Andy Naylor reviews Judge Dredd #8…

“Are you sitting down? Do you have any food or liquid in your mouth? We’re not trying to get personal. We just don’t want you to fall over or choke when we tell you about the shocking conclusion to ‘The Long Fail’ an arc that will change Dredd and Mega-City One forever! The criminal masterminds behind the technology glitches have been unmasked, but they’ve already made their getaway with Mc-1’s most vital resources into the one place that’s out of Dredd’s jurisdiction. A literal hell on Earth that doesn’t care about no steenkin’ judges’ badges.”

The current Judge Dredd issues by IDW are for a US based audience dealing with a robot rebellion and clone replacement mystery within Mega–City One.

First off, I simply must address the robot rebellion. Quite coincidentally I’ve been reading the Dredd case files and only recently read the original robot rebellion with Call-Me-Kenneth. This current arc follows many of the same twists as the first Call-Me-Kenneth plot and, to me, Judge Dredd #8 is a poor interpretation of that classic story, but is crucially missing the gritty humour and political poignancy of that definitive robot rebellion.

There is also a second part to the issues, dealing with a clone mystery with residents of Mega-City One disappearing only to be replaced by clone imposters. The simultaneous running of these two stories becomes a little distracting as you jump from one to the other after only two or three pages of story progression in each, and it means that there is a lot less Judge Dredd than I would’ve liked. That being said, both join up quite smartly at the end and intertwine nicely.

Last week I reviewed Judge Dredd: Year One #3 and I found the art in that simply outstanding. Unfortunately the drawing and colouring in Judge Dredd #8 is more cartoony, less sharp and crisp and coloured quite blandly. I would have liked to have seen a bit more classic Dredd violence and gore in the artwork, as this issue comes across more of a PG friendly Dredd.

If you are considering reading Dredd, either as new reader or an old fan, I would recommend you more towards last week’s Judge Dredd: Year One comic book over this one.

Andy Naylor – Follow me on Twitter.