4 out of 5

Definitely one for the fans.

I’m sure this was a tough call in terms of overall design for editor Matt Smith.  Under his guidance, the mag (I believe) has slowly gained prominence, grabbing a trickle of American readers via cross-pollination with IDW, and with US-sized issue reprints of notable titles.  He’s made sure to arrange the thrills to keep classics and standbys rotating through while allowing spots for new projects, and spaces jumping-on issues out appropriately.  While shaping the long-running series up, he’s never sacrificed some core elements that make 2000 AD 2000 AD.  So the mag has specials and anniversaries with accompanying “bumper” issues, but its kept at a respectable pace so that, quite unlike Marvel and DC, it doesn’t feel like we’re celebrating something random every other week just to get an extra book on the shelves.

So,in 2016, in a short period of time we hit a few important landmarks, most notably 40 years, and the 2000th prog.  In AD as well as the Meg, there were preparatory and celebratory stories, and thus Matt Smith must’ve been left with quite a question of how to differentiate the celebrations.

In the end, he took a note from their FCBD offerings of combining the old and the new, and managed to squeeze out a pretty original approach: Having Tharg have his say on one page introductions to each thrill, these intros drawn by some legendary dudes who  haven’t been seen in the book in quite some time – Brian Bolland!  Mick McMahon! – and then having the stories themselves be a compressed tour of the book’s different eras, starring, again, some surprises (Mills and Kev O’Neill on a new Nemesis story…), as well as some genius collabos (Kingdom’s Richard Elson and Gordon Rennie on a Rogue Trooper tale).

The plus/minus is that there’s no quarter given to those without any context.  The Nemesis story made zero sense to me, having never read the series before, and the SinDex bit relies on some cute nostalgia.  I also wish I had been in on whatever Tharg was joking about related to regrettable 90s series.

But that’s not why the minused star.  Nah, that’s because of Pete Milligan.  His Counterfeit Girl already sounds like the forced cool / poetic style the writer prefers, but whatever; the appeal of 2000 AD, in part, ate the options, so Millie’s approach may rub me the wrong way, but there are other stories to read.  However, while I understand including one modern tale in the book to complete the historical tour the issue takes, making it the only ongoing – the rest ate self-contained – feels like it undermines the experience.  I feel like debuting a standalone preview thrill might’ve worked better, or better yet, a call out to an established, modern thrill.  Since the rest of the issue is so fan-geared, I feel like doing something along these lines instead of a To Be Continued would’ve solidified the awesomeness of the reading experience.

Guys, it was just one issue and I’ve written too much already.  In forty years we can come back and I’ll write a retrospective on this review.