Reviews

The Dead Man by John Wagner

otherwyrld's review

3.0

I reread this book on impulse for the first time since in appeared in 2000AD way back in 1989-90. Whilst for the most part it has stood the test of time, I found the appearance and characterisation of Yasser Povey to be problematic these days. Yasser, as the the narrator, is a very sterotypical black boy in a way that would be considered racist today. It detracts just a bit from the story itself, though not overwhelmingly. The other issue I have with the story now is that is is melodramatic in its language to try and convey a sense of approaching horror.

Otherwise the story is fine, even if you haven't read it as a part of a larger story, one which dominated the comic for several months after this story

thecommonswings's review against another edition

4.0

It loses something from the surprise reveal of Dredd himself - which in retrospect was only surprising if you were a kid in the same way that the weird bloke in the second volume of Bad Company who was exactly Kano’s physical match was very obviously Kano - but it’s still a fantastic thriller. Ridgway is a great artist, and one of my favourites of all time in many ways, but I think it has to be said that his visual references for Yassa being shocked... are more than a little dubious shall we say. Yassa’s fearful face is on every other page and it really, really spoils the story. Otherwise this is Dredd at his best and most human, brilliantly laying the way for Necropolis, a story that far better integrates the legacy Judda stuff than Oz ever does