2000AD #2227 Review

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

 

We’re into some nice police procedural territory in Judge Dredd: The Penitent Man. Accusations have been made that the Judge’s own internal affairs department are harrassing ex-convicts, and Dredd sets out to discover the truth.

There’s a nice handful of scenes this prog – Dredd meets up with Judge Buell in a shooting range to ask for his help, looks into the possibility that the whole thing is a lie by questioning a couple of citizens, whilst ex-Judge Asher is attacked. There’s a lovely flow between scenes, and it’s the details that make the world: The targets in the shooting range all look like judges; Dredd as a detective as well as a beat-cop; the brief history of an inexperienced judge who misreads a situation. The Penitent man continues to be a great story.
 

The internal affairs of the Special Judical Squad also make an appearance in Visions of Dead World: Leigh – albeit in a more obviously corrupt form.

The Deadworld saga – set in alternative version of Dredd-world where everything is extra awful and a bunch of occultists are gradually taking control – has become one of my favourite recurring strips. Each story is a snapshot taken from a different point of view and a different point of time, documenting the collapse of a society, whilst teasing a little bit more details about the characters involved. In Leigh, Judge Eastwood and her relationship with her partner is given central stage, but the final page reveal says something important about a different character entirely.

Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots continues to jog along nicely, the pieces of this psychological horror gradually falling into place. If you’re a fan of horror movies like Midsommar or the original Wickerman, then Thistlebone is for you. A slow burn, where things get progressively weirder, and all the characters seem to be losing their minds or have already happily embraced the chaos.

Seema visits cult-survivor Avril, who we last saw gouging her own eye out, but who now seems worryingly fine. Meanwhile, Creepy Malcolm has made off with the finding of an archaeological dig, and is getting his freak on

In Tharg’s 3-riller: Chorus & The Ring, a war-nun is in her spaceship-church on her way to prevent the war-pope’s super-ring from falling into the hands of bad-guys, and looks back on a previous battles which caused her to question her faith.

It all sounds incredibly silly...but is it instead an insightful look at the concept of religious fundamentalism, and how religious texts can be widely interpretative to justify acts or war and terror? About how individual morality can thrive and perhaps even flourish despite the smothering nature of institutionalised, heavily propagandised religious teachings? Is it a tale of how the very structures of religious fundamentalism will inevitably create the very moral vacuum they claim to oppose?

It might be, but it also has cool ninja space suits and flying churches.

Feral & Foe is fun, too. If you were to look at these pages without text, you might see a “passing through Moria and it all goes badly” fantasy story. The script, though, is filled with jokes about reanimated corpses that function like voicemail messages, and characters who bicker over the meaning of “bicker”. It’s an absolute joy.