Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Praise Zort!” Part Three
Credits:Rory McConville (Script), Staz Johnson (Art), Chris Blythe (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)
Christopher Egan: Emotions, plans, and secrets are revealed in this entry of ‘Praise Zort.’ Judge Dredd goes it alone to investigate those who have been committing the violent attacks throughout the colony. Getting captured by one of the rebels, he gains all the information he could want, as their leader monologues at him about everything.
With how big in scope thus story has been so far , this chapter still takes the story to multiple locations and involves many characters, big and small, but the script is starting to tighten on the main objectives. Dredd skulking around looking for answers is a perfectly executed and quiet sequence that’s a nice change of pace for the story so far. And if you’ve been waiting for the reveal that the Zort followers are the ones holding all the power, for more ill than good, it’s easy to understand the rebels’s motives. Even Dredd gets it but as of now they are still the enemy because of the assassinations they’ve committed, most importantly of the Mega City One ambassador.
As this chapter gives us the stuff we’ve even waiting for, it’s stoic and pensive tone really allows readers to hone in on its mood. Thr artwork is masterfully executed. The detail on the characters and set pieces is wonderful and Johnson really evokes all the necessary emotions from every character. It looks great from top to bottom. And as always, Blythe’s work is exceptional giving fans the full look of Dredd and this universe that they’ve come to expect and love.
Probably the strongest entry thus far, part 3 still gives us plenty of plot but remembers to focus on story this time around.
Death Cap, Part 4
Credits: TC Eglington (script), Boo Cook (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: “Death Cap” may have hit its stride this week, as the story finally manages to have some hooks to it. T.C Eglington reminded us of the family that our hero lost that started this quest for revenge; it now doesn’t have the same feeling of her family and town being ‘fridged’ right out of the gate. Perhaps the story of her engagement with the wider world again, even if it is ultimately through violence, gives her quest some teeth. Our Judge is still pretty unsympathetic as a lead character, but she’s a bit easier to like in this chapter.
Boo Cook’s art in this chapter gets to engage with the Judge Dredd mythos a bit making this feel closer to our hearts as readers. The modified Lawmaster, helmets, badges, shoulder pads and Lawbringers brings this western tale closer to home; they are both familiar and novel in they way they have been drawn.
Diamond Dogs: Book III, Part 4
Credits: James Peaty (script), Warren Pleece (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: En media res can be a tricky thing, if it isn’t done right it can lead to confusion instead of tension. The start to the fourth part of “Diamond Dogs” is a shock, but not all that tense. Nia Jones and her compatriots are held captive by forces unknown. Nia via Peaty’s scripting is wondering “how did I get into this?” and everything is set up for the second page. For their part James Peaty and Warren Pleece do a good job structuring the page to mirror and bounce between past and present quite effectively it’s just the shock of this was more confusing than tense and intriguing. This confusion is due to the “Now” on the page and the failure to temporally distinguish the single page wide panels with the ambiguous two panel sequences placed in between them. Are these two hander panels a further glimpse into the future or the past? Peaty’s scripting indicates this is all retrospect, however, it could easily be interpreted as the far future. All before we get to the page turn and return to the past of “Then”.
Continued belowTemporal shenanigan’s aside, the fourth entry in book three of “Diamond Dogs” continues the solid storytelling of previous entries as the tangled web of judicial corruption and informants becomes more and more evident. The two-page sequence on Judge Armitage digging through files is interesting if a little borrowing. Pleece slowly pushes perspective on the Judge just as he is asking the computer to enhance an archival photo and comes to a surprising discovery. The moves make sense but it’s also the kind of “enhance” sequencing that really works better in film and television.
With one of her comrades about to bleed out Nia has a choice to make, betray another Judge and hope they save his life or let him die. It’s a really good cliffhanger to leave a “Megazine” strip on as everything about Nia Jones places her between two competing interests.
Lawless Ballots over Badrock: 04
Credits: Dan Abnett(script), Phil Winslade (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Matthew Blair: It’s almost time for Badrock to elect a new mayor and while the former Sheriff Lawson is confident in her victory due to her main rival disappearing under mysterious circumstances, there is still plenty of intrigue to contend with. For starters, the actual law enforcement in Badrock is inching ever closer to learning about the criminal element that is seeking to lay down roots in Badrock, while the powers that be are looking to enter a new candidate into the race at the last minute that might actually threaten Lawson’s chances.
Writer Dan Abnett pivots from action to intrigue in “Bullets over Badrock: 04” and creates an intriguing and interesting story. Abnett uses a rather high page count to deftly move between various characters across the social spectrum of the town and storylines in a clear and understandable way. It’s a wonderful bit of world building that takes the reader from the gutters of Badrock to the halls of power as the chess pieces continue to move and position themselves for a power grab that will decide the future of the town. On top of that, while the big picture storytelling is fantastic, there is some great character work as friends who used to trust each other are slowly turned into enemies in a very tense standoff scene.
There is very little that can be said about Phil Winslade’s artwork that hasn’t been said already. The choice to just use pencils and inks allow Winslade to create pages that look incredibly detailed and absolutely gorgeous. However, many of the problems that were on display in the previous part of the story remain. Since the story is in black and white, and since Winslade makes the choice to get creative with the page layout, it can be very difficult to see the characters and figure out what’s going on. When this couples with Winslade’s heavy use of shading and darker inks, it runs the risk of creating pages that are far too muddled and chaotic to understand. It’s still great artwork, it’s just something the reader has to focus on to understand.
“Lawless Ballots over Badrock: 04” continues to ratchet up the tension and intrigue in the small town of Badrock, and proves that there is no such thing as small stories, just small settings.
Surfer: 4
Credits: John Wagner (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: The fix was in for the skysurfers from the start, and while that was more or less obvious for a few chapters now, ‘4’ doesn’t hide just how fucked they really are. The producers are willing to sacrifice lives and safety for a shot, and are using actual Judges to get what they need, footage wise. Of course, if you think about this too much, the logic flies out the window – what if the wrong surfers are taken down? – it’s still an effective set piece upon which this chapter is built.
Colin MacNeil continues to be the star here, drawing the scene so that it works in two ways: as a believable set and also a believable city. The entire area appears cinematic and perfectly lit, but that’s just how the city is during the Golden Hour, and so reality and fabrication mesh together into something that is somehow both and neither at the same time. Plus, MacNeil does a fantastic job of making the surfing look dangerous, fun, and (somewhat) abiding by the laws of physics. There’s an internal logic to the surfing mechanics that MacNeil adds in, to make everything look a little more functional and realistic, even when the premise is clearly neither.
The script by John Wagner has somewhat taken a back seat, but in a story like this, that’s probably the right move. The drama with Zane’s father and the Judges was not present here, focusing instead on the ‘race’ itself, and allowing us, for now, to focus on just the film action. But the strip works best when it is showing both sides of Zane’s life, and so hopefully ‘5’ will return a bit of the duality to the story.
