Chris Cooper reviews the second issue of IDW’s Judge Dredd…
“In Mega-City one, Judges ARE the law. But what happens when a veteran Judge goes bad? And he’s so skilled at hiding his misdeeds that even Judge Dredd is unable to dig up the evidence he needs? Looks like it’s time to choose psis… from the Psi Division, that is!“
So last month’s issue, which kicked off this new Dredd series by IDW, didn’t exactly light my fire. It was OK, but just didn’t get my juices following. Can it pick up some momentum with the second issue?
Dredd #2 starts with some more explanation as to goings on in Mega-City One. In this case a situation where two of the large blocks (massive apartment complexes) go to battle, which is rather appropriately called a block war. This is not a petty dispute, with hundreds of people going for each other….at least I think hundreds. Using the term ‘war’ makes me think of a very large group of people. But we only see about 20. I know it would be hard to show in a panel, but what we’re being told doesn’t really match up to what we’re seeing. It does however lead into a nice show of force from the Judges who nonchalantly put boots to faces whilst they figure out what is going.
Tying back to issue #1 there are malfunctions with the robots that help keep the city together, which is the cause of the dispute. The Judges are starting to realise this is a bigger problem, and it’s a background story that I guess will be bringing a bigger villain or group into play at a later date. The big introduction however is of Judge Anderson, who I already know from the Dredd 3D film. She has progressed a bit further, though still doesn’t wear her helmet! A good thing really, as it’s struggle to tell which Judge is which at times. Dredd (who is called Joe a lot here) uses her psi abilities to get to the bottom of things. Anderson mentions that she owes Dredd a favour, hinting at history between them (which could easily be the film). Hopefully this will be fleshed out in the future.
Overall, issue #2 follows in much the same vein as the first. Use something that tells us more about the city to flesh out both the Judges and the challenges they face, which is quite effective. I probably enjoyed this issue more due to the fact I knew what to expect a bit more. Between an interesting end to the main story and Dredd proving himself to be rather hardcore so far, I’m much more hopeful that Judge Dredd is on the right track, and will continue to get stronger.
Chris Cooper
Originally published December 20, 2012. Updated November 6, 2019.
