2000AD #2198 REVIEW

Writers: Rob Williams; Dan Abnett; Kek-W; Gordon Rennie
Artists: Henry Flint; Marc Harrison; Nicolo Assirelli; David Roach; Dom Reardon
Colours: Chris Blythe: John Charles; Peter Doherty
Letters: Annie Parkhouse; Simon Bowland; Jim Campbell
Publisher: Rebellion


Last week’s big twist can’t have been a huge surprise to many. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stalk the Earth and the Last Horseman is Dredd. After all, who is the biggest bad in the Dredd-universe but the man himself?

Still, this prog’s Judge Dredd: End of Days manages to take this heavily foreshadowed zinger and up the ante, pulling shocking events from writer Rob William’s magic hat. Terrible events occur at such a pace in these five pages that artist Henry Flint almost has difficulty keeping up, with world shaking events tossed out in a bare handful of panels.

It all takes a turn for the worst to such an awful extent that a complete deus ex machina turnaround seems more likely than ever. This would be both entirely understandable given that Rob William’s has destroyed so much in the last few weeks, and a terrible shame. Judge Dredd doesn’t do retcons; nothing gets reset by a magic crystal Mcguffi and we don’t jump elsewhere in the multiverse just because a new writer is brought onboard.
If there's any problem here it's in depicting Horseman Dredd as a spiky, yammering madman.  The character's power come from unblinking faith and controlled rage, not his violence.  For that bottled anger to have simply been re-directed into purposeful world destruction could have been so much more powerful.
 

Also, that head is definitely getting bigger, but no-one seems to have mentioned it…

The Out gives additional background to Cyd’s intergalactic adventures, with an explanation of her troubled past. It’s another text heavy episode, with a barebones premise. Cyd seems to be speaking directly to the reader, the in-world logic stripped away.

The Out continues to be wonderfully written, quite touching story about looking for meaning after losing a child. It’s been almost devoid of action: episodes skirting around a refugee crisis and interplanetary war have featured very little in the way of violence. Instead, The Out has focussed onthe drama of fleeting but important relationships. Maybe not for everyone, this continues to be a beautiful, touching story.

Tharg’s 3rillers: Saphir has jumped from 19^th century detective story to all-action adventure as Investigator Surete and Jorg battle the hordes of the Carrion Men. This is writer Kek-W at the top of their game, establishing a crazy new world and its pseudoscientific/occult dream logic whilst never slowing down. As a three part format, 3rillers live or die by their third party twist, but this is looking good so far.

The blunt political parody might be lost on international readers. If so, count yourself lucky you’ve managed to escape hearing of the politician in question (or his nanny).

We also get a couple of perfectly fine episodes from Sinister Dexter: Ghostlands and The Diaboliks: A Crooked Beat.

Sinister Dexter: Ghostlands continues to piece together the latest of its massive arcs, with guns-for-hire Finnigan and Ramone meeting up with old friends. It’s a walk and talk episode, linking previous point points together and reminding us of the bigger picture: entirely necessary in the longer term and with some nicely crafted dialogue, but hardly thrilling in itself. As “Part One of Chapter Three” of the most recent story featuring the gunshark duo, this is maybe a story to read in one go.

In The Diaboliks: A Crooked Beat, a new threat is introduced just as punk rockstar Johnny Pazazu joins the ranks of the demon busting gang. We get a nice bit of backstory, and an efficient introduction to new villains in five pages that can’t really be faulted.

In all, a decent Prog that does what it should...but even the shocking events of End of Days can't lift it beyond functional.