2000 A.D. #2342 // Review
The assassin? He’s in trouble. Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe the guy’s still going to have to answer to Judge Dredd in 2000 A.D. #2342. The long-running anthology continues with an opening Dredd story by writer Ken Niemand, artist Tom Foster, and colorist Chris Blythe. There’s also a satisfyingly strange and chaotic ending to writer David Hine and artist Boo Cook’s “Void Runners” series. Writer Dan Abnett and artist Tazio Bettin start a whole new plot arc for their captivating “Azimuth” series that pulls the story away from Suzi Nine Milimetre.
The assassin’s outside The Bad Dragon. There are a couple of people in there who are on his list. They’re not being careful, so maybe they don’t know. It’s not difficult to gun one of them down. The other? The other he hands a wad of cash. Tells him that he should get out of Mega City One. He’s not going to kill him, but somebody else will. The guy takes the money and runs. Elsewhere, there are a couple of men on the run. They just got into town. There are a couple of cadavatars after them: Frank Sumatra and Lolly Pops.
Niemand’s Dredd story is interesting enough. The assassin with self-doubt trope is given a bit of a different angle than it usually does since the character in question is still largely a mystery as the “Fallen Man” story enters its second chapter. Abnett illustrates just what kind of badass Suzi Nine is by showing a couple of OTHER similar bounty hunters gunned down by someone who just blew into town. Though he IS an outsider like the reader, he’s just not as interesting as Suzi, so Abnett’s “Azimuth” feels a bit weaker than its opening story. That being said, the city of Azimuth itself remains just interesting enough to carry the series Suzi-less.
Bettin’s art on “Azimuth” carries the series brilliantly even in Suzi’s absence. The flood of different characters in crowd shots looks positively surreal. Mœbius’s Major Grubert makes a cameo. A statue of Atlas holds the wrecked Ferrari the current hero came in on while his Earth lies in rubble beneath him. It’s a weird visual funhouse. Cook’s “Void Runners” visuals are stunningly rich in depth, texture, and radiance as Hine wraps up his story. Mega City One gains a similarly rich atmosphere in the opening story with Chris Blythe layering in a lot of depth around the edges of the action.
One of the oldest running sci-fi comics anthologies continues to look good as it pushes into the second half of its fifth decade in existence. Abnett is a major talent working on a number of different series for a number of different companies, but his work in 2000 A.D. continues to be some of his best. Dredd might seem a bit tired even in his current series, but he maintains a solid presence as a second mascot behind its fictional editor Tharg the Mighty.
