Cover by Clint Langley

Stacey Whittle: It’s a very striking cover and the detail is beautiful. I love it when it’s a wraparound cover. Not being madly keen on ABC Warriors puts me off a little but it is lovely

Pete McCosh: Another ABCs cover from Clint Langley and he's running out of characters to spotlight now. The recent Ro-Jaws cover was an amusing reflection of events in the strip but this, while being a nice picture of a robot with big fangs, is just an uninspiring headshot of an uninspiring villain. There was nothing to suggest there was any more to it, so I was surprised when I finished the comic and flicked to the back cover to see the montage of Volkhan's gang. I like that Tharg is willing to give us a little something extra from time to time, but I think there are better uses for a wraparound cover.

Synopsis: Dredd contacts Mackman who fears he's about to be used as food for the dragon's young. Dredd comes across a shopping mall and uses various 20th century remnants to build himself some makeshift armour. Dredd arrives at the beast's lair and kills its young, but it's too late to help Mackman. Felix hangs back while Dredd prepares to go up against the dragon.

Stacey Whittle: Holy s**t! I want a poster sized version of the Dredd Knight, that splash page is genius and gorgeous, the Holden droid, he done good.  It is always a little discombobulating to see Dredd without his helmet – tell me I wasn’t the only one scrutinising those panels for hint of face?

It’s a great pacy chase story with fab art so I’m really enjoying this step away from the big arc.

Pete McCosh: Along with some of the recent Meg outings, this tremendously fun story has gone a long way to showing that exile to the Cursed Earth gives writers just as broad a canvas as life in Mega City 1. It's nice to see Gordon Rennie make one of his infrequent appearances, especially when it seems he's lost none of his lightness of touch with Dredd. If this episode is shorter on story than the first two, that's easily excused by the opportunity afforded the artist to cut loose with the splashes of St Joe girding his loins for battle with his dragon.

The change of artist midway through the storyline is rather unfortunate. If opening your Prog to find Cliff Robinson illustrating a multi-part Dredd story is like unexpectedly being taken to a fancy restaurant for a romantic dinner, then opening your Prog to find PJ Holden replacing him half way through is like sitting back taking a sip of wine after a splendid soup and starter to find the waiter heading towards you with a Big Mac. Nothing wrong with it in itself, but it can only be a disappointment in context. His design of Dredd's makeshift armour was amusing but left me wondering what Robinson would've done with the page.

Synopsis: Stickleback visits Bethlem Royal Hospital in Lambeth, where he's taken to a room with a two way mirror. On the other side is his unseen contact, to whom he shows the photo he grabbed from Thynne's. His contact says that the photo is of the Futurist Society who wanted to remake the world using Mechanics and Eugenics. The missing figure is the Countess Irena Bernoulli - the child of Lord Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage - a criminal who keeps her face hidden from the world. It seems that Stickleback's contact wants him to find the Countess - and also notes that Stickleback's accent is slipping - and that not even he himself knows who he truly is...

Stacey Whittle: It’s really interesting to see Stickleback being “played” here and I for one think it shall end very badly for the Professor and I am looking forward to that occurrence. Stickleback is a great anti hero because even though he is an utter bastard you still root for him, which shows how good the writing is. I love Ian Edginton's dialogue - he is very funny and it’s nice to see real historical figures featured (Ada Lovelace was indeed Lord Byron’s daughter and the first ever computer programmer).

I also really love the steampunk feel to this strip – the combination of two way mirror and gramophone is lovely. D’Israli’s art and the level of detail in each panel is just incredible.

Pete McCosh: My affection for this strip is based primarily on the jaw-dropping art from the first storyline. While the style used has remained as intriguing, subsequent instalments have seemed to lose the heavy blacks which give it contrast and definition making it sometimes hard to follow what's going on. I've never known whether this has happened by accident or design, but this week's seems to be clearer again.

It also offers an interesting twist on the background of the character. We've become accustomed to Stickleback's view of himself as being in control of everything around him, so it's nice to be reminded that there are those in this world who view him as a creature to direct and play with. The hints dropped that the exaggerated, and occasionally grating, gorblimey accent is actually put on is a welcome hint at another level of deception and opens up the possibility of more stories to come.

Edginton draws the episode to a close with a neat cliffhanger, but I can't help thinking that a character called Fiery Jack is unlikely to have suffered too much in a fire.

Synopsis: The President of Mars has agreed to let the ABCs take the lead against Volkhan, but plans to have them destroyed afterwards. Meanwhile, Volkhan's warriors are destroying the Trans-Martian Highway with the considerable help of Mek Quake - killing everything in their way. Blackblood is enjoying his new allegiance...

Stacey Whittle: I have to be honest, I just don’t get it. I find it impenetrable, I don’t understand who the characters are or what they are doing and nothing so far has made me care either. I think I am suffering from newbie frustration with this strip - it makes no sense to me.

Clint Langley’s art can be breathtaking (particularly the machines) but I do not think storytelling is his forte.  Oddly, last time I did a review there was a huge pair of chubobblies by Langley in the prog and here they are again – I told you they were following me, coincidence?

Pete McCosh: Two pages of Blackblood being agreeably evil elevate this episode slightly, but this story has completely lost me now and art alone is never enough to make up for that.

Synopsis: Ampney and the ladies strip down to perform a ritual that will put the beast back where it belongs, while Cromwell gets ready to protect them from harm, as the monster strides towards them...

Stacey Whittle: Hurrah, a nekkid man! Ah if only it were Alpha! But why does he have wooden feet?  I think some re-reading is in order, I have obviously missed something.  Pretty simple episode this week, the story started with magic they are going to try and finish it with magic, fair enough really. It is still both funny and dark and a little bit disturbing and full of old ladies bare botties – where else in the universe would you get such a mixture aside from 2000AD?

In a prog chock full of amazing artwork the Davis droid just takes the crown as far as I am concerned, I love everything about his art - it is glorious.

Gavin Hanly: I wasn't terribly keen on the first Crucis story, but this time round it's grown on me. The juxtaposition of the arch tone with the unspeakable horror from the deeps beyond time is a difficult one to get right but the last couple of episodes have managed to hit the mark fairly consistently. As with Stickleback, it's clear that Edginton always has one eye on setting up future storylines exploring his characters past. This can sometimes be an obstacle to just getting on with telling an fun story here and now but, in this case, the hints at Ampney's past very logically inform the response to the current threat so I don't mind so much.

Simon Davis working from an Edginton script seems to be a recipe for guaranteed nudity in 2000AD so I found his careful placement of a Pringle sock in amongst the sea of gore and nipples an amusing nod to the Stone Island controversy!

Synopsis: Dante finds Lauren tied to a statue with a bomb attached to her. Dante is unable to defuse it - and Lauren is killed in the resulting explosion. Dante contacts the Tsar who tells him that they have Elena hostage and that she will be killed if he orders the attack. Dante decides to go after Elena while leaving Jena to lead the attack on St Petersburg...

Stacey Whittle: Having not really got on with Dante at all in the past I am loving this installment, I am absolutely and quite suddenly a Dante convert.  Full of twists, turns, heartache and bad assery all in one week, what’s not to love? My only slight criticism would be the cheese factor of last line said by Jena. Aside from that – stonking. Roll on next week.

Pete McCosh: Under the vast weight of my anticipation, the first episodes of Hero of the Revolution seemed a bit flat to me. Deliberately revisiting scenes from Tsar Wars to no great effect. As with Ampney Crucis, the last couple of weeks have finally seen it come alive. That the death of a relatively minor character manages to have the impact it does is a testament to the gradual build up their relationships have been given over the years. It also makes me, for one, fear for the safety of Elena where I'd normally be confident of her escape.

I hope this particular storyline is going to run longer than the standard ten or twelve parts as there seems like a lot of ground still to be covered.

Stacey Whittle: A really great prog with 4 out of 5 strips hitting the mark for me.

Best story: Stickleback

Pete McCosh : After a lacklustre start to the year, three stories are really starting to get some momentum. Dredd remains consistently excellent, so ABC Warriors stands out as the only stinker in the bunch.

Best story: Nikolai Dante