Sinister Dexter: That was Downlode

After 40-plus years of weekly publication, 2000ad still has a distinct ratio of two great comic strips, two okay strips and one outright stinker. And Sinister Dexter has almost always been one of the okays.

Created and still written by Dan Abnett, it's been a continuous story running for three decades now, and lots has happened - trips to outer space, several long-running gang wars, multiple deaths and rebirths for the main characters, one decent fake-out with the Malone, and endless short stories about life and death in Downlode.

It's a comic that has always had a problem with the fact that the main characters were basically smug jerks, hitmen who insist on a code that they break whenever it suits them, and despite all their many misadventures, they largely stayed the same smug jerks all the way through.

And yet, somehow, the current direction it is taking is genuinely fascinating, and its latest iteration is the thing I'm looking most forward to in the Galaxy's Greatest Comic.

Abnett has written thousands of pages for 2000ad, but has had an unexpectedly incredible run over the past few years. Lawless with Phil Winslade, The Out with Mark Harrison, and the incomparable Brink have all been absolutely brilliant. Brink might be the best thing he's ever done, and he has done a lot (we're not even going to touch on the Warhammer here).

So it was with some disappointment when it turned out Azimuth - a new series set in a vast and weird society literally built on digital data exchanges - was actually the latest version of Sinister Dexter, with the surviving (for now) half of the duo suddenly rolling to town.

But it's also become the most interesting phase in the entire saga. For the first time in years, Sinister Dexter comic is properly surprising, and who knows where it is going? It's also amazingly well designed and drawn by Tazio Bettin, with actual stakes and mysteries, while taking the most modern ideas about an AI's impact on the world and going completely batshit crazy with it.

And then, the last episode in the annual Christmas special came with another kicker of a twist, a truly unexpected turn that still feels obvious, as the world of the ex-Downlode crashes into another long-running 2000ad icon.

Same old hitmen, brand new world, whole new thing. Abnett knows what he is doing.