3 out of 5

While the serials in 2000 AD and The Meg show a mastery of the anthology format, there has to be a place to try out some new things, or odds and ends.  Sometimes these do pop up between stories as fillers; The Meg has more room for a semi-regular one shot.  But still – editor Matt Smith needs a place to let new talent shine.  So after a long pause, we have the return of some yearly specials.  Now there is some all-star action in here, but there’s also quite an amateur feel to a couple of stories – like Durham Red, and the Future Shock.  The combo keeps the read bopping along well enough, and also offers the possibility for spotting your next favorite talent, although this issue doesn’t feel like the best opportunity for that.  There’s also the problem of the shortened page length available for each story, making almost every entry feel like just flashes of a larger tale (like a preview), save the Dredd story, since Dredd is a character we’re used to having adapted in stories of all sizes.  Lastly, hard to say why this is a “sci-fi special,” since 2000 AD is already sci-fi.  The 2015 version would solve this by giving the issue an actual theme; the 2014 edition feels a bit random without that.

Also: I pulled the whole “new talent” explanation out of my ass.  The writers whose names are unfamiliar to me could be wicked famous, I dunno.

It’s cool seeing some characters like Sam Slade and Rogue Trooper who haven’t gotten much play in the main mags in recent past.  Still, this is holdover reading for us 2000 AD addicts, not really required reading for the casual comic booker.