Welcome to 2026AD, my weekly blog series taking a look at every issue of 2000AD released this year. This week, it’s Prog 2465.
Judge Dredd: Death of a Judge
- Annie Parkhouse (Letterer)
- Chris Blythe (Colourer)
- John Wagner (Writer)
- Mike Perkins (Artist)
There’s a nice focus pull this issue as we start to view evens from the outside with the Mechanismo units returned to the street. Wagner also does a neat job of having the Justice Department make exactly no bones about the consensus they’re manufacturing in the blood of some luckless criminals and a darkly comic positive photo opportunity for the Mechanismo units. It’s a fun scene, giving Chris Blythe, Annie Parkhouse and Mike Perkins a chance to flex some nasty cybernetic muscles. It also sets up Dredd being on the back foot for the first time in a while which is especially fun.
Herne & Shuck: Power Trip
- Annie Parkhouse (Letterer)
- Gary Caldwell (Colourer)
- David Barnett (Writer)
- Lee Milmore (Artist)
Herne arrives in Newcastle to ask for Brigantia’s vote and finds he’s not the only one to have fallen on hard times. Oh this is FUN! Lee Milmore’s precise lines and Gary Caldwell’s colours put me in mind of Gary Erskine’s work on Knghts of Pendragon which is a very high compliment from me. But what shines here is Parkhouse’s lettering and how it accentuates the beats of Barnett’s script and dialogue. All of which is underscored both by some nice urban fantasy beats and a quietly forceful message about how we all matter. Loved this.
Young Death: Fitting In
- Kek-W (Writer)
- Simon Bowland (Letterer)
- Tom Foster (Artist)
As I said last time, more Judge Death is a hard sell for me. And this almost sells it! Foster’s art is shot through with this great combination of painfully bright Cyberpunk colours and a grim filter that speaks to just how much Death’s original world is starting to nose over into its final dive. The story’s good too, Death being tested and passing, in the worst of ways, by his new partner. The depiction of the moral decay of the Judges, the way that mixes with Death’s proclivities and what that promises for the future is horrible and compelling. You can see why he falls, and in a single panel of a terrible smile, Bowland, Foster and Kek-W show us what he’ll look like. Still not a fan of the character but this is how you tell stories with him in 2026.
Azimuth: Cornered
- Dan Abnett (Writer)
- Matt Soffe (Colourer)
- Rob Steen (Letterer)
- Tazio Bettin (Artist)
Dexter and friends continue to run from the minotaur and form a plan to fight back. Bettin’s art, and Soffee’s colours, are lovely and there’s a great visual gag here with the impossible nature of their location and the minotaur pursuing them. This still suffers from lack of context for me though. Not a bad story at all, just one I’m coming to too late.
The Discarded
- Peter Milligan (Writer)
- Simon Bowland (Letterer)
- Jim Boswell (Colourer)
- Kieran McKeown (Artist)
Veera Banksy continues her search for her dad on the island penetentiary of Junkfall. Some great ideas, and Milligan can write climatepunk like nobody’s business but the pacing here is janky. I don’t know whether it’s Veera being erratic and out of her depth or something else but there’s an action beat for no reason other than variety and it takes you out of the story in a really surprising way. More specifically, it shifts focus away from this as a thriller to something close to parodic, Veera’s multiple references to ‘cop school’ really not helping with that. Early days for this one, but this week it falls flat.