Cover by Simon Davis

Daniel Payne: Simon Davis' skill as an artist is almost beyond question - his entry was the runner up in last year's National Portraits Awards Exhibition. So painting yet another stock image for Sinister Dexter seems a little unworthy of his talent.

All the same, he does a good job in rendering the three main characters in the latest plot; Tracy Weld's half-smiling visage is particularly enchanting. The backdrop of the city is excessively garish, and probably intended that way, but the guano-splattered busts are a pleasing touch.

John Amans: A good solid cover by SB Davis (who I consider to be the definitive Sinister & Dexter Artist). It has plenty of colours and is quite striking but could have been a little darker considering it is “Downlode's Darkest Hour” - it's just a little too bright with the oranges and reds. This nit-picking aside, it still sets the tone of the story inside to great effect.

Synopsis: Dredd throws his explosive, buying himself more time, but Pink Eyes' goons still manage to bring the house down on top of him, leaving him for dead. Dredd survives, of course, and takes a ride on a steamroller in an effort to catch up with Pink Eyes. Meanwhile, Pink Eyes has been gathering recruits for his cause against the judges and is about to attack the township run by Judge Munn...

Daniel Payne: Judge Dredd story-lines in the last couple of years have put the character on a markedly altered trajectory, leading him to be stripped of most of his influence in the City's judicial system. The change has brought with it some intriguing new themes, as shown in the latest tale, such as insubordinate and inadequate personnel, and an aloof hierarchy. The latest scrape with a supernaturally equipped gang is in itself pretty engrossing—although its outcome is probably rather more predictable than is Dredd's long term future.

Mike Collins' artwork too is good. There are plenty of strong panels, although the higgledy-piggledy way in which they are arranged, as prescribed by the prevailing fashion, does them little justice. Part of the talent of great comics-artists is being able to arrange panels adroitly—as exemplified by some of 2000AD's finest progeny like Frazer Irving, Simon Frazer and Jock. But unfortunately most of the current batch of artists seem to stumble on this point, and instead present panels that clash and overlap almost arbitrarily.

It would also be nice if there were some alternative colourists on offer, because staring at Chris Blythe's gradients prog after prog for more than a decade has become quite wearing.

John Amans: The Tour of Duty story line is now well established and, like the formula set by the “The Pit” and Dredd’s time on Luna-1 many moons ago (no pun intended), we have a number of min-stories set within the larger narrative. This works well as Dredd has a guaranteed spot every week so John Wagner has the time and space to make these episodes work without them feeling rushed and predictable.

Pink Eyes is no exception - this week we have a generous dose of shooting and explosions, story development and linking to the other characters earlier in the series. Though the artwork isn’t stunning it doesn’t really need to be as the story is strong enough to carry this.

Over-all good stuff, I’m looking forward to more.

Synopsis: Gene is saved by Clara Bow, but he's too late to get to the extraction ship, so Numan and Leezee escape without him. Numan says they could never let a full-grown aux on the station. The Wild decide to let Gene go - who will go in search of a farm he's heard of - alone again...

Daniel Payne: The final episode of Kingdom opens with one of the most exhausted clichés in story-telling, as the series' main protagonist averts death at the hands of a fiend, courtesy of an arrow from an out-of-shot rescuer. Moreover, we never knew that Gene's saviour was a such fan of his until this heartwarming moment—although it is difficult to understand what she finds engaging about this uninspired, monosyllabic beast. The banality doesn't end there: we wade through some more hackneyed dialogue before the characters finally wander off into their respective sunsets. Discerning readers can only hope that they don't hurry back.

Meanwhile, the artwork is slick—there is nothing to fault it technically, but, like the script, it is almost devoid character. Nothing differentiates the creatures in this story from those in any other piece of middle-of-the-road science fiction. The action scenes too could have been painted by numbers. So these elements, rather than engrossing readers, like some of 2000AD's best work, serve to remind them that this is just another throwaway sci-fi yarn.

John Amans: I believe Part 12 of Call of the Wild will go down as the best single episode of Kingdom. Here is a story that has been meticulously plotted and paced with the excellent Richard Elson art to carry it from a run-of-the mill fodder to something that will be remembered as one of those real gems that 2000AD produces every 10 years or so. This series, and more importantly this episode, had everything: drama, action, suspense, feeling and real emotion spread out over 5 pages.

As I read this, I was struck by the sheer cinematic feel of this week’s story. You could imagine watching this on a big screen with the rescue ship taking off (with a full dose of CGI to bring Gene to life).

Everybody who has had a hand in this should be congratulated as this series in particular has been excellent and has not disappointed.

I hope this is not the last we see of Gene.

Synopsis: The battle ensues and Uriel finally gets Lucifer to fight back, attacking the Angels. Uriel tells Cythea that Lucifer is necessary for his plan and that he's "ready". As angel reinforcements approach, he and Lucifer retreat to the Blizzard Kingdoms.

Daniel Payne: Necrophim seems to involve a highly protracted conflict between two opposing sides, based in hell, of all places. Unfortunately, there not much more to it than that except for window dressing. It is still likely to engage people who enjoy reading about angels and the devil and so on (of whom there are many,) as it appears to contain all of the relevant parts; but it is not particularly inventive.

Lee Carter's art is well suited to the script, and to the audience. It has a reasonably pleasing aesthetic, although for a strip so heavily laden with people, the characters seem a little lifeless.

John Amans: I’ve rather enjoyed this tale of Demons/Angels politics, plots and intrigue. Some of the build up and plotting by Uriel has now come to fruition and we have a full scale scrap between the Necrophim and Angels with a good dose of beheading and kicking in the balls. The artwork has really complemented this series and has rather given it its attraction as it does hide some of the potentially clunky dialogue and plot heavy sections with an atmospheric touch.

That said I hope now is the time to push on and reach a conclusion because I have no idea what Uriel is up to and am just enjoying the ass-kicking the Angels are getting.  

Synopsis: While Kal recovers in Bar None, Dexter is helping Tracey after she killed Honeycutter. Meanwhile, someone is calling for help from Malone (Sinister's old alibi). Elsewhere, John Croak and others have finally tracked down Apellido and the Mover asks him if he is willing to do business. He refuses, so they throw him off the roof...

Daniel Payne: Yes, it appears that Sinister Dexter is still going. And that isn't the end of the bad news—the new series begins with a long series of expository boxes that venture without success to put flesh on the most pedestrian of story-lines. When Sinister and Dexter first appeared in the comic they were quite a compelling duo, but they have proven to have nowhere near enough depth to sustain the volume of material that has followed. Consequently, strips featuring these characters have become extremely monotonous, and this week's offering continues in that vein.

The artwork too is weak. Working from such a poor script must be dispiriting, but Anthony Williams might be better off at least trying to do something interesting rather than unthinkingly churning out the pages to collect his cheque, which is was he seems to be doing at the moment.

John Amans: Dan Abnett is on a bit of a roll. Not only is Kingdom good but even his long running (yet sometimes tired) epic S& D is showing a bit of life.

We seem to have been waiting ages for the war to kick off between the clone Apellido and the “Mover”. Well, it seems that all of the build-up of the last few years may finally reach its conclusion and we’re definitely heading to that point. This week is one of scene-sets then… bang we’re into the fray.

I hope that Mr Abnett is a little brave and really pushes the boundaries with this and it doesn’t just play out like a lot of the other plots over the last few years of S&D. Perhaps someone big can be killed off; perhaps it might just surprise us? I’m willing to give anything a chance (well except another reincarnation of Rogue Trooper) and though S&D seem to have been treading water recently I think this might just be a cracking series.

Synopsis: Shakara tells Brenneka to face him, but having secured the artifacts, Brenneka merely uses his ship's lasers to cut Shakara in two. He leaves, taking Procopio with him, and blows the Shakaran base to smithereens. The last remnants of Shakara fade out - it appears that Brenneka has won...

Daniel Payne: The latest Shakara series has arguably been the best of the lot. The pace of the story has been better than in previous parts, and it finally seemed as though it might be going somewhere. If the last page of this week's episode is as conclusive as it seems, then we now know where it was going. A slight lack of finality to it, though, might illustrate one of the problems of a story that features no human beings—as we don't know beyond doubt that there isn't another pool of red stuff somewhere, or whatever. Still, it has been an interesting tale, and although not quite in 2000AD's big league, perhaps the next best thing.

The artwork in this final episode is as good as anything Henry Flint has produced for the character in all of the four series. He brings the pages alive with action, in a way that few can match, his draughtsmanship is sublime, and the various renderings of the mortally wounded Shakara are even quite poignant. Let us hope that if Shakara doesn't come back to these pages, then at least Henry Flint does.

John Amans: I turn the last page and see Shakara’s head floating through space, its eyes dimming…then, THE END. My first thought is no!!!!!!! This can’t be it. My thoughts and feelings are a mixture of sadness, feeling cheated, a tinge of amazement and wonder.

When I first read this series, it seemed to be one of those stories where Henry Flint’s artwork carried it, as the story was a bit flimsy with one set-piece massacre after another. But, time has proved us wrong as it has developed and grown into one of the classic stories of 2000AD from 2000-2010.

It didn’t end how I thought it would and to its credit it did the brave thing rather than the cop-out that Robbie Morrison could have peddled out, bravo for that. At first, I did feel cheated that it didn’t finish how I wanted it to, but then wasn’t this the inevitable end? One creature of vengeance against the universe? Could it end any other way?

No, it couldn’t .

The fact that the robot Shakara had become more than its original mindless bringer of death and that I genuinely felt for it as it uttered its last words with a gleeful Brenneka ordering the fire command goes to show how good this “comic” can be.

It also reminded a sometime cynical 43 year old of that kid who picked up his first copy of 2000AD in 1977 as to why he still reads it!

Daniel Payne: With Kingdom, Necrophim and Sinister Dexter in the line-up, 2000AD is fielding an underpowered side this week. Dredd remains steady, but if it hadn't been for Shakara's explosive ending, this one might have been a bit of a dud.

Best story: Shakara

John Amans: Two of the best stories over the last couple of months bowed out with a bang this week. It’s generally been a strong line-up lately with a series of quite strong progs and this week is no exception. I keep wondering if we are heading for a 1990s-esque dip but it never appears. Even with the addition of old warhorse S&D and a less than awesome Necrophim it’s still been an entertaining and yet poignantly sad prog.

Best story: A tie: Shakara & Kingdom