Villordsutch reviews Judge Dredd Megazine #363…
Welcome to you squaxx dek thargo! We are at issue #363 of Judge Dredd Megazine so it’s a happy time of Lawgivers, Demon-Hunting Nuns, Psi-Division on the Seafront and a backside kicking Colonial Marshall. Sounds like an average Wednesday really. Enough chat, on with the words!
Judge Dredd – El Maldito (Part 3)
After the murder of Cranston in the last issue and the attempted murder of Judge Dredd with the release of the forced stampede of the huge Beefallo, everything is rapidly moving up a gear as the security forces are taking to massacring people in the streets in search of El Maldito. Then when another attempt is made on Dredd’s life by a bomb on the H-Wagon and it soon becomes apparent that El Maldito may not be the evil behind the deeds in the town as the security forces are instructed to kill Dredd. Our closing panel sees both Dredd and the shadowed vigilante prepare to confront this private army. A very enjoyable opening episode from Gordon Rennie and Carlos Ezquerra, especially with the pace being brought up a notch as the H-Wagon explodes.
Demon Nic. (Part 3)
After the brutal slaying of the Demon Nic by our Red Nun, we start this issue with a witch called Sara being hassled – by street thugs – after buying her cigarettes. Once returning home, the Red Nun is in the witch’s home asking Sara to perform a resurrection spell upon Nic. During the process they are attacked by the aforementioned street thugs, a huge demon come to pay his last respects to Nic and a monk who is an Assassin Apostle. I aired my uncertainty last month about Demon Nic and its place in the Judge Dredd Megazine, and while this episode shows a lot more of this universe and is rather smart, I still feel it is out of place here. I know this is the comic of the new talent, but this isn’t its style. This being said if Demon Nic was elsewhere I would probably enjoy it more.
Storm Warning – The Relic (Part 3)
After last week’s quite brilliant episode this week continues to glow even brighter. We find Lillian Storm on the beach attempting to reason with the recently deceased Machen and also find the location of the Artefact; however madness has consumed him and the location of the Artefact is lost, as his essence dissolves. As they later talk within the morgue news comes in that something has happened in a housing block – already in a fragile social state – on “Hobbs Lane”, an Auto-Transporter has crash landed within it, which may contain the artefact. A truly excellent episode from start to finish, not only in the writing from Leah Moore and John Reppion, but an extra special nod has to be given to both artist and colourist, Tom Foster and Kirsty Swan for they have pulled out the stops here, from the angles in the morgue, where the view is looking up from the cadavers to later in the final panel of the Auto-Transporter sat silently, waiting to hatch.
Lawless – Between Badrock & A Hard Place (Part 3)
After last week’s gunfight in which Nerys was severely injured the Marshall carries her to the local Mek Doctor/Preacher called Sawbones to save her life. After hours of work Nerys is saved and Metta questions Sawbones on his religious beliefs, she returns to the station to clean Nerys’s blood from herself before getting right royally drunk with a bounty-hunter. It’s in the bar the bounty-hunter helps her put two and two together on how Nerys came to be caught in the cross-fire.
I have an concern with this month’s Lawless. It’s not with Dan Abnett’s story as such – which is rather good – nor with the excellent artwork for Phil Winslade, it’s with the titillation that Metta is drawn in front of the prisoner before she washes off the dried Nerys blood. Now I don’t want to sound like “Sensitive Joss Whedon” when the Jurassic World trailer appeared, but this moment was completely not needed. She was going to wash off a friend’s blood and the following panel she was curled up in the bath upset, so why did we need her uniform unzipped to her navel as she wanders around in front of the prisoner? It was completely out of context. However, to counteract any shouts I may receive the later the view of her arse to the wind in bed – after a night out on the town – to me was acceptable, as this was to me completely in line with the story.
Tale of the Month
Once again this issues month favourite is Storm Warning – The Relic by Leah Moore and John Reppion. A brilliant piece of work and added to this some beautiful and foreboding artwork and colouring from Foster and Swan, this story is becoming worthy of a trade paperback release. As a Quatermass fan, I cannot wait to see what happens in The Pits at the End of Hobbs Lane. Storm Warning – The Relic is outstanding.
Splundig Vur Thrigg!
Rating: 8/10
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=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=8k_v0cVxqEY
Originally published August 19, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
