Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Fitting the Description
Credits: Credits: Mike Carrol (script) Nicolo Assirelli (art) Gary Caldwell (colors) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: It’s another bit of social commentary from the folks living in the urban hellscape of Mega City One, and this time it’s about abuses of power by the police and excessive use of force in detaining potential suspects.
However, this is still Mega City One, a place where the law is absolute and Dredd cannot possibly be wrong, so there is a pretty interesting twist at the end that won’t be spoiled here, but makes the story go from predictable to very interesting very quickly.
“Judge Dredd: Fitting the Description” is written by Mike Carrol, who seems to have a lot on his mind about the relationship between ordinary people and the police. Carrol does a great job of making this story infuriating at the beginning, showing a seemingly innocent man get stopped and pursued by Dredd himself, and the subsequent chase, beating, and arrest is a scene that is a textbook example of police brutality. However, while the twist that Carrol inserts at the end does detract from the commentary a little bit, it’s still a heck of a great read and elevates the story from something familiar to something a bit more insidious.
The artwork for “Judge Dredd: Fitting the Description” is provided by Nicolo Assirelli with colors by Gary Caldwell. The two combine to create a version of Mega City One that is probably the most ordinary looking portrayal of the setting we’ve seen in a while. The people are dressed in pretty ordinary clothes, there isn’t a whole lot of tech or wild stuff on display, and it seems that it’s just ordinary people doing ordinary things (with one massive exception but spoilers). Outside of a few signs and the presence of the Judges, it actually looks like a modern city market and kind of pleasant. There’s also a pretty good fight scene near the end, which is always fun.
“Judge Dredd: Fitting the Description” is a Judge Dredd story that has a lot to say about the relationship between police and people, and not a lot of it is good. With that being said, this is Mega City One, and the law is absolute and can never be wrong.
Spector: Incorruptible Part 5
Credits: John Wagner (script), Dan Cornwell (art), Jim Campbell (after Tom Frame) (letters)
Greg Lincoln: “Spector” is consistent and clearly imagined. Dan Cornwall clearly recreates the unique styles, technology and the fantastic retro future fashions of Carlos Esquerra and adds to them. The armor, uniforms, and clothing choices are clearly something that defines this world visually. The vehicles, the buildings and the often choicely ironic graffiti make the feel lives in and alive. The stand out page must be the assassination attempt of Spector by the corrupt cops he’s been witness to. There is a real humanity to the expression on Spector’s face was his non human parts are exposed in that brutal moment and the his silent fall that follows. Sure, there is plenty of magnificent art that follows as the story takes it’s predictable and super satisfying course, but it’s those pages that stick in the mind.
John Wagner’s script continues to make Spector, his partner, and his boss so very likable. He gives lots of moments where they have a clear screw the established way of doing things vibe. Where his script really wins are the quips from Spector that land solidly and his dialogue when he makes his repaired reappearance. By dropping the hint that he’s got back up bodies with various untested mods and spare parts for later, this gives hope that there will be many Spector stories to come.
Mega-City 2099: The Thin Blue Line
Credits: Ken Niemand (script), Conor Boyle (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Chris Egan:Ok, this story kicks off with a really funny concept, well, funny to me anyway. Because the Judges can’t be everywhere and stop the truly countless crimes occurring at any given time in Mega City One, they are assisted by the MC1 Police Department. I don’t know what’s funnier, the fact that the police exist with barely any necessity in this world that is so focused on the idea of the Judges, who can do everything the police and judicial arm of the government do, or that this future world is so terrible that the police co-exist with something even worse than them. Relegated to a life somewhere between vigilante and mall security, the normal police force is destined to toil away with smaller crimes while the Judges get all of the glory.
Continued belowThis time a group of cops finds themselves in a major shoot-out that takes the lives of numerous Judges, effectively promoting them to something more important as this day of crime proceeds. Dredd and some other Judges are assisted by these officers and it does boost not only their confidence, but their sway over evil-doers in the city. The way this story began, I assumed it would be more blatantly satirical, but it does end up feeling like little more than cops and robbers in a way that leans a little too far into serious cop adoration for these modern times. Maybe I missed something, but this doesn’t feel like the satire and dark humor criticizing a police state that “Judge Dredd” has always meant to be.
Lawless: Most Wanted 04
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: This installment if ‘Most Wanted’ really doubles down on the soap-opera feel of “Lawless,’ which this chapter being something that could’ve easily come out of an episodic look at a town or community like Dallas or St. Elsewhere. There are multiple storylines that crisscross here, but an overarching theme of ‘Most Wanted’ has started to emerge, which is the idea of a town in transition. Now, this is a common Western theme, but ’04’ really doubles down on that. We see the face of justice changing, the face of crime changing, even the face of entertainment changing. Badrock won’t be tomorrow what it was yesterday, and the sweltering hot Friday of this chapter is the perfect midwife for such a change.
Phil Winslade’s art always feels claustrophobic, sometimes in a good way, and that closed-in feeling is especially helpful in this chapter, when all of the characters in Dan Abnett’s script are expressing feelings of dread. Having a physical manifestation of that fear really helps drive the tone of the chapter home. Winslade also gets to have some fun here with Mr. Fugly, a sharped dressed crocodile (alligator?) crime boss, as well as the simian deputy Kill-a-Man. The town feels so densely populated and unusual that these hybrid human/animals don’t seem fully out of place, as you could almost expect anything to pop up from behind any corner in Badrock.
Dreadnoughts: The March of Progress – Part Three
Credits: Mike Carroll (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colours), Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: ‘The March of Progress’ continues and in their fifth entry Mike Carroll and John Higgins make a real page turner. After the cliffhanger at the end of the previous strip I’d expected we would get pretty much an action strip. Who doesn’t like a good gun fight between two morally corrupt organizations that are in fact not that different from one another? For their par the creative team do not break that promise and we get that at the start of the of strip, but like most rebellions during England in the early modern era it is quickly put down. Sally Hurst’s color palette complements and adds to the textures of Higgins line work. Higgins throws in these contrasting zipatone lines which immediately drops things down a few shades. Hurst largely keeps the same flat coloring style as previous issues and lets the line work do the shading – the exception being the shock of pure right at the center of the gun discharge. Together Higgins and Hurst really remind me of Bryan Hitch and Paul Mounts work together.
Structurally what Mike Carroll does right with this sequence is he gives the reader only the highlights, the most important moments contrasted with cut aways to the larger assault that is going on around the city. It creates the image of carnage and chaos without turning the strip into an extended fight manga.
Carroll also gets some solid one liners in about how the city won’t pay for a surviving mercenaries medical bills, not that emergency services would get there in time. These are darkly funny, understated, lines that read as human attempts to lighten the mood instead of banter.
Glover and Braun take Salome on a road trip. As they drive out of the city and she begins to prey on their fears, I thought the strip would be over there. It’s a nice setup to the next part of the adventure. Salome working her words on the Judges is this nice moment of both effective psychological torment and demonstration that the Cartel and the Justice Department are not that different, the latter merely has the veneer of legitimacy due to its ability to enact State Violence. Otherwise both operate through panoptic surveillance and record keeping. Even after this moment it seemed like a good place to stop. But I kept turning the pages!
Admittedly the final couple of pages aren’t as juicy as what had come before, but they setup the actual cliff hanger by undercutting the road trip to Kansas City plan. It’s an 8 hour drive to Kansas City and wouldn’t you know it, a bunch of Cartel thugs pulled up behind them with guns. It is a functional send off to this strip but not nearly as eerie as if the episode had ended on page 8 or 9. Still this was a real page turner of an strip and plainly well done.
