2000AD #2215 Review

Writers: Mike Carroll; Alec Worley; Pat Mills; Mike Carroll; Rob Williams
Artists: William Simpson; Ben Willsher; Leonardo Manco; Jake Lynch; Simon Fraser
Colours: Jim Boswell
Letters: Annie Parkhouse; Jim Campbell; Simon Bowland
Publisher: Rebellion

In Judge Dredd: Desperadlands, Dredd’s trip to South America on the trail of a rogue Judge has gone wrong, getting himself captured.

There’s a bit of an info-dump this episode as we learn the character’s motivations. The action has shifted to indoors with plenty of close ups, more suited to the art style of Will Simpson, which makes the story a lot easier to follow. It looks ugly and brutal, with characters frequently caught in weird poses from strange angles, and body proportions frequently look a bit strange,  but generally it works better than it has.

If anything though, there’s a bit too much going on in the story. There are several characters eager to explain their motivations, none of them overly compelling.

Durham Red: Served Cold descends into a massive shootout as the bad guys storm the small town prison where Durham and the local sheriff are holding out in a Precinct 13-style scenario. It’s a run and gun episode, with some lovely clear art from Ben Willsher.

Slaine is aided by the ghosts of his ancestors in a battle against some men on dragon-back in Slaine: Dragontamer. Leonardo Manco’s art continues to be magnificent, whilst the plot and dialogue continue to be typically unrefined Slaine; Slaine repeats himself and others, bad guys monologue, good guys monologue, and Slaine finds himself assisted by the incredibly powerful ghost ancestors he just found out he has, but who failed to provide any assistance to him in the last forty years of stories. It makes slightly less sense that the last season of Game of Thrones, but every panel is beautifully gory and packed with dragons.

In Hershey: The Brutal, Judge Hershey finally gets the backstory she’s always been missing, whilst Dirty Frank gradually gets back to his old self, narrating his way through a boxing match. Whilst I have reservations about the existence of this story, it’s gradually winning me over, if only because the tragi-comedy of Dirty Frank is so compelling.  Simon Fraser's art, with stripped back colours that emphasis the mood, is realy quite somethings, and it's nice to see a an older female judge drawn as her actualy age rather than in a state of perpetual youth.

I’m really enjoying Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor, probably because it’s quite different from anything else. Colourful and strange, with weird, distorted characters, and often quite heavy dialogue. With the bloodshed of The Silent assault over, we’re back to exposition, but there;s still time for new characters and for a hint of Proteus’s backstory.