4 out of 5

Interestingly, it looks like the 2000 AD floppies are starting to get into current generation reprints, meaning stuff I’ve actually read before.  While I could get flippant about that, with Helium – Ian Edginton’s and D’israeli’s sci-fi tale about a world segregated into above / below cultures by an (assumedly) impenetrable cloud that’s poison to the touch – it shows this will be a fine way to revisit things.  The weekly, broken up format of 2000 AD is fantastic for attention spans, but it also allows one to experience the stories in a particular fashion, and maybe not every writer syncs with that.

Edginton in particular I’ve criticized for his pacing issues: world-building explodes in fits, and his sense of conclusion per prog is non-existent.  So with Helium, which looks fantastic thanks to D’israeli’s color and designs and excellent choreography, and features Edginton’s reliably exciting imagination, was hiccupy in the weekly thrill setup.  Presented as one book, the rush of reading it all together negates the negatives… up until the very end, when the lack of conclusion leaves you high and dry and you’re left to wonder at the direction things took – so much, so quickly – when there was already a ton of potential of interest with just the initial story seeds.

Which, wink, was my resultant opinion when reading this before, but I still enjoyed the return.