The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2499: ‘Brink’ & ‘The Oubliette’ Conclude Brilliantly

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.

Just the three strips this time round, all designed to clear the decks for next week’s jumping on Prog. But of course, as I’ve said before, any Prog is a good time to jump on board, as there’s always something quite wonderful to read there. Some you’ll love, some you might not, but it won’t take you long to find yourself embracing the joys of 2000 AD, I promise you.

As for the three strips, we’ve got the rather excellent endings to both Judge Dredd: The Oubliette by Ken Niemand and Dan Cornwell, and Brink: The Call of the Void by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, plus a new ABC Future Shock from James Lovegrove, joined this time by Paul Marshall, as they tell a tale of A Serial Killer Alphabet. It’s great fun, of course, but the big draws here are the double-length endings to Judge Dredd and Brink.

Okay then, time to get into the Prog, all under a suitably impressive and out-there cover from Brink‘s artist, INJ Culbard…

2000 AD Prog 2499 is out in the UK on 9th September, and out in the USA on 23rd September. If you are in the USA, get yourself down to your local comic shop and ask them to order it in for you.

Judge Dredd: The Oubliette — Part 19 — Final Part — By Ken Niemand and Dan Cornwell, Colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

We’ve had 19 episodes of the Oubliette and four of The Black Tower in the Megazine for this one, Niemand’s first go at doing a BIG Dredd epic. And yes, it’s been rather a success, evoking all the great epics of the past — specifically in the case of the Judge Child Quest — and yet still making it something new readers, or those not steeped in 2000 AD history, can read and enjoy. Again, such is the greatness of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, never leaning too hard on its history, always giving you stories you can immediately get into.

Here in the finale of the Oubliette, Dredd, Joe Fargo (a Dredd clone from another world), and Lana Locke, the Finder of Lost Things, have one last thing to get done before they get the hell out of Dodge. And that’s to visit the instigator of all that’s happened. Again, no spoilers here, but there is the thing that’s been mentioned already, something that I can see Niemand returning to in future Dredds, the whole idea of a curse on the City and its future… ‘Mega-City will never be free of me.’

Of course, Dredd and Joe Fargo take care of things….

But that’s not the end of this, not at all, which leads us into the final half of this one, where Dredd and Rico deal with the aftermath of it all, with Niemand giving us moments between the clone brothers, and then moments meeting Joe Fargo for Rico. There’s recriminations, there’s sentiment, there’s MC-1 taking revenge, and there’s the loose end of Iron Teeth there in the epilogue. But, as I say, no spoilers. Go read it yourself.

Looking back on it all, Niemand’s first big Dredd epic proper has been something of a huge success, giving us all the thrills we need, all the history, all the action. It’s been tremendous fun. All aided and abetted, of course, by both Dan Cornwell and Jake Lynch, both of them just two of the essential Dredd artists taking us past the first 50 years of Dredd.

The Oubliette has been another great Dredd epic. And that’s exactly what Niemand was pitching. Job done.

Future Shocks: A Serial Killer Alphabet — By James Lovegrove and Paul Marshall, colours by Jack Davies, letters by Rob Steen

The third of these Lovegrove-written ABC Future Shocks, and here it’s time for a little serial killer action.

Tremendous fun, of course, as have been the previous two Alphabet Future Shocks, with Lovegrove showing us the genesis of this particular serial killer, in rhyme of course, from youth to adult life, his kill spree continuing, all leading to legendary status.

Marshall adapts his art here to give us something childlike, always aware of what he’s doing, the childlike art at deliberate odds with the darkness of the content, wonderfully done. Thoroughly entertaining and lots of fun.

Brink Book 7: The Call Of The Void — Part 28 — Final Part — By Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard, letters by Simon Bowland

Well, here we are, the end of the six months plus of Brink’s latest… and it’s been such a glorious ride. As always, I implore you, pick up the collected editions to find out just why I rank this not just in my all-time great 2000 AD strips but one of my all-time favourites ever. It is seriously that good.

So, when we left Brink last episode, we had rather a moment, as HabSec officer Bridge was in virtual comm-link with her friend Gita, onboard the ship on its way to investigate the Mercury Event, the thing that’s been there in the background all the way through Brink since the very beginning, the going dark of Mercury and all its Habitats.

Throughout Call of the Void, we’ve seen things go bad onboard the ship, viewing along with Bridge the mysteries, the deaths, the strange occurrences, but nothing compares to what Gita saw at the end of that last episode….

Now, in this double-length finale, we’re dealing with the fallout from all that, watching as Bridge and the Chief of the Taskforce to investigate the Mercury Event deal with what they’re seeing.

Although, interestingly, it’s only the Chief and Gita who see it, not Bridge. What does that mean? Why is Bridge somehow inured from experiencing this particular madness?

And there’s also the interrogation of IIA asset Reardon, the governental organisation indirect opposition to Bridge’s own Habitat Security Division, and possibly the agency responsible for a lot of the strangeness we’ve seen throughout Brink — Bridge reckons they’re behind the Mercury Event, but with Abnett’s writing here, you really never know until it’s all over and done with, and we’re hopefully many years from the end of the brilliance that is Brink.

But by its end, we’re none the wiser about where Abnett and Culbard are sailing this particularly wonderful ship of theirs. And that’s as it should be. Brink is all about the mystery, the strangeness, the impossible, and that’s covered, in spades, by the final few pages, where the madness of whatever it was onboard the ship to Mercury had spread, infecting not just those who’ve seen it.

As you’d expect, by its end, Brink: Call of the Void is absolutely everything I wanted it to be, a perfect series, perfectly realised by two creators who just work in perfect synchrony with each other. Culbard’s art services Abnett’s script so beautifully, capturing everything of the weirdness of the series here in the final episode, just as he’s been able to capture all the dynamic tension of the close confines we’ve experienced in the drama that’s done that deliciously slow build all the way through this.

Simply put, there’s nothing like Brink. It is perfection in comics form. You really should be reading it.