2000AD #2231 Review

Writers: Michael Carroll; TC Eglington; Arthur Wyatt; John Tomlinson; Dan Abnett
Artists: Simon Fraser; Simon Davies; Pye Parr; Anna Morozova; Richard Elson
Colours: Gary Caldwell
Letters: Annie Parkhouse; Simon Bowland; Pye Parr; Jim Campbell
Publisher: Rebellion

Citizen Adalisa Brown inherits the family business empire in Judge Dredd: Easy Money. Another Dredd story where the focus is on citizens rather than Dredd himself, Easy Money nicely sets up its multilayered character. There are two twists in five pages, both of which would be strong enough to hold on a story on its own. A strong introduction to a story that could head in any direction.

Comic book lettering is an art hidden in plan sight. When done well, lettering not only effortlessly conveys tone and emotion, but seamlessly directs the reader through the story. We don’t rave about good lettering enough. Pye Parr’s lettering on Tharg’s 3riller: Intestinauts: Symbiotic Love Triangle is simply gorgeous. In fact, visually the whole thing is just packed with beautiful detail and design.
Gut parasite busting nanobot I-R-404 has merged with the Venom-esque synthetic bodysuit he was sent to destroy. Together they search for the bodysuit’s original owner, so I-R-404 can be flushed down a toilet and return to his squad. The set up might sound as convoluted as the name “Tharg’s 3riller: Intestinauts: Symbiotic Love Triangle”, but the story just flows. Intestinauts really deserves to be promoted from occasional treat to a regular feature.

The tension is ratchet up a notch in Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots as we discover the murderous Malcolm isn’t acting alone. Amid stories of future cops and runaway robots, Thistlebone is a bit of an odd fit – a slow burn horror of the possibly-but-maybe-not-supernatural variety, akin to something like Midsommar or the Wicker Man. Much of the story has been characters having conversations, occasionally wandering in the woods, interspersed with a bit of nightmare imagery. This week, we finally learn exactly what happened at the doomed camping trip so many years ago, as the light-hearted art style used for flashbacks clashes with the morbid reality.

Future Shocks: Goodbye to Zane has a huge amount going on. Private investigator Zane Grey is investigating a series of strange deaths at a tech company and things unsurprisingly spiral out of control. There’s a massive amount of world building squeezed into this story, making it a bit disorientating – which is in keeping with the general theme, but information on Zane’s possible STD and history of his facial scar, thrown in with a bit of impromptu poetry and set in an environment of big screens and playpark slides...it’s lovely, funny and smart, but might need a couple of readthroughs to catch everything.

It’s grim up north in Feral & Foe. The trio of adventurers are still searching for the Malignant Chalice (The Chalice of Malice) and their quest has taken them to The Shining City of the Pass. Once a glorious and forward looking city in the north of the nation, after a devastating war all that now remains are drab ruins, with nary an inn in sight. There’s a joke in there somewhere about them probably voting Tory.

Even in these downbeat points, Feral & Foe is huge fun. Three characters chatting, comfortable in each other’s company, feels gently enticing. It looks like high fantasy. The script is self-aware but not gratingly so, gently joshing with fantasy tropes. Just why are there so few roadside inns in Tolkien?