3 out of 5

This is a surprisingly self-contained set, with only Brink lingering after 2399 (pausing for a Meg crossover in 2400). With that, I kind of wish the stories were stronger, but it’s satisfying that when 2000 AD is running at baseline, it’s still quite great.

Wagner and Colin MacNeil continue their cycle of (essentially) AI exploration with Machine Rule, finally crossing that we-knew-it-was-coming narrative Rubicon where the Mech judges realize that true safety means taking complete control of the judge system, yadda yadda. To his credit, Wagner holds a kind of midline on this, somewhat making the case for the mechs being right, only it’s not really clear if we’re supposed to be stirred by Joe’s discontent over the takeover – like, I think a more interesting line to tread would be Joe’s acceptance if this was really the Chief Judge’s wish, but his complaint is more, just, the same AI fears we currently have: we can’t trust the robots. The fact that there’s not much more to this – the run ends very unceremoniously – makes me feel like the lack of deeper thought is part of the design, holding back on future revelations, but at the same time… He Did The Thing. The robots took over, and, spoiler, they didn’t win. I really enjoyed reading this, and I think John’s waffling was a lot better than just going full bore AI-is-evil, but either the writer wrote himself into a corner of narrative inevitability, or we’ll see some new wrinkle down the road.

Geoffrey D. Wessel continues a run of Rogue strips, with Paul Marshall on black and white (or rather greytones – from Pippa Bowland) art. I really didn’t like my introduction to Wessel (outside of 2000 AD, on War Birds), but his Rogues have been solid, if unremarkable. Each one so far gets to a point where the narrative stalls, and that’s the case here – where Rogue teams up with a Nort soldier to take on a presumed alien invader. The ideas are good, and Wessel has shown great story telling sensibilities for the first few thrills, but then we hit that point, and it feels like the writer is stretching to figure out a conclusion. As with the Dredd entry, it kind of puts the end tally as average, and if that stretching lasted for more than a thrill or so maybe my take would be more negative, but I still look forward to the writer getting more and more comfortable on the title.

David Barnett’s post-3riller Herne & Shuck continues, with Lee Milmore on art. The expansion of this into further mythmaking – different types of demons and creatures – is fun, though the world feels a bit empty. The characters are sketches of personalities; the narrative kind of has a makeshift feel – problems generated just for the sake of it. Milmore’s art is a plus/minus in this regard, as it brings a lot of character, but is also kind of empty, like the writing and art both are very focused only on what’s happening in-panel. I get that that’s comics, but the best ones are a kind of magic trick that immerses us, and I’m not there yet. But as Herne and Shuck continue searching for a safe home for their charge, our creators give us some successfully distracting showdowns, and a pretty great concluding shock.

Mike Carroll and Joe Currie’s Silver: a wacky mash-up of sci-fi and vampires. …And… that’s all you can say so far. This is a lot of sound and fury that, frankly, isn’t working very well, and it’s unfortunately due to a bad pairing: I love Currie’s Moebius / Quitely style, and Carroll’s harsh, harsh world (we’ve been taken over by a militant alien race; a death dealing vamp is our only savior) is a delight, but the art isn’t building the world or these characters well, with messy action and pacing (both a writing and art criticism) not giving us stakes or an emotional hook whatsoever. Man, I want this one to work, but it really wasn’t. Repeating a trend, though, I was so interested in this, conceptually, that I kept coming back every week, hoping it would click. Maybe the readers will approve and we’ll get another go to see if it can shape up.

Lastly: Brink. 20+ installments! I’ll allow that… this is going to read better collected. I have been on board with the talking heads the majority of the way through this, but Abnett is playing around with some of his longest stretches yet of straight dialogue, and because the plot is pretty wayward – Kurtis is between missions on another hab, then gets casually involved with an investigation that may or may not be sect – and we’re ping-ponging back and forth with the same characters seemingly flipping allegiances, it’s admittedly proving a bit tiring week by week. But: then every few thrills, Dan will drop some killer moment and I’m totally back on board. So, again: will read better collected.