It’s an excellent issue. Mills sends Dredd on something of a self-discovery; he encounters all different types in the Cursed Earth, with the villainous gangs being the only bad guys. It comes as a surprise to Dredd, but not the reader. Mills has a way of trying to surprise the reader with Dredd’s humanity. He’ll give Dredd a choice and one of them seems obvious if Dredd is just a caricature, then Dredd’ll choose the other option and Mills will gently explain.
Or not so gently. The issue goes out on a real obvious note, but it’s also a strong one.
One of the chapters–the stories take place on different days of Dredd and company’s trip across the Cursed Earth–has Dredd against robot vampires, with some odd developments, but is particularly well-written.
The finale, with an sympathetic alien, devastates. Good work from Mills, McMahon and Bolland.
A
CREDITS
Writer, Pat Mills; artists, Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland; colorist, John Burns; letterer, Tom Frame; editor, Nick Landau; publisher, Eagle Comics.
Mike McMahon does the art for the first three quarters of the issue, with Dredd getting ready to go on a mission through the Cursed Earth. Writer Pat Mills does a decent job setting up the back story, though once it moves on to preparations for the mission, he and McMahon get wrapped up in showing off the goofy hardware Dredd’s going to have. It’s relatively short sequence–the initial double-page spread of a militarized RV–but it stops the story cold.
The feature story, with Mega-City One under attack from mutants from the Cursed Earth, is fairly strong. Wagner foreshadows throughout the story, but gently enough it just looks like he’s doing a lot of texture. He’s enthusiastic about describing the various settings; even when connections seem obvious later, when he’s introducing them, Wagner never draws too much attention.
It’s an awesome issue with Judge Death getting freed. The story has clear chapters, from the original 2000 AD progs, but the way Wagner brings it together–the changing focus on the first few–the both awesome and lackluster finish… it works out beautifully.
This issue has stories where Dredd is stationed on the moon. There’s a bit too much of the Wild West mentality to it–which early 2000 A.D. progs often did with Americans in the future, so I guess it fits; the cowboy hats are still annoying.
Of the three stories in this issue–this Judge Dredd series being a reprint series, the first one is the best, but the third one has the best writing from John Wagner.
I hate this comic. I hate how DC used it, I hate how Moench writes it, even if it was an editorial decision.
