The Special Judicial Squad. The Judges who ‘judge the Judges’. Secretive and sinister, and feared by all. This collection features the Control storyline, written by Rob Williams and with Art by Chris Weston, in which Judge Pin of the SJS, scarred by the Day of Chaos, attempts to impose control on her own sanity by purifying the Justice Department, disposing of any Judge who she feels show weakness, or disagrees with her.
Dredd becomes suspicious of Pin’s motives when he notices the glee with which she deals with his old ally Judge Gerhart. Following up on a search for a missing rookie, Judge finds himself overpowered by Pin and a Justice Department War Droid (Honestly, the number of times those things are misused!).
Up to his neck in trouble, Dredd must hope that old allies don’t forget him.
Chris Weston’s detailed artwork is excellent, with colours provided by Dylan Teague and Chris Blythe, and letters by Annie Parkhouse. There is a lovely black and white only sequence which harks back to when comics were mostly without colour. .
The remainder of the book collects together some more light-hearted stories from Williams & Weston, which is a good contrast to the violence and fear in Control.
The Heart is a Lonely Klegg Hunter follows a day in the life of the Sensitive Klegg, a fearsome alligator-looking alien from a race noted for their brutality. Having been previously given citizenship of Mega City 1, the sensitive Klegg finds himself feared and shunned. Michael Dowling’s colouring is a little more muted and nuanced and really adds to the quality of the artwork here.
Boxing Day is a funny tale about the Accountancy Division (replete with % signs on their shoulder pads) and their plans to control crime by giving money away for good behaviour. Unfortunately, corruption and unintended consequences give Dredd a late Christmas present of cracking heads and locking up perps. The look of terror on the face of Dredd’s niece’s boyfriend as old stony face walks in on their Christmas Dinner is hilarious, as is a glitch in the operating system of city computer Barney, which results in him insulting the whole population of MC1 repeatedly.
Elevator Pitch, in which the fabulously refined and wealthy of Mega City 1 take themselves above the hoi-polio, only to find themselves being kidnapped by a bunch of apes is another great funny caper. There are a couple of hilarious frames in which a rookie Judge calls in a ‘454 Synthi Banana Riot’ to control. Humour has always been part of Dredd’s appeal and it’s great to see the continuation of the type of story John Wagner loved writing.
Cadet Dredd Vs Grudzilla, written and drawn by Chris Weston was originally in a Re-gened’all ages takeover’ edition of 2000AD and sees Dredd and his brother Rico being assigned to take care of the legendary film monster, while making his latest blockbuster in Mega City 1. All action sequences and scatalogical humour really work in this strip.
The Chris Weston cover art on the special edition hardback is a thing of wonder. It’s a really good collection, strong on storylines and art. The humour is wonderful.
Rich' s Random Book Blog 