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!
THIS WEEK IN 2000AD
Judge Dredd: Trinity
Credits: Ken Niemand (script), Richard Elson (art), John Charles (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: When 2000 AD decides it wants to lampoon someone, it thankfully dispenses with anything resembling clever in terms of disguising the identity. If you can’t figure out who ‘Leon Musk’ is supposed to be, well, I’m not quite sure what to say. But in ‘Trinity,’ Ken Niemand uses a broad caricature of a certain electric car producer to send our favorite Judge on an inter-dimensional trip that allows him to come face to face with two alternate versions of himself. It’s a fun play on the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future from A Christmas Carol, and allows Richard Elson to flex his muscles bit at drawing three different versions of Dredd.
But first, he gets to ape a number of classic Dredd looks as the Judge falls through the dimensional portal, riffing on 40+ years of variations on the designs. At first, I expected each of those variations to play a role in this story, but instead, we get just a trio that it took me a few minutes to properly identify. There’s a moment where it comes into clarity, and it is such a fun reveal when it happens. I will spoil nothing, just enjoy the ride.
While the story isn’t exactly going to break any new ground, it is a humorous one that pits two very different kids of corruption and evil against each other. It’s the perfect way to cap off Judge Dredd in 2021.
The Fall of Deadworld: Jessica
Credits: Kek-W(script), Dave Kendall (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Matthew Blair: One of Judge Dredd’s greatest adversaries has been the Dead Judges, beings from a parallel dimension who believe that the only way to stop crime is to end all life. While they made a name for themselves in Mega City One, they had to come from somewhere. This is the story of their home dimension and the planet they took over to enact their goulish scheme to ensure that nobody ever breaks the law.
“The Fall of Deadworld: Jessica ” follows the misadventures of Jessica, a young girl who was trained to survive by paranoid conspiracy theorist relatives and has managed to outlast a lot of people so far. The script is written by series writer Kek-W and has Jessica flee into the supposedly safe arms of her music loving relatives. Unfortunately, all is not what it seems and Kek-W turns the story into a well written desperate struggle for survival. Jessica may be young, but she was trained well and has a pretty good head on her shoulders. With that said, Kek-W leaves a lot of room for vulnerability, ensuring that Jessica is very relatable in the face of overwhelming odds.
While the writing of “The Fall of Deadworld: Jessica” is solid, Dave Kendall’s artwork steals the show. Everything in the story looks like it came off a heavy metal poster featuring rotting flesh monsters and ghouls. The whole thing has a muted and vile looking color palette that makes the reader feel the decay of a world falling apart and wince as chunks of matter get blown off and the humans twist and warp into grotesque monstrosities. It’s the perfect kind of art style for this kind of story and a real treat for anyone who is a fan of body horror.
“The Fall of Deadworld: Jessica” is a fun little sidebar to a much bigger story that delivers thrills, emotion, and plenty of gore and mutilation. Jessica is a great character and although it’s sad to see her being put through the ringer, there are definitely interesting things in store for her in the future.
Kingmaker: Falls the Shadow: Part One
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Christopher Egan: ‘Falls the Shadow’ begins in media res with Crixus on his knees, at a crucial point in battle, with his destruction at hand. Edginton’s script is mostly backstory and world building exposition as this strip hasn’t been active in a while. What keeps the dialogue and text from feeling sluggish is that it is all wrapped in a warm blanket of action, brutality, and incredible destruction via magic. However, that feeling of playing catch up is prevalent throughout. It is necessary and it mostly done without being too clunky. Throughout the ten total pages of this chapter, a violent version of will they/won’t they is at play as the characters come to massive blows with each other’s total annihilation on the brink of coming true.
The illustrations by Leigh Gallagher are quite stunning and add to the gorgeous and ever-expanding universe really keeps the strip from sinking into feeling like it is trying too hard to keep new readers interested or teaching them the rules of the world. Gallagher’s color work is what really gives us the full life and understanding of this place. His attention to detail brings about a better understanding of the characters, the action, and the set pieces. A beautiful blending of sci-fi and fantasy, this place feels like Middle Earth and Eternia.
The opening chapter of this new arc is absolutely exciting and does a fair job of catching newbies up on the story and world, while lacking in telling us what characters we should be rooting for.
Dexter Bulletopia Chapter Eight: Hosanna
Credits: Dan Abnett(script) Tazio Bettin (art) Matt Sofie (colors) Simon Bowland (lettering)
Matthew Blair: In this prog we have a special one shot for Dexter and the gang. They’re still on the run from the rogue A.I, they’re tired, cold, severely wounded, and rapidly running out of options. Fortunately for the group, they are near a massive Amazon like warehouse that is fully automated and has everything they could ever want. Unfortunately for Dexter, the A.I has access to all the warehouse’s surveillance systems and has decided to send an upgraded version of Dexter’s old flings to capture him and torture him emotionally and physically.
Writer Dan Abnett deftly blends action and emotional heartbreak in “Dexter Chapter Eight: Hosanna” with the reunion of Dexter and an A.I powered replica of a former lover named Tracy. Abnett shows just how outmatched Dexter and the rest of the humans are as the construct toys with him across the factory floor. However, the action isn’t the real star of the story as Abnett uses the action to deliver a meditation on the meaning of love and what separates humanity from the machines. It’s a very suspenseful bit of storytelling with a lot of interesting things to say and a great payoff.
Tazio Bettin’s artwork does a great job of enhancing and promoting the emotional themes of “Dexter Chapter Eight: Hosanna”. While Bettin does a great job with the action and has a keen sense of geography and motion, the real meat of the story is in the character’s facial expressions and emotional reach. Dexter is a man who is both desperately focused on surviving the present and helping his friends, but there is a very real sense that he has some regrets about the past and is devastated at the sight of his former girlfriend reduced to an emotionless husk of a machine.
“Dexter Chapter Eight: Hosanna” is a taut, action packed, emotionally devastating bit of storytelling that challenges the main character in ways that make him and the reader a bit uncomfortable and while the good guys win, there’s a very real sense that they will not be the same.
The Order: Fantastic Voyage, Part 1
Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: “The Order” returns with a ‘Fantastic Voyage,’ although I doubt how fantastic scenic drifting through the void space at the end of time in a leaking submersible with low oxygen reserves is going to be. The creative team uses the extra space afforded to this prog to really lean into that since of time, the monotony and tension that comes from it. All the while still leaning into the plain weird steampunk meets eldritch horror aesthetic John Burns and Kek-W have created.
Continued belowThis first strip is actually a fairly good introduction to “The Order,” it isn’t perfect or a straight recap strip, but with summary in the issues table of contents and content of the strip new readers should get the broad strokes of what is going on. Cyborg Francis Bacon is projecting his intelligence across time and space through a series of mechanical bodies in order to chase the titular Order. He believes to have finally defeated them – or did he consider the start of the series – after chasing them off the edge of time as they hunt for the home dimension of the Wyrm folk. Outside of those broad strokes Kek-W centers the strip on an understandable character drama, even if you don’t know everyone’s entire history.
John Burns’ art continues to be an excellent mix of strong fundamental page design and impressionist watercolors. The best trick he pulls off with this strip is slowly sapping the color from his pallet. By the end of the strip, we are in near sepia territory, lots of muddy yellow and browns compared to the rich and vibrant colors of the first 3-4 pages. This both sells the feeling that time is passing and that the ship is entering a different space.
‘Fantastic Boyage’ Part 1 is a plainly effective strip that should get new readers on board and make them curious at what came before.
Tales from Mega-City One: Christmas Comes to Devil’s Island
Credits: Karl Stock (script), James Newell (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: This one-shot uses a couple of neat techniques to tell a simple story but turn it into something that feels more tragic and surprising than it has any right being. Part of that is the Christmas theme and the visual language that is so ingrained into readers’ minds that we were distracted by what, in hindsight, seems obvious. But regardless of how it pulls off its trick, its effect is impressive.
The story involves a perp named Klass who is planning a prison break and brings his new cellmate along. A lot of prison story cliches are present, but because this story is already so stylized, they fit in nicely. The first nine pages are very much an expected jail story, and James Newell’s art does a good job incorporating as much visual familiarity in the tale as Karl Stock does verbally in the script. The story works, and does so without too much flair. If it were just those nine pages, it would’ve been a fine one-shot, worthy of a spot in this issue.
However, the final page, which adds John Charles’s colors, brings the strip to someplace really surprising. I don’t want to spoil the experience for the reader, but make sure you know what ‘Long Walk’ means in Dredd parlance. That final page is heartbreaking for a few reasons, but mostly because it shows the poisoning of the Judges’ minds and how sad and unfulfilling their lives actual are.
The Out: Book Two, Part 12
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: Cyd spends most of this strip insider her bag, literally looking through her life in the form of the refuse tossed in the bag. Mark Harrison’s art in “The Out” is rarely described as being comforting, but once the initial weirdness of flatspace is established, the bag’s interior seems like a good place to hide out for a bit. Despite the bag’s protestations, Cyd clearly feels at home inside the bag, in part because she is surrounded by relics of better times, and also because the bag is acting, in a sense, like a womb, incubating her until she can be safely delivered.
Except, she isn’t safe. The revelation at the end of this strip, especially because it is the last we’ll see of Cyd until 2022, feels especially serious, but there’s a clue within Dan Abnett’s script that may be a clue that things aren’t quite as tragic as they seem. This chapter ties in to one of the best chapters of ‘Book One,’ and reminds those of us without encyclopedic memory of alien races from this story just how connected these two books have become.
Continued belowAbnett and Harrison love painting themselves into creative corners and then bursting out in spectacular ways. This book appears to be in the process of winding down, and it is going to take the boldest move yet to get Cyd out of her current predicament. I have no doubt that Harrison and Abnett will pull it off.
Proteus Vex: Desire Paths, Part 1
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), Jake Lynch (art), Jim Boswell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Things have shifted in the world due to the actions of the titular character last strip. Vex has gone from being the imperium’s top agent to their most wanted because of his housing of a flesh pilot. The story picks up months later, as Melody Pen Naday visits the Citheronian hone world. As she meets the last known being to be with Vex, we get a good idea as to how the Imperium has reacted since his departure. It’s all interesting, ominous, and rather dry until we finally see what has become of Midnight Indicating Shame. Midnight is still the emotional core of the work, and her plight makes us hope for a rescue attempt. The world of Proteus Vex is a vast, interesting and mostly unknown place. What Melody says to Midnight might be true or not, but it gets the Citheronian to give her a clue as to how to try to locate Vex.
Jake Lynch’s art brings you right back to the wonder of this world. The Citheronian home is a strange and alien place, but the cell they are holding Midnight in looks much like any prison. The sadness and loss she has suffered comes through the art, despite her alien appearance. This world and story may be dark and depressing but “Proteus Vex” is a bright, colorful, clean world. Its rendering is beautiful in these pages.
