Cover by D'israeli

Joseph Saxton: I’m a big fan of D’israeli, so any full page piece by him is going to score highly with me.  The composition did look a little strange until I spotted the sandwich in stickleback’s right hand.  Nice joke on the grave and it’s certainly an image that would catch my eye on a magazine rack and say ‘what the hell is that?’

Gavin Hanly: D'israeli can always be relied on to turn in a striking cover, and this is no exception. The darker tones seem to work better on the cover than on the strip itself, and this is certainly something that will grab the attention of the casual browser. So - job done.

Synopsis: Dredd and Mackman find the charred remains of the Duke, but there's no sign of Felix. They head to the ruins of a nearby town where the road collapses and they find themselves in an underground cave, full of bones.The metallic dragon attacks them, wounding Mackman and carrying him away in his jaws. Dredd is helped up by Felix, who has also tracked down the dragon...

Joseph Saxton: Interlude pieces, often frustrating, even when they’re decent.  One of the benefits of tour of duty is taking Dredd out of MC1 and allowing writers to play with settings and ideas that wouldn’t fit in there.  Such as this, robot dragon, mutant knights, great.  Will there be any lasting consequence, of course not.  Good to see Dredd falling through a big hole in the ground for the second time in recent months, and Rennie back in the comic.  Also enjoying the Cliff Robinson art, shame we don’t see him more often.

Gavin Hanly: It's a shame we get an interlude, just as everything's getting interesting, but at least this still fits into the overall story arc, as opposed to the ones we had during Origins. It's an OK strip, not one of Rennie's finest by a long shot, but there are some nice touches throughout and I look forward to Dredd teaming up with Felix.

It's Robinson's astonishingly good art that really steals the show on this occasion. Every page is absolutely top class, as well as being filled with some excellent detail like Dredd snapping off the Duke's appendage and using it to dig around in the ground. We don't see Robinson in the comic nearly enough, but it's always a delight when we do.

Synopsis: Stickleback and his crew hide out in Carfax Abbey where Stickleback has hidden some supplies. He, Bob and Tonga go out to look for clues while the others hide in the Abbey. Meanwhile - in the airship - the Countess is aggrieved at the failure to bring down Stickleback and orders her people on the ground to act.

Stickleback and the others check out Professor Thynne's house where he sees a photo of Thynne and some others - one of whom he can't see as her face has been torn out in the photo. He thinks one of them is the culprit so they head back to Carfax Abbey with the news only to find it in flames...

Joseph Saxton: Hmm, I loved the first series of stickleback, enjoyed the second, but I’m not sure that this ones really doing it for me.  I’m happy to read it and I may yet be proved wrong, but this series has felt a little slow and flat.  Five episodes in and I don’t feel much more aware of what’s going on than I did at the end of episode one, though the final panel of this issue may signal some change.  It feels a bit like Ian Edginton is spending too much time on fruity cockney dialogue and not enough on figuring out the tempo of plot and exposition.  But then I don’t write comics, so what do I know.

As ever its stunning to look at, D’israeli is a fine craftsman having a whale of a time.

Gavin Hanly: As with Joseph above, I've not been getting into Stickleback as easy as on past occasions, but I do still look forward to it every week. Pushing aside the rather confusing aspects of last week's episode, we finally seem to be getting to the meat of the tale this week, and hopefully we'll start to get more than Stickleback's crew hiding or running away (if there are any left...).

As ever, excellent art from D'israeli, although more often than usual I've found myself not actually knowing what was going on in the page. Not an issue this week but the centurion attack was a mite confusing. He's still aces, though, and one of the best 2000AD (or indeed British comics) have.

Synopsis: The ABC Warriors and the G-Men discuss working together, but the G-Men are not convinced and set the spider droid Krasbo after them. However, the Warriors defeat Krasbo with ease. The G-Men still want to fight, but Doktor Grobari arrives and orders them to join forces...

Joseph Saxton:There’s a lot of talking in this strip about mercenary war robots.  Clint Langley’s art is starting to grow on me though.

Gavin Hanly: Great art - but very feeble story this week. I have been enjoying the Warriors, but the last couple of episodes have been enormously pointless. It's as if Mills has tired of the battle with the G-Men and now wants to pit the ABCs against Volkhan as quickly as possible. No harm in this - but it does make the last few issues rather a waste of time. Even the battles are becoming uninteresting - ABC's attack, big war droid explodes. Hopefully things will improve once Mek Quake and Ro Jaws get more page time.

Synopsis: Ampney and Cromwell find Mrs Chipps safe and learn that the attackers have started dropping their sticks and heading out of town. It appears that the fighting was to whittle down the crowd to the very strongest who are now being fed to an evil demon to help it rise from hell and consume the world...

Joseph Saxton: Ian Edginton’s other piece, by contrast, has moved along at breakneck speed.  The plot moves on a significant amount every episode, hardly stopping to draw breath, still lots of fruity dialogue though.  Maybe Ampney will soon do something, rather than wander around and think about things.  I don’t really mind if he does though, not while I get to look at Simon Davis art.  Here's another artist producing fantastic work, his use of composition and colour have meant this strip feels like its flying, while a less dynamic artist could have let it flounder.

Gavin Hanly: Alas, i'm finding it really difficult to bond with this strip, and with the townsfolk sacrificing themselves to a monstrous beast, it's starting to feel a little too much like Stone Island for my liking. Davis always produces excellent art, and Edginton has a fine ear for dialogue - but otherwise I just can't get into this.

Synopsis: Elena and Lauren help to escort the women and children away from the city, but the Tsar uses this opportunity to send his troops, led by Hawkswoor and the Order of the Dragon, to attack them. The troops tear through the convoy, killing Madame Di Giorgi and taking Odessa back to the Tsar, while Hawksmoor confronts Elena.

Meanwhile, Dante is back at basecamp, reunited with Viktor, and unaware of the carnage...

Joseph Saxton: Aha, another strip that’s been plodding through the motions a bit suddenly bursts to life with several important occurrences in five pages.  The attack on the house of sin caught me genuinely by surprise, too often recently it's felt like Dante wins the fight without taking any casualties, and suddenly we have several characters dead or staring death in the face.  We also have a villain worth booing again, well Arkady always is, but he’s always been off to one side (a bit like Peter Mandelson).  And we have more family reunions, though I must admit I lose track of who knows who else is alive at times.

All in all its shaping up to be an interesting run.  John Burns' art is also of a good standard, as it always seems to be when the storyline gets better, so does his art.

Gavin Hanly: As ever, when things start going a little too well for Dante, you just know that everything's about to go horribly wrong. An excellent episode, but one that I only quite appreciated on closer reading. On the first approach, I have to admit that I couldn't quite work where the two scenes, the rebel command and the convoy, stopped and started - so was a little confused as to where the attack was taking place. But that aside, things have started moving after a few static months, so all is good here.

Charles Ellis: A solid prog, though not the best.  I must admit to not being a fan of the Volgan War run of the ABCs from the start.  But I can see where other people find the enjoyment in it.

Best story: Nikolai Dante

Gavin Hanly: 2000AD hasn't had the greatest of starts to 2010, but the strips are starting to take flight now. If the ABC Warriors can start the attack on Volkhan proper and we continue to see real developments in Dante, things should really start picking up.

Best story: Nikolai Dante