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 2000 AD
Judge Dredd: Poison, Part 6
Credits: Rob Williams (script), PJ Holden (art), (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Dredd has been everywhere around the Dredd-verse in his hunt for who poisoned Judge Hershey. Oh course his travels would wind up in the Cursed Lands among the muties. Here he is reminded that Hershey was, at their heart, a good Judge and even tried to do right for the mutants of the cursed lands. The muties even made a statue to her, and one younger mutant says he saw her, which is possible as her long walk may have taken her there. Rob Williams has Dredd find the remains of the mushroom farm that was likely the origin of at least part of what killed Hershey.
PJ Holden does and apt job of creating the wasted landscape and the down-trodden denizens of the cursed lands. They are just human enough to be unsettling, especially the much abused alchemist. He makes this possibly violent drug lord of the region into a piteous figure. Holden’s art clearly shows that the inhabitants of the cursed lands are anything but a threat to Dredd, who is really the only imposing figure in the story. He may as well be a man of steel among men of Kleenex the way that they are portrayed physically by Holden. Even the supposed mushroom drug lord, the “terrorized” the local mutie appears more a figure that we should pity in his soiled hospital gown and lazy eye.
Helium: Scorched Earth Part 6
Credits: Ian Edington (script), D’Israeli (art) Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: After the terror of dealing with the cursed planet’s surface, it’s nice for the group to kick back, relax, and meet some people who are actually friendly for once. Sadly, a breather means two things. First, it gives everyone in the group a moment to reflect on all the terrible things that have either happened to them or what they have done.
Second, calm and quiet breeds complacency, which allows your enemies to get closer and closer.
“Helium: Scorched Earth Part 6” is a quiet part of the story, and writer Ian Ediginton provides some of his best work here. If it’s not obvious now, it’s very clear that the story takes heavy inspiration from the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the main character is based off of the legend of the lost princess Anastasia. There are some great character moments in this part of the story where everyone has to deal with important questions of duty, desire, and destiny and it’s interesting to see how everyone reacts. All of that is wrapped up in a neat little bow of impending dread as the forces hunting our group are drawing nearer and nearer.
Since “Helium: Scorched Earth Part 6” is another quiet segment of the story, D’Israli’s art still has the unenviable task of simply supporting the story instead of shining on its own. D’Israli is still doing an amazing job with the weird designs, unique art, and great use of color. In this case, there’s a great contrast with the interior of the city, which has warm yellow and brown colors which make it feel warm and inviting, and the dark and harsh purples of the uninhabitable wilderness. Just because the artwork isn’t the main feature of the story, doesn’t mean it can’t be interesting to look at.
“Helium: Scorched Earth Part 6” is a great character moment for our ragtag group of runaways before the inevitable hammer drops and things start exploding. It does a great job of doing some more worldbuilding and makes the audience want to root for the characters before some of them inevitably die.
The Devil’s Railroad, Part 5
Credits: Peter Milligan (script), Rufus Dayglo (art), Jose Villarrubia (colors), Jim Campbell (letters)
Brian Salvatore: With Constance and Palamon separated, “The Devil’s Railroad” is cleaving its story in half, following both characters through their respective journeys to Earth. For Palamon, he’s hiding in plain sight for the murder he committed. Constance is dealing with being a woman in space which, apparently, is not too different than being a woman on Earth, in that men won’t stop bothering her. Splitting the characters up gives us a little more insight into who each of them are, which is a good tactic for the ongoing narrative, but also means that the action has slowed to a crawl.
Even though Peter Milligan is a veteran who has written lots of comics of varying lengths before, his grasp of the 5 page 2000 AD story doesn’t appear to be his strong suit. There’s a lot of fluff within this story, especially when you need to establish the actions/setting of each character each week. Rufus Dayglo’s art tries to pick up the slack, but there’s only so much that can be done when there’s just not that much to show. While this chapter establishes that Constance is ok, and introducing this suitor into her story, Palamon’s story is exactly the same this week as last. Luckily, Dayglo is able to draw some cool aliens and make the pages dynamic, but with a story this slack, it’s hard to care.
The Fall of Deadworld: Retribution – Part Five
Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Christopher Egan: This story continues to bring about this new era of Deadworld and the Dark Judges in some really interesting ways that aren’t overly precious about the past. Kek-W feels free to reference what has come before, using it to set up the new and changing , without being mercilessly tied to just giving readers the same old stuff that’s come before over the last 40+ years.
And what we are getting is bizarre, mean, and disgusting. While the script is an emotional swirl of bad feelings and world building, the art from Dace Kendall continues to be absolutely nasty and gorgeous. The panels are dripping with pain and viscera as all of the gory details continue to mess with reality and our understanding of the Dark Judges and Deadworld itself.
One of the best things about this chapter is that while it has seemed thus far that this story was going to again heavily focus on Judge Death, like usual, it seems now that we’re going to get an in depth look at Judge Fear, in a way that’s never been done before. This alone is going to allow this story to grow and build interest in a way that is unexpected and very welcome. While the strip so far has been very good, it is great to see pivot like this, this far into it.
Feral & Foe: Bad Godesberg, Part 6
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Elson (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: After a week off, “Fearl and Foe” is back and it’s taking time to get up to pace. The sixth entry in ‘Bad Godesberg’ has me curious what it’ll read like when/if this series is collected into a single tome because it takes a turn in pace that is understandable within the pages of “2000 AD” that is understandable and probably even necessary but not all that engaging to read or consider. So imagine that jarring turn of expositing and plot maneuver when there is no temporal gap between episodes there is just the turn of the page.
Much of this entry is about reestablishing the stakes and plot from the previous strip before the break. Wraith is climbing the tower to find the Sire Clumm. The Wrechtchfinder General, Danica, is having a personal breakdown under the stress of the crisis. And Bode is making dry wry commentary about the whole thing. The creative team establishes all of this in the first page. And then it continues for the next four pages. Wrath makes it to the top of the tower to discover a maledicted Sire Clumm. Danica opens up about how all of this is really about impressing her father, Wretchfinder Huntsinger. Bode makes some good jokes about the whole thing.
None of this is bad or unenjoyable, it’s just not all that engaging. The highlight is Richard Elson’s character acting. Bode as a character is not my cup of tea but Elson’s expression work on the third and fourth page is highly effective and plainly funny. Abnett isn’t writing out and out zingers here, the strip isn’t calling for that kind of comedy, but Elson’s art finds the comedic charm within the plot maneuvering. Luckily with all of this out of the way, “Fearl & Foe” has established itself in such a way that I’m hopeful it’ll be smooth sailing going forward.
