4 out of 5

Man, Matt Smith at 2000 AD has me over a barrel.  Not only am I addicted to the weekly mag and the monthly Dredd version, which cost a pretty penny here in American-land, but then we also get occasional trades dropped on us and now a 2000 AD imprint (and some things through Titan, apparently) for producing glossy, regular-sized versions of strips that appeared elsewhere.  I mean, maybe Jaegir is original, but the character must’ve been a creation of Rennie’s in the Rogue Trooper world prior to this one-shot.  Either way, I’m stuck: I’m buying it all, and enjoying it all, and then there’s the extra hit of getting introduced to awesome creators like Rennie, whose Renegade Press ‘Dept. of Monsterology’ series was similarly great.  Gordon sorta sticks with the tradition of classic 2000 AD writing – occasional satire, but first and foremost focused on just making a good tale.  He’s not trying to break new ground and make us consider our deepest, darkest secrets; he’s just writing quality comics.

And Jaegir is consistent with that.  Atalia Jaegir is a Kapiten-Inspector of a small crew of the Nordland State Security Police, tracking down traitors against the state.  She’s recruited by Colonel-Inspector Nerria from the Office of Genetic Purity to track down a Strigoi from a high-caste family; Strigoi’s are mutants, regular folk turned murderous and crazed by an inherited genetic flaw.  They thus follow an instinct to destroy their own kin to, probably, kill the strain before it takes hold of their family.  As Atalia has some history with the man before he was a Strigoi, Nerria thinks she’s up to the task… and further extends a job offer, doing good for her country with more freedom than her current role might allow.  Rennie skillfully takes us through bits of Atalia’s past, which she uses to inform her search for the Strigoi, who has evolved a bit more consciousness than previous mutants.  And further highlighting Gordon as one of our top-tier 2000 AD writers, he gives us a legit ending: some character building for his lead, a wrap-up that’s a sensible extension of themes explored earlier on.  And this is all gloriously illustrated by Simon Coleby, with Len O’Grady’s colors somehow making the generic wreckage backgrounds of the Rogue Trooper world feel fresh from panel to panel.

Now due to this being a one-shot, some of it is insanely compressed – Rennie stuffs some extra missions in there and some scene transitions are rather jarring… par for the course for 2000 AD, perhaps, but taken out of that context and put into a regular comic, it makes you wonder why all the excess.  Still, these fast-paced moments are clear and understandable (text-wise and visually), they just don’t necessarily add to the narrative of this one, impressive tale.