4 out of 5

Had some doubts swayed; Niemand settles into a comfortable cache of characters for Dredd; Proteus Vex rules; and Brink pretty much tramples on every 2000 AD storytelling stereotype by going for 15+ chapters, and relying almost solely on talking heads. (…To be utterly awesome, mind you.)

In the Dredd spot, Kenneth Niemand does it all: pretty serious work with Nick Percival’s painted art on Iron Teeth, concerning a folklore bogeyman in the Undercity; classic Mega City Grant / Wagner snark in Radicalised – a perfect snipe at modern day politics with fittingly cranky art from John McCrea; and some offhand fiddling with his growing cast of created characters – Richard Elson takes Kenneth’s con artist necromancers out for a pretty silly journey. Radicalised worked really well for me; Iron Teeth treads water a bit but makes smart use of Percival, and adds some more to the darker side of Niemand’s MC-1 lore; The Bam-Hunters is the Elson-drawn jam, and maybe the most tired – I generally love Elson, but his art felt somewhat mismatched to the comedic timing. This is also present in the script, though, as you get the feeling that Kenneth wants / wanted to move the narrative along (or was asked to bring back the duo), but was kind of forcing it. Nothing horrible, though! I’ve yet to read a Niemand Dredd that’s made me not want to see where it goes.

Aquila finishes strong; the bulk of this appeared in the last set of reviewed progs.

Also finishing, also strong: Proteus Vex. There’s not much to add here, except that Carroll and Lynch land the ending, and – spoiler – leave room for more, just in case. (Because: yes.) Looking back on this, I think having Flint start out the art worked in the strip’s favor, because it’s super weird, and pretty damn complex, and Flint’s art stretches your brain noodles to work with that. Lynch is more “traditional,” but has a great design sense that anted up to the groundwork Flint provided perfectly, and served to kind of ground the strip in a way as it got heavier and gorier; I feel like it would’ve needed a slightly different tone with the original artist. Anyhow, I imagine the story at this point would be confusing as heck for newbies, but there are so many cool concepts stated or shown that I can also see it being a good hook for catching up. As suggested above, returning readers shouldn’t be disappointed; similarly, if you’re already turned off by it, the conclusion is still in the same vein as before.

Intestinauts: a full run contained within. Arthur Wyatt has continued to find ways to expand on these Innerspace bowel cleaners in ways that shouldn’t work; the idea of basing a strip around lil’ nanobot virus fighters feels like it couldn’t exist past its original 3riller, but here we are, actually developing lore. Pye Parr’s insanely playful, border-breaking art is a huge part of this – some especially great, Jason Shiga-like puzzle layouts here – but Wyatt also has carved out a great niche for the characters, leaning in to a kind of video game quest-like structure, then successfully discovering fun, stake-full plot wrenches to throw into the gears.

3Riller ‘Blue Skies over Deadwick’ is a plus/minus. I love seeing Nick Brokenshire in the progs – Nick’s got this fantastic line that nibs from Quitely’s fine-lined precision, but is mapped to a kind of Cameron Stewart cartoonishness. It’s a glorious, kooky fit for Thrills. And David Baillie’s story is compelling, covering a band of humans who have to continually battle city-sized, bi-pedal machines that periodically come their way. But it feels like the story is a bit too big for three-part britches, and makes some big leaps to get to a conclusion which undermine the impact. Still, it’s a bold concept, well arted, and certainly interesting enough that an expansion would be worthwhile, if possible.

Geoffrey D. Wessel kicks off a Rogue Trooper strip, with Dan Cornwell on art. This is the one that swayed my doubts, as I hadn’t thought much of a GN Wessel wrote, and so I wasn’t looking forward to this. Hackles raised, I think I was too on guard on my first read; upon a reread, this is a solid story, though it gets a little woo-woo for my tastes towards its conclusion, and Dan’s art maybe isn’t “weighty” enough for Rogue. Criticisms aside, Wessel writes Rogue in a way that lets us know that he knows the history, and also doesn’t try to blow the roof off with his first outing: it’s a pretty tight rescue tale with a good twist, and once you adjust to Dan’s take on the world, it all fits together very well.

Lastly: Brink. See above. I won’t say there are some times where I look at dialogue pages and sigh, but once I start reading… I’m sucked in. Bridget, intended to be on something of a break between cases at a waypoint, decides to check out sect activity at said waypoint, and gets tossed in the middle of investigations and interrogations regarding a serial killer. Yeah, it’s a sci-fi Line of Duty, or a more procedural Star Trek, or however you want to frame it. It’s fantastic.

Lastly lastly, ’cause it just started, Joe Currie and Michael Carroll start up Silver. Currie’s art is like an indiefied European style – Eddie Campbell’s mushiness with Quitely’s light touch (yes, two Quitely references); it’s an acquired taste, which has worked for me sometimes and not others. Off of Vex, Carroll seems to be in complex-storytelling mode, getting Silver off to a kind of messy start, and I’m not sure Joe is the best for its tone. A more paced, spaced-out artist might counter the compact narrative well. I won’t spoil much, ’cause that’s part of the story’s pitch, but overall this is a wait-and-see thrill.