2000AD, PROG 2125 REVIEW

Writers: Rob Williams; Chris Weston; Ian Edginton; Emma Beeby; Gordon Rennie; Guy Adams; Dan Abnett
Artists: Patrick Goddard; Leigh Gallagher; Neil Googe; Dan Cornwell; Mark Harrison
Colourists: Chris Blythe; Gary Caldwell; Jim Boswell
Letterers: Annie Parkhouse; Ellie De Ville; Simon Bowland 
Publisher: Rebellion


Judge Dredd: Unearthed is proper, old-school Dredd silliness, with lashings of violence. A construction team accidentally dig up a Sov attack ship, trapped underground since the Apocalypse War epic in 1982, and the surviving crew are very, very hungry.

Despite taking time with Dredd’s melancholic self-reflection on his actions during the War and the resulting horrors unleashed on his own people, Unearthed refuses to be taken seriously. A verbose monologue from the villain, and Dredd’s internal monologue, both just descend into deliberate craziness, whilst other characters scream about cannibal communists and worker’s rights.

Unearthed is Chris Weston’s first co-writing credit, working alongside Rob Wiliams. Art duties are in the capable hands of Patrick Goddard, who can put together a decent action sequence. Despite one small misdirection, where Dredd ooks like he's already falling to his death, it’s a well put together, fast paced action strip, with an appropriately blunt ending. It’s also interesting to see Goddard’s version of new Chief Judge Logan, looking considerably more chiselled than the original by Colin MacNeil.

Max Normal was a man out of time 40 years ago, when his pinstripes and 20^th century lingo made him the most abnormally normal man in Mega City One. In How The Max Got His Stripes, an ageing Mr Normal battles to recapture his glory, and winds up battling a talking trouser press.

Guy Adams manages to give character to a couple of old-timers who were originally a simple joke, and even elicit sympathy for the teenage criminals who seek to destroy Max’s newly purchased Shuggy business.

Like Unearthed, this is a Dredd-Universe story abut the old days, and the crazier aspects of that world, told from a fresh perspective. Max was little more than a cameo even in his heyday, so pages of his poetic dialogue and his unique worldview are just a joy.

Over the past few weeks, Kingmaker: Ouroboros has cheekily wandered through the lands of fantasy. Things take a sudden swerve skyward this Prog, as we depart the Tolkienesque world and join alien species The Thorn, and their court intrigue.

Kingmaker feels like a strange blend of ideas, and probably shouldn't work. Ian Edginton, however, specialises is grand otherworlds, and Kingmaker seamlessly matches orcs with aliens.  This Prog focuses on the villains of the story, with a fair bit exposition that manages to remain interesting.

An on-point Grey Area cover by Mark Harrison shows an immigrant family fleeing through what is definitely a border fence, not a wall. On the very week President Trump threatens to deprive American millennials of their precious, precious avocados and devastate two economies by closing the Mexican border, and as the British Prime Minister asks for fourth time for permission to seal Britain in aspic lest foreigners arrive, Grey Area: Making History sees political strongmen use immigration to start an intergalactic war.

Bulliet and his team confront the Grey Area’s black-ops team, whose false flag attack has triggered a massive conflict. Typically fast moving, Making History squeezes a huge amount of action and exposition into a few pages. Long term characters die, and the world is changed forever in a couple of panels. Despite the blast of action, there’s character and humour here, and a final twist that comments on the very real problems the world faces today.

Yet another excellent Prog from 2000AD, with a generous mix of different types of story, each with something original to say.