Review – Judge Dredd #22 (IDW Publishing)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Nelson Daniel
Release Date: 20th August 2014

As I mentioned in my last Judge Dredd review ever since I joined the Big Comic Page team I have been jumping into series that interest me, regardless of issue number or whether an arc is already in motion. Therefore, this review will be mostly a direct comparison with last month’s Judge Anderson-centric story, and my opinions of the story as presented, rather than in the wider context of the arc. I’ll therefore be giving the story slightly more slack for its shortcomings than I would otherwise.

So what are these shortcomings? Well, now that I’m learning the reasons behind the appearance of the Dark Judges I am both excited and annoyed by their new origin. Firstly the excitement: an overly ambitious Judge, one of the Council of Five, sacrifices the lives and bodies of the other four to summon the Dark Judges. Completely malicious, and marvellous and metal. Now the annoyance: it has apparently been all in an effort to establish good reason to introduce an all-seeing, all-knowing, Big Brother-esque social monitoring system in Mega City One. While the satire of the NSA is timely, the summoning of Four Horseman analogues seems somewhat wildly dangerous and downright stupid just to justify tighter social control. This mixed response is balanced out by some great interaction between Judge Dredd and Judge Death. Death has always felt like Dredd’s Joker, so it is great to see the two go ‘mano a mano’, especially when Dredd reveals his fear of Death is completely over-ridden by his desire to gain justice for the man whose body hosts Death. That is precisely what I expect from Dredd, and I’m glad to see Duane Swiercyznski understands the motivations behind the character.

On the art side things have certainly changed since last week’s painterly representation of Judge Anderson’s psychic fight for life. The art here returns to a more traditional and colourful format, where character designs are crisp and impactful, but certain colour choices (such as an entirely yellow Judge Death chasing Anderson) let this design down. Add in a rubble-strewn, concrete background to drain panels of colour and interesting design and the issue begins to feel flat outside of its characters.

Standing on its own, and in comparison with last month’s issue, the flaws in this issue are very noticeable. The story feels like it is trying too hard to be relevant, and is cheapening the effect of the Dark Judges by doing so. The art, while entirely serviceable, is made to seem lesser compared to the wonderful efforts shown in the previous issue.

Rating: 2/5

PREVIEW ARTWORK.

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