The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2481: Dredd In Action, As Always — And Now, Available In The Americas

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.

Here we go then, another week, another set of five great 2000 AD strips — it’s still the finest sci-fi anthology you could ever read.

So, we’ve got a new Dredd multi-parter from Ken Niemand and Andrea Mutti, more brilliant sci-fi noir procedural wonders in Brink: The Call Of The Wild, more of Earth under alien occupation in Silver, and more pulp fiction thrills in Helium. Plus, the second part of the latest Tharg’s 3Riller as we find out more about Poster Girl. All in all, another damn fine Prog for you to enjoy.

I keep saying it, and I’ll keep saying it with the zeal of a convert — I first got into the weekly Prog back in 2012 — 2000 AD is just the very best thing, packed full of diversity in its strips. You really can’t find anything better on the shelves right now, week in, week out.

All this kicks off this week with another iconic Dredd cover by Toby Willsmer …

2000 AD Prog 2481 was out in the UK on 6th May. And finally, at last, this is the first Prog that’s available over in the Americas, although not until 20th May. Head down to your local comic shop and ask them very nicely to get you a copy — you absolutely won’t regret it.

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

Judge Dredd: Crossed Lines — Part 1 — By Ken Niemand and Andrea Mutti, Colours by Pippa Bowland, Letters by Annie Parkhouse

A new multi-part Dredd now, before we launch ourselves into the big 2000 AD & Megazine darkness of The Oubliette that’s coming soon.

But here, it’s all about a comms glitch, with Control offline, Dredd’s been patched into a Cit perched on the edge of a tall building. Seriously, pouring your heart out to Dredd — hardly the person you want to be speaking to when you’re in that situation.

So, as Dredd deals with a situation, whilst thinking he’s maybe talking down a Cit on a ledge, showing just a little of his softer side in doing it, we then get the twist in the tail of this one, where the final moments reveal something very different to what we’ve all, Dredd included, have been thinking this one is all about.

Another great little Dredd launches courtesy of Niemad on writing duties, who’s really staking claim to being one of the best of all the modern Dredd writers right now. Add in Mutti’s art, looking so damn good, and we’ve got ourselves a cracking start to this latest Dredd.

Brink Book 7: The Call Of The Void — Part 10 — By Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Right then, as always, let’s get this over with in the lead para — Brink is just sublime comics. Simple as that. It’s right up there in my all-time favourite 2000 AD tales of all time. Hell, more than that, it’s in my favourite comics of all time. It’s genuinely that good.

Okay, that over with — next, the usual plea to you to go back and pick up all six collections of Brink before heading into this latest brilliant chapter of the tale.

Right then, preamble over with. So, time to launch into part 10 of Call of the Void, right? Well, no, not quite. One thing about doing these previews is that I can only show and tell so much. But the thing is, with Brink, there’s so much going on in every episode that I want to talk about, so many incredible things, and so little time to actually do so. Unless I cheat and go back to the last Prog. And that’s just where we’re headed now — episode 9. And because it’s been out a week and a bit already, I can show you something right at the end of that episode.

Here we go, the final couple of pages of that episode, as Bridge explores the ship on its way to the Mercury Event, there virtually thanks to the advanced comms of the ThereShare system. Gita, Bridge’s friend and commander of the ship en route to Mercury, has brought up the fact that various members of the ship have seen someone onboard, an extra member of the crew. So, here you go, feast your eyes on this…

Two pages of near-silent comics from Abnett and, most particularly, Culbard, that are just the most perfect things you’ll see. The tension evoked, the reveal on the final page, just a shape in the background, moving across the panels and the page. Damn, that’s just so good. And add into that the way Culbard strips the colour palette back to browns on the first page I’ve shown you, and then going into the greens and blues of the corridor, still muted in their way, yet still jarring, creating that sense of strangeness on the page, an unreal look, one that’s just beautiful in its execution.

All right, enough of the past of Brink, and on to this episode, where Bridge and Lauren Steers Maslow are taking a walk. Lauren, of course, is the widow of Nolan Maslow, the journalist whose tale was told in Book Five. (Yes, you really should be buying and reading the previous volumes.) Anyway, Lauren’s been brought along to LunaHab by Bridge as an asset, along with Reggie Castanada. Well, this is a day off, of sorts, and they’re all meeting up. Cue five pages of walk and talk, brilliantly pulled off by Culbard, who just dazzles with page after page of dizzying camera angles, making every panel something quite beautiful to behold. I mean, just look at panel 3 below …

The way Culbard shoots his panel from below, the extension of the figures, the strangeness it grants everything … that’s just absolutely perfect, don’t you think?

So, yes, another episode of Brink where very little happens. Well, that’s one way to look at it. Another point of view is that this is exactly what makes Brink so damn good, as we wander through the day off, the conversations all adding to the background of what’s going on, Abnett building little details in — there’s the mention of the new sidearm for Bridge again, referenced back in episode 4. Important? Or just another layer of detail Abnett keeps adding into things? Well, I’m sure we’ll find out.

Basically, Brink just keeps on doing what it’s always done: the slow build, the ever-growing tension, the huge things happening off-panel, the seemingly inconsequential moments that may (or, given how Abnett always seeds his stories with red herrings, may not) all play into the climax of this latest Brink book. It is, as I believe I’ve mentioned, just the most perfect thing.

Silver: Malignant — Part 6 — By Mike Carroll and Joe Currie, letters by Simon Bowland

Back to the nightmare Earth of 2001 in Silver. An Earth under occupation by the alien Sepsis. Books One and Two concentrated more on the specific missions of the Earth resistance as they brought in the ancient vampire Baroness DeSilva. But this third Book is spreading things out a little more. Sure, we’re following the Baroness as she makes her way to Switzerland to connect with her brother for some assistance in the fight. Except we already know her brother may be more of the problem than any part of the solution.

But what we’re also getting in Book Three of Silver is a look at the resistance, down on the ground, where the old idea of a noble resistance fighter has long gone out the window. The success of the Baroness and that branch of the resistance has meant the Sepsis are coming down hard on the resistance wherever they can find them.

So, here in part 5, we’re on the ground, taking a look at one little resistance mission run by Resistance leader Chapel. It’s Carroll and Currie taking us on a mission, from first to last, and showing us that, in war, things get nasty. Chapel’s mission is the assassination of a Sepsis collaborator, designed to bump an embedded Resistance agent up the chain of command. The poor bastard doing the assassination, Red, finds himself getting outfitted with a Sepsis battlesuit — once they scrape the Sepsis remains out of it — and headed to the target’s house. It’s bloody, it’s messy, and it’s evidence that Chapel’s a serious piece of work.

After those first two Books concentrating tightly on the Baroness, this third Book’s opening up of the world of Silver does feel, at first, a bit disjointed. But Carroll’s a damn fine writer, and you soon get over that, realising that everything here is building the world, giving us the true picture of just how bad things are, just how low everyone has to go just to keep fighting the fight. It all expands the series, giving us a real look at how bad things are. That initial sense of it being disjointed is soon gone, as the sense of the bigger picture means there’s a hell of a lot going on in Silver, way beyond that initial focused view.

And of course, you add Joe Currie’s art into the mix, that gorgeous Euro-style fine line, all detailed kinetic stuff, his characters looking like nothing else you’ll see, just this great, great different look to things that really works.

Tharg’s 3Rillers: Poster Girl — Part 2 — By Paul Starkey and Paul Marshall, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Rob Steen

Middle part of the latest Tharg’s 3Riller, with Starkey and Marshall taking us to a time in Blighty where we’re looking back on the Avalon Project, Britain’s super soldier project, and a group of investigative journos are on the trail of ‘Peggy,’ one of those super soldiers of the Avalon Project. And it appears she’s not quite as dead as people believe.

What’s been fascinating in Poster Girl is how Starkey’s been lacing it all with offhand comments by the journos, filling the backstory to this one with such intrigue. Seriously, I already want to read more of the ‘Almost War,’ or the 38-minute-long Anglo-Zanzibar war. And then there’s the throwing in of the Saint Derfel reference and a link to the legend of King Arthur. Or the NHS RIP graffiti that points to one tragic loss in this future Britain — perhaps Reform did come to power in this particular horrific version of the UK? So much just dropped into things, all of it enriching the short tale, giving it far more depth than something this brief should have.

But enough of that, back to Poster Girl, where a trawl of veterans’ payments has found one ID code that correlates to a photo. And now two of the journos are off oop North to track down ‘Peggy,’ whilst the intern trawls the archives…

Wouldn’t you know it, there is something in the archives, and we’re in familiar territory here — supersoldiers gone rogue, atrocities committed, you know, all that sort of thing.

However, just because you could have guessed where we’d end up for the super-types — after all, the supersoldier gone rogue is hardly a leap, really — but it’s the way that Starkey and Marshall do it that elevates Poster Girl. Two episodes in, plenty of intriguing details, and a final panel with a foreboding knock at a door. No, this one isn’t going to end well, is it? At least not for the two journos doing the door knocking anyway.

If I had to guess here, this one’s a 3Riller where it’s all pre-loaded in the opener and the second part, whilst it’s all wrapped up as quickly as it needs to be in the third and final part. Of course, that just means there’s always the option to continue things in a second series — after all, one of the journos was left behind?

Oh, and on Marshall’s art, it continues his recent Dredd serial where he’s seemingly (to my eyes at least) changed his style slightly, something which works rather well here indeed.

Helium: Red October – Part 6 – By Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Back to the world below the poison belt, evidence of humanity’s quest for self-destruction on this Earth of those above and those below. Helium‘s got this delightful mix of pulp action and so much worldbuilding detail coming from both Edginton and D’Israeli, giving us so many diverse and strange worlds to explore.

And right now, we’re down below in just one of the Terrarium world, Londinium, this one harking back to a lost England, all fops, wigs, heavy makeup… or, as Constable Hodge mentioned last episode … ‘Why is everything here so … panto?’ Well, that didn’t go down too well. And as for their plans for her, well, she’s none too keen on the idea of marrying the King and becoming mother of future kings…

Of course, as part of its pulpiness, the old joy of the cliffhanger, followed by the ‘then the hero(ine) springs free’ is all part of Helium. Wouldn’t have it any other way, really.

So, a freed Hodge’s first thoughts go to her friend and comrades, Sol and Bloom. Time to enlist a little assistance from Lord Francis Newman, King’s Equerry. Now, do remember to take a long, lingering look over that D’Israeli artwork below, I’ll be back with the quiz in a moment…

Oh, where to start, eh? Let’s go with the colour palette down here, all grubby greens and brown-hued, giving us both down below and the corpulent excesses of Londinium. Or the exquisite panel layouts, that complicated corridor perspective shot of that top panel, the detailing of the peeling wallpaper evoking the whole decaying world down here below the poison belt, then the mix of the functional pipework and the ornate pictures. And finally, the wonderful facial expressions of Hodge and Newman, particularly Newman, meaning you can hear the mix of resignation and exasperation dripping from his ‘Quite’ comment. Oh, so good.

Yes, Helium is full of so much of this incredible detail, making the worlds we explore just incredible flights of fancy, and the plot just races around, pulp action, all that cliffhanger stuff, such a fun thing to read and enjoy.