Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2032 – Shock & Awe!

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 D’Israeli

Judge Dredd: Sons of Booth, Part 3
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Nick Dyer (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: With President Booth’s time in office turning the American Dream into the American Nightmare, Sprayy is looking to remind the citizens of Mega-City One what that felt like. Can Dredd and the Justice Department stop this SoB from detonating his kitbashed Nightmare Bomb and bringing back nuclear terror?

Since this week’s Prog finishes off the ‘Sons of Booth’ story in rather quick fashion, I think this space would be better served by talking about the pace “2000 AD” moves at and how reading it on a weekly basis is different from how North Americans usually follow their comics. So, with the knowledge that Eglinton and Dyer keep up the solid work this week, please indulge me a slight detour into a little big-picture thinking . . .

“2000 AD” has been an essentially ongoing weekly comic since 1977, and Dredd has appeared in every Prog since number 2, but that unbroken run has been stopped and started at semi-regular intervals over the years. Especially in the last decade or so, Tharg and Matt Smith have made sure there were ‘jumping on’ Progs published at least several times a year, usually every 12 weeks or so. You can find some previous Multiver-City One coverage of these specials here. You’ll see that these Progs all contain either new Thrills or new installments of returning Thrills, hence the ease at being able to just pick one up and be on equal footing as longer-time fans.

What this also means is that each of these ‘seasons’ of Progs have their own rhythm. At least one or two strips will run the entire 12 Progs, some will have shorter but substantial presence during that time, and the rest of the space will be filled with Future Shocks, Tharg’s 3rillers, or shorter stories like ‘Sons of Booth’. You can even see this pattern playing out since Prog 2023: ‘Brink’ and ‘Scarlet Traces’ have been ongoing, ‘Deadworld’ and ‘Defoe’ have been longer shorts, ‘Judge Dredd’ has come up with a longer story (‘Harvey’) and some shorts, and we’ve seen a couple Future Shocks as well.

One interesting note is that “2000 AD” doesn’t list the overall number of parts in their story sluglines; nothing is labeled “Part X of Y”, for example. So readers, or at least North American readers, don’t have the usual immediate reminder that they are x of the way through a story. That might not seem like a big deal, and perhaps it isn’t, but at least for me, I was at little surprised to see things come to a quick resolution with this week’s installment. “2000 AD” has a habit of letting seemingly small stories mushroom into mega-epics (like ‘Trifecta’ from the early Prog 1800’s), and I think the threat or promise of that makes me think every story with a clever idea could be the next one that just keeps going and going and going. With ‘Harvey’ it was the return of the Mechanismo question with an actual challenge to Dredd and the Justice Department that wasn’t just them going trigger-happy. With ‘Sons of Booth’ it was the possibility of Booth coming back. ‘Harvey’ seems to be the more likely candidate for followup of the two stories, but as someone raised on the rhythm of 4- and 6-issue arcs, getting these potent little Thrill-pieces on indeterminate length dropped off every week with little advance warning (can’t really be spoiled by Previews like so many other comics) can be pretty . . . well, thrilling!

Almost as thrilling as the news that Rob Williams has teamed up with Chris Weston for his next Dredd story, no doubt kicking off in the next ‘jump-on’ Prog. Can’t wait!

Defoe: Diehards, Part 7
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Credits: Pat Mills (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Ryan Perry: It’s a shame our story’s main character Defoe doesn’t develop anywhere past his archetype. He’s the blandest of Batman-like reclusive characters, who even falls into the trap of having similar all-knowing powers as the Bat. That characterization really undercuts the end of the story or any other point in time in which the cliffhanger is supposed to be that Defoe is in danger because it doesn’t feel like the character is real or vulnerable. This story also completely wastes the intrigue and good will it bought the last issue. The questions you had come away with are unceremoniously brought up and dismissed here without ever mattering much to the overarching story. We’re also seven installments into this story they haven’t exactly told us what “reeks” are. This may be meant to be intriguing but at this point, it’s little more than annoying.

I can’t really tell what time of day this story takes place at. In settings near windows or candles the light seems distributed properly but when characters are outside there is no telling what time it is. There are also a couple action shots in here that look really static. It looks as if Defoe is standing there holding a knife and not like he’s slashing at a reek. It does look really cool when a character’s brains are blown out though. That’s oddly more realistic than most everything else depicted. The period accurate depiction of clothing also gives the story a kind of creepy vibe as it makes a lot of the things you’re seeing feel a little more real.

Brink: Skeleton Life, Part 10
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Alice W. Castle: If this theme of this month’s Prog is ‘Shock & Awe’ then last week’s chapter of “Brink: Skeleton Life” would probably have been better suited. Instead, this chapter of the story is more of a decompression after the release of building tension. For a few chapters, Abnett and Culbard had finally been ratcheting up the tension that Kurtis would find something in the bowels of Galina Habitat and in this episode, they wallow in just what Kurtis has discovered. If this chapter is aiming for any feeling in particular, it’s one of disgust and revulsion.

The reveal that the mystery figures hiding in the construction zone of the Habitat are being ferried in for slave labour immediately turns the story on its head and, in a lot of ways, the fascination of the haunted house in space concept is washed away. It’s replace instead a sudden, burning desire for Kurtis to nail the bastards behind this to the wall. To that end, Abnett and Culbard do a fantastic job of manipulating the reader (in a good way) by having Gibrani react in a way similar to how the reader will likely react. She’s hot-headed and looking for some sense of justice for these people.

Kurtis, instead, is much more level-headed in the situation and able to see the bigger picture at play. It’s an interesting move because Abnett and Culbard are able to have Kurtis thinking ahead of even the reader, and forces the reader to follow their line of thinking going into the subsequent chapters. It’s an interesting subversion in terms of the desired reaction in the reader compared with the in-universe reactions of the characters. Kurtis is quickly becoming one of the more fascinating characters I’ve ever read.

Scarlet Traces: Cold War – Book Two, Part 10
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Rowan Grover: I do so look forward to “Scarlet Traces” each week, however sometimes the multitudes of plot lines and characters can be too much. Such is the case this week as the narrative decides to go all non-linear on us and branch off in every direction. Edginton’s scale with his narrative is more suited for the long form, which makes me feel like I’d appreciate this more collected in a trade. Within five pages, we jump to four different perspectives, leading to some confusing reading. Some of these sequences are interesting, like seeing the surprisingly tragic looking Prime Minister again and the reappearance of one of Ahron’s adversaries at the end. However, the pacing of each scene is uneven and none do a lot to advance the plot.

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Regardless of how this affects the narrative, it does make for some diverse visual storytelling. D’Israeli gets a chance to succinctly depict how one event affects four different settings. Each shift feels like it could tonally be a different book, which keeps readers on their toes. The noir-esque shadows of the Prime Minister scene is a fresh take that we haven’t seen in this book before, contrasting the frantic penciling of the Martian machinery just panels earlier. Similar to the writing though, it can be a bit jarring to witness all at once in a short amount of time, especially as each piece doesn’t contribute to a greater whole in this chapter.

This was an unfortunately low week for “Scarlet Traces”, but I’ll give Edginton, D’Israeli, and Parkhouse some credit – the twist ending bringing back a classic foe does give way for potentially great stories in the future.

Cursed: The Fall of Deadworld, Part 10
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Greg Lincoln: Sly humor, visual puns, and glimmers of hope from lingering prophecy prevent “Cursed” from slipping into full on grim-dark. A few well-timed bits of snark break up the fights, explosions, threats, and sprays of death fluids in this extended fight scene now three issues deep. As the various fo arches finally face one another after the earlier “Cursed”, Kek-W and Dave Kendall give some definite character beats. They show for sure that some players deserved their past failures and give them their own time to shine. With the speed at which this week’s strip seems to goes by if you don’t slow down and really look at the panels, you can miss some of the artistry of the storytelling Kek-W and Dave Kendall execute here.

The shadows and darkness that dominates the artwork sadly hide the movie storyboard quality of the storytelling and the attention to detail I always comment on. Kendall maintained tight continuity across this long fight scene that is reminiscent of the work of Dave Gibbons in Watchmen. If you catch yourself wondering where something came from you can look back and see clearly it’s been there all along. And like good storyboards, the layouts and body language in the art leads the eye forward giving this week its rollercoaster-like feel.

This week gives as much as it takes though when it comes to Jess, Agatha, and Fairfax. All the few remaining living characters get moments to shine though it’s all one step forward two steps back mounting up to the final ominous panel that is drenched in the black ink. They have a lot to play with next week as uncertainty is surely where we ended this time.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 2032 is on sale this week and available from: