3 out of 5

Solid. Great? …No, but we get three consistent ongoings of various flavors, and some rotating spots that are smartly used in equally consistent ways, whether for Future Shocks / 3rillers, or the recent Rogue Trooper world explorations. That consistency and range of styles is what 2000 AD is best at, and while none of these tales necessarily knocked my socks off, any long run where I don’t hesitate to read any particular thrill is a good one.

In the Dredd spot, a wonderful 2-parter from Niemand and Assirelli kicks us off – Niemand working his corner of the Dreddverse, bringing back the kickass bot-repairer lady; Assirelli’s art of that reliably gritty but loose Flint style, and has quickly become a fave of mine to see on a title – before we slump back in to the somber, dire Rob Williams Dreddverse. I know Williams has his fans, and I appreciate how seriously he takes the stuff, but it’s like one step removed from 90s gritty style – just written with better prose – that it tends to irk me. “Tunnels,” with R. M. Guera matches Williams’ previous outing with the artist, putting Joe into unusual territory and tracking down a singular baddie. It’s… fine. It would’ve worked (for me) better as a pared down Meg tale, maybe a 2-parter. Delays put the ending of this one on hold while we cycled through some one-offs from Karl Stock and John McCrea (!) – Stock, as far as I’m concerned, is king of the brutally acerbic Dredd oners – an unnecessarily complex nothing-burger from Geoffrey D. Wessel and Nick Roche (“nothing-burger” because it reeks of a story forced out only because the opportunity to write one arose; Roche, previously only in Regeneds, I think, would be great to see more of, though); and then Niemand returns with Cam Smith for a kind of harmless tale that feels like setup for something more.

For the 3rillers, Alan Kerr and Ian Richardson give us “Far Below Eden,” which has an interesting premise of a world overrun by parasitic plant life, squaring off against the humans trying to settle there, but gets a little lost in trying to double and triple down on twists that aren’t all that twisty. Following this, Relict – Simon Bowland, Honor Vincent – is something I’d love to love, but it’s like 100s more pages of world-building than the three entries can afford (like, I can imagine Simon pitching this as a strip, and Tharg saying no, “but how about a 3riller?”). It’s setup of one smart rat trying to lead his less-smart brethren against vermin foe is really compelling, and the kind of oddball stuff I like seeing in the non-Dreddverse strips, it just doesn’t get off the ground. 3rillers are tough.

The rotating Rogue spot starts off with the three part “The Major” from Rennie and Jake Lynch. Steeped in lore, and designed expertly, the tale of a trooper with dueling personalities is ultimately a bit underwhelming – it’s slightly more cerebral than its action-y stylings suggest. Interesting, if a slight tonal misfire (and / or it needed more room). This then becomes “Nu Earth War Tales” on and off, with different teams: Rennie and Silvia Califano, then Rennie and Pete Doherty, Rennie again very lore-heavy in these two oners, to the extent that it feels like you need some foreknowledge to appreciate them; and Stock and Karl Richardson give us a two-parter that ends a little dumb, but has a really (appreciably) mean-spirited setup in terms of how some Norts treat their Souther prisoners.

Finally, we have three other main strips that carry us through this long run: Ravilious Pact, from T.C. Eglington and Steve Austin; another Azimuth entry from the usual Abnett and Bettin team; and the return of Scarlet Traces, from Ian Edginton and D’Israeli.

Let’s start with Azimuth. This has been an interesting extension to the Sinister Dexter world, but once the connection was revealed, it’s been a little bumpy to see how Dan wanted to tie things back together – i.e. the “trick” of titling the strip something else inevitably makes it feel like a side story. I think the fun of the twist was worth it (and we’ve gotten additional bumps in that vein along the way), but nonetheless: time to get a move on. And this run is essentially that turning point. Smartly, from a reread point of view, Dan’s not rushing it – now that we’re at this point, he’s making sure it makes contextual sense – and it’s a good run, however, that does render these thrills as something of a waiting game for a forthcoming conclusion. (Or the next big twist, I suppose.)

Scarlet Traces has an adjacent struggle, having sort of “concluded” in 2021, though with a stinger letting us know it was returning at some point. Now is that time, and Edginton needs to A. reintroduce us to the world and B. reset some stakes. Ian does a good job on both, but the similarity to Azimuth is in how this feels like a warm up. Which seems odd, because there is a nice, chunky mystery of Martian oddities reappearing after their defeat, and a really well executed action set piece towards the end, but there’s never the sense that this particular run is the main story – like, again, it’s just setup.

Ravilious Pact was a nice surprise, getting right down to business and never exploding the strip into something its premise couldn’t support. Eglington / Austin give us an outline of a gangster family, losing its patriarch, then add a sci-fi wrinkle via the family’s use of arcane powers (particularly demon possession) to stay on top. The patriarch’s son clashes with the main enforcer – Ravilious – who really doesn’t want the crown, and our creative duo effectively amps this up over all the thrills to a quality showdown. It could end; it could continue; I’d be happy with either, as this was a fully told story, but definitely leaves stuff on the table to explore.