3 out of 5

I believe I’ve echoed this elsewhere, but: god bless Matt Smith.  Obviously the writers and artists who’ve developed the 2000 AD world – here’s looking at you, Mr. Wagner – are to be bowed to for providing us with the creative material that stretches back 40+ years now, but running an anthology mag (or, yes, any publication) must be tuff, and the rotating Tharg’s of the 2000 AD world have, according to internet historians, had greater or lesser success at serving the mag’s best interests.  Smith is the latest generation, and I believe the longest-serving editor of the mag.  And his presence has given me a wonderful sense of history and familiarity when sampling the works under his purview; Dredd and gang don’t seem like aged properties that are attemptedly modernized – they feel fresh; they feel like evolutions of all that’s come before, while the mag is still capable of delivering exciting new sci-fi properties from newer creative writer / artist discoveries.

I enjoy the concept of anthologies, so I check out a lot of them.  Hence my belief that running them is tough.  Keeping quality high while maintaining some type of consistent identity (important for the mag to find an audience) without falling into repeats is an insane juggling act, not to mention that the short format is a special breed of writing.  2000 AD settled into what might be a perfect variation on this, by shifting between several serialized stories week to week.  The other thing it makes me realize, when reading something designed for full-length format like this Anderson mini (at least I believe it wasn’t previously serialized…), is that these 2000 AD worlds are very, very suited to the structure in which they’re presented.

So to combine these concepts: Anderson never falters.  Smith knows the world, knows the characters, knows the pacing, knows the voices.  For those who have trouble tracking down the UK stuff or would hesitate to buy the collections, I would say that Smith’s writing is a perfect intro to the high-concept condensed world-building at which the mag excels.  The tale of Anderson stumbling across evidence of a secret puppet master crime boss directing the flow of crime in several sectors is a graspable concept to anyone new to the world, while also giving Smith space to talk about Psi division and explore different sectors and even toss in a sensible Dredd cameo.  However, the big-realization quick-conclusion pace is a bit underwhelming at four issues, whereas expanded to 8 progs would’ve offered just enough spacing for the beats to hit a bit better and make the big bad a tad more threatening.  The end result is an enjoyable bite-sized mag that doesn’t really add too much to the Dredd world but serves as a fun sampling of the sci-fi action and character explorations that 2000 ADs main property can offer.