2000AD #2205 REVIEW

Writers: Rob Williams; Ian Edginton; James Peaty; Alec Worley
Artists: Dan Cornwell; D’Israeli; Paul Marshall; Tiernen Trevallion;Leigh Gallagher
Colours: Jim Boswell; Dylan Teague
Letters: Annie Parkhouse; Jim Campbell; Simon Bowland; Annie Parkhouse
Publisher: Rebellion

In Judge Dredd: They Shoot Talking Horses, Don’t They? Dredd and Anderson have found themselves about to be eaten by a swarm of spiders whilst hunting for demons. The whole story is a short epilogue to End of Day, winding up events by...

*checks notes*

...giving purpose to the life of a talking horse who once belonged to a trans-dimensional cowboy.

Like End of Days, They Shoot Talking Horses delves in Dredd’s back catalogue and revisits old ideas and characters. The deadly spiders have appeared before, and another fan favourite returns in an expected twist. It’s a nice idea and Dredd’s reaction to almost everything is comedically gruff, but the adventure ends with a sudden clunk.

More dialogue and exposition in Stickleback: New Jerusalem, as two mortal foes team up to defeat a greater evil. Understanding exactly what’s going on with depend on how much you remember about the last Stickleback storyline around six years ago. There’s ancient gods, human embodiments of cities, and biblical references. If you can hang on, though, Stickleback remains character filled fun.

It seems that everything that happens in Skiptracer: Hyperballad happens in order to facilitate the next action sequence. This Prog, Nolan and India end their detour by using the teleporter, only to land in trouble again. Once again, Nolan remembers his magical powers at the last moment, saving the day.

Skiptracer has its fans and it’s harmless fun, but it does little original within its pages.

Vampire Constanta’s origin story has involved talking hares, court intrigue and assassination, mournful wolves and fortune telling dragons. This weeks instalment adds a troll to the mix. Fiends of the eastern Front: Constanta is now five weeks and 25 pages in, and doesn’t look set to deliver a conclusion any time son.

Still, Tiernen Trevallion’s art is lovely to look at as we make our way through this delightfully rambling and very bloody fairytale

Hookjaw continues in its mission to be the weirdest re-imagining of the classic tale yet. Shark-mania has come to the small community where the monster lurks, and Jack is out to find the truth about how local drug dealers are directing things.

The monster finally makes an appearance and there’s another literally explosion of gore.

Next week, 2000AD will transform into one of its regular ”re-gened” issues, with stories aimed at younger readers. It’s a wonderful idea, but Rebellion find themselves in the weird position of showing a man’s head exploding as its crushed in the jaws of a demonic shark one week, and producing family-friendly stories for younger readers the next. Action comic, where Hookjaw first appeared back in 1976, only lasted a handful of issues; how long can 2000AD keep this up?