Tweet
2000 A.D. Prog 1970
Released by: 2000 A.D./Rebellion
Released on: March 2nd, 2016.
Written by: Various
Illustrated by: Various
Purchase From Amazon
Check it out - a new week, a new issue. 2000 A.D. Prog 1970, here it is. Nice Strontium Dog cover art from Jon Davis-Hunt.
Judge Dredd - Undercover Klegg by Rob Williams and D'Israeli: Dredd's got a problem - the Klegg ambassador that was supposed to sign the peace treaty preventing war between the Klegg Empire and Mega-City One is dead. His solution? Find someone to impersonate him and get on with the show. He finds one, a familiar poetry spouting Klegg who agrees to help out, while the Sino people start to fear a Klegg invasion and Dredd, well he just tries not to kill any Klegg's that get near him. It seems to be going okay until Dredd gets the Klegg on a transit ship…
Odd that the first chapter of this new serial was by Wagner and Esquerra but Williams and D'Israeli do a fine job continuing things. The art style is very different but the goofy humor laid down in the first installment carries over nicely. This is Dredd-lite, the focus is on comedy not the darker more serious stuff covered in more recent issues, but it's entertaining and D'Israeli's artwork suits the mood quite well.
The Order - In The Court Of The Wyrmqueen by Kek-W and John Burns: With Izta under the influence of the Wyrm musk the other members of The Order must act - and they do, just in time - only to find the way in which the cultists have been feeding the Wyrmqueen itself. Izta makes the call to Bacon who in turn readies the troops, but once the attack begins, things quickly get out of hand.
It would seem we're nearing the end of this latest run but we're not there yet. The action picks up in this chapter but Kek-W's script doesn't come up short in the humor and snappy banter departments. Burns' artwork continues to illustrate the story beautifully. Weird, quirky, fun stuff indeed.
ABC Warriors - Return To Ro-Busters by Pat Mills and Clint Langley: Last issue Ro-Jaws took off in the Satan Dart with the cops hot on his tail. Led Belly is dead but his dog escaped, possibly with Led Belly's brain inside its head. Sir James is super pissed that Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein managed to escape and he's not above taking it out on Howard. Meanwhile, Ro-Jaws talks to Hammerstein about maybe changing his name, but the fact that the Defiance Code is still in Ro-Jaws' memory banks hasn't been forgotten about.
The longer Mills and Langley can keep up this level of quality the better. This is a great story, deeper than it seems at first and a bit more politically slanted than you might expect, but never short on action, adventure and entertainment. Langley's art is, in a word, perfect. Literally perfect.
Kingdom - Beast Of Eden by Dan Abnett and Richard Elson: Gene and the rest are making their way into the hive with their new human associates in tow. Numan uses a translation device to turn the hive's chemical emissions into a language that they can understand, which helps them find the gestalt that they've been looking for…
This serial also feels like it's getting close to the finale, and Abnett's script ends this installment on a pretty strong cliffhanger indicating that the story will end with a pretty serious bang. Elson's art is nicely detailed and the colors in this serial are nice and bold. This is a nice looking and well written adventure/action story.
Strontium Dog - Repo Men by John Wagner and Carlos Esquerra: Last up, the mutants are cornered by Limax's robot henchmen but the manage to get them in a crossfire and escape - unfortunately the Twister Sisters are nowhere to be found until McNulty literally sniffs them out. Before the Stronts can get the brain, it's held over a fire for ransom - pay up, the girls say, or the brain gets burned and becomes worthless but the guys outsmart the sisters only to find that, yes, reinforcements have arrived.
Lots of action in this one, it moves fast and it's an amusing read. Not a ton of plot movement but enough to keep us wanting to know what happens. Esquerra's art on the run is great, he and Wagner know what they're doing here and they do it well. Let's see where it goes from here…
