Andy Naylor reviews Judge Dredd #11…
“It’s tough living in irradiated flyover country. But it’s even tougher to fight your way through it—especially when a mutant hillbilly gang is after your Lawgiver, your Land Raider, and your multi-eyed precog partner, and well… your hide. (“It’s almost supper time, Paw!”) And what that’s rumbling in the hills? Something 250 million years old, and just itching for a comeback? Judge Dredd’s nightmare road trip to save the soul(s) of Mega-City One continues here!”
Judge Dredd #11 is here. The previous parts to the story have left me feeling underwhelmed to say the least. There have been several Dredd stories in the past that have been a little out there, a little far-fetched (by Dredd standards) and plain old whacky. This particular run seems to find a new way to disappoint me with each issue. Dredd has always had an element of humour to it; it’s dark, grim and fits perfectly into Dredd lore. This feels like a cartoon aimed at teenagers with an added hint of gore. Every issue that I read feels like a chore and at no point do I even feel like I’m reading a Judge Dredd story. It’s just a futuristic Earth that happens to have a Dredd cameo shoved into it. The (mis)use of the fabled “I am the law” in this issue felt blasphemous. It is devoid of any authority or strength as Dredd uses it in a pleading manner. I felt queasy just reading it.
The art and colours are just like the story, so cartoony it borders on ridiculous. There’s not more really I can add that I haven’t said in previous reviews of this story arc. I love reading Judge Dredd. I love his passion, his ability to stubbornly – no matter the cost – charge at a problem with law on his side and sort it out. In this series he just blunders from one bizarre and impossible situation to the next with little to no satisfaction given to the reader. Each new mutant is more preposterous than the one that preceded it.
Every month I hope that they pull it out the bag and redeem this run with an epic comic, I’m still routing for it to all be worth it. But with each passing issue another piece of hope fades away. I just have no love for it and I simply can’t recommend it to people. Read the current Judge Dredd Classics instead. You’ll enjoy them infinitely more.
Andy Naylor – Follow me on Twitter.
Originally published October 9, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
