Villordsutch reviews Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection – The Heavy Mob…
The Heavy Mob features the stories Holocaust 12, Brit-Cit Brute, Wynter and the Judge Dredd tales Father Earth, Debris and Warzone, featuring the work of John Wagner, Robbie Morrison, John Smith, Jim Murray, Kev Walker, Ron Smith, Michael Carroll, PJ Holden, Nick Percival, and more.
This volume concentrates on the heavily armoured divisions within the Justice Department, sent into the most extreme of troublespots. Holocaust 12 and Brit-Cit Brute have never been reprinted since their original publication in the early 1990s, so this will be the first time they will be getting an airing in twenty years!
I feel Heavy Mob is now unfortunately the first real stumble in the Judge Dredd: Mega Collection; it begins well but proceeds to grasp randomly at stories that previously would have been stapled to the closing chapters of the other Mega Collections.
It’s not to say that the stories are bad – they are just not driving this Collection forward. Our opener is a Holocaust Squad story titled Skyfall written by John Smith and Chris Standley with the excellent exaggerated art from Jim Murray. This does set the book off on the right path as we’re shown the other forces at work – other than the Judges – which are required to make sure the Dredd’s Universe run’s as peacefully as possible; but shortly after Storm Warning – again about the Holocaust Squad – we dive straight into the overly-aggressive and chaotic Brit-Cit Brute and Trilogy by Robbie Morrison along with art from Nick Percival, Xuasus and David Millgate. Now albeit these are amusing and appeal to the teenage comic book reader trapped in my husk of a nearly forty year old body, they seem completely out of place and I find myself bored and want some actual story I can get my teeth into.
I’m thankful to hit Wynter again by Robbie Morrison and the stunning pencil work from Kev Walker. A short tale in which we follow Judge Wynter who has be placed on punishment detail – for disciplinary measures – in the Antarctic. We open with his monologue about him burying a child, this then follows with Judge Wynter moving across the ice shelf in search of the downed transport vessel, that was due to bring the vaccines. Wynter is an excellent tale to read and the look of Kev Walker’s art truly beautiful.
We go straight into another good one with Father Nature from John Wagner and art from the mighty Brain Bolland and Ron Smith. Not only is this classic Dredd in its appearance but we also see – for a few panels – the return of the Holocaust Squad as they are dropped in to do what they do best. The story is bizarre one with a Mutie – being covered in plants – leading a rebellion against Mega-City One and his followers causing a man-made volcano in the process, but we do get to see Dredd call in the heavy mob and it is entertaining too. The closing chapter however with the man-eating plants however isn’t overly great and it would have been better to see the Perps just getting cooked in the lava.
Falling into Debris by Michael Carroll with art from PJ Holden, we crawl out into what seems to be the closing chapters of another story, which to those new to the Dredd Universe will have no clue to what has gone before. Here the heavy mob called in are Space Corps – not the Holocaust Squad – and they are promptly defeated, meaing it’s up to Dredd and a person unknown to the casual reader to save the day. I’m unsure why this tale was dropped in here other than to perhaps remind the readers that this is a Judge Dredd book, which the next story could have done and it does so much better.
Warzone by John Wagner and art from PJ Holden sees Dredd taken out of Mega-City One and placed into New Sylvania on a mission to extract terrorist Pretorius, not wanting to go in to loud and obvious he’s given a squad of hardened “Misfits” to help with his mission. Wagner manages to capture a group of professionals who know they are living on borrowed time and are unsure if they should be thankful for it. With Wagner’s writing talents and with Holden’s art they make this a decent closing chapter to what is rather a hit-and-miss Mega Collection.
I feel this Mega Collection was perhaps damaged by a couple of stories, them being Brit-Cit Brute mainly which really threw this book off its path, and Debris. Perhaps if these additions hadn’t be included and more thought had gone into what was being given to this collection we could have had a stronger book but we haven’t unfortunately.
Next issue however we have The Cursed Earth and that is something to look forward too.
Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection – The Heavy Mob is available to buy now priced £9.99 or online here.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=pnc360pUDRI
