2000AD #1894 Review

2000AD #1894 marks a continued strong performance for the weekly title. This week sees the same line up as last time, with Judge Dredd, Aquila, Brass Sun, Black Shuck and Jaegir.

First up is Judge Dredd, with an interesting new script from Michael Carroll. This new story plays up a culture shock scenario and looks like it’s set to highlight a lot about Mega City One, although the main plot is far from clear yet. Still, alongside the decent visual treatment from Paul Marshall, with Gary Caldwell on colors, this certainly isn’t a bad example of Dredd.

Secondly, we have more Aquila from Gordon Rennie. This issue doesn’t seem to advance the action that much, with Rennie writing more repetitive dialogue about gods, predictions and general moody main characters. Aquila is definitely a slow roller, but Leigh Gallagher’s grim visuals, with Dylan Teague’s similarly dark coloring, makes this worth a read at least once.

After this is the continuing Brass Sun. Ian Edginton offers an explosive sample this week with perhaps one of his best cliff hangers. Similarly, Inj Culbard continues to offer impressive, unique art work, although this issue is mostly blue with a hint of orange – then again, there’s little room for Culbard to flex some creative muscle this time.

Next is more Black Shuck. I’m not sure what to make of Leah Moore and John Reppion’s writing here – at times it’s very repetitive of what we already know and at others its either random or simply throwing in some action and violence to sustain interest. In short, it needs more substance. Visually, Steve Yeowell does a great job capturing the setting and Chris Blythe’s colors do a good job of working within the limited environments.

Finally, we have part 2 of the current Jaegir plot. Gordon Rennie writes with a better sense of pacing here and captures the political aspects of the series much more efficiently. It still feels expositional, but it’s an interesting delve into the Rogue Trooper universe. Likewise, Simon Coleby offers some grim and grotesque pencils with moody color from Len O’Grady, which both help support the themes and tone of Jaegir.