Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2025 – The Road To Hell!

Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our “2000 AD” weekly review column! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at Rebellion/2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment. Let’s get right to it!

Cover by Clint Langley

Judge Dredd: Harvey, Part 2
Credits: John Wagner (script), John McCrea (art), Mike Spicer (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: There’s a new lawman patrolling the streets of Mega-City One, and it’s name is Judge Harvey. With the number of available Judges still well below necessary level, the Justice Department is considering adding robot Judges like Harvey, with complete Judicial authority, to their patrol force. Previous robocopping attempts have been unsuccessful, so the future of this rollout rests on Harvey passing the test of one particular Judge. That Judge? Dredd himself.

Having given us the setup last week, ‘Harvey’ hits the streets in this Prog, with Judge Dredd keeping a watchful eye over the impressively-designed “Mechanismo” Mark 8 RV unit. And I have to agree with Dredd’s assessment that Harvey is impressive. Wagner knows that the key to keeping reader interest is to play off expectations. WIth the fallout of earlier ‘Mechanismo’ arcs still in the readers’ mind (as well as Dredd’s), that means applying some narrative jujitsu while everyone waits for the eventual meltdown. Wagner’s writing kung fu (to horribly mix metaphors) is strong here; the addition of the ‘responsive’ aspect not only deflates some reader concerns but also lets Harvey been more than just a robotic skull-cruncher (although he does crack some skulls — this is still Mega-City One, after all). His line of “at your service” to an elderly citizen draws a raised eyebrow from Dredd and helps highlight how far from what we would consider to be good community policing the Judges can operate most of the time. I’m not expecting Harvey to go full Judge Anderson-style good cop/bad cop on Dredd — there’s still too much deference for that — but seeing a little pushback for decency is nice. And shown to be good policing in more ways that one. If Harvey IS going to eventually disappoint us, then Wagner’s making sure we feel that loss by making him one hell of an attractive candidate up front.

Aiding and abetting him are McCrea and Spicer, and they have really gotten into a sympatico groove over their last few projects together that pays off here. If you think of “Hitman” as the end-all, be-all of McCrea’s artwork, you need to reassess that immediately. His work on ‘Harvey’, and in his other recent Mega-City stories, still has a bit of the loose acting and occasional exaggeration that he played up for some of “Hitman”’s comedic effect, but here he’s tightened things up to a large degree. You can still see those muscles at play, but they’re doing heavy dramatic lifting now. He’s also moved much closer to a Cam Kennedy-esque feathering texture, in addition to using some toning dots, that helps sell the weight and grit of things. Spicer keeps the color palette primary without overpowering McCrea’s line, something so many other colorists would sacrifice for over-rendered “look at me” coloring.

I’d love for ‘Harvey’ to set up Judge Harvey joining the Justice Department next to Dredd, Anderson, Beeny, and the rest of the Judges because Wagner sets him up as a very effective candidate so far. Part of me says TOO effective. The great thing about “2000 AD” is that there’s no guarantee that, despite reader expectations, Harvey isn’t exactly what he appears to be. And even if he his, that his story still couldn’t have a happy ending. Wagner could be going for a fakeout, double fakeout, triple fakeout, or none at all.

Brink: Skeleton Life, Part 3
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Alice W. Castle:

The thing about playing a slow burn mystery in five page chunks is that we’re only in the third chapter and things feel slow. After how effective a setup Abnett and Culbard put together in the first chapter, this and the last chapter feel almost like it’s dragging it’s heels. The last chapter introduced us to Bridget Kurtis as the investigator of the supposedly haunted Galina Habitat, an under construction space station, but this chapter does little more than have her settle in on the Habitat.

Continued below

The five pages add up to essentially two scenes. The first is the continuation of the last chapter’s cliffhanger as Kurtis is briefed by the heads of the investigation on the Habitat. There’s a nice tension built here and Culbard’s simple page layout allows the panel blocking to emphasise the give and take of the conversation. It starts with the three on fairly even footing, but as Kurtis pushes them Culbard frames her as towering over Gibrani. As the conversation goes on, though, Culbard starts to frame Kurtis from the back, shaded heavily, as the two block her out of the frame. However, while the visual information gives us an idea of the to and fro of the tension, the conversation itself doesn’t amount to much. Abnett uses it to reiterate the rumour that Galina is a haunted and little else.

The second scene zeroes in on Kurtis and Gibrani. Culbard switches from a green and yellow palette to brighter pastel pink and blue, a trippy colour scheme used to emphasise Abnett’s dialogue about the station messing with people’s heads. It’s here that Abnett plays a nice character beat as Kurtis freaks out over having room with space. It’s a building of character and world that emphasises how different the lived experiences of these people are that a room with furniture is a big deal. It’s somewhat spoiled, though, by simply ending the chapter on yet another “But this place might be haaauuunted” note. It feels like each chapter circles round to the same story beat to end on while the rest of the pages move the story forward gradually.

“Brink: Skeleton Life” continues to be a fascinating mystery, but it’s here that I’m wondering if the short chapter sizes is something of a detriment.

Future Shocks: The Dream Factory
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Ryan Perry: I’m not quite sure who the villain of this story is; is it the seemingly “cold-hearted” business man and is his state at the end of the story supposed to be his comeuppance? Or is it Ealy, the junkie widow who stole from a dying company? This attempt to make the characters morally grey only serves to confuse the reader, which is a shame, as the story sets on an interesting premise. It’s doubly a shame as the world building that premise is surrounded by is fairly engrossing as well. It’s truly only the execution of our characters that sees this story falter.

The art is appropriately cartoon-ish. It’s simple enough to tell you that this story won’t be debating politics or economics, but strong and angular enough to tell you that this isn’t a children’s story. It’s almost reminiscent of Batman: The Animated Series. The retro style, juxtaposed with the futuristic story being told, makes it feel like that comparison was intentional. The decision to make this a black and white story doesn’t pay off; the subject matter and art really lend themselves to a brighter and more engrossing palate.

This is also one of the first endings that didn’t really fit for a “Future Shocks” story. It doesn’t say anything in particular, make you laugh, or shock you all that much. It left me fairly apathetic, and that’s a problem.

Scarlet Traces: Cold War – Book Two, Part 3
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Rowan Grover: “Scarlet Traces” embraces it’s hard sci-fi setting here, as Earth prepares for war. Ian Edginton presents this chapter as a hybrid of the first two – we get the detached but interesting literal world building as Earth unites its forces and more personal character building. I would have liked if there was maybe more of a biting tone to the newsreader regarding other country’s forces. It’d add to the authenticity of the sci-fi 1968 setting, but it’s a minor qualm. I did like Edginton’s framing of Iykarus’ nigh-paranoid attempts to blend in with Martian society – it’s quirky and deepens his character.

D’Isreali fires up the sci-fi setting big time here, with cold war-esque spaceships and architecture. What I loved were the smaller moments as well – on the second page, he draws an alien family comfy within a nuclear family setting. It lends to the believability of the setting, and makes it feel familiar. The inner workings of Iykarus’ ship is also beautifully rendered, with an almost H.R. Giger level of attention to detail. The green glow of the ship is eerie but sets a cold, emotionless tone, which contrasts the colourful nature of the characters wonderfully.

Continued below

Part 3 manages to keep the pace at a manageable tempo whilst introducing new aspects to the “Scarlet Traces” world. Edginton and D’Isreali weave such intrigue to the series that it constantly keeps me coming back to follow Iykarus’ adventures.

Cursed: The Fall of Deadworld, Part 3
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greg Lincoln: Survival, at the end of the day, is the main stake for characters in an apocalyptic story. Kek-W and Dave Kendall put their heroes to the test; hunted, with dwindling resources and Fairfax still detoxing they add the stress of a moral choice to the mix. In this frackland travelogue, the appearance of another group of drifters when his illness stalls their progress and, again, tests their character. The dialogue between Jess and the prior Judge highlight just how ill he has been, and reveals their current ability to feel compassion for their fellow man, even if they are the other. Their initial reactions and the resolution of the incident shows not only the quality of their character, but also who is largely in control of their little trio.

Again, we’re shown that Jess is more capable to survive in the fracklands as Fairfax has been largely impaired from the end of the first installment, she is in fact the more able and more compassionate of the two of them. The interplay between them questions Jess’ statement from the end of last issue. Though Fairfax has a violent streak there is something inherently good within him. I’m curious if Ken-W and Dave are making a statement on the nature of policing in the modern world; Fairfax’s leaning towards shooting first puts me in mind of all the violence towards the other prevalent in policing today.

Dave Kendall’s painterly work at times seemed muddled, but it shone in several ways. As ever, his use of color in creation of place is brilliant; the rusted oranges and reds in his metals, the browns greens and dulled out earth tones in the ruined landscape shrouded in shadows, and the sickly greens and fellows in the sky and in places of possible safety reinforces the decayed tone of Deadworld all too well. Kendall can communicate emotional subtlety through his faces – delight in characters eyes even if they are in a distorted face, or judgement through the set line of a mouth on a face obscured by a too big helmet.

“Cursed” also has the cover spotlight this Prog with the subtitle ‘The Road to Hell,’ and makes no bones about this being a conflict between the Dark Judge Death, Jess and Judge Fairfax.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 2025 is on sale this week and available from: