The Weekly 2000 AD – Prog 2144 Previewed: Jaegir’s Back And Dredd’s Up To His Neck In It…

Finales are coming thick and fast in 2000 AD right now. Last week we bid adieu to Harry Absolom in Terminal Diagnosis and this week it’s goodbye and farewell to both Anderson, Psi and Thistlebone. But don’t despair… we do get the start of a brand new Jaegir from Gordon Rennie and Simon Coleby along with the continuing adventures of those very strange Indigo Prime agents.
Prog 2144 is out in the UK and on digital from 14 August, with international copies coming out later – ask for it by name at your local comic shop.

Cover by Cliff Robinson

JUDGE DREDD: CONTROL – PART 4 – Rob Williams, Chris Weston, colours Chris Blythe, letters Annie Parkhouse
The good news? Control is still everything I was hoping it would be. The bad news? It finishes next Prog. Far, far too soon.

Dredd is, quite literally, up to his neck in it.
And that’s the one beat in the quite brilliant Control that hasn’t quite hit right. Pin is a psycopathic serial killer, whose Judge body count is huge. And every time before, she’s killed immediately. She does it here. In fact, she does it twice. And both times it’s a shock, with Williams really being brutal with his cast. And yes, I know Dredd can’t die, but that’s not the point is it?
Apart from that little niggle? Oh, this really is so good. Williams and Weston doing so much good.


INDIGO PRIME: FALL OF THE HOUSE OF VISTA – PART 5 – KEK-W and Lee Carter, letters by Ellie De Ville
Ok, so last couple of Progs I’d been bemoaning that IP just wasn’t weird enough for me, had gone way to linear and understandable. Well, I take all that back now. We’re in full on weird now, William Burroughs in the universe skin, archetypologist’s with self-assembling macro-machines, all doing weird things against a spectacular bit of colour and art from Carter. And even back in reality, things are getting a bit weird as well, as the secret ruler of Little Britain comes to light (no, not Matt Lucas, someone far more evil and vicious).


ANDERSON PSI-DIVISION: MARTYRS – PART 8 – FINAL PART – Emma Beeby. Aneke, colors by Barbara Nosenzo, letters by Simon Bowland
Anderson is on the inside, desperate to save Psi-Judge Karyn. Dredd and the Judges are coming in, and things look bad for Karyn.
It’s the final part of Martyrs, and Beeby and Aneke have done a fine job of delivering a good Anderson tale.


THISTLEBONE – PART 10 – FINAL PART – TC Eglington, Simon Davis, letters by Annie Parkhouse
The woods are aflame, Avril’s increasingly unstable and convinced she knows how to end the threat of Thistlebone forever. And then…

Well, you’ll have to read it, won’t you? Because I’m sure as hell not giving away the end to what will probably be my 2000 AD strip of the year. It’s been a wonderful 10 weeks worth of chills and creeping threat, and that it’s all resolved so well is testament to just how good Eglington’s writing has been.
And one final time… Simon Davis’ artwork really is some of the best he’s ever done. Magnificent.


JAEGIR: VALKYRIE -PART 1 – Gordon Rennie, Simon Coleby, letters Ellie De Ville
When last we left Kapitan-Inspector Atalia Jaegir, she’d given herself up after the siege of the Bonegrinder, all to save her men. Now, we join her in the clutches of the psychopathic torturer Colonel Raksha.
It’s going to take a lot to get her back, but that’s what they’re planning to do.
Rennie and Coleby’s Jaegir has been one of those consistently great strips, and it’s damn good to have it back.