Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: The Night Flyer
Credits: Kenneth Niemand (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Pippa Bowland (colours), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: In this one-shot, someone called ‘the Night Flyer’ is kidnapping people and feeding them to these mind-controlling monsters that feed on human flesh/blood. Night Flyer looks very much like the classic Justice Society of America member the Sandman, down to the gas gun. Aside from being a Sandman pastiche, all we really know about the Night Flyer is that she is being controlled by thee aforementioned monsters, and she gasses people and brings them back to their lair.
We see one of these runs in action, as Patrick Goddard attempts to balance the horror of what is happening with the dreamlike state that Night Flyer’s gas puts the victim into. And so while our unnamed captive is singing and calling Night Flyer Peter Pan, we see the joylessness of her job and, mixed with Kenneth Niemand’s script, we are presented a nice, multifaceted story.
Then, as always, Judge Dredd comes in and simplifies it.
This story doesn’t have a ton of political or social commentary going on with it, and so Dredd is more or less just a cop here, albeit a violent cop who breaks the nose of the gassed man and quite literally burns the Night Flyer out of the sky. The best Dredd stories have an undercurrent of truth to it, and this doesn’t feature that. But Goddard’s art presents a different type of dichotomy with his art, and it is his work that makes ‘The Night Flyer’ an enjoyable, though otherwise slight, one-shot.
Megatropolis, Part Five
Credits: Kenneth Niemand (script), Dave Taylor (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: As an Elseworld there is an inherent tension within “Megatropolis,” how much is it going to mirror the trajectory of Mega City One? As the strip enters a new phase with the fifth entry, “Megatropolis” begins to fall into a more pronounced dystopia. There was already a dystopic affect to the strip with its conscious use of noir aesthetics, the fact it’s a Dredd property, and so on. A more paratextual reason for this feeling of dread is the presence of “Dreadnoughts,” the Dredd prequel strip. The parallels between the two become more pronounced as Captain Calhoun becomes the executioner of a special judicial squad meant to quell the growing tide of lawlessness in Megatropolis. These new Blackshirts look similar, but different, to the future judges of “Dreadnoughts” and fittingly the vigilante known as Judge Dredd. It’s enough to give a reader a bit of pause that maybe this noir is going to turn into something more over the next five months.
Dave Taylor’s art through this one and a quarter page sequence of free fall is excellent. The paneling is a balance of terror that unites the vastness of Megatropolis and all of our threads onto a single page that tells the reader: this is the start of something new, and it isn’t good.
Maybe it passed over me the first time, but the executive of Megatropolis looks a lot like Richard Nixon, which is a fitting caricature to use as their character is talking about “Law & Order,” but also feels like the cultural reference out of sync with the aesthetic of the strip as a whole.
That’s the main thrust of the strip, around the edges we get some more detail about things. Readers finally get to know what went wrong-right with the Maybry Case for Officer Jara. All we needed to know about it is summed up in three dialog boxes and a single panel, wonderfully efficient storytelling. We figure out how Dredd is moving through the city undetected, like the Basilisk he’s using the pipes. Rico and Jara also try to get an audience with the man who might be able to stop the city from fully falling apart, Eustace Fargo. But that will have to wait for another Megazine.
Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground: Part Five
Continued below
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Jacob Cordas: What is a comic book character without a secret origin? You tease it here and there but you keep it hidden till a dramatic moment then… Boom! It drops filling in holes with key information you didn’t know.
That is “Breaking Ground: Part Five.” After the fiasco that made up the last chapter, we need to explore how we got here. Carroll fills that in with surprising aplomb. It’s exciting and dynamic. The backstory helps elaborate our protagonist in a surprising way. It feels a natural evolution of the character while also a twist I didn’t see coming. The one writing negative is simply it takes up so much space in the chapter so any other narrative point it tires to hit it can’t. There simply isn’t the space for it.
The flashback sequence excels as well at giving Higgins and Hurst a place to stretch. It is dynamic while staying reserved and quiet. It’s a testament to their skills that the template they have built for the rest of the series. I especially love the page that goes from slaughter to studying. It conveys so much color and character. You’re able to get a real sense of growth in what amounts to six panels.
The political issues from the last few chapters are still here It starts off with a beat trying too hard to hang on those jumbled politics but quickly pivots off it. There is a conspiracy on and there is backstory to unfold. It focuses on the fun and dynamic. And this reader is so grateful it does so.
Returners: Heartswood Part 5
Credits: Si Spencer (script), Nicolo Assirelli (art), Eva De La Cruz (colours) Simon Bowland (letters)
Ryan Pond: “Heartswood” continues to descend into the strange world of the occult as in the aftermath of Barrencourt’s instantaneous combustion. And those windows they have been desperately searching for? Some things may be better left unfound.
Assirelli does an awesome job on the linework for this series with character designs in a style that reminds me of 70’s era Disney animation. There is almost a lighthearted approach to the illustrations that is juxtaposed against horror style layouts with a lot of rotated and askew panels.
Cruz leans into the horror with heavy blacks in the darker areas of the panels like corners and cabinets while balancing it against equally bold, bright colors like the yellow fire and blue windows. It makes the important elements of each panel pop out and become memorable while maintaining the energy of anticipation for the unknown horrors that hide in the darkness.
The script for this series has been great as it twists and turns its way through the story with the easy solutions making prey out of anyone desperate enough to take them. Had the group realized that they would be trapped in this house they most assuredly would have moved past that door. Spencer also delivers a lot of great dialogue during the planning and slower moments that help characterize and understand the characters better as the adventure moves along.
Wherever “Heartswood” is headed, the group just got a little lighter. But now there are also ghosts and lamp faced old ladies in pursuit as the fugitives search for an exit to the has that is sure to become their grave.
Credits: David Hine (script), Nick Percival (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Rowan Grover: The story in “Deliverance” seems to be settling into the main plot and has a much more focused direction of where it is headed in this month’s Megazine. Rosco meets up with the Wild Kids who prove to be a fun and interesting “if-this-then-this” take on the Mortarian cult (of course, if they had kids, they would rebel against mass death in their teenage years). Hine arms the script with the same level of subtle, witty quips, like the leader of the Wild Kids naming himself God and then shortly detailing afterward “Ah, no. It’s short for Godfrey”. At this stage, none of the Wild Kids beyond Godfrey really have much of a personality, but the introduction of the floating god being Um that hangs out with them seems to be setting up a future potential discourse between it and Judge Death. Speaking of, the Judge Death content has settled into being a little more predictable, especially with the return of the other Dark Judges, but it still holds interest due to the way that Death interacts with the larger cult.
Percival’s art is solid here, with the beautiful yet murky nature of it doing real justice to the portrayal of the Wild Kids and their home. The smudged, painterly shading gives their existence a very ethereal quality, especially with Um the floating being watching over them. Yet the use of muted and quite desaturated colors makes it still feel quite grunge-y and hodge-podge which is exactly the kind of sci-fi Lost Boys vibes these characters should be giving off. Percival draws some great cosmic-tinged art when Judge Death is communicating with his sisters. There’s a terrific use of purples and busy space textures that make it feel very prog-rock influenced, especially with the way Death seems to swirl and peter off into the abyss like he is one with it.
“Deliverance” is settling into a more predictable story, and while this might take away some of the bizarre unexpectedness of previous chapters, it does give a good sense of pacing and continuity that I hope will build well to an eventual climax.
