An epic story which is all about characters trying to find their way to the place where the actual action is taking place. The star of this volume is definitely the Ezquerra artwork, and the story is occasionally gripping - I do like the several weeks of Giant and his fellow cadets being pursued by the terrifying figure of Judge Mortis - but on the whole the weird decision to subvert all expectations mars it for me. I appreciate that it's two fingers in the face of American comics where the costume is way more important than the person wearing it, but all these years on, was it honestly the best idea? It's a curious decision that has led us to a situation of having an increasingly arthritic and curmudgeonly Judge Dredd having to battle perps while also facing down his 70th birthday.
It's a strange tack to take, especially because weeks and weeks of trudging *towards* the city seems like a much less awesome Mega-Epic than 26 weeks of actual battling with the Dark Judges in the city (Apocalypse War-style) might have been. At the time it felt like full reboot was imminent, with Wagner handing over a fresh young team of law enforcers to fresh young writers like Garth Ennis.Įxcept weirdly they can't quite bring themselves to go through with it, preferring not to allow the new team to defeat Necropolis, but focussing instead on bringing the hideously scarred "Dead Man" and the mad bearded lady that are the remains of Dredd and McGruder back out of the Cursed Earth. The "Judge Dredd" on the streets is actually former Judda Kraken there's even a new (Cadet) Giant in town.
Gone the carefree days of riding around on Lawmasters shooting things up, we're in the world of year-long sagas now. Apparently this could easily have been John Wagner's swan song for Dredd - thank goodness it wasn't, but you can definitely feel endings in the air.
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