Filed under: Comic Reviews, IDW Comics | Tags: 2000AD, Duane Swierczynski, Judge Dredd, Mega City One, Nelson Daniel, Paul Gulacy
This year is the 35th Anniversary of Judge Joseph Dredd and with movie released earlier this year….I was hyped to hear that IDW would be releasing an on-going title.
Even better was the fact that it featured two stories by writer Duane Swierczynski and first up was his tale ‘Ripe’ where a group of Mega City criminals hellbent on their next heist have setup a tree to produce fruit and fire at innocent citizens as a decoy. Sounds crazy but appears in this futuristic world as if it’s a normal occurance, although that could be just my warped mind 😀 The citizens flee and the Judges head-on in to bring calm to the situation and they almost stumble upon the crime gang by accident….but then in a city of crime it’s probably normal to find crime wherever you go.
They bring calm and dish out justice as you’d expect and this first story feels like an introduction to that 2000AD/Judge Dredd style of story. A good way to ease in for new readers and it has been about 20 years since a 2000AD comic was published in the US, so this is a definite jump-on point. May not wow the lifelong Dredd readers but it’s a good sign of things to come and the attempt to create a title which will last.
The second of the stories, Protection Racket is a shorter story about a local mall being ransacked by looters and a shop owner Mr Busby, with a less than helpful droid takes the law into his own hands. He confronts a looter in his shop and ends up taking the defence of his property a bit too far, strangling the guy with a pair of earphones…..just as the law arrives and Dredd is fully ready to dish out the sentence. The droid becomes helpful at this point and makes sure Dredd knows everything Mr Busby has done – bumping up the sentence.
Two stories in one issue is quite a good way to open a series but after the movie….I was hoping for a much grittier take on Dredd. Not exactly what we get here but the two artists, Nelson Daniel & Paul Gulacy do bring that futuristic edge to both stories – both with very different styles but both working well with Swierczynski. We’ll see how things progress in issue #2 but this title holds ALOT of potential.
7/10
G-Man
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