Chris Cooper reviews the latest issue of IDW’s Judge Dredd…
“Technology is failing all over Mega-City One, causing blackouts, explosions, radiation leaks and other nasty surprises… leaving Dredd stranded in the middle of a vicious block war, with no backup or reinforcements. It’s just a Judge and his Lawgiver against overwhelming odds-that is, until his Lawgiver seemingly becomes sentient, and begins to disagree with Dredd’s judgments! “
I’m going to put this out there straight off. Issue #5 has annoyed me. I’ll tell you why!
This month sees the start of a new story arc – ‘The Long Fail’ – and had me very interested. But then it cuts the main story off to fit in the backup feature. I’ve not minded them so far, and I understand that they give us another look into the world Dredd inhabits. But this month it was detrimental to the main story.
We only get 17 pages of main story, which is barely enough to get started before making us wait for next month. Now on the positive side, it’s good that I want to see more, but I’m increasingly wondering if these are stories which will come into their own when collected and released as trade paperbacks.
So, why am I keen to see more? The story so far is showing the seeds of a technological uprising. Not just robots, as has been shown in earlier stories, but everything tech based. In this future, that means that even doors and your own gun can decide they don’t want to play. This leaves Dredd in a perilous position, as his Lawgiver decides to acquire a sense of humour as he tries to take on several mercenaries and a bodyguard robot gone wrong. If such basic tools can stop working, or do something unexpected, what can be trusted? Here’s hoping we’ll get to Dredd have to literally take things into his own hands.
We also have Chapter 5 of the ongoing look into Dredd’s history, this time looking into the history of the Dredd’s Lawgiver side arm. Yet again a well written piece and a pleasure to read each month.
Overall issue five is a promising start to new arc. But can we have a bit more of the main story please IDW?
Chris Cooper
Originally published March 27, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
