Judge Dredd Megazine 437 Featured Columns 

Multiver-City One: Judge Dredd Megazine 437 – Scrawling the Walls!

By , , and | October 20th, 2021
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.

Cover by Colin MacNeil

Judge Dredd: A Dream of a Thousand Flowers
Credits:Ken Niemand (Script), Colin MacNeil (Art), Chris Blythe (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)

Christopher Egan: When Ken Niemand is writing a Judge Dredd story, you know you’re going to get awesome action, an interesting plot, and noir style dialogue. All that is evident from the first page of the latest Megazine tale. Responding to a call on vandals, Dredd attempts to catch up and make some arrests, but as soon as he nears it looks like the three street artists vanish into their own work, a floral field of sunshine, with the words “This World Is A Prison” tagged over it. It’s all very fantastical, bright, and out of place for the dark and grimy future of Mega City One. The contrast is something we rarely see in these stories. If there are bright colors; they usually come from something sci-fi adjacent. With no trace of teleportation tech or mutie-powers. Dredd and the other Judges on the scene are left to interrogate people on the street. The plot evolves into a typical detective story of Dredd attempting to track down the vandals.

While it follows all of Neimand’s usual story traits, there is a lot of sadness here. The writing shows us once again that this city, this type of law enforcement, this kind of life is a fascist nightmare. It never lets you get lulled into the ‘Dredd as a hero’ narrative. It’s violent and heartbreaking. He gladly shoots down street artists, some of the most non-violent criminals in the city. The blending of sci-fi and supernatural is a fascinating one and this strip nails the tone throughout.

MacNeil’s artwork is highly stylized, this isn’t the kind of artwork you’ll find in classic “Judge Dredd” strips, but all the same if feels right at home in this world. It pulls from more modern superhero comics, and the usual cyberpunk futures seen in Blade Runner or Akira. It’s really beautiful, and the colors by Chris Blythe bring out a fully realized palette used many times in the IDW run of “Judge Dredd.” It’s a modern, if not typical comic book palette, but it captures all eras of Dredd.

An interesting and somewhat sole crushing addition to the canon. A personal favorite Megazine strip in recent months.

The Returners: Amazonia Part 6
Credits: Si Spencer (script), Nicolo Assirelli (art), Eva De La Cruz (colours), Jim Campbell (letters)

Michael Mazzacane: It’s never a simple task for our trio of characters, more so now after donating their limbs in the previous strip. And yet they persist. That continual presence is what allows the opening joke to land. As their guide departs he turns around and shouts“Well fare! I hope you die!” to which Chavez dryly states how for anyone else that would feel like a threat. Former Judge Mineiro has her own comedic flight of fancy as she states how she wants to meet her end, much later and after a decade of training cadets. The comedy of this statement isn’t the dark twee qualities it is the misrecognition of what kind of life and institution Mineiro has dedicated herself to. Correira rightly counters with the absurdity of the Justice Department taking her back – since when has the Justice Department admitted it was wrong? And yet, like themselves, hope persists.

The sixth entry in “Returners” sees our trio FINALLY make it to the pyramid of their psychedelic dreams. Now comes the real test: stairs. As well as the impish Saci who does his best to bar them from entering his sister’s palace. Spencer and Assirelli do a good job in this moment of playing up the fae-trickster qualities of Saci, in doing so potentially setting up at least one more strip’s worth of plot detours. Only to quickly fix the problem by snatching off his cap and making his ears very cold. It is just a solid Looney Tunes-esque bit of physical humour and problem solving.

Continued below

Once inside we get perhaps one of the most experimental pages I’ve read in a 2000 AD product, everything is weighted out with only Jim Campbell’s lettering on the page. The immediate comparison for me is the “black” issue by Jeff Lemire from “Bloodshot: Salvation” #7, wherein all that was shown is the lettering and some panel borders. Campbell’s lettering gives coherence to the obnoxiously bright page and Spencer’s scripting is distinct enough that you can intuit who is speaking. However, there is one minor issue where a word balloon is capped off which makes me wonder if this is perhaps a printing error as well. Either way it’s an effective page that captures the unknowableness of Irmazhina’s magic and lair. Even when we “see” more in the next page it is largely all blotted out in black ink.

Overall this is an effective strip that pushes the series into the endgame for now.

Angelic: Restitution, Four
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Lee Carter (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Brian Salvatore: This month, we get an origin story for the mountain of a man that Angel fought last month in the colosseum. This is some of Lee Carter’s finest work in the book thus far, using silhouette and lightning to evoke a mad scientist/Dr. Frankenstein tone for that section. It is simple but effective, and tricks our pop culture brains into feeling for the ‘monster’ due to the connection to the innocent strength of Frankenstein’s monster.

It is still odd, and satisfying, to see a story where Judge Dredd is clearly being positioned as the antagonist. While Dredd is oftentimes presented as a necessary evil or an imperfect hero, this goes fully in on the ‘Dredd is authoritarian and bad’ route. And that’s a good route for this story, as it allows Angel, an already morally grey character, the upper hand.

This is still very much a Western, and Gordon Rennie is doing a fine job presenting not just a ‘let’s toss Mega-City One characters in the Old West’ type story, but one that equally and effectively draws from both sources.

Tales from the Black Museum The Electrocist
Credits: David Barnett(script), Stewart K. Moore (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Matthew Blair: Deep in the Halls of Juice, away from the prying eyes of everyday citizens, there is a place where some of Mega City One’s creepiest and most terrifying artifacts are put on display for Judges to study and learn. It is known as the Black Museum and it’s undead guide Henry Dubble would like to show you around.

Today, there is the story of the Warwick model cleaning robots and how one of them became possessed by a restless spirit. This looks like a job for a man who makes a living expelling angry ghosts from machines, a man known only as…the Electrocist.

“Tales from the Black Museum The Electrocist” is written by David Barnett, who has created something very interesting. Barnett does a very good job of evoking the format and pacing of classic horror anthology comics like Tales from the Crypt or Strange Tales while maintaining the look and feel of Mega City One. The book has an appropriately ghoulish set up with a family that is very reliant on technology, and a company that will go to extreme lengths to protect its product, and a freelance fixer who deals with possessed machines for a living. If the story has any problems, it’s that it’s a bit too straightforward and doesn’t make an effort to provide an interesting twist or unique lessons, but it’s still a nice bit of horror and a good story.

Stewart K. Moore provides the artwork for “Tales from the Black Museum The Electrocist” and while the writing does a great job of giving the story a classic horror vibe, the artwork focuses a lot more on the Mega City One setting. Moore understands how zany, weird, and violent the sci fi setting can be and everything from the setting design to the characters shows it well. While Moore focuses on the sci-fi elements, the panels displaying Henry Dubble are given special care to look abstract and creepy, and it all comes together to make Dubble a very effective narrator.

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“Tales from the Black Museum The Electrocist” is a solid attempt to transplant a classic horror comic into a 2000AD setting. It would be really nice to see more of these stories in the future.

Devlin Waugh: The Reckoning Part 6
Credits: Aleš Kot (script), Mike Dowling (art), Quinton Winter (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

Brian Salvatore: One of the pleasures of ‘The Reckoning’ is how many different tones it takes throughout its story. This chapter is told almost entirely through the play by play and color announcers of the ‘Hell-Match,’ a football (or soccer) match between Devlin Waugh’s team, made of up professional players he dragged to hell, and literal demons. The two announcers, Vinnie and Minnie, are fun, and continue the strip’s gallows humor.

Mike Dowling manages to find a number of ways to bring levity to a game of death, whether it is Titivilus relaxing with a hot dog or the expressions on both faces when Waugh punches a demon’s head clean off his shoulders. Dowling mixes his, at times, beautiful artwork with the extremes of violence and slap-stick humor. Aleš Kot deserves a lot of credit in this department as well, as his script, through Minnie and Vinnie, manages to keep tension up in the football match without commenting on the absurdity of the whole endeavor.

While the strip ends on a very convenient cliffhanger, it’s done really well and serves both the story and the reading experience. While this strip has occasionally felt a little too decompressed, this chapter was the perfect balance between pushing the story along and taking a fun interlude. The change of pace was greatly appreciated.


//TAGS | Multiver-City One

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Christopher Egan

Chris lives in New Jersey with his wife, daughter, two cats, and ever-growing comic book and film collection. He is an occasional guest on various podcasts, writes movie reviews on his own time, and enjoys trying new foods. He can be found on Instagram. if you want to see pictures of all that and more!

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Michael Mazzacane

Your Friendly Neighborhood Media & Cultural Studies-Man Twitter

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Matthew Blair

Matthew Blair hails from Portland, Oregon by way of Attleboro, Massachusetts. He loves everything comic related, and will talk about it for hours if asked. He also writes a web comic about a family of super villains which can be found here: https://tapas.io/series/The-Secret-Lives-of-Villains

EMAIL | ARTICLES


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