The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2248: The Deadly World Of Kali Comes To Jaegir

Time to head out to the land of 2000 AD, the UK’s greatest sci-fi weekly comic for four decades and counting… it’s The Weekly 2000 AD

Second chapters for the creepy Dredd on The House on Bleaker Street, the Tharg’s 3Riller featuring the return of Adelphi in The Mask of Laverna, and Jaegir in ‘The Path of Kali‘, along with the penultimate Skip Tracer and the conclusion to the latest Dexter arc. It’s another thrill-powered week in the Prog.
You can catch 2000 AD Prog #2248 in store and online from Wednesday 8th September.
Ready for a look inside?

JUDGE DREDD: THE HOUSE ON BLEAKER STREET – PART 2 Kenneth Niemand, Nick Percival, letters by Annie Parkhouse
The second of three and were back in the time of Necropolis, with Bleaker Street acting as a safe haven for those not affected, presumably where it got the reputation for being a bad, bad place, enough to make Judges avoid the call for back-up in the present day. (Which, admittedly, did come off as a major huh moment – seriously, in MC-1 and the Justice Department, Judges simply and obviously failing to respond is allowable?)
Dredd, the previously kidnapped bay, and Judge Tenza, meanwhile, are way, way down in the building… and there’s something very old and very bad down in the depths. And Tenza along for the ride, just to deliver this line…

It’s Percival doing very good things with the art – showing us very bad things indeed, quite marvellous.
This is just three parts, which means it’s all coming to an end next Prog – and that’s just too damn soon, because this is one that really should have gone to way more episodes than that.

SKIP TRACER – EDEN – PART 11 – James Peaty, Paul Marshall, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Jim Campbell
Nimrod killed baby Eden’s mum, and is looking like he’ll be doing the same to her dad. Except, well, you always knew how this was going to go, surely?
You don’t introduce a super-powerful baby/child without turning round in the end of the story and having her save the day, and that’s just what happens here – you can see that in the preview pages right here.

All of which means that Skip Tracer is doing exactly what you expect it to do – it’s never been a strip to break boundaries and push anything other than solid storytelling with great artwork from Paul Marshall, but it’s a story that’s good, solid, entertaining stuff.


DEXTER: BULLETOPIA CHAPTER 6: SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE SEA – PART 5 – Dan Abnett, Tazio Bettin, colours by John Charles, letters by Simon Bowland.
Just as with Skip Tracer, Sinister Dexter is another one which keeps on keeping on – but this one does throw us into some weird territory along the way, as well as managing to keep giving us plenty of action.

Yeah, just like that.
And like this…

Anyway, case in point, no doubt we will get the return of the Sinister Dexter team somewhere along the line, it’s just right now, there’s no indication of just when, where, or how that’s going to happen. After all, right now, Sinister’s just a AI reconstruct of his old self, manipulated and controlled by the AI taking over Downlode.
And again, so much to praise in Tazio Bettin’s artwork on this one, a worthy successor, or at least temporary replacement for Steve Yeowell on Sinister Dexter, and an artist I really want to see more of in the Prog.


THARG’S 3RILLERS – THE MASK OF LAVERNA – PART 2 – Robert Murphy and Steven Austin, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Simon Bowland
Two parts into this 3Riller and it’s all about the way Adelphi the Oracle getting to grips with the latest bit of nastiness to crawl out of the God pool and come to this realm.
This particular bit of nasty comes from the mask of Laverna, currently being used by Chakarov to take out an ex-partner who’s in protective custody. Although his protection doesn’t exactly cover magically animated dead men…

All in all, decent enough, if going down what seems the predictable route of the 3Riller, where Delphi has turned up and will, no doubt, dispatch the bad thing in the concluding episode next Prog.


JAEGIR – THE PATH OF KALI – PART 2 – Gordon Rennie, Simon Coleby, colours by Len O’Grady, letters by Annie Parkhouse
Is it any wonder Jaegir has those dreams of death and the dead?
And dream she does, of darkness, something that’s always here in Jaegir. And there’s no-one better than Simon Coleby to get all that darkness onto the page, his art is just perfect for all of this, still one of the best new strips to come out of 2000 AD in recent years.

We’re jumping back and forth here, as Jaegir’s past, and the spectre of whatever Kali is, is explored in here.
Consider these two opening chapters a mood setter for the series, way more questions so far than answers for sure, but you just can’t help but be drawn into it all. Simply superb.