2000 AD #1301
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeProg 1301 is a double-debut prog for two of 2000 AD's most enduring revival arcs. On the Judge Dredd side, the 'Blood and Duty' story straddling progs 1300–1301 restored Vienna Pasternak—Dredd's niece, absent from the strip since the 1980s—as an adult character, fundamentally reshaping Dredd's emotional life and seeding years of storylines around his quasi-paternal conflict between the law and family. Simultaneously, prog 1301 opens 'What Lies Beneath,' the first chapter of Gordon Rennie's long-form revival of the original Rogue Trooper, returning the blue-skinned Genetic Infantryman to his classic Nu Earth mission after years of reboots and rests. Together these two launches make this a pivot point in Rebellion-era 2000 AD, demonstrating the new publisher's strategy of reactivating the anthology's classic stable rather than replacing it wholesale.
In "Blood & Duty Part Two," tensions explode when Chief-of-Police Tozer and Commissioner Hugill arrive at the chaotic scene of a violent shootout at the business of influential politician Enrique Esposito. With the office of Esposito’s attorney, Edward Cormier, now a hostage situation, the arrival of rogue officer Jack Bison—driven by personal grief and a warrantless search—forces a reckoning between duty and vengeance. Written by Colin Clayton and Chris Dows, with striking art by Laurence Campbell and inks by L. Townsend, this gripping installment unfolds under the shadow of a fractured investigation, while Carlos Ezquerra’s intense cover captures the storm brewing beneath the surface.
In "Blood & Duty Part Two," Judge Dredd’s brief reprieve from duty is upended when a rogue citidef unit forces him into action, cutting short his attempt to see his niece Vienna Pasternak perform in *Charles III* at The Megalopolis theatre. Though he’d hoped to spend precious time with her—his only living relative—his commitment to justice pulls him away, leaving him just moments too late. The story unfolds with the weight of duty and personal longing, set against the relentless pulse of Mega-City One.
In the scorched aftermath of a brutal clash, a desperate band of Souther troops flees across the poisoned Khoisin Reservoir, their inflatable boats cutting through toxic waters haunted by the memory of half a million drowned. As one by one they’re picked off by unseen forces beneath the surface, the survivors—wounded and shaken—wait in silence for a signal that never comes. Then, amid the haze and dread, Rogue Trooper steps forward, his presence as sharp as the danger that lingers beneath the water.
In the 50th anniversary year of the human-Geek truce, peace shatters when the Geeks launch a surprise assault with superior tech. With Earth under siege, civilian and veteran star-troopers alike flee to the Moon’s surface, only to be hunted down by invading Geek forces. Forced back into battle, veterans Steve Smith, Jupe, and others don combat suits to defend their last refuge—before the war they thought was over reignites in the dust of the Moon.
In the gritty streets of a near-future city, Chief-of-Police Tozer and Commissioner Hugill arrive at the wreckage of businessman Enrique Esposito’s office after a violent shootout. There, they find officer Jack Bison holding Esposito’s attorney, Edward Cormier, at gunpoint—driven by a personal vendetta he believes ties Esposito to the murder of his wife. With tensions flaring and authority hanging in the balance, Tozer tries to salvage Bison’s career while Hugill prepares to end it.
In "Road House Part Two," Johnny and Wulf are pulled through a portal at the roadhouse on Portabella, tumbling into a warped dimension where familiar horrors take on new, deadly forms. Stranded in a gorge and ensnared by monstrous arachnivores, they fight their way through a landscape teeming with twisted predators—some eerily like those from their own world—on a desperate quest to find their way back.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By mid-2002, Rebellion Developments had been publishing 2000 AD solely under its own banner since prog 1263, with editor Andy Diggle overseeing a period of deliberate revivalism for the comic's marquee properties. The Strontium Dog series had already been relaunched in the Prog 2000 holiday special (1999) by original creators John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, setting the template for bringing back beloved strips in new pre-death continuity. Rogue Trooper writer Gordon Rennie followed that model for 'What Lies Beneath,' working with penciller Staz Johnson and inker David Roach to bring the original Rogue back in flashback to his traitor-hunting days—a creative approach that had been blocked from going further when Rennie later stated 2000 AD editorial prevented a fuller revamp in 2004. Matt Smith would take the editorial chair from Diggle later in 2002, making this prog a product of the very end of the Diggle tenure.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Prog 1301 (2002) is the opening chapter of 'What Lies Beneath,' a multi-part Rogue Trooper story running through prog 1304, written by Gordon Rennie with pencils by Staz Johnson and inks by David Roach — marking the original Rogue's return to active serialization under Rebellion.
- The Judge Dredd story 'Blood and Duty' (progs 1300–1301) brings adult Vienna Pasternak back into Judge Dredd's life after more than two decades of in-story absence; her return as a grown woman reshaped Dredd's characterization for subsequent years.
- Vienna Dredd (Vienna Pasternak) is the daughter of Rico Dredd, Joe Dredd's corrupt clone-brother, and was originally introduced as a child in prog 116 (1979); her adult re-entry in this story is her first appearance in that form.
- Johnny Alpha (Strontium Dog) and his Viking partner Wulf Sternhammer appear in this prog period as part of the Wagner/Ezquerra revival launched in the Prog 2000 special — the new stories are set before Johnny's original death, with Wagner introducing the conceit that earlier stories were 'folklore.'
- Rogue Trooper is a creation of writer Gerry Finley-Day and artist Dave Gibbons, first appearing in 2000 AD #228 (1981); the 'What Lies Beneath' arc belongs to the original character's post-1999 revival, written by Gordon Rennie.
- The Rogue Trooper stories beginning in prog 1301 were later collected in the trade paperback 'Realpolitik' and in 'Rogue Trooper: Tales of Nu-Earth Volume 4,' as well as 'The Complete Rogue Trooper Volume 4.'
- Prog 1301 falls squarely in the early Rebellion-only publishing era — the publisher had taken sole control of the weekly from prog 1263 onward, having acquired 2000 AD in 2000 from Egmont/Fleetway.
- Jack Bison is catalogued as a character in this issue but could not be independently corroborated across available online sources as to which strip or story they appear in within prog 1301.
Cast · 7 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Bison #[nn] (2004), Judge Dredd: Brothers of the Blood #[nn] (2006), Rogue Trooper: Realpolitik #[nn] (2006), Strontium Dog: The Kreeler Conspiracy #[nn] (2008), Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection #1 (2015), Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #35 (2020), 2000 AD The Ultimate Collection #105 (2021)
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