Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Ravenous Part 1
Credits: Mike Carroll (script) Anthony Williams (art) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: When will humanity learn that creating “the ultimate killing machine” is ALWAYS A BAD IDEA?! Well, apparently not in the distant future because in today’s story a corporation has created a monster capable of wiping out all life on the planet. This creature is angry, strong, durable, always hungry, and even has a trick up its sleeve that helps it just tank damage.
This corporation thought they could get away with it by basing their operation on a sovereign territory out in the middle of the ocean. Fortunately for the human race Judge Dredd is on the case, and he’s the only killing machine you’ll ever need!
“Judge Dredd: Ravenous Part 1” is a very fast story and writer Mike Carrol wastes no time setting up the threat and getting right into the action. It’s amazing to see how quick, ruthless, and efficient Judge Dredd can be when he puts the pedal to the metal, but what’s really fascinating is that there seems to be a small undercurrent of fear in Dredd’s actions. It doesn’t matter how Dredd learned what was going on, there is a threat to Mega City One and Dredd will do everything in his considerable power to stop it.
The artwork of “Judge Dredd: Ravenous Part 1” is provided by Anthony Williams and it’s definitely solid. Williams has a style that is well suited for a horror action sequence with simple angular lines and clarity in character and purpose. There are some moments where a few lines look a bit rushed, especially on the muzzle flashes of the guns, but Williams certainly shows how capable he is as a comic artist with some interesting angles and a really cool monster design. It’s not hyper detailed artwork or an opportunity to show off some of the really crazy stuff the setting is known for, but so far it’s a great style for some awesome action.
“Judge Dredd: Ravenous Part 1” is a Mega City One monster story with a creature that was designed to not be killed and to rip and burn every living thing in its path. Dredd has found himself to be in quite a pickle, and it will be interesting to see how he gets out.
Spector: Incorruptible Part 10
Credits: John Wagner (script), Dan Cornwell (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Jim Campbell (letters)
Greg Lincoln: The end of ‘part 9’ really showed a shift in the power dynamic of the story. Spector, his creators, and supporters captured their biggest opposition and replaced them with robot doubles. Though it doesn’t make the end a forgone conclusion, it took away any shenanigans the corrupt cops pull. John Wagner’s writing in this finale makes it very clear that the citizens have no love lost for the police as public opinions are revealed throughout this politics-heavy chapter.
Dan Cornell’s art carries its part of the storytelling well. There is nothing you can really fault in his pages and the action sequence shrouded in smoke is really well staged and choreographed. His panels, though well executed, lack a bit of impact. It could be the slightly Mary Sue-ish ending to the story, as it’s all a little too easy for Spector and his friends all told. Sure the world still needs cleaning up and there are clearly more obstacles to overcome, but the world of Spector seems just a bit too rosy at the end of part 10.
DeMarco, PI: A Picture Paints – Part Three
Laura Bailey (script), Rob Richardson (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Chris Egan: If you were under the impression that we would start getting some answers or at least some more clarity as to where this mystery is going this month, you (and I) were wrong. This new “DeMarco, PI” story has been such a fun read with its ups, downs, and all-around wild nature of stacking new questions and possibilities on top of each other. It continues to be a near perfect blend of cyberpunk sci-fi and classic detective noir stories. A sub-genre that is highly sought after, imitated, and so rarely successful. While this series continues to work as a stand alone story, its ties to “Judge Dredd” are still clear as this still very much feels like many other Mega City One stories, but that dry, no bullshit take on a fed up private eye, is at the forefront and is a nice change of pace from the stories usually set in the is world.
Continued belowPart Three throws more questions, deaths, and suspects at us, as well as plenty of unexpected additional characters and ideas. There are times this month’s entry does feel a little bogged down with all that it is trying to include and achieve, causing the pacing to waver ever so slightly. That doesn’t fully stop this from continuing to be a fun read, but hopefully Bailey knows when to stop adding to the mystery and allows DeMarco to begin unraveling it. It’s great, it’s weird, give me more cyberpunk noir!
Tales from the Black Museum: The Ugly Stick
Credits: David Barnett(script) Lee Milmore(art) Simon Bowland (letters)
Michael Mazzacane: “The Ugly Stick” is a bit of a change of pace to exhibits form the Black Museum. Normally the titular Museum Curator would introduce some contraption or exhibit that inevitably results in some amount of body horror, with the victim now on permanent display in the Black Museum. The story of the “Ugly Stick” isn’t like that, David Barnett and Lee Milmore instead use it to tell a detective story that straddles the line between somewhat parodic “Sin City” and noir aesthetics and straightforward hardboiled detective narratives. At its core is an ugly truth about the hardboiled world and the world of Dredd, but even that works in the end as the ironic rejoinder to the Museum Curators latest tale.
Otto Sump is an ugly man in a world that values beauty and order, so it’s not too surprising when he is suddenly brought up on charges for the murder of three traditionally beautiful women. After being given 24 hours to clear his name, Sump has to slum it at both levels of the Mega City block to clear his name. Barnett’s scripting and overall use of the page to write one coherent scene gives this strip a feeling of wholeness that could easily have gotten away with it. Procedural fiction is about connecting the dots and lining everything up just so. For all the obvious theming this type of fiction is process driven and skipping ahead on that process because you’ve run out of pages would have been obvious.
The variety of black and white in this strip is what makes this strip stand out. We go from traditional black and white line art to rain swept grey washes to suddenly into something more parodically chiaroscuro, it keeps the reader on their toes and the strip visually engaging. These shifts in how to use black and white art go a long way in building the texture and to a degree necessary shades of grey for this bit of detective fiction.
The conclusion and solution to the case that Barnett comes up with is ironic on multiple levels. On one level the inner ugliness of the killer and their surface level vanity perfectly fits the theming of this strip. On another level it’s a condemnation of a type of character and the institutions they represent in ways their own self-titled strips rarely approach. All of this through the play of serious but not completely serious.
Also of note for this strip as it relates to the “Black Museum”, the story of how the Ugly Stick got into the museum isn’t revealed. There are further adventures of Otto Sump to be had and more of them would be nice.
Harrower Squad: Calhab County, Part One
Credits: David Baillie (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brian Salvatore: There’s always reason to celebrate Steve Yeowell doing Dredd-adjacent stuff, and “Harrower Squad: Calhab County” doesn’t disappoint visually. Yeowell’s work has a crispness to it that, along with his medium-heavy line, allows the work to appear almost timeless within the Mega-City One confines. His Judges manage to be expressive and identifiable, unlike so many of his 2000 AD contemporaries. For an installment without too much action, Yeowell really manages to keep the pace brisk, in part by drawing such an interesting radstorm.
Unfortunately, David Baillie’s script falls on traditional military tropes, down to the loud mouth with a regionalized accent, the hard but tough leader, and the token woman. The script moves along at a nice, brisk pace, but the characters, at this point, haven’t risen above their stereotypical sketches to do much of anything yet. However, the setting and the cliffhanger combine to be something greater than the sum of its parts, making the first chapter of ‘Calhab County’ a winner.