Judge Dredd Megazine 446 Featured Columns 

Multiver-City One: Judge Dredd Megazine 446 – Royal Blood!

By , , and | July 20th, 2022
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 Rachel Stott

Judge Dredd: Regicide, Part 2
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (Script), Jake Lynch (Art), Jim Boswell (Colors), Annie Parkhouse (Letters)

Christopher Egan: The siege continues in the finale of “Regicide” and Dredd is still running around in his skivvies. There are a lot of characters and elements at play, even more so in the chapters leading to this and while handled quite well, it does feel a bit heavy in its placement and length. Wyatt knows that if the focus isn’t going to be on our lead, that the characters or events who we are following need to be be as engaging. It isn’t always successful in this but he does give us a lot to think over through his writing.

Lynch’s art is excellent and he allows the characters to exist in heavily detailed areas and even wide-open solid-colored spaces. The violence is both well placed, but occasionally gets gratuitous – which never feels out of place for this universe. Even though the story isn’t as striking as some of the Dredd stripes, the art and swing at a different kind of story make up for any missteps. A solid action thriller overall.

Death Cap, Part 8
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Boo Cook (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Greg Lincoln: The final part of “Death Cap” is a mixed bag and ends up feeling like a partially told story. T.C. Eglinton’s most interesting idea, the mushroom infestation cleansing the Cursed Land, is the rare hopeful apocalypse. This chapter brings the Judges of Texas back into the story as they arrive to cleanse the area and end the Mushroom Gang. The lead Judge recognized Goya and felt both connected and distant from her; his only comments about her were about her error that any of them could make. He orders the cleansing of the area even as Goya gets her vengeance. Though it’s the big battle that should feel cathartic, the end feels a bit empty and predestined. There are attempts to raise the stakes and make us think the bomb might go off but the tension is empty. The interesting and psychedelic is set aside in favor of a clean if slightly ambiguous end.

Boo Cook’s art is as solid as ever. It’s sad that they was not given something more psychedelic to do again. Cook is best with the combat using the bike. All the stuff with the leader is well drawn and colored but there seems to be a lack of heart in it. The close ups and half body shots are there but that’s it. The final flame filled panels that pull away from Goya are well done but tamped down by the tone of the story. Westerns work on cathartic moments and though the art was solid, Cook didn’t get that moment. They did get the panel to imply Goya, or something in her, is not yet gone.

Black Museum: Little Weed
Credits Liam Johnson (script) Antonio Fuso(art) Simon Bowland(letters)

Michael Mazzacane: “Black Museum” strips consciously riff on the formal structures and moral twists of series “House of Mystery” and shows like Twilight Zone or Night Gallery as host Henry Dubble tells readers the story of one of the Museum’s infant collection. Liam Johnson subverts this structure a little bit by telling the story of the item before interrupting it for the story of a new character the titular ‘Little Weed’. In retrospect this twist makes sense as the “Black Museum” can only tell stories of its residents.

Antonio Fuso’s art is a more ragged version of the Dredd-vere with scraggly black lines and light washes to give dimension. These washes and overall open line work don’t always interact well with the spotted blacks such as the first panel of page 9. But more often than not it pulls off effectively creepy images such as the last two panels on page 8. Fuso’s version of this world isn’t just dystopian, it’s about a generation past decrypt.

The decision to shift the story to Little Weed changes the kind of story being told. The initial phase focusing on the Sarcophagus of Curtis Copeland is an ironic tale of woe brought on by greed. The kind of story you see in these strips. Little Weed’s story with her father, powered by a certain level of cliché, is sentimental and the tonal opposite of Curtis Copeland. However, both share a connect to greed and how it makes you do stupid things against your better judgement.

Continued below

“Little Weed” plays with the structure of this kind of story and what makes them varied and effective.

Lawless Ballots over Badrock: 08
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Jim Campbell (letters)

Matthew Blair: Things are not looking good for the town of Badrock. The bad guys have basically won and now all that’s left is to see who really gets to be top dog in this small frontier town. On one hand, the corrupt law officials who happen to be in the pocket of corporate interests are happy to maintain the status quo and remove anyone who gets even a whiff of the truth from their ranks, while on the other hand the criminal element finds it incredibly easy to intimidate officials into working for them.

But not all hope is lost in Badrock, and funnily enough it looks like salvation might come from a monster that escaped from a lab a few issues back.

The best part about Dan Abnett’s writing in “Ballots over Badrock Part 8” is his sense of timing and his ability to layer stories on top of each other. Controlling the pace of the narrative is one of the hardest things to do in comics, yet Abnett manages it flawlessly with great panel layout and snappy dialogue. It’s easy to see what’s going on, what everyone is thinking, the challenges they have to face, and despite the limitations on space and time Abnett manages to keep several plot threads up in the air at once, creating a rich and layered story with plenty of payoffs and engaging characters.

Phil Winslade’s artwork continues to be excellent and the highlight in “Ballots over Badrock Part 8” are his facial expressions. Just like the script there are layers of nuance and meaning in the faces of all the characters, and Winslade conveys a lot of quiet and subtle emotion along with the big and obvious stuff. His borderline photorealistic style of art looks and feels like it’s a pain to render, but it’s clear that every little, painstaking detail is rendered with a lot of care and love.

“Ballots over Badrock Part 8” brings a little bit of hope back for the good guys of the story. While it may seem hopeless and it may seem like the bad guys have all the power, there are moments where the reader sees chinks in the armor and an opportunity for a future showdown between the corrupt establishment and the rebel good guys.


//TAGS | Multiver-City One

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!

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Greg Lincoln

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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

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