Cover by Simon Fraser

Robert Frazer: I've seen strategic fig leaves, locks of hair, and soap-suds - but daemonic creepy-crawlies is a new one! And with a naughty teasing glimpse of her ass, too... it's definitely very risque. I get the impression that something a bit titillating like this has been commissioned to keep new readers hooked after they jumped on in 1650 - that issue did end with a "Next issue" page featuring this very cover, which isn't common for the weekly - but it's not smut, with the delicate lighting, art-deco window and statuary, and the demons in the water that could well be a spreading pool of coppery blood, giving it artistic qualities too.

This image is nicely composed, with the title, background details and tagline all narrowing down to the central point of interest, Lulu herself.

Gavin Hanly: He may only be doing the cover, but any thing to do with Nikolai Dante by Simon Fraser is a good thing in my book. And when it's scantily clad Lulu, all the better...

Synopsis: Seven weeks have passed since Dredd left the city. Chief Judge Francisco is able to move about on a hover-chair, and while he's not fully fit and his stamina's still low he feels well enough to chair the first full meeting of the new Council of Five. Top of the agenda are the mutant clearances. Voluntary applications to the new townships have been extremely popular - almost every place has been assigned and they haven't even been built yet. However, Francisco airs grave doubts about the poor quality of the planned accommodation, which he sees as not fit for purpose - mutants are still human beings and deserve better. Overriding the protests of the other council members he demands that a full overhaul of the townships' construction be made.

Back out in the Cursed Earth Dredd has spent weeks uselessly kicking his heels, and had only just now been delivered the four Judges who will be in charge of the individual townships - Munn, Cunningham, Heck and Ramone - and they're a shoddy lot right from the bottom of the barrel. Dredd's frustration mounts as he reads up on the Judges' indifferent career histories, but some relief is found when Boots informs him of Francisco's enhancement order. Dredd's opinion of Francisco improves.

Determined to sharpen the skills of his Judges and make them effective, Dredd leaves Beeny to manage the construction sites while he leads the other four on an acclimatising sweep of the surrounding Cursed Earth.

Robert Frazer: I like Francisco more and more every time I see him. He's a character with real integrity - even when he was a television personality, he wasn't vain or self-serving, and he had a very endearing manner ("keep it safe, keep it legal" was a great tagline). It's a pity that we probably won't be seeing any more "Streets of Dan Francisco" now that he's made Chief Judge (but maybe he'll put away the medallion for a Christmas Special edition next year?), but he's still a welcome injection of personality into the story; last issue was a bit of a cold start with everyone being very stern and solemn and sombre and stoic really to a fault. Old Stoney Face might have a right to be grumpier than usual - anyone would feel put out at being exiled for politics, as he has - but ending his time with Hershey with scarcely a nod and a grunt was a strange way to close one of his most fruitful partnerships.

There are a few other nice touches in this instalment - Beeny's "culture-lovers" grin is also a good injection of colour, and Stalker's, aha, "pragmatic" suggestions for balancing the budget ring very true to Mega-City life.

The ending to this part is low-key, but suitably so - as a mega-epic "Tour of Duty" is settling in for the long haul and smaller incidents and subplots need to be set up to provide support-struts for the overall arc, so I'm reassured that Wagner's going to be structuring the coming adventure well.

Gavin Hanly: So, was that just misjudged gallows humour by Chief Judge Dan, or are we looking at the beginnings of another judge Cal here? I'm probably reading way too much into it. However it turns out, this is perfectly paced stuff from Wagner here, and in only two episodes has become the best Dredd strip all year. I'm not sure about yet another Cursed Earth run in the offing next week, but if the quality stays at this level, then we're in for a treat over the next six months. Excellent art by MacNeil too - some of the best I've seen from him.

Synopsis: Alpha is travelling on an executive shuttle to a Galactico compound, passing over countryside that is being burnt down to clear land for a Galactico mine (and native villages are also being destroyed in the firestorm).

Galactic himself is a prospective client of Alpha's. Galactic informs Alpha that his ex-wife Andromeda absconded with his two sons during a routine family visit - Galactic's own agents tracked them to Ganymede before the trail went cold, and Galactic wants Alpha to pick it up again and retrieve the younger son Christopher. Galactic has no interest in his older brother Brian because he has "no business sense. Useless to me".

Alpha does not like Galactic and has no real intention of accepting the contract, but feeling beholden to his Search/Destroy comrades after failing to deliver on the Blood Moon job he angles for a massive fee of ten million credits. Galactic initially rejects Alpha and sends him on his way, but apparently changes his mind - on the journey back to the Doghouse Alpha receives a transmission accepting his ten million fee. The other agents - Middenface, Evans, Blubberlips, Turvy and the Torso - are all enthusiastic about the big payday and agree to join Alpha in the mission to find Christopher.

Robert Frazer: It's interesting to see Alpha's early adventures in recent S.D. Thrills. Without Wulf, there's a different dynamic to the stories, and we get a better impression of them filling out Alpha's unexplored background - contributing to and enhancing his past canon rather than overwriting it.

Galactic's clearly shown to be a villain with his carpet-bombing of helpless tribesmen, but his bad character is shown in subtler ways, too. For instance, when discussing his ex-wife he remarks that "beauty isn't everything", but certainly not because he values her for her personality! It's a strong character moment, and sensibly Wagner doesn't overplay his hand, dialling Galactic back from being a pantomime baddy by specifying that his son Brian's mutation isn't an issue (even if he dislikes him for other reasons).

Ezquerra is as reliable as ever with his artwork. The shuttle stewardess is quite attractive and is something that the eye can happily settle on, but there's more to it than that - smaller details such as Alpha's dozy look as he's blinking awake at the end of page five are important and help make the work more complete.

Something seems a little off with the way that Galactic decided to accept Alpha after all - while their earlier split may just have been confirm Alpha's general distaste for his client rather than have any deeper plot significance, I still have a sneaking suspicion that the irregular confirmation of the contract will come to bite the Search/Destroy agents in the backside. That, combined with a Thrill title and events that don't yet seem to have any bearing on each other, means that there's plenty of intrigue to keep me interested.

Gavin Hanly: The Strontium Dog semi-retcon has been one of Tharg's reliable mainstays in the past few years, and it's a great pleasure to see Wagner and Ezquerra working together so much. This isn't going to change the world, and isn't as immediate a hit as the Blood Moon tale, but it's solid dependable storytelling, and that's more than many, many comics can offer.

Synopsis: A rebel supply airship en route to Dante's stronghold in the Urals is attacked and the crew massacred by Monique and the vampires of the House Selene, who now fight for the Tsar as the Imperial Nightstalkers - brutally effective terror-troops who are feared as much by other Imperial soldiers as they are by the actual rebels.

Venice has been captured by the rebels and Lulu Romanov has re-established the Cadre Infernale's control over its historic home. Even though she's now fighting for the rebels Lulu has lost none of her old viciousness, and is secretly torturing and executing members of Venice's surrendered Imperial garrison without Dante's knowledge - he wanted the prisoners to be treated humanely.

Meanwhile, the Tsar meets with Monique Selene and offers her a deal - if the Nightstalkers will annihilate Lulu and the Cadre Infernale, the Tsar will give them Venice as their own personal fife and build mirror-satellites to block out the sun there, so creating a haven of perpetual night for the Selene vampires. Monique gladly accepts.

Robert Frazer: One of the more questionable aspects of Dante's revolution over the past year was his ready - joyous, even - acceptance of Lulu as an ally; considering that she's by all accounts an evil witch, it seemed a fairly callous and cynical decision by someone who was supposed to be the goodie delivering the world from tyranny. It's reassuring, then, to see Dante wondering if he was maybe a little too hasty in arranging his Romanov family get-together.

That said, though, Lulu's probably staying true to the letter of the law - considering that she *ahem* likes it rough, being tossed off a building would indeed be compassionate in comparison!

I hate vampires. They're despicable, horrific, vile, reprehensible and despicable abominations that I'd sooner have erased from the popular consciousness... that hack Stoker's got a lot to answer for. From LeStat to Twilight, I bitterly resent the depiction of these evil creatures as romantic heroes, so I'm greatly appreciative of Morrison being uncompromising in establishing Monique as a gruesome villainess - putting her in a laser cage is a good way of showing that she's so horrid that even the Tsar won't trust her. Marshall emphasises it with some suitable gore.

It's comparatively rare for a Dante Thrill to be drawn by someone other than Burns or Fraser. Caldwell's CGI colouring makes it closer to Fraser than burns, but it'll be interesting to see in the coming weeks how they stake their own claim to a character that's usually seen as the exclusive preserve of Morrison, Burns and Fraser.

Floyd Kermode: While I can't deny that I was a teensy bit disappointed that Simon Fraser wasn't doing the inside art cores as well as the cover, it's interesting to see Tharg/Morrison pick another artist for the series. This is the first new artist to take on Dante in almost a decade, and Paul Marshall seems to be a perfect choice, a great counterpoint to Fraser and Burns. He gets to show off early with a double paged spread, and as long as we see more of that level of quality, we should be more than happy to have him on the strip.

Synopsis: Eva Procopia awakens from nightmares of Shakara to discover herself in a healing bubble in the Tomb Of The Shakara. Exiting the bubble, Eva is confronted by security robots controlled by the Shakaran Ghosts, who demand that she return to the bubble. Eva attempts to escape them but is eventually run down - the robots prepare to exact punishment on Eva for her defiance, but they are destroyed by an intervention from Shakara himself before they can do so.

Shakara reiterates that Eva is under his protection and is not to be harmed, while the Ghosts continue to press him to kill her as one of the guilty. While they argue, Eva tries to stab Shakara in the back with a piece of robot wreckage, but Shakara easily disarms her.

Eva is determined to try again, wanting to exact revenge on Shakara for the death of her mother Lara. When she angrily rejects Shakara's claim that Lara wanted to die, the Ghosts begin to play a recording of her confessing to the creation of the Red Death.

Stan Bastion: It may seem a petty point to stand on, but I'm put off by the very title of the latest Shakara adventure. Previous books have kept to a particular naming pattern - "The Avenger", "The Assassin", "The Defiant" - and just having plain un-articled "Destroyer" for Book Four spoils the effect. Yes, it's a very minor thing, but it's still the first thing I see.

Flint's art is as mesmerisingly detailed as always, from giving depth to Eva's stitching in the first dramatic splash page to the vaulted, dizzying, physics-warping environment of the Tomb Of The Shakara sweeping all around her.

As far as story content goes, I have to confess to impatience. Book Three ended with the dramatic revelation that Cinnibar Brenneka was not only alive but working for the Hierarchy that destroyed everything that he held dear; while I appreciate that the set-up that occurs over this and last week's instalment is narratively important, there's part of me that still wants to cut to the heart of the matter and find out what's going on...

...and frankly, I could have done without Eva's knobbly backside for another week.

Gavin Hanly: So, after the quick destruction of a brutal alien race, the main plotline picks up again. Much as I loved the madness of last week, I'm much more keen to see where Morrison is taking the plot - and what's happening with Brenekka. So, a great improvement for me - and that's on an opening episode which was already excellent to start with.

Synopsis: Gene speaks to "the Wild" on the telephone. The voice informs Gene that more of Them are coming, and if Gene and Leezee hope to escape they must follow a trail of ringing payphones, which will form a safe route from Them. Gene follows the voice's instructions, hotly pursued by Them all the while, but the trail leads Gene to a dead end with nowhere to escape from Them.

Gene sees that he's been tricked and angrily roars at "the Wild" through the last payphone. The voice explains that they needed to use Gene as bait to lure Them into an ambush. As Them close in on Gene and Leezee, the Wild Ones spring their ambush, revealing themselves to be a pack of anthropomorophic dogs, although of different breeds to Gene.

Stan Bastion: Well, that's the title explained...!

There's a couple of decent twists of language that's so central to Kingdom - Gene's complaining that there's "no run away here" treating escape as a physical object offers some insight into his practical thought processes, and it's also a neat demonstration of how a seeming lack of sophistication can actually be more to-the-point!

Elson's art is a bit of a mixed bag. His characters are very detailed - showing how the gore of Them gradually dribbles away in increments across panels is a nice touch - and he treats the holding of the telephone in a realistic way for someone who's probably never seen one before, but there's a bit of corner-cutting in the backgrounds, most noticeably on the second page.

Gavin Hanly: Ah, Kingdom. So simple, yet still one of the best things in 2000AD in many a year. Not much to say about this other than it's a delight to read and that Elson is producing what I feel is his best work to date. He seems to be developing the style he used in Marauder. Although, while there were moments in Marauder where the new style wasn't quite gelling, this is very accomplished work indeed.

Robert Frazer: There's a few irritants, but overall the Prog is firing on all cylinders and keeping up the momentum established in the relaunch prog last week - we're still going too fast for new readers to think about getting off.

Best Story: Strontium Dog

Gavin Hanly: Possibly one of the best line-ups I've ever seen in 2000AD. Good times ahead!

Best Story: Judge Dredd