Released on March 25th, 2020
So today, Wednesday, April 1st, there weren't many new comics released. DC released a digital only Batman book that was based on the cartoon, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, and Valiant didn't release anything. Archie Comics released a new Sabrina: The Teenage Witch book and there were a few new releases from some unknown publishers. But 2000 AD was released, at least digitally, because I'm fairly certain there aren't any comic shops open in England (even the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and Prince Charles have the corona virus). 2000 AD is a weekly anthology book that's been running forever (at least since the 80's when Alan Moore used to write for it). Most of the big name comic writers from the U.K. have written things for it at one time another. Their big claim to fame is creating Judge Dredd, and they kind of want you to know that since every issue always has one Judge Dredd story in it. The big problem with the book is that there are five stories in every issue but the book is only 32 pages long...which means the stories are only five or six pages long and they're all continued. If you don't read the book every week you'd be fucking lost. And since it's a weekly book with five continuing stories...most of it is rubbish, honestly. Recently they just ended a new chapter of "Brink," a pretty cool murder mystery story set in space. But this issue, which came out last week, Prog 2174, has no good stories in it. It probably doesn't help that two of them are medieval...and this is supposed to be a sci-fi book, right? In this issue we get the first chapter of a Judge Dredd tale called "Hair of the Dog" that seems to be like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! The art is atrocious and lazy. The second tale is a new Aquila story titled "The Burning Fields." It's a blind Conan warrior type of a story and he's using a severed head to see witches and go to Hades. I guess it's at least semi-interesting. Sinister Dexter, a sort of paranormal detective, is in "The Frighteners" part 3. This story is just about the worst a comic book can get. Skip Tracer in "Nimrod" part 4 is about a futuristic soldier. And "Feral & Foe" part 12 is more medieval/sorcery stuff that's ultra-lame. "Feral & Foe" was written by Dan Abnett, who wrote "Brink," so you'd expect it to be a little better. I can't really tell who reads 2000 AD, honestly. I know it's more of a big deal in the U.K. than here, and I can never remember even seeing it on sale at any comic book stores in the U.S. I guess those that still read it are just hanging on from the glory days of the book thirty years ago, when it meant something. We're a dying breed, us comic book fans. I hope this pandemic doesn't fucking cripple the industry...but so far it ain't looking good. 1/2*
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