Judge Dredd Megazine 215
18 February 2004
Cover by Chris Weston

Synopsis by Gavin Hanly
1st review by Leigh Shepherd
2nd opinion by Paul White

Synopses and reviews contain spoilers for this issue

LS: It's been a long time coming, but finally a cover that really fires on all cylinders. This ticks every box for me - it's dynamic, there's a sense of danger, it's detailed, there's a background and sense of place, it sets up the story inside... and it's by Chris Weston. Pretty much top marks.

PW: Awful. I love Chris Weston and pray (like many other devotees, i'm sure) for the day when he and John Smith are reunited on the wonderful Indigo Prime, but this just looks plain wrong in so many places. On top of that, the
woeful banner and 'quote' footer make this a very bad start to 2004.

My Beautiful Career

Dredd on patrol

Synopsis: Employees Anonymous, a self help group who are embarrassed by the fact that they have jobs in a jobless society are meeting up. But the meeting is interrupted by an unemployed man, Flip, who goes on a killing spree while telling them his story. He had a job at a supermarket, gradually working his way through the system until he became a Trolley jerk – responsible for placing expensive goods in customers' baskets, who were too embarrassed not to buy them. But after a robot servant complained, he was fired.

While he tells the story, Judges are called to the scene. One runs in, but falls over a body by the door and is immediately killed by Flip. More judges congregate outside, and the perp is identified as Flip McVittie, who used to be a CP at the academy. The judges go on loudspeaker to try and talk him down.

Back inside, Flip continues his story and tells how after 14 years on unemployment, he signed up as a Civilian Perpetrator for the judges. They were basically human punching bags to help judges prepare disarming and disabling tactics against perps, in a way that roots could never do. After years of abuse, he was beaten so badly that he was unfit for the job, unfit for any work and was laid off. He shows them how his reconstructed body is held together by machinery and breaks down. Dredd bursts in and kills him. The judges argue about how they should have treated him, but Dredd says they should have looked after him. “He was one of our own”.

LS: Now here's an interesting Dredd tale - possibly the most interesting story of the last twelve months. Firstly, we have the harshest view of the Justice Department (from Wagner) that I can recall for a very long time. The idea of Judges beating up on innocent Citizens might lead you to think we were back in the bad old Millar days, but for Wagner's ingenious twist of the Citizens being paid volunteers. This makes for a great story, with some hilarious subversion of the expected and superb dialogue - "I'm sorry, Flip. We're not going to be able to beat you up any more." There are similarly clever ideas at work in Flip's previous employ at the Hypermart, with both the Eggers and Trolley Jerks recalling the glory days when every Dredd strip used to throw up these kind of concepts.

The art is also interesting in its own way. I criticised Coleby's last Megazine outing for reminding me of his older work for 2000AD, and this job works a lot better for me - there seem to be touches of Kev Walker and Richard Elson's art in there somewhere and they make the art a tad more comprehensible. That said, I'm not a great fan of over muscly Dredds, nor of the extreme skin-bursting, blood-spurting, teeth-shattering violence. A more realistic depiction of Flip's time as a C.P. might have added an extra layer (though this may well be how it's written in the script) - Every blow seems to be of such force it would be session over!

PW: I really liked this as it harks back to the good old days of quirky stories featuring the Meg in all it's murky 'glory'. It's also a tale that doesn't really need Dredd himself, although his thoughtful comments as the tale closes show that despite his sometimes over-zealous implementation of the law, a sense of 'fair-play' should also be recognised. This has Wagner stamped all over it, and is the level that Gordon Rennie has to attain before he can truly start to make Dredd his own.

Art-wise, I am once again pleased and surprised at how wonderful Simon Coleby's art is looking these days (at least in colour anyway - his Bato Loco in b&w didn't do him justice...). I remember his early work and, although it showed promise, it was inconsistent, but his recent work has been above par. It's nice to see that once again the Interrogation Cube has some relevance and that Coleby is similarly critical of his early work.

The Wilderness Days - Part 7

Ritter gets confused

Synopsis: Ritter reaches Las Vegas City Limits and asks about Death. He’s pointed to a man wearing a Death costume, selling souvenirs. Ritter goes mad, attacking him and all the others he sees dressed as Death. He’s pulled off by Judges, and the situation is explained to him., but it's too late and they drag him off to the Hall of Justice for a trial, Back in the military bunker, Death prepares to launch against Mega City One and Las Vegas. After strapping the former chief judge/dog to one of the missiles, he launches them. The Justice 12 satellite immediately spots the ones heading for MC1, launching countermeasures.

Back in Vegas, Ritter is sentenced to the electric chair, but calls his horse for assistance. As the final missile heads for Vegas, the horse pushes Ritter off, but can anything save him now?

LS: So the missiles are flying, and Vegas looks like it has had its last roll of the dice - a pity if so, as it was a unique place in the Cursed Earth, and the Dredd Universe doesn't really need a repeat of Judgement Day, no matter what the scale. Ritter looks likely to fry at the same time, which would seem another waste after all the effort he's put into tracking down Death. The promises of a more serious Death story have certainly fallen by the wayside, and were it not for expectations raised that we were going to see more of "My Name is Death" style out and out horror, I expect the series might have gone down a little better. After a great start, it's left me feeling slightly disappointed at this late stage. That said, the story is undoubtedly fun, and it's only really been in the latter half that the series has teetered into the realm of the truly absurd, and even then it's never been less than amusingly absurd.

PW: I know i'm going against recently laid-down rules that "thou shalt not diss Irving's work as he is a 2000AD god", but it's precisely this that makes it unreadable to me. There's no denying the quality of the linework, and Frazer is very obviously a great talent, but this series looks too similar month on month. I'm afraid that, just like Saving Grace, i'm saving this up to read in one go.

Blood of Satanus II - Dark Matters part 2

Satanus revealed...

Synopsis: Caleb is supposed to report to see Judge Dredd, but throughout the week, puts it off again and again until Dredd finally comes calling. After ringing the door, Dredd bursts in telling Caleb and Jasmine that there have been complaint of missing pets. Jasmine tries to tell Dredd that Caleb was afraid of the pets, but Caleb refuses to agree with this and morphs into a dinosaur man, attacking Dredd. A battle ensues, and it looks like Dredd is about to be eaten…

LS: Well, this story still leaves a lot of unanswered questions - just what are the couple up to? The cult seems to consist of just the two of them, and beyond his metamorphosis, they don't seem to have any agenda (beyond completing his 'Bio-Morphosis'). So there are a number of unanswered questions that will hopefully be resolved next month. The panels where Johns puts off reporting to the Sector House are really well done, but there's a lot to explain next month in order for this to be more than just a rerun of the first Blood of Satanus tale.

No mention of this strip would be complete without discussion of THAT dialogue - a line so terrible it's hard to see how it made it into print. What's most strange is that the sentiment is perfectly Dredd (no crime is too small to warrant his time), but the execution is so convoluted and unconvincing as to render it nonsensical.

Duke Mighten's art continues to be welcome, though someone get Dredd a razor, pronto!

PW: I'm getting a bit sick of prefixing reviews like this with comments like "although i'm not particularly a Mills fan...", but this really is poor. I'm sure I'm not the first to read the following and gag -

"I've always believed in zero tolerance: not paying on public transport; stealing pens from work; fiddling expenses, killing cats... in my eyes, these crimes are all as loathsome as Orlok's, and should be punished with the full rigour of the law"

This is very poor, and as poor as I've seen in the last 14 months or so I've been back in the fold. Mills was so obviously put-out by the last Satanus revamp set up by arch creator-baitor Andy Diggle, that he's evidently bullied his way into writing a sequel to undo all that horrid mess that someone else has done with his character. Beggars belief.

The artwork though is lovely in a 'doesn't look like 2000ad' kind of way, but that's okay and, given the piss-poor script, Duke Mighten does a mighty fine job.

LS: Rennie continues to deliver the goods here, despite the fact that the only thing that actually happens to Maria since we last saw her in "Cardboard City" is her death. Dredd's discomfort in having to interact with Citizens is well played, and the revelation that Maria wasn't really Italian is quite neat, and (though ultimately fairly inconsequential) somehow adds to her character, while at the same time making sense of the appalling 'accent' Wagner used in those early strips!

The art is functional, but never really shines, and can be quite stilted in some panels. Not particularly bad, and to it's credit, fairly detailed, but a little unengaging. Somehow, (assuming that scene on page 5 is from Destiny's Angels) Mean Machine has managed to grow back his arm!

PW: Gordon Rennie gives us an unusual story that manages to rewrite decades of
history and still make it okay. In the seriously screwed up world of Mega-City 1, it's a given that anything goes and anything can happen, but I don't reckon that anyone was expecting this. I thoroughly enjoyed this - Rennie had a million and one different places he could take this, but the path he took was both unexpected and inspired... Bravo. (I just wonder if he would have to ask Wagner's permission to do something like this? that's no disrespect to Rennie, simply an interest in where any final decision may lie).

The art didn't excite me in any way i'm afraid, but was competent enough. That's all I can say about it really. Sorry.

Half Life - Part 2

Anderson meets the sisters

Synopsis: One of the judges, Shatka, watching Anderson’s body thinks she saw a flicker in the EEG, and wonders why Death threw her off the roof instead of killing her,. But still inside the coma, Anderson now knows who she is and wonders if she can stop Sydney becoming judge Death. She tries to warn her parents about what he will become, but they ring the judges, telling them she is mad and must be taken away. Sandra hides outside her window until the judges leave, and then, away, looking for the anti judge resistance.

She goes to Ex Sector 17, a high crime area where even the judges keep out of, escaping pursuing judges through the sewers. She sees someone being attacked by wolves, and fights them off. But the victim appears to be a bizarre man/insect hybrid, called Half Life. Two women call out for him and find Sandra. Once forcing Half life back “to his hole” they are asked by Sandra if they are the resistance, but they reply by stabbing her in the arm, and she falls unconscious. She awakes tied to a table, and the Sisters (destined to become the “Sisters of Death”) start experimenting on her. Later, Sidney De’ath pays them a visit, and sees Sandra, telling her: “Seems we’re fated to keep meeting, as if…there’s some kind of a bond between us.” He tells the sisters to look after Sandra.

GH: Anderson continues to be intriguing, but half way through we are still no closer to discovering what's going on (save the idea that the coma and presumably Anderson's trip to Dead World was planned by Death all along). The introduction of Phobia and Nausea adds some interest, though the actual character (and depiction) of Half Life struck me as more silly than horrific. Still, I have the feeling time will tell with this one, so we'll see - it could be a great tale, or like R*Evolution before it, it could just fizzle out in confusion. Either way (despite an odd looking Half Life) it all looks quite atmospheric.

PW: Great Stuff. Having Arthur Ranson back is a breath of fresh air, and his take on Deadworld is spot-on. The script makes me furrow a brow in places as seemingly random yet significant meetings abound one after the other, but i'm going to presume for the meantime that this is all part of a masterplan rather than a series of contrived coincidences to explain away a lot of Necropolis loose-ends... In any case, the whole package leaves me wanting more after many re-reads, and that can't be a bad thing.

Miscellaneous Material inc.

• Dredd Files
• Apocalypse Soon
• Simon Coleby Interview
• Judge Dredd - Hitman
• Gordon Rennie
• Charlie's War
  

LS: Charley's War takes a nice diversion, with the tale of the Lost Platoon, while Hitman is a quality Dredd tale. The text features from both Bishop and Rennie are diverting enough, though what the Meg could do with is another killer app like TPO that will not only divert but grip. A series of no-holds barred in depth interviews with 2000AD oldtimers might do the trick - something that promises to reveal a little more than we already know.

PW:

• The Dredd files seems like a project too far and is actually quite dull at the moment - however, I expect it to pick up sometime around the Cursed Earth Saga, so I'll reserve judgement for now.
• Classic Dredd was a nice surprise as I can never get enough of Jim Baikie's art... it did smack of 'filler' though, and I hope there's a regular coming soon in the reprints
• Charley's war was bloody good. I've no interest in war stories per se, but the risk of running this in a sci-fi mag has really worked. Give the younger Mills (in a back-to-the-future style escapade) a pat on back and tell him not to rest on his laurels in the future (too late)
• The Coleby interview has been covered elsewhere, but it was funny and
  enlightening.
• Future Shock - dull, tedious, unnecessary, filler.
• Now Gordon Rennie, that's more like it. A genuinely clever and intriguing column that provokes healthy debate and gave me a right old laugh. It also had me reaching for the back-progs and nodding my head sagely stating "he's right you know, he's right". I'm glad he's kept away from slagging off other creators which quickly became very tedious... more of this please.