Another familiar sort of Dredd, the procedural, with Dredd hunting down the perps in a kidnapping, saddled with a Cadet Judge with a past. Then we’re back into darkness, with ‘Hard Day’s Night’ from Robbie Morrison, Patrick Goddard and Dylan Teague. It’s this sort of strange daftness that makes the world of Dredd such a wonderfully mixed bag, although you could always argue that Rennie wrote it with that end line in mind – “ It ain’t over until the fat guy explodes.” You also get those lighter moments, such as Gordon Rennie and Paul Marshall’s ‘A Night At The Opera ‘, playing out a farce of Dredd being ordered to represent the Justice Department at the (explosive) premiere of a new opera, Cal: Tragedy of a Tyrant.
A Night at the Opera’ by Gordon Rennie and Paul Marshall It’s a sombre thing, with Wagner brilliantly questioning the fundamentals of justice. In just two parts, Wagner laid out a compelling courtroom drama, the defence counsel’s only hope of a case resting on showing that Orlok’s actions were merely as deadly as Dredd’s, comparing the Sin City poisonings with the destruction of East-Meg One. Cam Kennedy’s on superb form here as well, all wonderfully angular and striking. The opener, ‘ The Trial of Orlok ‘, gets us off to a cracking start, as you’d expect from John Wagner playing with the toybox from the Apocalypse War. ‘The Trial of Orlok’ – by John Wagner and Cam Kennedy In fact, there’s a real joy in simply celebrating the skills involved in Dredd’s shorter tales, something that’s always been a huge part of 2000 AD. There’s no real big ‘event’ storyline this time around, with the longest story coming with ‘Revenge of the Chief Judge’s Man ‘ at eight episodes, but that’s not to say there isn’t plenty to entertain. The Complete Case Files, reprinting Judge Dredd’s appearances in both 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine, are now up to 2000 AD Progs #1336-1364 and Megazine #201-206, all from 2003, with plenty of great Dredd tales to get your teeth into.
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