2000 AD #2478: Prog 2478

I am The Mighty Tharg, and my business is Thrillage — welcome to the Galaxy’s Greatest! It’s that time again, Terrans, when my illustrious organ breaks through into your reality and dazzles your diodes with a line-up of scintillating sci-fi strips. Inside you’ll find the latest scrotnig instalments of Judge Dredd, Brink, Helium and Silver, plus there’s another complete Future Shock from the pens of the Peaty & Yeowell droids!JUDGE DREDD // FLAMES AND WHITE PHOSPHORUS, Part ThreeMega-City One, 2147 AD. Home to over 250 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America, with the toxic Black Atlantic to the east, and the irradiated Cursed Earth to the west. Tensions are on a knife-edge, crime is rampant, and only the Judges — empowered to dispense instant justice — can stop total anarchy. Toughest of them all is JUDGE DREDD — he is the Law!HELIUM // RED OCTOBER, Part ThreeThe far future. It has been three hundred years since the Great War ended, and eightyfive per cent of the Earth’s surface now lies beneath a gaseous ocean known as the Poison Belt. The survivors live above the lethal fugue, but a Professor Bloom has emerged from a city below the belt, claiming he can make the planet habitable again. Constable Hodge was tasked with protecting him, but it came at great cost…SILVER // MALIGNANT, Part TwoEarth, the year 2001. A group of armed survivors sought out the resting place of a five hundred-year-old vampire, who may just help them against the alien Sepsis, who invaded the planet a few decades earlier. The vamp, called Baroness DeSilva, has proved powerful in battling the extra-terrestrials, and now, having aided the rebels in destroying Sepsis infrastructure, has just been instrumental in blowing up a nuclear facility…BRINK // THE CALL OF THE VOID, Part SevenThe late 21st century, and through environmental catastrophe and industrial overload Earth has been reduced to a wasteland. Mankind finally evacuated the planet in 2072 and millions were housed in a number of deep-space Habitats. But life on these cramped, overcrowded stations is tense, often spilling over into madness. Sects are rife, and Bridget Kurtis of the Habitat Security Division is investigating their reach…THARG’S FUTURE SHOCKS // THE VESSELOut in the vast reaches of the universe, there are an infinite number of stories waiting to be told. These cautionary tales pass from traveller to traveller in the spaceports and around campfires on distant planets, acquiring the status of legend, their shocking ends a salutory lesson in hubris. Anything is possible in these twisted trips into the galaxy’s dark side. Abandon your preconceptions, and expect the unexpected…