Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1920

Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment! Between the weekly “2000 AD” itself, the monthly “Judge Dredd Megazine”, an extensive library of graphic novel collections, and new US-format one-shots and mini-series, they have decades of zarjaz comics for you to enjoy.

This week marks the 38th anniversary of the second Prog of “2000 AD”, a.k.a. Th first appearance of Judge Dredd! So raise a glass to Joe for 38 years of keep the streets of Mega-City One safe! (Well, other than Day of Chaos…)

We’ve got a brand-new Prog this week, so we’ll jump right in after a quick public service announcement!

I. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD

We understand that having such a large selection of comics to choose from can make knowing where to start with 2000 AD seem daunting. What do they publish? Where can I get it? What’s up with Judge Dredd? Can I still read “2000 AD” if I don’t like Judge Dredd?

So to help new & potential readers, we’ve put together An Earthlet’s Guide to 2000 AD. A regularly updated FAQ, The Guide will collect everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.

II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1920

Cover by Dylan Teague

NOW DEPARTING

Tharg’s 3rillers: Station to Station, Part 3

Man, it’s really easy to get used to seeing Darren Douglas’ art every week. But now that ‘Station to Station’ is wrapped up, what will we do? I guess all we can do is wait.

Overall, I think that this story was intended to be about acceptance through commonality. Our protagonist was shunted from the hive mind because of the dissonance her presence caused simply due to her ethnicity. Despite that, she relied on her wits and life experiences to guide her through the story, and even risked the greatest sacrifice of all to save everyone.

While there were a few moments in this week’s strip that felt a little too compressed, this felt like a good ending for this short little story. We were all given a glimpse of a phenomenon infinitely larger than anything we could imagine, and examined it through a distinctly human lens.

Credits: Eddie Robson (script), Darren Douglas (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

While we bid adieu to Tharg’s latest 3riller, there are plenty of other strips staying the course in this week’s Thrill-zine!

Judge Dredd: Dark Justice, Part 10

It seems like Wagner is stretching out a little and playing with the tone of the story as we roll into the penultimate chapter of “Dark Justice”. While this strip has had more than a fair share of fantastical elements, this week feels a lot more off-the-wall than previous installments. Since we saw Dredd suplex Judge Fire last week, that’s saying a lot! It could be either the “Texas Chainsaw”-inspired chase sequence or the punchy Dredd-Anderson banter, but things feel like they’re loosening up a little. Not in terms of narrative; that’s still as tight as ever, but more in the weight of the story. Dredd and Anderson look like they might be gaining the upper hand in this fight.

So what could Wagner’s plan be? Is he gradually pulling us out of the darkness that consumed the first three-quarters of this strip? Or is he setting us up for a huge gut punch by making us think things will turn out fine, only to yank the rug out during next week’s conclusion?

We’ll have to come back in seven days to find out!

Credits: John Wagner (script), Greg Staples (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Survival Geeks: Steampunk’d, Part 3

Look, no one likes to keep repeating themselves. So let’s agree that, unless we say otherwise, Neil Googe is doing some phenomenal-looking work on this strip. It’s that or we’ll find ourselves in a broken-record situation of telling you all how good his art is VERY quickly.

Continued below

Now that that’s out of the way, it seems like this installment leans right back on the ‘geek culture’ tropes that ‘Steampunk’d’ kicked off with. “Star Wars” is for nerds and all that noise. Will the female protagonist discover what a jerk that handsome jock is? Will our central “Dr. Who” fan get the girl? I guess we won’t find out this week, even though I could’ve sworn this was a three-parter…

Credits: Gordon Rennie & Emmy Beeby (script), Neil Googe (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

Savage (Book 9): Grinders, Part 10

This isn’t the last installment in ‘Grinders’, but a whole lot of threads running in this story come to their conclusions this week. Bloody, bloody conclusions.

We knew this wasn’t going to end well, right? Grinders hiding in plain sight, manipulating the remote-controlled Hammerstein robots and robot drones supposedly there to protect the dignitaries marching in the VV Day parade into opening fire on them and the assembled crowds. Bill Savage and crew desperately trying to pick out those few operatives in all the panic and put them down.

Well, desperately in every case but one. Isn’t that right, Bill?

(Begin spoilers)

[spoiler title=”spoiler”]Bill told Howard Quartz back in Part 2 that Londoners would never forgive him for not stopping an earlier massacre, but it turns it’s really Bill himself who didn’t forget. In the most brutal part of a week that has people being gunned down mercilessly, Bill finds the last Grinder controlling a Hammerstein but holds his fire until AFTER the Hammerstein beats Quartz to death. Through the comm-link in his QuartzGlasses, Bill listens as Quartz pleads for his life before finally putting him on hold, returning the insult from part 7. Savage, indeed.[/spoiler]

[spoiler title=”spoiler”]But is Quartz really dead?[/spoiler]

[spoiler title=”spoiler”]Quartz originally appeared in the ‘Ro-Busters’ strip in “Starlord” back in 1978, and then merged with “2000AD” later that same year. He was, at the time, a cyborg called “Mr. 10 Per Cent” because he was 90% robotic. That strip eventually gave way to “ABC Warriors”, which includes a Hammerstein robot. He even showed up in the recent ‘Return to Mars’ arc of that strip. I’m not entirely sure, due to the rebooting of ‘Savage’ a few years back, if the link between it and ‘ABC Warriors’ is still as intended as it seemed before, but one way to require having your brain implanted into a robot’s body is certainly to have your own body absolutely crushed. And Mills is absolutely the type of writer who would find the opportunity to have it be a Hammerstein that does Quartz the human in much too good to pass up![/spoiler]

(End spoilers)

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

The Order, Part 10

This strip has been a fun one, for sure. The medieval equivalent of a modern team action movie has looked great under the pencil & pen of John Burns, drawing everything from werewolves to robots in armor to bazookas and pistols and all manner of seemingly anachronistic items that Kek-W has thrown into the script. Pitting decidedly analog heroes up against a decidedly metaphysical threat like the Wurms without the benefit of some rules-breaking help like a sorcerer is a neat conceit, and helps readers align their sympathies with The Order even more because anyone nuts enough to go up against interdimensional incursions armed with an axe, a pistol, a lighter, some swords, and rudimentary over-the-counter explosives garners some sympathy.

That said, I’m ready to see some Wurms.

Yes, the creature about to munch on some head of knight above is very wurm-like, but it isn’t the one in charge of all this chaos. Those guys have been teased and teased as the only the offspring or footsoldiers of the real Big Bads. But things can only be teased so long. So I appreciate the art and craft, and the mounting tension, but I think it’s time the guests of honor to this little Party At The End Of The World actually arrive!

Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Continued below

III. RECOGNIZE THE LAW

It’s no secret that there are a great many flavors of Judges from a great deal of Mega-Cities, so we’re aiming to use this space as a way of exploring as many types of Judges as we can. Did you know that in Mega-City One there are Accounting Judges? And Exorcist Judges?

This week we’re looking at the highest office in all of Luna-1: Judge-Marshal! Marshals are tasked with keeping order in Mega-City One’s space colonies, which is often a lifetime appointment. What’s unique about being appointed Judge-Marshall on Luna-1 is that it is a temporary position that is rotated between Mega-City One, Mega-City Two and Texas-City.

Elements of a Luna-1 Judge-Marshal’s uniform

Rounded Fronteir-Judge’s helmet w/ multi-atmospheric respirator
High-collar Judge’s jumper, black
Eagle on right shoulder
Left shoulder pad w/ star adornment
Synthi-leather Marshal’s cape w/ eagle,star and crescent insignia
Elbow pads w/ rigid plastic shell
Star and crescent shield, chained to cape tie
Gloves w/ pockets and knuckle reenforcement
Utility belt with eagle buckle
High-impact knee pad
Heavy-duty lunar boots with grav-enhancer, holster for Lawgiver (right) and sheath for utility knife (left)

The International Lunar Treaty of 2061 divided one million square miles of the surface of The Moon between the three great cities of North America – and called it Luna-1. Now, every six months, one of the 3 cities would have to supply a new Judge-Marshal to govern the Luna-1 police force. You can read more about this moon-city in the forthcoming “Judge Dredd: Luna-1” collection!

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1920 is on sale today and available from: