JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE, 389

Writers: Rory McConville; Alan Grant; Dan Abnett; John Wagner
Artists:  Paul Davidson; Paul Marshall; Mike Dowling; Phil Winslade; Nick Percival
Colourists:  Chris Blythe; Dylan Teague
Letterers:  Annie Parkhouse; Simon Bowland; Ellie De Ville
Publisher:  Rebellion


Welcome to the world of tomorrow! Cryogenically frozen survivors from the early 21^st Century are struggling to cope with life in Mega City One in Judge Dredd: Defrosted. It’s an interesting idea, providing an outsider’s view of Dredd’s world. Defrostees are required to undergo extensive counselling just to cope with the madness of future society, but the counselling sessions haven’t been working out very well and going violently crazy is just a matter of time. Defrosted is an intriguing idea, but feels a little uneven, with a couple of shifts in narrative within only a few pages. The story of a normal 21^st Century person just trying to get by could be a fascinating story, but this tale pulls away too quickly.

There are even stranger worlds to contend with in Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt. After spending a month pretending to be a perfectly rational tale of a gentleman vampire occultist working for a future Vatican, Devlin dives headlong into madness with a mission to swim across an infinite void. Like it’s lead character, Waugh is witty, intelligent and interesting, constantly courts adventure and could end up anywhere.

It’s back to the mean streets of Mega City One for Judge Anderson: NWO. Cassandra Anderson is a character specifically written to be what Judge Dredd can’t be – funny, interesting and with hidden layers. NWO, however, feels a little flat, with Anderson called upon to do little beyond standard Judge dialogue and action. An evil criminal plots to overthrow the justice department, using psychically controlled judges as a weapon. Moments like Dredd and Anderson choosing to execute judges to prevent a massacre should feel epic, but the whole thing feels a little small scale and hollow.

On the distant offworld colony of Badrock, Marshall Lawson is tasked with keeping the peace. Set in the Dredd-universe, Badrock is a frontier world of humans, mutants, genetically enhanced apes and aliens, where the ethos of the justice department has been diluted by distance from Earth. With some outstanding, intricate line art by Phil Winslade, Lawless: Breaking Badrock is a space western which sensitively balances domestic drama with a bar room brawl. It's a story of people trying, and failing, to do the right thing amid impossible circumstances.

Things aren’t quite as morally grey on the colony of Dominion, where the Dark Judges are raising an army of corpses and killing the locals. Dominion could act as a companion piece to 2000AD’s Fall of Deadworld, but where that story dips into the past to show the rise of Judge Death and his loyal lieutenants, Dominion follows the monsters long after their escape from Earth. An Aliens style haunted house in space, with an ever growing and barely understood threat, the survivors of Dominion desperately flee the unstoppable tide of death. The newly conceived vision of the dark judges is gory and brutal, but the action sequences of Nick Percival’s art can be a little unclear in places.

The Megazine also includes articles on the recent Scream & Misty Special anthology, which brings some classics from the 70s and 80s up to date, and a piece on the writer Simon Furman.