that has no desire to either die or to kill any more. Left by its Nord masters as a bomb, Rogue sees something here that needs defusing. But, as he does that, we learn that even a droid will know the pain of being one that’s left behind.

A really good, short and sweet tale of Rogue on the battlefield. A nothing tale, perhaps, but a nothing tale of Rogue done very well.