The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2478: Dredd’s Back, Although He Never Really Went Away, Did He?

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, time for your regular little look-see inside the pages of the greatest of all sci-fi anthologies. Five strips, incredibly diverse, packed with talent, and guaranteed to have something you’re going to absolutely love. Jump in any time, there’s always something for you in here!

This Prog, more from the latest Dredd, where the lawman gets that little bit closer to the twin teen vigilantes with a revenge bombing campaign taking in the great and the not so good of Mega-City One in Flames & White Phosphorus. Then there’s the latest from Brink: Call Of The Void, where the best strip for decades keeps on being quite bloody brilliant. You’ve got Silver: Malignant, where an alien invasion sees Earth’s resistance recruiting a centuries-old vampire in an action-packed thriller. Then there’s Helium, a gloriously pulpy thing, telling of a poisoned Earth and the battle between those above and those below the toxic belt. Finally, the mainstay of the Prog for so many years, another one-off Future Shock, five pages and done, always with a twist in the tale.

Another week, another fine example of what 2000 AD can offer. Damn good, and well worth you picking up. Everything starts with that bloody great cover by John McCrea and Mike Spicer…

2000 AD Prog 2478 is out now in the UK. Still not available in the Americas quite yet — the first Prog you’ll be able to get from comic shops is 2481 on 20th May. Not long to wait now. Of course, there’s no excuse for not just jumping on now — pick up digital copies from the 2000 AD webshop. But head into your local comic shop and ask — nay, demand — that they add 2000 AD to your pull list as soon as it’s available. As for events at Bruton Mansions, NV, it’s been tax season. And, like healthcare, the Yanks sure make taxes as difficult and expensive as they can. If you’re used to the UK system of either PAYE from your wages or the simple self-assessment for the self-employed, the tax system here is, A, ridiculously complex, and B, monetised like crazy. The American dream, eh?

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

Judge Dredd: Flames & White Phosphorus – Part 3 – By TC Eglington and Paul Marshall, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Where we’re at with this one — there’s two girls on a mission of revenge, with one of them having lost a sister in a very Epstein-like web of corruption and abuse. There’s a very connected couple of villains that want this little murderous campaign brought to an abrupt end before the Judges get too close to them, and they’ve got plenty of Judges on their payroll to do it. And then there’s Dredd, always Dredd, following the leads, not caring if it’s going to take down the rich and powerful.

Yes, this one’s turning into a damn fine procedural indeed. As before, loving what Marshall’s doing with his art here, a stripped-back style from previous things I’ve seen him do, and one that really works, adding to Winter’s colours. And Eglington’s got the procedural nature of this down pat, full of action, full of drama, a damn fine read indeed.

In this episode, we see just how connected Kyle Ober-Lee is, as one of his bought Judges turns up at the door of one of our teen girl bombers on an assassination mission. Trouble is, Dredd’s there as well. Compromised, he calls it in, looking for extraction. And he is extracted, in a way…

Yep, brutal. But that’s just the sort of operation Ober-Lee’s running it seems, fingers in all the pies, looking to stop the incriminating Epstein-like material from getting into the wrong hands, and willing to do anything to keep it that way.

Intrigue and action, a hell of a good Dredd tale here.

Brink Book 7: The Call Of The Void – Part 7 – By Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Oh, Page 1, panel 1 — ‘You Kurtis-ed, didn’t you?’ ‘Oh, XXXX off, Bonner.’ — fabulous, brilliant, perfect Brink moment, all tied into what Bonner warned her not to do, where Bridge found out she’s a verb now, meaning going in feet first, actions without thought, causing all the chaos.

It all comes from the rather incredible end to the last episode, where Bridge turned the tables on HabSec Security Chief here on LubaHab, Cutwell, giving away the fact Bridge is there with an Internal Review remit …

That was just this fantastic switch, the perfect quiet drama of it all, captured so well by Culbard and Abnett, exactly what Brink is all about.

Of course, in this episode, we get the repercussions of all that, realising that Kurtis has, yes, ‘Kurtis-ed,’ and neither Bonner nor HabSec Director of Special Detail Taskforce is all too pleased with her for blowing her cover to get absolutely nothing out of it.

It’s all part of the long game for Brink, all of it leading up to the investigation of the Mercury Event, where Mercury and all the Habs around it went dark, and no one has any idea why. Although Bridge has her own opinions on that one…

And the comeback to that is just the very best …

Sparkling dialogue from Abnett, all wrapped up in another dramatic episode of people talking, something that’s given such life thanks to the way Culbard perfectly constructs every panel and every page to grab you, to make it all vibrant and exciting. Brink, as I keep saying, is just magnificent. Always has been, continues to be so. You must, must, must go out and get all the Books and catch up with this one. It is, again, as I keep telling you, the very best of 2000 AD.

Silver: Malignant – Part 2 – By Mike Carroll and Joe Currie, letters by Simon Bowland

Last episode, we had a quiet moment, taking a look back at the world now, with the Sepsis and their human agents, brutal, nasty, vicious, and the impact on a little town in the middle of absolutely nowhere. That tiny little town also happens to be just where the Baroness, what’s left of her, comes crashing down after the events of Book 2, where she was instrumental in aiding the resistance in blowing up a nuclear facility.

She’s been taken in by the sole surviving human in this town, rested and recuperating, being fed on the livestock to get her strength up, hiding when the Overseers come round.

Meanwhile, the Sepsis are licking their wounds after the events of the last Book, where the resistance hurt them, and also made themselves a big target for the Sepsis’ wrath. They now know that the Baroness is responsible for the destruction, and they’re lashing out in revenge, something that those in the resistance are now looking at Bishop as the cause. You raise your head above the parapet, you have to take the consequences.

Silver started out as this absolutely all-out action thing, the first two Books happening pretty much in the course of just a few days, action, action, and more action. Here, though, Carroll slows it down a little, giving us a moment to breathe, giving us a chance to look deeper into the huge world-building that’s going on here, something we’ve merely glimpsed thus far. Taking it this way in the first couple of episodes of Book 3 has worked so well, filling us in on things, giving pause to things, and setting it all up for the action that’s coming.

A really great series, packed with potential, a backstory to be explored, perhaps, more action to come, and all of it masterfully controlled by Carroll and Currie, whose art is just wonderfully different, his line so fine, his stylings very Euro influenced, getting the chance here to show us he’s just as capable of delivering the quiet as well as the big explosive stuff. Another damn fine series.

Future Shock: The Vessel – By James Peaty and Steve Yeowell, Colours by John Charles, letters by Rob Steen

Another five-pager Future Shock now, where Peaty and Yeowell give us the tale of a podcaster/vidcaster (whatever they’re called now, I’ve lost track), a guy dishing the dirt on the ‘unexplained space debris’ that rained down on a sleepy little Dorset village.

The guy’s Ben Case, the podcast/vidcast/whatever is ‘Open & Shut Case’, and he’s already run afoul of the military on the local base. He’s also a bit of a blowhard — ‘We’re a mouthpiece of truth, goddammit!’ — much to the frustration of his long-suffering partner/camerawoman.

Anyway, a mysterious source led him here, and that same mysterious source, with a nod to a Smiths lyric (and yes, isn’t it horrible what Morrissey’s become?), sets up a meet to discuss things more.

So, it’s off on a secret mission to unveil the cover-up, with the source pissing Ben off big time by picking his camerawoman to go with him into the secret base, to film the secret things, the alien things that have been sequestered away for years in this quiet corner of England.

As you can expect, it doesn’t turn out all that well – such is the nature of the Future Shock. Again, it’s all done in the shadow of the greats of the past who have contributed to Future Shocks. And, given that I recently sang the praises of the recently released Complete 2000 AD By Alan Moore: Future Shocks & Other Stories, there’s no getting away from the fact that Future Shock writers are always labouring under the heavy weight of knowing that Moore pretty much wrote (and closed) the book on how to write the perfect short fiction.

Having said that, knowing that it’s a rare Future Shock these days that actually manages to give us a surprise twist at the end of things, what Peaty does here is a fine little Future Shock. Plenty of interesting stuff, all leading up to a satisfying ending that, although it’s hardly a shock, is at least damn well done. And frankly, that’s just the best we can ask for Future Shocks these days.

Oh, and of course, Steve Yeowell’s art is, as always, a joy to behold.

Helium: Red October – Part 3 – By Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, letters by Annie Parkhouse

So, Helium, Edginton and D’Israeli’s wonderfully pulpy sci-fi thing, a beautifully done thing, full of action and adventure, all of it given such rich life on the page thanks to D’Israeli’s masterful command of both line and colour, making this one really just a visual delight, full of magnificent imagery, all drenched in vibrant, delicious colours.

As for where we’re at, Hodge, Sol and Professor Bloom have been strongarmed into a mission to go below the poison belt that chokes Earth by the Prime Minister of the kingdom above the belt – bad, bad man, Edginton and D’Israeli make that plain – and they’re making their landing down in the choking depths of the world below, a poisoned world where the kingdom of the Ris sits inside its giant Terrriums, whilst strange beasts fly around outside in the toxic air.

Of course, there’d be no peril if Hodge et al’s mission just went smoothly, and so, by the end of this episode, things go south very quickly once they’ve landed down below the belt.

As is usual, Helium gives you plenty of moments, all of them quite wonderful. But take a moment as you’re enjoying this one to appreciate the work that D’Israeli puts into all this. The purple-tinged vistas of the toxic London are just the most beautiful things, looking out onto a Trafalgar Square devastated by history, yet still playing a part in the storyline, always there in the background. So many artists would have skimped on this, given us a background that sufficed, a toxic sludge of things. But no, not D’Israeli, it’s all there, perfectly done, all the intricate details of the architecture is here, rendered in full. So much to look at, take a while to linger over it and enjoy all that he’s putting into every panel in Helium.