Villordsutch reviews Judge Dredd Megazine #353…
Welcome to you squaxx dek thargo to the review for Megazine issue #353 in which we have a new starter with Judge Dredd: Dead Zone – Invisible, an ending from with the Man from the Ministry and our tales in Lawless and Uprising are continuing on. So let’s not hang around here whilst there’s scrotnig things to read!
Judge Dredd: Dead Zone – Invisible
With Invisible we’re following the hapless couple (Yodie and Belle) that stumbled into the grave-robbing/murder excellent story of the last few issues; it was in the final couple of chapters that Yodie discovered a possible piece of alien technology. The alien tech is built in the form of a bracelet, which Yodie now wears and Dredd and Co. are desperate to get hold of in what appears too be for the couple’s safety. Yodie in fear has escaped the Judges and is currently lost in Mega-City One.
With the story being penned by John Wagner and the art by Henry Flint this reads and looks quite excellent, but it doesn’t have the macabre feel or black humour that the initial Dead Zone tale had running through it, which was the winning pull factor for me. This being said watching Dredd again not be a bother-booted SOB is quite something brilliant and we get to see it again here.
Lawless: Welcome to Badrock
As with most of Lawless the art from Paul Winslade is quite excellent – a true comic book artist of old where detail is alive and nothing seems rushed. I could frame his work; take a look at the first page it is just bursting with life.
The Marshall is called to two instances trouble one concerning an explosion at a construction site where a Mek worker has blown up killing a number of Uplifts, it’s here we meet the – rather shifty looking – Private Security and over at the Crystal Mine where a Mutie has just been clocked by an Ab. Shortly after this the Marshall goes to visit the usually quiet Abs and gets to see more than she wanted to.
The only negative is left down to the story of Lawless: Welcome to Badrock, it’s not bad as such, it’s just not getting to where it should be going to at a fast enough pace. There are some great moments given to us from the pen of Dan Abnett and some excellent lines, I just wish we could get there a tad quicker.
The Man from the Ministry
The final chapter in this run of the Man from the Ministry and it’s been a rather ripping adventure! This issue we get a taste of where our Wing Commander Britton has been since his initial space flight and what may have occurred as he falls into a trance like state as the rest of our heroes are surrounded by UFO’s in a climatic space battle. It’s here we discover that Britton may have been chosen for greater things before he ever stepped foot into the rocket and the changes made to him are being developed for much bigger things also.
Both Gordon Rennie (writer) and Kev Hopwood (artist) have created a fantastic story here that brought me back to the days of the Eagle and Dan Dare along with films like Quatermass and the Pit. I’m looking forward to any future stories they plan for The Man from the Ministry.
Dredd: Uprising
We’ve hit the penultimate part of Dredd: Uprising (by Arthur Wyatt) and I have to be blunt when I say this it really hasn’t been my favourite tale from I’ve read at all, even midway through this issue when “something” occurs I wasn’t overly left gasping. The story as a whole for Uprising seems to have done not really much and is continuing to do just that. The “Explosive Climax” (Not my words) is next issue so hopefully this may pull the story back up to a level of interest.
The saving grace though for the comic is the art and colours delivered by Paul Davidson & Chris Blythe (respectively) it does look moody and grimy and I certainly like the look of it.
Tale of the Month
For me this month it’s Judge Dredd: Dead Zone – Invisible, yes the dark humour has departed but the story telling, from John Wagner, is still there as well as the artwork from Henry Flint. Given this it’s also good to see the Judges in action – in a situation – other than riot control or issuing justice the old-fashioned way; here they are being smart and using their heads to handle a situation. I’m unsure how the rest of the story will play out but I’m hoping it’s going to be good.
Splundig Vur Thrigg!
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published October 16, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
