2000 AD #1679

Prog 1679 of 2000 AD arrives with a cover that strikes an unexpectedly tender note: a man in a white military dress uniform and a woman in an elegant purple gown waltz together in a spotlight, framed by the looming, shadowed architecture of a vast futuristic city — all rendered in Simon Fraser's evocative pencils and inks. The tagline "Heroes Be Damned — The War May Be Won, But Is The Danger Over For Dante?" sets a mood of hard-won but fragile calm, and the five strips promised inside — Judge Dredd, Damnation Station, Ichabod Azrael, Zombo, and Nikolai Dante — make this a characteristically packed anthology. At two pounds, it's a fine snapshot of 2000 AD in 2010, balancing action-heavy teasers with this quietly romantic cover image that lingers in the mind.