Comic Review: 2000AD PROG 1936- ‘It’s our defiance that makes us truly human.’

Publisher: Rebellion
Writers and artists: Various
Released: 24th June 2015



I hadn’t been counting it down, but I knew that it couldn’t last forever, and now the time has finally come. It’s the last issue of Slaine, after PROG 1936 it will be gone until 2016, and although I’m happy that it will return, it’s going to leave an irreplaceable gap in my comic book reading week for the rest of the year. Oh well, chin up boy, nothing lasts, enjoy the good times, as they won’t last forever, and so I intend to enjoy Slaine, and then wallow in misery and think about the good times when it’s gone. So, if you happen to see a lonely, bedraggled comic book reviewer in the pub over the next couple of months, be nice, the withdrawal symptoms are going to be tough on this one.

Enough of the silliness, and onto PROG 1936 of 2000AD which begins, as always, with Judge Dredd. This week he’s landed in Irish stereotype land. Get ready for some drinking, fighting and wife beating, ha ha ha, it’s so much fun laughing at the stupid drunken, funny talking Irish, and nobody is going to call you out on it either. When did it become okay to do that? I must have missed a memo or something, because in a day and age when people get upset and take massive offence at trivialities, it appears that the Irish stereotype is one thing that you are still allowed to get away with. Umm, I wonder why that is? Actually, I know why. It’s a pigmentation issue, if you know what I mean.

The next strip (Absalom) is about that annoying pub bore bloke, the guy with PC jokes masquerading as edgy social commentary. Okay, I’ll give him a second chance, lets see if he’s as irritating as he was last week. I’m all for second chances, not that anybody even gave me a first chance, but that’s another story.

Okay, we start with 80’s pop group references and care home children. Is this going to be about the ‘historic’ child abuse scandal that is going on in the UK at the moment? It kind of is, and it kind of isn’t. It’s talking about children being taken by establishment figures and used in a fictional fight against demons, but then it makes a mistake, choosing the easy target (Christianity) instead of focussing on the real life villains (politicians from all parties).

I understand that the Christian church is an easy target right now, but the child abuse scandals are not about the church, they are about politicians, and how paedophilia was (and still is) used to blackmail politicians into following the agenda of their masters. If you are going to do an ‘edgy’ story about 1980’s child-abuse, but with added demons and monsters to make it ‘sci-fi,’ why pretend that the abusers were Christians, when Christians had nothing to do with it?

The child abuse rings in the UK revolve around politicians and BBC celebrities, so why not be honest about it and give those poor old Christians a break for a change? I’m not a Christian myself, but this prolonged multifaceted attack on the Christian faith is starting to get very obvious now, and I’m getting really fed up with it. It’s cowardly, and in this particular story, completely unjustified.

Wow, the beginning of Slaine references the global flood, who was responsible, and why it was done. This is really exciting for me, as it ties into my own research on the subject. The narrative then hints at genetic manipulation by the ‘gods’ and the immortal spirit that reside in all of us.  I can’t quite believe that I’m reading about this kind of information in a mainstream comic book, this is great, and although I’m massively biased, you have to at least take some of my enthusiasm on face value and take a look at this for yourself.

No more spoilers, no more praise, get Slaine NOW. It’s the last chance that you’ll have to read it in 2000AD this year, and if you miss it and end up reading (and loving) it sometime in the distant future, remember that there was at least somebody out there who was raving about it on a weekly basis.

My review is going a bit long this week, so I’m thankful for Outlier/Dark Symmetries. It has no dialogue. I don’t know who is who, and there’s a fight going on, or something. I must be a bit dim, as I’ve read it two times and I can’t get anything out of it at all. This one has lost me. I’ve tried, but nope, I can’t get anything, nice art though.

Helium is much better. Not a lot happens this week, it’s a character building issue, but what does happen is very entertaining and genuinely funny as well. I like the main protagonist now and I want her to succeed, and coming from a cynical, angry old grump like myself, that’s a huge compliment.

I enjoyed two out of the five stories in PROG 1936 of 2000AD and I got a huge kick out of the superb front cover by Tiernen Trevallion. Two out of five, with an awesome cover, isn’t bad. I’m happy with that.

Helium is a very well written tale. I love the slow pacing, and the character building and I’m really getting into the story. Slaine/Primordial has been special, and I’ll go back now and read all of the stories together, savouring each gorgeously constructed panel and the best dialogue that I’ve read in a comic book for many a year. I’ll miss it, but it will return.

Last week I was blindsided by foolish optimism and purchased more than my usual share of DC Comic books. Man, was that a mistake. Listen to my advice. Don’t do it, they are bloody awful and aimed at a feminist studies student circa 1996. Who is buying this nonsense? It’s a mystery to me. You don’t get anywhere near as much of that US brand of PC nonsense in 2000AD, and Tharg’s book still feels somewhat like an old fashioned subversive comic book.

I can see signs of the PC brigade moving into 2000AD though, so I just hope that Tharg holds out against the tide of political correctness. It’s not going to be easy, but I have faith in the old alien. This era of the social justice warrior is killing comics for me, so I appreciate 2000AD more than ever. It’s not perfect, but there’s always something within its pages that brightens up my day, and compared to the teen feminism of DC, Marvel and most of the so-called ‘independent’ US comic books, 2000AD stands alone as something refreshingly alive and defiantly different.


Rating: 8/10 (For the Cover, Slaine and Helium)

* Quote in review title is a line of dialogue taken from Slaine. Without defiance what have we become? Cattle bred, and waiting for leisurely slaughter (that quote is from me). 

Comic Review: 2000AD PROG 1935- Defining the nature of darkness

Writers and artists: Numerous
Publisher: Revolution
Released: 17th June 2015


It’s been a tough, barren desert of a week for this comic book reviewer, with far too many useless DC Comic books wasting my time, and depressing my brain, so I’m going to finish the week on a high and review a comic book that always has something to offer. It’s not always great, but it’s always good, and after reading far too many childish superhero books that left absolutely no impression whatsoever (Doomed #1) it’s going to be a lot of fun to jump back to the UK and into PROG 1935 of good old 2000AD.

The book begins with Judge Dredd, and if you’ve read any of my previous reviews you’ll know he’s a character that I have always had (it goes back to my childhood) problems with, so I’m always prepared to get through his bit, and onto something that doesn’t annoy me so much. This week he’s playing the role of a cop on a television detective programme, and a conspiracy is afoot. Ho hum.

Next story is ‘Absalom- Under a False Flag’ a title that really whets my appetite. Unfortunately the story itself is really starting to get on my nerves. It’s the dialogue that’s doing me in. it’s so knowing, so ironic, so sarcastic, so deeply, deeply irritating. Three pages in and there’s smart-ass jokes about veganism, Amy Winehouse, a UK paedophile investigation, the Kray twins and racism in old John Wayne movies.

Enough, please, stop it. You’re killing the story with all of these endless bloody references. I can’t concentrate on what is going on, it’s like listening to the most annoying man in the pub, drunk, and on full volume telling the pub about how knowledgeable and witty he is. I don’t even care about the narrative anymore. I can’t concentrate on it, the dialogue is killing it for me and I’m finding it impossible to enjoy the actual story.

I had to put 2000AD aside for a while after enduring the smart arsery of Absalom, my nerves were in shreds, and I needed a strong cup of tea and a walk around the garden just to calm myself down and get into a calm frame of mind again. Thankfully when I returned I had the pleasure of once again diving into Pat Mills’ Slaine, a beautifully drawn strip, with dialogue that doesn’t have to rely on teenage showing off, because it actually has something to say. This week starts dark, with gloriously disgusting artwork, by the super talented Simon Davis, portraying the eaters of flesh, the feeders on pain, the tormentors of humanity. Without spoiling it, there’s a powerful message here, about those who would serve evil in the name of bringing peace. It’s brilliant, just like it always is.

Any story that can follow Slaine and not seem like an utterly underwhelming experience has to be good. ‘Outlier- Dark Symmetries’ is not going to wow anybody, but it has it’s own quiet self-confidence, and a pace to the story telling that I like. It’s character based, and the dialogue and art are very good. I’m not 100% sure about it yet, but it intrigues me, and that’s a good start, especially for something that had to follow the out of this world awesomeness that is Slaine.

Concluding 2000AD this week is ‘Helium- Part 2.’ It has a great start, a really enjoyable exchange between two characters that then leads to a further exploration of the narrative. That’s good writing by Ian Edginton, and I want to single it out for praise in this review. From this promising start a very clear picture of what is happening is then succinctly (but not rushed) laid out for the reader, with the narrative concluding on splendid moment of revelation that really has me looking forward to next week’s instalment.

Looking back at PROG 1935 of 2000AD I make that three stories out of five that I enjoyed. That’s pretty good for me, especially when you bear in mind that I’m a notoriously schizophrenic reviewer, and that I would probably dislike Judge Dredd no matter how good it is, just because it has Judge Dredd as a hero in it. I’ve been careful not to spoil Slaine, because it really has to be experienced for yourself and no matter how much I rave about it, I won't be able to do it full justice here in these reviews.

Get 2000AD this week (as usual) for Slaine, but it’s not just about him, there’s plenty more enjoyment to be had, and I’m going to say this just to spite myself. You’ll probably enjoy Judge Dredd and the very loud, annoying and obnoxiously knowing Absalom as well.



Rating: 9/10 (Slaine really is something else this week, gnawing through to the marrow of truth, it exposes the reasoning behind an individual’s willingness to serve a system of human enslavement.)

Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1932- ‘I Spit on Your Gift of Obedience!’

Released: 27th May 2015
Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion



‘All hail to the majesty that is my mighty organ.’

And so begins another week of 2000AD with editor extrordinare Tharg boosting about the superior spatial capabilities of his green storage box. How strange, is he an alien or something? Oh yeah, he is, I forgot. I didn’t forget about my weekly dive into his comic book though. So here we go again, with my weekly ramblings on the latest edition of 2000AD.

It begins, as it always does, with the big chinned control freak, good old Judge Dredd. Seems like he’s actually going to help somebody in this story, he’ll arrest them afterwards of course, but I guess that’s better than the real world Judge Dredd? At least he isn’t planting stuff on them and beating them up for ‘resisting arrest’ as they have their hands cuffed behind their backs.

Judge Dredd is a funny old character, a hero who should be a villain, but cannot be portrayed as a villain because of what he represents. The most enjoyable part about his adventures is reading how the writers do somersaults in order to portray him in a good light. This story is a perfect example of that, and the simple way to do it is to create people that are worse than him. It’s the old excuse that we need uniformed order followers to control us because there are bad people out there. What a laugh it all is, the justification for immorality in a uniform, and so the world keeps on turning, orders keep getting followed, and nothing changes.

Onto Slaine, and immediately it’s excellent, with dialogue about control, slavery and dog like human obedience to anti-human control systems. It’s a world removed from the Police state authoritarianism of Judge Dredd. People say this story is all about the art, but it really isn’t. The art is self-evidentially excellent, but read the story, read the dialogue. You are getting deep essential moral truths here. ‘I spit on your gift of obedience!’ The dialogue here really is the best, and alongside the spellbinding art you have something special, not special because it’s clever or witty, but special because it is all about truth, a truth that you don’t always get in comic books. Pat Mills, Simon Davis and Ellie De Ville, you are doing amazing work here, and it has to be released in a collected hardback format when it inevitably, and sadly comes to it’s conclusion.

‘Future Shocks- The Big Heist’, is a story about a bank robbery in space, as you might have expected from reading the title. It starts by addressing the main problem that comic book readers of 2015 would mention when reading about a futuristic bank robbery, that being why would there be any physical money at all in the future? After addressing that problem, the story gets straight down to action, and there’s a good twist at the end, a twist that makes sense and delivers a satisfying conclusion. It was a decent short, with basic art, but the structure of the narrative was professional and strong.

‘Tharg’s 3rillers- Commercial Break- Part Two’ introduces some aliens, sparkly bits and the idea of willpower holding constructs together, much like in the Green Lantern comics. The tone of the book is not serious, the protagonists joke and quip and it’s all done with a smile at how ridiculous it all is. I liked it, it’s light, it’s entertaining, the art is cute, colourful and cuddly and it’s a nice change of pace from the other stories in PROG 1932.

There’s lots of intrigues, political double-dealings and betrayals going on in Strontium Dog- The Stix Fix- Part Nine,’ and it can get confusing. There’s a strong vein of humour running throughout it as well though, and it’s always nice to see our hero insult people who cannot understand his language, it’s cheap, but it’s fun. The story is essentially about an every man caught in the middle of political shenanigans, he’s Johnny Whistleblower in space, but rather than having a whistle he has his fists, and oh look, he’s just stolen a gun. It’s fun, but it’s not in the same category of excellence as Slaine.

That’s it for another week in 2000AD. I enjoyed the book, as I invariably do. Slaine really was exceptional this week, and there are a couple of other treats to enjoy as well. It gets two thumbs up from this not alien, not green headed man with a decided average organ. Yuck that sounded gross. I was talking about my little brain, and it came out all gross. How did that happen? That’s it. I’m off. Buy the book, it’s good.

Rating: 8/10 (Slaine is the main course, but there are some nice side-dishes as well)

Review: 2000AD PROG 1931- You can’t have a big bang every week

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 20th May 2015 (I got mine a day early)



The week, my week, begins when I review my first comic book.

Tuesday, and I’m down town, going through the pound shops, buying batteries, chocolate and folders for my comic books. The people look ill, but they are orderly, so well behaved, no eye contact is made, we queue like gullible voters on election day.

A homeless guy tucked away in a shop doorway doesn’t even bother to beg, he looks defeated, resigned to a life of non-communication, of being ignored, like myself as I go into WH Smiths.

I go straight to the checkouts, to ask the lady for my copy of 2000AD that is waiting for me in a folder behind the tills. I forget how to talk, and my request comes out all wrong. She smiles, ‘It’s okay, I know what you mean.’ She gets my comic, she is very nice, tells me, ‘I’ll see you next week,' as I finish my transaction.  I smile back, genuine human interaction, first (and probably last) time today.

I’m back home now, that poor homeless guy. I would have given him a quid, but he was huddled, head down, the world dead to him, and I respect people who just want to be left alone. I understand it, all too well.

So, to the book.

Judge Dredd introduces a new element to the narrative, it should make things more interesting, but there’s no connection between the two plot threads yet. Next week perhaps, but this week it’s just building for what is to come later.

Grey Area starts with a suicide attempt, and I’m thinking about my trip down town again, and then it gets really funny and I end up smiling about the stupidity of everything. It’s a good time this week in Grey Area, the best it’s been so far.

Slaine is tremendous, as it always is. This week there is a battle between a free man, and an order following coward. The coward is afraid of being free. He has joined a control system that offers him safety in a uniform. The free man might die, but he will die free, the order follower is already dead.

The free man fights, deliberately stumbles and calls to the feminine element, the element of human consciousness that is entranced not to order following, but to blissful ignorance of the harsh reality that surrounds it.

Will she wake up? Will she join with the masculine element and fight back, as together the two elements will surely win. Alone and separated they are doomed to fall under the yoke of the control system. Masculine and feminine need to join as one. Together they can break the control system, but separated they are like cattle in a slaughterhouse, waiting for their turn under the stun gun and butchers knife. The narrative concludes on a crisis point, the two elements on their knees. Will they rise as one, or will they fall as two? Next week cannot come quickly enough.

‘Commercial Break’ is a new story, and it starts in 1997. Already I’m concerned, as the 1990’s are a favourite time in contemporary comic books, a nowhere time where writers can purposefully, and cowardly, stay clear of all of the tricky things that have occurred post a certain date in 2001. Oh well, I read on, let’s see if this one’s different. The story is about a television commercial doing something weird. I like the art, but why is it set in the 1990’s? I don’t get it. It is 2015 right? Oh well, I’ll reserve judgement until the story concludes, but the whole 1990’s thing doesn’t exactly make me warm to it.

It’s plot development time in Strontium Dog, and the reveal isn’t exactly a surprise. It’s a bit tame, a family power struggle thing, but then I did watch a documentary on Caligula yesterday, so perhaps the family feud thing (conspiring to kill each other basically) is just fresh on my mind? Last week’s Dog felt like the Return of the Jedi, but this week’s just feels like ‘The Phantom Menace.’ A bit of a letdown really, and a flat way to end this week’s 2000AD.

PROG 1931 of 2000AD is okay, it’s a calm week, with some plot development going on, not so much fireworks, but lighting the fuse before the big explosions.

You can’t have a big bang every week. You need the quiet to enjoy the noise, much like a walk in the town centre, you need to experience the heads down indifference, it makes you appreciate the loud bits in life when they occasionally come around, and they do, just as long as you are patient enough. I’m patient, and the week, my week, has begun.


Rating: 7/10 (Still good, but it’s relatively quiet in 2000AD this week)

Review: 2000AD PROG 1930- Recognise the beast, stare it down, strike it, slay it

Publisher: Rebellion
Released: Writers and authors: Numerous
13th May 2015


PROG 1929 of 2000AD jolted me. It reminded me that those working in contemporary comic books are more often than not the most asleep people in the world today. I’ll keep this brief, explain, and then I’ll review PROG 1930.

There was a general election in the UK last week. People had the choice between a couple of identical slave masters. Their vote meant supporting neo-liberalism because all of the political parties are neo-liberal parties. Okay, that’s good if you want neo-liberalism, but what is neo-liberalism?

Neo-liberalism is tax cuts to private banks and corporations, the state funding of all risk, with all profit going to those banks and corporations. Neo-liberalism is privatisation, austerity, endless foreign wars (very profitable for arms manufacturers) and less and less human rights as the fake war on terror is used to justify a Police surveillance (money again) state.

That is what neo-liberalism is, that is what UK voters were voting for last week, and what did 2000AD tell their readers to do?

It told them to vote for neo-liberalism, using the tired old cliché that voting is the only way that they will have a voice.

Do you get why that might have upset me? Do you understand then why I might be so pitched off with 2000AD that I would refuse to review their comic book?

Now it’s a week removed from the election. Guess who won? Yes, neo-liberalism won, and now it has the consent of the governed to carry on raping and pillaging all over the UK.

Thanks 2000AD, thanks for telling your readers to vote for it, now the government can do whatever it wants under justification that it has a legitimate mandate to screw us all over, because, well, that’s what we voted for.

Okay, I need to put this behind me, so I’ll end it here. I’ve been reminded of the statist asleep mindset of 2000AD in 2015, but that doesn’t mean that the book is completely worthless, so let’s jump into PROG 1930 and see what’s in store for voter/slaves this week.

Judge Dredd opens, as he always does, with the tale of a man getting screwed over by a system designed to maximise profit, and to use and discard human beings as ‘human resources.’ Sounds familiar to me. It’s a strong story, but the main protagonist lacks likeability, so seeing him get revenge on the selfish people who screw him over isn’t as satisfying as it should be. It is a good reminder however that rats in a cage attack each other as the actual evil that caused their situation (the scientist) is out of reach. Try to be nice to each other people, we are rats, let’s try to make the cage as liveable as possible, and how about we get that scientist (that would be the politician working for his corporate overlords) instead of attacking each other?

Talking about scientists experimenting on caged animals, that’s exactly what we have in the second story this week. ‘Terror Tales- Phase Shift,’ is an old school black and white sci-fi/horror tale, and just my cup of tea. I grew up with these tales. These are the stories that got me into comic books in the first place, not the superhero stuff that snared most kids.  I was always a fan of the creepy stuff. This tale is great, it has a mad scientist, gruesome experiments, a cat obsessed dead Mom ghost, and a delicious sting in the tale that should delight every fan of horror shorts. I loved it, the art was great as well, and I’d like to see much more of this old style excellence within the pages of 2000AD.

The next story is Slaine, and it begins with the cry of the elites,
‘He’s just one man, what can he do to us?’ Oh, I can do a lot, in my silly little reviews, read by a handful of people, I can get people to think, and to take up the fight against the neo-liberal status quo, to talk to their children, to unmask the demon, and to eventually defeat it. That’s what little people can do, we are not as little as we are led to believe. Slaine is the comic book embodiment of average, every day people in the UK today. After the election, we are told that it is all over for us, but it’s not over. We will rise up, all of the 'little' people, rising up to slay the demonic neo-liberal horde that is destroying our country whilst telling us that we voted for it, and so therefore have no option other than to step aside and let it wreck everything. No, we will not do that. We will not vote, then go back to sleep. We will fight. We are Slaine. We are immortal British warriors, and we do not give up. We will fight, we will fight, we will fight, and in the end, the beast of neo-liberalism will fall and be banished from our shores, forever.

Grey Area is about silly aliens, it’s funny, some light in the dark. There’s a message here as well though, the message being that big strong creatures have allowed themselves to be placed within a softly spoken BBC style friendly zoo. Hey, sounds like your typical newspaper buying, television watching, football supporting voter to me. I bet they love watching Question Time in their prison. Watch how red blames blue, blue blames red, the circle repeating for infinity, it will be fun.

‘So…are you going to stay in this zoo, beating on the other animals penned with you, until the God-star snuffs you all out?’ 

That’s the question of our times, and it links perfectly with what I was saying about Judge Dredd. We need to realise that we are caged, then we can formulate an escape plan, the problem of course being that the vast majority of television heads don’t even realise that they are in a cage at all.

PROG 1930 of 2000AD concludes with good old Strontium Dog. There’s something of the Return of the Jedi about the story at the moment, with Johnny in a fat gangster’s boudoir, a gangster that looks suspiciously like Jabba the Hutt. I like Star Wars, so I’m okay with this ‘homage.’ It’s coming back this year with Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in it, so I'll take this story as an appetiser for the main course. Johnny Alpha is pretty much Han Solo in this book, and that’s okay with me. Some will attack it for a lack of originality, but I don’t really care, it is funny, enjoyable and provides a nice soft landing to what has been a pretty intense, rough and ready ride in starship 2000AD this week.

Last week they told you to vote for slavery, but this week I detect some fighting spirit within the pages of 2000AD. There isn’t a weak story here, and a couple of them really are saying something. Slaine is not just a treat for the eyes; it’s positively brimming with angry muscular defiance, rebellion and immortal British revolutionary fire. Slaine embodies the rebellious spirit of a man who refuses to buy into the mainstream media pushed lie that individuals are powerless to change the world around them. The corrupted neo-libeal elites want us to be in that 'little me' mode of thinking. They want us to vote, give away our power, and then return to our hovels and await the raping and pillaging that is to come. Slaine is the defiance that refuses learnt helplessness, rejects cowardice and fights to reclaim freedom and liberty from the control system that exists to enslave us all.

Do I forgive 2000AD for last week? Not quite, but PROG 1930 is a brilliant comic book, and perhaps after time I’ll learn to live, and yes, to even forgive, but I’ll never forget. The fight continues, and it would be nice if the editorial team of 2000AD recognised what is going on rather than limply going along with the flow of the neo-liberal blood, disease and garbage-polluted stream. The writers though, Pat Mills and Dan Abnett in particular, know what is going on, and truth is bleeding from every panel of their excellent stories, making 2000AD the one essential comic book that should be at the top of every comic book fans weekly pull-list.

Rating: 10/10 (Essential)

Comic Review: 2000AD-PROG 1928: Three? That’s just being greedy.

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th April 2015



PROG 1928 of 2000AD is a bit of a laugh, and features a pleasingly juvenile obsession with breasts. I like that, and I like the fact that in a world obsessed with neo-liberal definitions of political correctness a comic book can still be just as silly as they used to be in the gloriously sexist comic book days of my youth.

The PROG doesn’t begin so humorously though, with Judge Dredd injecting some unpalatable, but essential truth into it’s narrative. That truth being that the state (in the form of its uniformed goons) will murder you if you fail to obey its commands. We are seeing this in the US at the moment, whether the protesting crowds realise it or not.

People in Baltimore are rightfully angry right now because Police are not being punished for their murderous actions, but the people appear to be under the mistaken belief that the murders are race related. They are not. They are power related.

The state (as embodied in it's uniformed agents) murders, because that is what states do, and when you vote for the red or blue liars you vote away your freedom, giving them the power to legally murder you if you fail to comply with their directives.

‘They know the law, and they know what happens if you break it.’ 

So says Judge Dredd, the order follower in a uniform, the man empowered by the state; the state empowered by the voter. The message is clear. Vote and you vote for state violence. That violence will be used against you if you fail to comply with the orders of the state. It’s not about skin colour; it’s about giving away your rights. That is Statism. That is what you are voting for.

Orlok had a special guest appearance from a slap headed female character who looked a lot like Tank Girl this week, but apart from that there was little going on. I’ll give it a pass though, as the story is usually interesting, it’s just a bit threadbare this week.

Slaine features the fantastically named villain ‘Lord Weird,’ and more insight into how childhood trauma creates a pacified and obedient adult.

Some adults use drugs to anaesthetise that childhood trauma. Others put on a uniform and ‘serve’ the authoritarian control system, masking their pain by causing pain to others, feeling like they are powerful when they are little more than traumatised children looking to gain power by joining a human slavery system.

Slaine is a rare man, a man who refuses to repeat the mistakes of his father, refuses to hurt people because he has been hurt, refuses to join a control system, defiantly shouting, ‘I am my own man.’ 

Slaine represents freedom, and his message is that to be truly free you have to fight to be free.

Slaine has unbelievably art, everybody knows that, but it’s also saying something important, something that needs to be said, especially in our increasingly enslaved, pacified times. That is rare, and that is why it is (and I’ve said it before) reason alone for you to be spending your money on 2000AD in 2015.

PROG 1928 of 2000AD starts to get funny now, and the last two stories (Grey Area and Strontium Dog) are tremendously amusing in a boyish, juvenile, let’s see what we can get away with, kind of way. Two is good, but three? That’s just greedy. Sorry, I’ve said too much, just get the book, have a giggle, and thank me later.

2000AD has been exceptional recently. I always get a lot out of it, and this week’s addition adds some giggles to the mix alongside the more serious, adult, let’s think about the nature of authority stuff that I always go on about in my reviews. It’s a tremendously entertaining book, and the perfect to way to start your new comic book week.


Best story: Slaine/Primordial: 10/10 (Still awesome)

Worst story: Orlok/Rasputin Caper: 6/10 (A bit tepid this week, but it’s still a good story)

Overall rating: 9/10 (Heavy giggle factor this week and a lot of fun)