2000AD #2226 Review

Writers: Kenneth Niemand; TC Eglington; Kek-W; James Peaty; Dan Abnett
Artists: Tom Foster; Simon Davies; Dave Kendall; Mike Collins; Richard Elson
Colours: Chris Blythe; Dylan Teague
Letters: Annie Parkhouse: Simon Bowland; Jim Campbell
Publisher: Rebellion

Imagine living in a world where law enforcement officers use illegal methods to maintain the status quo, brutally crushing anyone who questions their authority.

Difficult to envision, I know, but that’s the situation former Judge Asher has found himself in in Judge Dredd: The Penitent Man. This second part is mostly a head to head between Asher, recently released after a twenty year sentence for murder, and Dredd, who has murdered an uncountable number of people within the confines of the law.

It’s nice to see Dredd almost speechless as he’s confronted with a guy he’d simply assumed was the villain, struggling to confront the moral abyss at the heart of the justice system.

Tharg’s 3-riller: Chorus and the Ring answers that age old question - What if “nun”, but also “katana wielding ninja k-iller”? In a distant future, the War-Pope is dead and a nun/commando is ordered to retreive their signet ring, in case some bad guys use it to...become Pope?  Is that how Pope-dom works?

The first of three episodes, this is all set up and backstory. There’s some nice design work in the art and some frankly bonkers ideas, but as with everything else in the 3parter format, it’s too early to tell if this wil be any good.

I’m enjoying the quiet sense that something is brewing in Thistlebone. Malcolm was a background character in the original Thistlebone story, used pretty much as a red herring and notable only for wearing a green coat. Here, his troubled background is slowly revealed.

The flashback to a scouts camping trip is presented with such a lighthearted art style, its a nice cover for the dark truth of what might actually be going on as the other scouts stumble upon Mr Strachan and a terrified young Malcolm wandering in the woods.

I also enjoy how the Deadworld saga has given twisted but human personalities to characters who were previously just scary. Judge Mortis, a guy who for thirty years has been famous for having a horse skull for a head, spends his time appreciating the beauty of decay and decrepitude,

In Visions of Deadworld: The Man who Killed Mortis, the apocalypse is well under way and Mortis is enjoying a nice day out looking at corpses, when a dastardy judge comes along and ruins things. This is another fantastical skin-crawler to add to the Deadworld of Kek-W.

The fantasy genre can be a bit stodgy at times. Tolkien knew his stuff, obviously, but its not exactly rip-roaring adventure, reading about some short guys walking across a continent and talking to trees. Feral & Foe is a fantasy series in which the characters get lost, get into arguments and have fights, not taking itself at all seriously.

There’s a Freaky Friday set up with two characters swapping bodies and having to cope with the fallout. There’s a zombie in the back of a cart and anachronistic jokes about takeaway food. Feral and foe is just fun.