The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2498: ‘Rogue’ And The Robot Complete Tales

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.

After last week’s bumper-sized Prog, we’re back to the regular 32 pages now, with just the four strips this week. But they’re four rather fine strips indeed. You’ve got the penultimate episodes of both the Judge Dredd mega-epic tale, ‘The Oubliette ‘, and the wondrous Brink: The Call Of The Void. There’s also the extended finale of The Fall Of Deadworld and a complete 10-page Rogue Trooper tale, ‘Run AMOK’. Everything is ending in time for the big, all-new strip-laden Prog 2500 in a couple of weeks’ time. But, as I always say, don’t wait for one of those jumping-on points; take the leap right now and dive into 2000 AD right now — it will be well worth your time and money.

Right then, let’s get into this latest Prog, all behind a Rogue Trooper cover by Patrick Goddard and Peter Doherty …

2000 AD Prog 2498 is out in the UK on 2nd September, and out in the USA on 16th September, the first time you’ve actually managed to experience the wonders of the weekly Prog as they’re meant to be experienced, weekly. Just be sure to ask your local comic shop to order it in for you.

Judge Dredd: The Oubliette — Part 18 — By Ken Niemand and Dan Cornwell, Colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

After the last few weeks of double ‘Oubliette’ bringing together events with Dredd lost in the Oubliette and Joe Fargo and Lana Locke looking for him in ‘The Finders’, we’re now back to one story, where, this episode, as the Oubliette falls, the Finders and Dredd come face to face.

But before that, there’s a little showdown between Dredd and the ghost of Sarah Kopp from The Shift. Seems things were really not as they seemed all along. Then again, what has been here?

Then, as Dredd faces off against yet another threat, two guns join the battle… and the Finders have found what they were looking for …

And we get something rather akin to Niemand being sentimental. It’s both unsettling and sweet at the same time …

All of which leads to one last battle, coming next week, as Dredd figures he’s got to stay around to deal with the final threat, the one behind all this. And no, despite us all knowing who it is now, I’m still not saying. After all, spoilers spoil things — it’s in their nature, and not everyone reads the Prog the week it comes out. So, no spoilers.

What I will say is that it’s all built nicely towards the climactic events of the next Prog, the conclusion of 18 Oubliette episodes plus the four of The Black Tower over in the Megazine. Niemand has crafted a neatly done thing, one that’s been tightly controlled, bringing in so many of the little, seemingly inconsequential threads Niemand was seeding through his one-off and short Dredds over the last few years. Very cleverly done indeed, adding so much to what’s been an action-packed Dredd epic.

The Fall Of Deadworld: Justice — Part 12 — Final Part — By Kek-W and Dave Kendall, letters by Simon Bowland

Here we are at the end of another 12 episodes of The Fall of Deadworld, where it’s all working its way to an ending. Of course, we know it’s all coming to an end; that’s the whole point of it after all. This world will fall; the Dark Judges will wipe out all life before casting themselves into the multiverse to find other prey in Mega-City One. All of which means that the resistance is, well, futile.

Of course, the joy of the Fall of Deadworld is that we’ve lived the resistance’s futile attempts to save their world, we’ve grown close to them, and seeing them ripped apart here is painful to us. Maybe not as painful as it is to poor Jess Childs, seeing as page 1 has the death of her little friend Arthur. Yes, the resistance is all being taken out, one by one.

This time we have the outcast Dark Sister taking action, Eunomia murdering her way through things, unleashing Sister Psiren as she goes, tormenting Jess, “poor, lonely orphaned Jessica. So easy to manipulate.”

So, all comes to an end — for now. Eunomia’s story comes out, and a history of the Dark Sisters and those they serve, past worlds devastated, past genocides. But Eunomia’s got plans for Jess Childs, big plans — and those are plans we’ll no doubt see played out in the next series, trailed as coming in Prog 2513, but not before we get a one-off tale in the Christmas Prog this year.

We’re coming to the end of this one, watching the world fall. And it’s all happening faster and faster as we get closer to the end, closer to the fall.

Brink Book 7: The Call Of The Void — Part 27 — By Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Another penultimate episode now, as Brink’s latest brilliant series comes to a close next Prog. And yes, it has been a wonderful six months plus of episodes, all closely contained within the confines of LunaHab or the ship making its way to Mercury, investigating The Mercury Event that has been lurking in the background to Brink ever since series one.

Just as a quick recap, we have the remaining remnants of humanity spread across the solar system, confined in the cramped confines of the Habitats, where madness spreads all too easily. Habitat Security is there to keep the lid on things, and we’ve been following HabSec officer Bridget ‘Bridge’ Kurtis from the beginning, seeing her uncover dark sect activity, glimpsing weird life, just the hint of something bigger behind all things. Or, as Abnett’s alluded to here in Book 7, it could be something as simple as a shadowy government agency, the Interhab Intelligence Agency (IAA), working behind the scenes, manipulating everything we’ve read thus far.

Such is the brilliance of Brink, that Abnett fills it all with red herrings and possibilities, leading us down one path and then, with a moment, ripping away that possibility and giving us another. With Brink, you’re always unsteady on your feet, never sure of the truth of things, just as Bridge is.

In The Call of the Void, we’ve seen Bridge trapped on LunaHab, able only to watch as her friend Gita pilots the ship on its way to Mercury to investigate the Event that’s wiped out all comms with the Habs in the area, or possibly just wiped out all the Habs. Meanwhile, there’s been the political manoeuvring of HabSec versus the IIA, two competing agencies, as IIA higher-up Reardon infiltrates LunaHab with dark intent.

But right now, with Reardon in an interrogation room, all Bridge cares about is what he’s told her about the Mercury mission, leading to her racing to reconnect with Gita at the end of last episode …

This episode, the penultimate one, we’re with Bridge and the HabSec Special Taskforce leader on a ThereShare remote link into the ship currently way too close to Mercury, where Bridge soon realises just how bad things have become there.

Many of Gita’s crew are dead, violently so. The weird language thing in the comms is still happening; we know not why, and Gita herself is desperate. Bridge knows the reason why things have gone to shit there, or at least she knows what Reardon’s told her is the reason. But then there’s one last twist, where Gita just turns to us and says, ‘I don’t think it’s in the water.’

And with that, we get the final page, where things go rather weird once more, where all that’s gone before, all that possibility of something as mundane as government black ops being responsible for all that’s gone before, all the Sect activity, all the strangeness — well, that one last page here shows us something else.

Again, just brilliant stuff, wonderfully, typically Brink. Abnett tells a great and involving tale, waiting to the very end to throw in one last bit of weird, turning everything on its head. And Culbard, on art, matches every bit of clever tale-telling and sparkling dialogue that Abnett provides with incredible artwork, bringing every bit of drama to life on the page. Two creators in perfect synchrony, creating something very, very special indeed.

Rogue Trooper: Run AMOK — By Andi Ewington and Nicolo Assirelli, colours by John Charles, letters by Rob Steen

Andi Ewington returns to the world of Rogue Trooper, revisiting the tale he told back in Prog 2476, where Rogue made pals with an abandoned Nort AMOK droid, seeing something of the lone warrior with revenge on his/its mind.

Well, now we’ve got a 10-page done-in-one Rogue where the big blue one meets up with that same AMOK droid, still functioning. Luckily for Rogue, really, as he’s got himself captured by a group of Norts, who’re busying themselves with extracting all the tech and intel they can from Gunnar, Helm and Bagman.

With his three chip comrades still in the hands of the Norts, it’s down to Rogue and his AMOK buddy to save the day. Cue a little bit of road rage and some Norts getting squished.

All in all, a fine little Rogue tale, with Ewington again playing to the strengths of the character, giving the Rogue fans a bit of action amongst the wastelands of Nu-Earth. And Assirelli’s more than able to give it the visuals it needs.