Chris Cooper reviews the latest issue of IDW’s Judge Dredd…
“Due to massive (and mysterious) technology glitches, Mega-City One continues to spiral into chaos, and Judge Dredd has no weapon, no ride, and no backup. Which wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t have to square off against an alcoholic face-breaking robot and an entire city seemingly out to kill him!”
IDW clearly didn’t listen last month.
Here we are a few weeks on, and I sit here having read issue six of Judge Dredd. Last time out I was annoyed, but the story looked promising so I went relatively easy on it.
This month however, I am feeling far less charitable. 16 pages directly relate to the main story, and I don’t think enough happens. If I were paying for this I’d be sorely disappointed. As easy it would be to leave it there, I will elaborate.
The threat at the end of issue five is dealt with rather quickly. Quickly following that is a fight which left me wondering how the hell Dredd escaped. If an explosion, that you are at the centre of, takes out everyone around you (some of whom had armour on), then how do you walk away? Of course…he’s Dredd! But that seems a bit weak. What follows doesn’t particularly excite and I doubt will stay in the memory for long. The initial promise of this arc has faded a touch. Not returning on its promise seems to be a recurring theme for this title.
On the plus side I enjoyed this month’s side story. Giving us a different point of view to the main story, it’s effective and elicited much more emotion from me. The art, by Andrew Currie, has a nice balance of realism too, in comparison to Nelson Daniel’s sometimes overly simplistic take.
Even the last page, containing more history of the character and the 2000AD strip, failed to cheer me up this month. Maybe I’m getting a bit jaded with this incarnation of Dredd, which is a shame after only six issues. Some may see more in it than I do, but the comparative lack of progress/meat in the main story is getting on my nerves now.
Chris Cooper
