Andrew Newton reviews Judge Dredd: Dark Justice…
Having previously been destroyed by nuclear fire and dragged to hell by the vengeful spirits of those he had murdered, alien superfiend Judge Death has managed to return to the world. United with his ‘brothers’ – Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis – the quartet of terror have invaded The Mayflower – a starship populated by four thousand of Mega-City One’s richest citizens. Psi-Division’s Cassandra Anderson discovers that Death has returned and now she and Judge Dredd must travel into deep space in an attempt to stop the Dark Judges once and for all.
There are very few comic books better than one containing Dredd but it is rarer than hen’s teeth to find one better than a comic book containing Dredd going up against the Dark Judges. The latest graphic novel from Rebellion containing this evil gang is Dark Justice written by the amazingly talented John Wagner and drawn by the very gifted Greg Staples.
Dark Justice first appeared in progs 1912 – 1921 and found Judge Death and his brothers in arms not attacking Mega City One but instead gaining strength aboard a starship containing 4000 of the cities richest citizens as it heads away from Earth. Once again, as with most stories involving Judge Death, Dredd teams up with Judge Anderson and using her psychic abilities attempt to hunt down the Dark Judges and once again trap them where they can do no harm.
In the opening pages of the novel they have printed a small sample of communication between John Wagner and Greg Staples and the conversation that lead to the creation of this storyline and I’m certainly very glad that conversation took place. By putting their heads together, Staples and Wagner have created gold in this story. It’s a unique setting for the story to take place in and lots of opportunities are provided to deviate away from the old ‘Death appears, kills lots of people, gets beat by Dredd and Anderson’ formula we’ve seen before.
As usual, John Wagner’s story writing skills are perfect and the story flows smoothly from beginning to end, as you would probably expect from the creator of the character. Greg Staples artwork is awesome. The level of detail in the drawings is amazing with characters looking practically like a movie still and the attention to background detail is unbelievable.
At the end there is a collection of teaser posters, prog covers and other numerous pieces of artwork by Greg Staples and makes a very visually attractive ending to the book.
If you missed this story in the original progs then it’s certainly worth buying. If you are a fan of Dredd versus the Dark Judges then it is a definite must have for your collection.
Andrew Newton
