The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2222: Oi! You’ve Been Nicked By Nakka
by Richard Bruton
The Weekly 2000 AD, giving you a weekly glimpse inside the thrill-powered pages of the UK’s finest sci-fi comic. No matter how bad it might be out in the real world, 2000 AD keeps delivering the thrills…
More thrills coming your way in Prog 2222, although maybe not the ones you were expecting!
The new Tharg’s 3Riller, Nakka of the S.T.A.R.S wasn’t scheduled to run until a little later, but Leonardo Manco is running a little late on Sláine right now, so that’s taking a few weeks off.
We have the second part of the Dredd tale Who Killed Captain Cookies? and get more folk horror chills in the second part of Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots. And elsewhere, we’ve got the penultimate episodes of Proteus Vex and Durham Red.
2000 AD Prog 2222 is out on Wednesday 10th March. Remember, right now the situation is dire for your local comic shop. Even if you can’t get there in person for whatever reason, you can still help them out by getting in touch and getting your books mail ordered to you. Use the shops NOW or lose the shops.
JUDGE DREDD: WHO KILLED CAPTAIN COOKIES – PART 2 – Ken Niemand, PJ Holden, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse
Well, did you guess from last week’s preview who was going to be turning up to investigate the death of local do-gooder Captain Cookies when the Judges don’t seem all that bothered?
Yep…
Welcome back Noam Chimpsky!
And what was already looking like a pretty funny Dredd with excellent PJ Holden artwork goes up a couple of levels of fun and funny.
Noam’s on the case, Dredd’s getting suspicious, and we’re going to have a great time.
THARG’S 3RILLERS: NAKKA OF THE S.T.A.R.S – PART 1 – Story and art by Brendan McCarthy, Script by Roger Langridge, colours by Len O’Grady & Brendan McCarthy, letters by Annie Parkhouse
Inspector Nakrosky (Nakka) and his assistant Penny Z8E/4891 (“programmed with basic police skills along with a serious professional manner”) are having a bit of a busy day at the Space Taskforce Armed Response Squad (S.T.A.R.S).
There’s a body at the Wisteria tearooms and it’s a little bit unusual – woman murdered with helium foam – “Pumped up like a tyre!” – a pioneering geneticist behind rapid cloning… happened back in the 1980s when there was a terrible space plague…
Oh, it’s just a beautiful, weird, wonderful mix of Midsomer Murders and, well, the contents of Brendan McCarthy’s mind this one.
It’s all full of clones, robo-vicars, silliness, magnificent and ridiculous tech in the middle of a quaint English-type village … and all of it just screams Brendan McCarthy, which is always a good thing.
THISTLEBONE: POISONED ROOTS – PART 2 – TC Eglington, Simon Davis, letters by Simon Bowland
Well, there’s been a discovery in the Harrowvale woods, skeletons inside a downed tree.
And suddenly, the world’s interested in the village again, including Seema’s book agent and Seema’s headed back someplace she doesn’t ever want to go again.
All of which puts us squarely back into the nightmares, back into the bad place. And damn, it’s so good to be back.
Thistlebone just looks so damn good and reads so well. It’s a slow build, of course it is, but in that slow build is all the atmospheric, all the creepy, all the eerie and dark things. Fabulous.
PROTEUS VEX: THE SHADOW CHANCELLOR – PART 9 – Michael Carroll, Jake Lynch, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland
The penultimate part of Proteus Vex and it’s time for all hell to break loose, with Vex escaped, the truth about the Alliance’s rule finally coming out, the reason the Silent are, well, silent, and new alliances being made once the proof of genocide is out.
And all the while, we get treated to some great Lynch artwork full of the wonderful alien features of Proteus Vex, something he’s done all the way through this season.
DURHAM RED: SERVED COLD – PART 10 – Alec Worley, Ben Willsher, letters by Jim Campbell
Durham Red gets into the action and we finally get to see the floaty-brain lady get into action as well.
That’s it for this one. Bash, fighty, hit, bang, smash… finish.
But, just like the rest of Served Cold it’s not one to deliver huge amounts of deep, meaningful plot. No, this is an all-out action series, a good old-fashioned thriller. And dammit, that’s what makes it so enjoyable.
