Review: 2000 AD – Prog 1874
I’ve been a fan of 2000 AD for a long time. Almost two decades at this stage, and Dredd and co. have always managed to put a smile on my face and remind me time and again why I love them the way I do. The only problem I have had with 2000 AD and it’s two regular publications Judge Dredd Megazine and the Progs is it can be hard to find a good time to start collecting them. At any one time, each issue has around 4 stories in it, each at various stages of completion. There might be no stories which are just starting, which leaves potential readers waiting for a good opportunity to being delving into the collected worlds held within. Thankfully, The Mighty Tharg, the Editor of 2000 AD, has seen it fit to give us Earthlets a ‘jump on’ issue this week with Prog 1874. Five, count ’em, five new stories fresh from the printing press and ready for readers new and old to dig into. Not only that, but two of them, Outlier and Jaegir, are brand new titles altogether. It’s a perfect starting point, and thankfully, the stories are sounding pretty good, too.
Starting out with the law himself, Judge Dredd, Prog 1874 gets things going in familiar territory. Dredd is the flagship character of 2000 AD, and with good reason. He is the law, he is the order to the constant chaos of Mega-City One and the trials and tribulations that come with dealing with an over-populated dystopia. Mega-City Confidential looks to be a bit potentially toned down for the Judge. Being a law-enforcer, his stories are often violent and action-packed with him routinely blasting his way through leagues of perps and criminals. However, his last story-line seen him do battle with a giant mutant mega-parasite, so I think for this story they’ve decided to take things back a notch for new readers and introduce a more internally driven story where they can talk about Mega City One and it’s government a bit. John Wagner, who is the writer who co-created Judge Dredd back in 1977 with Carlos Esquerza, penned this story so despite the humble beginnings here, featuring a wayward member of a Top Secret branch of Government who knows too much, I have full faith this will be an interesting ordeal for Dredd and a typically exciting adventure for us.
Sláine makes a welcome return next, and DROKK had I forgotten how absolutely beautiful Sláine‘s art-style is, this story featuring art by Simon Davis. Set in Albion, a time of myth and legend, Sláine is the story of a the celtic barbarian warrior’s battle to defend the Earth Goddess Danu across time. Portrayed in a highland-inspired land with lots of greenish blues in the colour pallette, A Simple Killing looks stunning. The story here is fairly light on it’s feet, Sláine slaughters some thieves, and decides he wishes to go for the head of said thieves. It’s easy, but it’s good. Expect lots of gore and some great quotes about slaying thine enemy in the name of Danu from this one.
The first of two new titles, Outlier, marks the middle of the issue, and this looks very interesting. Being sci-fi, as is 2000 AD‘s forté, this is a tale of redemption and vengeance as an alien creature begins killing those who tortured him, all stemming from a ship called the ‘Outlier’. I like it, I like it a lot. It has a lot of potential for depth and grim details and the two lead characters, the alien creature and a freelance agent hunting him, are both men of minimal words and even less time to waste. This is a demonstration of one of 2000 AD‘s greater strengths – the Progs are weekly, so with four/five stories on the go each one only has maybe 6/7 pages to communicate an advance in the plot, but 2000 AD make it so those pages really count, and I’ve rarely ever felt underwhelmed with any part of a story reading them issue by issue. It’s a skill they’ve truly mastered and refined in their 37 years of existence.
Literal comic relief finds us with Sinister Dexter being the last familiar title of this issue, and the Euro-city hired guns are as charming as ever. Sinister Dexter‘s stories are often based around the idea of Finnigan and Ramone looking for trouble, trouble looking for them, and the two meeting in the middle in often somewhat hilarious circumstances. This is no different. They have guns, they’re going somewhere to use said guns, a biker gang stop them and try to take the guns, and it looks like it’s all about to kick off. It’s a very humble beginning for the story, but it looks to be as funny and ridiculous as is usual for the boys.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we have Jaegir. The beginnings of what looks to story a grim story of war on an alien planet. We follow Kapiten-Inspector Atalia Jaegir as she hunts war criminals on behalf of the ‘Office of Public Truth’ and it is everything you would want from a sci-fi war story – factions that hate each other, a mutation strain, the soldiers hating any and every kind of government, it ticks all the boxes, and I cannot wait to see how deep this world goes because I love me some good new galaxies to explore.
So there you have it, Prog 1874. It’s good. It’s dam good. The Mighty Tharg has once again served us a great slab of meaty entertainment. It’s only available for a week so what are you still doing here, go out and get it fellow Earthlets and be entertained!
[easyreview cat1title=”The Arcade Verdict” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”10″]
