Welcome to the 2025 edition of our 2000 AD Year in Review. This time round, yours truly -longtime subscriber and Beat contributor Dean Simons – gives an overview of the year that was. We then have a quick check in on The Beat’s reviews editor Zack Quaintance on his second full year as a weekly reader of the 48-year-old British anthology.
2000 AD’s 2025 – DEAN’s PERSPECTIVE
Following a weekly anthology like 2000 AD, it is pretty much expected that there will be some things that resonated more than others over the course of a year. 2025 started off pretty strong simply because The Out was still present in the line up. Dan Abnett has a knack for the 5-page serialised format, easily making each episode (illustrated by Mark Harrison) feel self-contained, while building a grander story (see also Azimuth with Tazio Bettin). It was a welcome surprise, then, to see Abnett take a turn at writing Judge Dredd for three separate stories: two shorts and one three-parter, published in May and June’s progs. A favourite of the three was Bad Credit (Prog 2432), with Jake Lynch on art and Jim Boswell on colours – which follows a cursed penny and its chain of possessors. Not an original idea but Abnett and Lynch do it so well that it was memorable for its quality.
While there were a fair few ‘big’ Dredd storylines in 2025 (The Shift, Tunnels, And to the Sea Return) – for my money, I still really enjoy those tales where the eponymous lead is largely in the background. In this vein, my favourite of the year was April’s Blitzers by Ken Niemand and Dan Cornwell (Progs 2427-2430) which saw former gangbangers discover that they can’t fully escape the past (especially when there’s an incurable self-destruct mechanism in their bloodstream). A tragedy in four parts, we see the lives of our central characters fall apart while Judge Dredd closes in.
Fiends of the Western Front was a very interesting turn for the ongoing Ian Edginton-scripted reimagining of the classic Gerry Finley-Day & Carlos Ezquerra horror series, which kicked off in the 2024 Christmas special (Prog 2413) and ran through to March 2025 (Prog 2423). This time round we followed immortal Eastern European vampire Constanta to the New World, and the 19th century ‘new frontier’. In a fun story aptly called Wilde West we see famous English playwright and author Oscar Wilde cross the Atlantic, fleeing dark forces and enlisting Constanta’s aid. What occurs is a surprisingly entertaining pairing who together confront evils galore hunting them both. With art by regular Fiends… collaborator Tiernen Trevallion, this was a delight to read week to week. Ending on a remarkable cliffhanger, I very much look forward to seeing what happens next for this odd duo.
Besides Fiends…, Edginton had a couple other solid series feature in 2000 AD this past year, with an 18-part Scarlet Traces prequel Empire of Blood (with cocreator D’Israeli) filling the summer months (Progs 2432-2449) and the long awaited return of much-missed series Brass Sun, alongside co-creator INJ Culbard, carrying us through the rest of the year. Brass Sun: Pavane (Progs 2451-2461) was an interesting return which maintained the original concept of Wren’s quest (to restore the dying synthetic sun at the centre of an orrery of worlds that holds the last clutches of human civilisation) but set a radically new status quo which kept pulling the rug out from under longtime readers. Very intrigued to see where we go next.
As the Duncan Jones written/directed Rogue Trooper movie draws closer the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic continued its efforts to accumulate more recently-produced material featuring Rogue and his world. We had two Rogue Trooper multipart storylines and a whole set of Nu Earth War Tales. Gordon Rennie remains a dab hand at developing intriguing stories set on (or relating to) the blighted battleground of Nu Earth – having previously co-created excellent Rogue Trooper spinoffs such as the still-ongoing Jaegir, and more distantly The 86ers and Hunted. Six of the seven Nu Earth War Tales were written by Rennie and all managed to be engaging without simply devolving into a standard Rogue Trooper story. Also one saw the long awaited return of long-absent artist Peter Doherty with The Last Days of Fort Neuropa (Prog 2445). Not sure about the accessibility of these stories for newbies but lots of interesting Easter eggs for those already familiar.
Rogue Trooper is a classic character for 2000 AD but for some time it seemed like the best stories had already been written. More recent takes have managed to change that assessment (not least 2023’s Blighty Valley, by Garth Ennis & Patrick Goddard). In 2025, Alex de Campi, Neil Edwards and Matt Soffe’s Ghost Patrol (Progs 2450-2463) provided arguably the best case yet for an actual canon continuation of the once-dormant series. Ghost Patrol brought us forward in time, set after Rogue had completed his personal quest of vengeance which had been so central to the original series. We begin with the recruitment of a former soldier to return to the hellscape of Nu Earth (still in a state of forever war), and we go on to see elements of how the Genetic Infantryman program was developed and learn that Rogue continues to roam the toxic warzone in the present, becoming a guardian angel to younger recruits of the Souther army and a bogey man to the enemy Norts – even if he is officially AWOL and set to be put before a tribunal by the Souther top brass.
Keeping things fresh, there were a few new series introduced in 2025. Guy Adams & Megan Huang’s Afro-Futurist mystery Ghosted (Progs 2427-2438); T.C. Eglington & Steven Austin’s London gangland-supernatural serial The Ravilious Pact (Progs 2440-2449); David Barnett & Luke Horsman’s curious Mancunian zombie drama DeadTown (Progs 2461-2462), and – the highlight of the year – Zenith spinoff Red Dragon (Progs 2451-2460) by writer Rob Williams, with Zenith co-creator Steve Yeowell and Patrick Goddard alternating on art, and Dylan Teague on colours. Despite being a spinoff to Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell’s classic 2000 AD series, Red Dragon easily stood on its own – following parallel plot threads across different timelines – covering the journey of a superhero losing faith alongside Britain’s changing geopolitical role post-WW2; and in the present day a jaded journalist telling one last story on a subject that brought him renown. Deftly handled, it really packs a punch. All of the other new series scratched an itch this year and seeing their stories possibly continue in the near future would not go amiss for this Squaxx dek Thargo [editors note: 2000 AD lingo for regular readers/fans].
Future Shocks, the four page one-shot mainstays of the anthology that are often a proving ground for new talent or a chance for established creators to stretch their muscles, remained present. There were seven Future Shocks published in 2025 (eight if we include one published in the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine) and my personal highlights were Ed Whiting & Adam Stone’s Infiltrator (Prog 2439) and Lekbeth the Great and Terrible (Prog 2437) by Rob Williams, Simon Coleby & Jack Davies. The latter managed to impress because of its clever turnaround on the fantasy genre’s “prophecy” trope (and Simon Coleby’s always reliably solid art). As for Infiltrator – while its ending didn’t have as sharp a twist, Adam Stone’s art was absolutely stupendous. A Thought Bubble Talent Search winner in 2024, Stone sadly died in the later months of 2025 – an absolute shock to all and a great loss to comics.
There were some stories that fell a bit short this year in 2000 AD. John Tomlinson, Eoin Covenay & Jim Boswell‘s second series of Portals & Black Goo, ditto that of David Hine & Boo Cook‘s Void Runners, and Alex de Campi, Eduardo Ocaña & Giulia Brusco‘s final series of Full Tilt Boogie immediately come to mind. One felt unfocused, chaotic and overburdened by its large cast; another lacked much plot progression. In the case of Full Tilt Boogie, it is a brilliant concept with fantastic art but the writing felt like it took too much of a back seat to make it a satisfying package in weekly serialised format (you could breeze through the pages in a few minutes…or less). It may well read much better in collected form though and is definitely worth a shot, it just didn’t satisfy in weekly serialised format.
Not so Mega-Zine…?
Over in the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine sister title, things were decidedly mixed. 2025’s slate began with the final instalments of interesting series T.C. Eglington & Boo Cook’s Death Cap, Kenneth Niemand, Anna Readman & Quinton Winter’s Fargo & McBane, Liam Johnson & Rob Richardson’s Cadet Rico, and the ever-reliable Lawless, by Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade. As soon as they concluded, the Megazine felt like it was in a holding pattern for several months. We did get some more Ales Kot-scripted Devlin Waugh but that series has felt off the boil for the last couple years. Frustratingly July to September’s issues relied more on shorts (Mega City 2099, Tales from the Black Museum), Treasury of British Comics samplers and reprints than serials to ensure October’s 35th anniversary issue could start with an exciting roster. This proved perhaps ill-judged as the overall package broadly lacked sufficient vitality for longer than one would have liked.
The anniversary issue (#485) was great. Kenneth Niemand and Dave Taylor’s alt universe series Megatropolis returned for its long-awaited second series after a five year hiatus, and the latest arc in the intriguingly excellent Dreddworld precursor Dreadnoughts, by Michael Carroll & John Higgins were particular highlights. It was extremely sad to learn that Megatropolis artist Dave Taylor died from cancer just before the first instalment of Megatropolis 2 saw print. The heavily European-inspired artist had put some of the best work of his career into the Judge Dredd Megazine over the past 20 years and every one of his pages have been magnificent. Megatropolis‘ first series constantly setting an even higher bar of quality.
The reprinting of John Wagner, Alan Grant and Dan Cornwell’s indie football/soccer miniseries’ Rok of the Reds and Rok the God were a constant throughout the year. Entertaining and funny – but if you had read it before, you might be impatiently waiting for the kick-off of the brand new third arc Rok the World (set to be in the Judge Dredd Megazine’s 2026 slate). The latest Cadet Dredd arc was fine but suffered from the aforementioned weaker mix of stories in the wider Megazine.
There was a standout Judge Dredd story in the Megazine this year. #485’s Letter from America, by Rob Williams, Colin MacNeil & Dylan Teague, saw us check in on former Dredd protegé, now member of the reigning Council of Five, Judge America Beeny. A fascinating character whose roots directly connect back to the founding of the Judge Dredd Megazine and the first story published, featuring her parents, seminal classic America. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long before our next Judge Beeny story.
Another pleasant surprise in the Megazine this year was the videogame tie-in to publisher Rebellion’s latest release Atomfall. Written by Jonathan L Howard, it not only served as a prologue to the game, it was well crafted and a great chance to see returning 2000 AD artist Anthony Williams strut his stuff, with colours provided by Steve Cannon.
2025 may have been a somewhat less than stellar year for the Megazine but it still featured some really impressive stories.
Now, let’s check in on Zack’s second year as a regular 2000 AD reader…
ZACK’s PERSPECTIVE
I don’t have nearly as much to say as Dean here — in large part because I share my thoughts on these comics weekly, within the Prog Report section of our Wednesday Comics Review column — but I will note that while I thought this year was not as strong as last year, I enjoyed reading these comics all the same.
2000AD is now ingrained in my weekly comics reading routine, as much as any other publisher, and I look forward to having a weekly anthology to dig into, even when there are only a couple stories I’m into.
Early in the year, I found Fiends of the Western Front and Silver to be highlights. Toward the end of the year, however, there were weeks where nearly every strip in the magazine was one I was enjoying.
I found Red Dragon to be a really well-structed comic, and one that rewarded re-reading as a binge, rather than in installments. Brass Sun was a comic that was new to me, but its new story was told in a way that made it easy for me to follow. And, really, also in a way that motivated me to go back and (hopefully) read prior Brass Sun comics. I of course enjoyed every comic Henry Flint drew in 2000AD this year, and, finally, the Rogue Trooper Ghost Patrol story was my favorite starring that character in a good long while, visiting as it did (in my opinion) more interesting territory with the concept than the more traditional war comics tend to do.
Anyway, that’s it for me…see you all back at the bottom of the Wednesday Comics column in 2026!
2000 AD’s weekly return kicks off January 7, and the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine will return January 21. Check back on Monday as we read the tea leaves and look ahead at what to expect from the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic in 2026!
