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clarks_dad's review
1.0
Kitschy, with a B-movie feel to it and yet somehow oddly entertaining. I think the more recent Dredd 3D film nailed the original work a lot more accurately than the Stallone movie of the early 90s. Anyway, watching the more recent film peaked my curiosity and I had it on good authority that this was the best introduction to the Dredd universe......meh.
I appreciate the universe created by Wagner here and there's certainly a lot of potential, but the characters are caricatures and the protagonist never in any real danger in spite of the insane situations he finds himself in. The deus ex machina is invoked far, far too many times and it seems like Dredd is able to solve cases and know exactly what happened and who's responsible the first moment he views a crime scene. Often times the only thing that remains is finding some pesky evidence with which he can feel vindicated when he dispenses justice.
The first half of this collection is a nice introduction to the Dredd Universe, mainly consisting of one-shots that give highlights of types of crimes that are commonplace in Megacity One. It also introduces the character to the main players who have significant roles in the major, multi-issue Dredd story arcs. The second half is the Apocalypse War - a 10 issue story in which East Meg One (the former Soviets) launch a surprise nuclear attack on Mega City One and the Cold War plays itself out to horrific consequence. Wagner gleefully kills off a billion inhabitants of his universe between the two sides and the Judge becomes a military commander. There's nothing really unexpected or even particularly interesting about the way the war plays out, even from a science fictiony tech perspective. Amazing miracle weapons are countered by even more amazing and physically impossibly weapons and Wagner writes of the invention or progression of story in significant areas with a wave of the fingers.
This is probably something you had to grow up with to really love and appreciate. For the price, there's certainly a lot of comic here if it's your thing. I think my approach was altogether wrong. Now that I've got a sense of Wagner's work, I think I might stick to reading just io9's 11 essential Dredd stories and skip the rest. Granted, the bulk of these stories are from the early 80s, but they didn't age very well. Here's hoping the more modern stuff has some depth.
I appreciate the universe created by Wagner here and there's certainly a lot of potential, but the characters are caricatures and the protagonist never in any real danger in spite of the insane situations he finds himself in. The deus ex machina is invoked far, far too many times and it seems like Dredd is able to solve cases and know exactly what happened and who's responsible the first moment he views a crime scene. Often times the only thing that remains is finding some pesky evidence with which he can feel vindicated when he dispenses justice.
The first half of this collection is a nice introduction to the Dredd Universe, mainly consisting of one-shots that give highlights of types of crimes that are commonplace in Megacity One. It also introduces the character to the main players who have significant roles in the major, multi-issue Dredd story arcs. The second half is the Apocalypse War - a 10 issue story in which East Meg One (the former Soviets) launch a surprise nuclear attack on Mega City One and the Cold War plays itself out to horrific consequence. Wagner gleefully kills off a billion inhabitants of his universe between the two sides and the Judge becomes a military commander. There's nothing really unexpected or even particularly interesting about the way the war plays out, even from a science fictiony tech perspective. Amazing miracle weapons are countered by even more amazing and physically impossibly weapons and Wagner writes of the invention or progression of story in significant areas with a wave of the fingers.
This is probably something you had to grow up with to really love and appreciate. For the price, there's certainly a lot of comic here if it's your thing. I think my approach was altogether wrong. Now that I've got a sense of Wagner's work, I think I might stick to reading just io9's 11 essential Dredd stories and skip the rest. Granted, the bulk of these stories are from the early 80s, but they didn't age very well. Here's hoping the more modern stuff has some depth.
kbrsuperstar's review against another edition
3.0
Well, the Apocalypse War went on far too long while the return of the Dark Judges was too short. Carlos Ezquerra's art style was incredibly distracting to me -- in some panels, I wasn't 100% clear on what was happening. Additionally, just the book itself has some flaws. Reproduction quality on some of the first stories was pretty poor, rendering some of the lettering almost illegible, and the oversized book means that panels stretching across both pages get lost down into the center divide of the book.
thecommonswings's review
5.0
First of all, let’s get the non Block Mania/ Apocalypse War stories out of the way. Wagner seems to be coalescing his ideas of Dredd’s world at an incredible rate, helped no end by Grant. The Mega Rackets widens the scope of the series but still focuses things on actual crimes. We get a Futsie story, some more Cursed Earth shenanigans including the first Hot Dog Run and a general tone of writers and artists in complete control of their universe. Hell, even Death comes back with company, including probably the most iconic panel in Judge Dredd history
Which they then utterly destroy
For some reason, in all my years as a 2000AD reader I have never read the Apocalypse War series - all the precursors and responses, but never the actual thing. As a huge fan of Day of Chaos, I now appreciate how much that exists as an echo and response to this. Block Mania slowly builds the tension (whilst also incorporating gonzo violence), with McMahon and Bolland taking their leave of the strip, Ron Smith capably carrying much of the story and new artist Steve Dillon knocking it out of the park in his first story. It carefully builds on threads and ideas the story has been creating over the last four or five years and inexorably builds to a climax. Beat for beat it’s an approach Day of Chaos refines and comments upon
And then the war itself. Over in nine days, much of Mega City One is destroyed while Tex City and Mega City Two look on in powerless horror. The story becomes in essence a cross between SF horror and old fashioned war comic, but one that spends 3/4 of the time having the ostensible good guys (and that ostensible is really stretched here, for the first time) lose horribly before bouncing back and devastating the Sov Block in retaliation. Day of Chaos is mostly build up with the devastation a terrible domino effect of events towards the end. This is all action and drama and mayhem and incredible violence and horror. Ezquerra finally debuts properly on the series he designed and it’s astonishing to see one of these epics done by one artist all the way through. It’s like the strip was waiting for him to show up and demonstrate exactly how this world looks
The story is flawed and at times very scrappy, but it’s definitely a real step up in showing what the comic could do. For all those faults, it’s an astonishing work of mature confidence and arguably is the high water mark of the early golden years of Dredd as a series
Which they then utterly destroy
For some reason, in all my years as a 2000AD reader I have never read the Apocalypse War series - all the precursors and responses, but never the actual thing. As a huge fan of Day of Chaos, I now appreciate how much that exists as an echo and response to this. Block Mania slowly builds the tension (whilst also incorporating gonzo violence), with McMahon and Bolland taking their leave of the strip, Ron Smith capably carrying much of the story and new artist Steve Dillon knocking it out of the park in his first story. It carefully builds on threads and ideas the story has been creating over the last four or five years and inexorably builds to a climax. Beat for beat it’s an approach Day of Chaos refines and comments upon
And then the war itself. Over in nine days, much of Mega City One is destroyed while Tex City and Mega City Two look on in powerless horror. The story becomes in essence a cross between SF horror and old fashioned war comic, but one that spends 3/4 of the time having the ostensible good guys (and that ostensible is really stretched here, for the first time) lose horribly before bouncing back and devastating the Sov Block in retaliation. Day of Chaos is mostly build up with the devastation a terrible domino effect of events towards the end. This is all action and drama and mayhem and incredible violence and horror. Ezquerra finally debuts properly on the series he designed and it’s astonishing to see one of these epics done by one artist all the way through. It’s like the strip was waiting for him to show up and demonstrate exactly how this world looks
The story is flawed and at times very scrappy, but it’s definitely a real step up in showing what the comic could do. For all those faults, it’s an astonishing work of mature confidence and arguably is the high water mark of the early golden years of Dredd as a series
venaticflipper's review
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
noysh's review against another edition
3.0
While the Block Mania storyline is fun and interesting enough, this volume had a lot more dead spaces in it for me than volume 2 did. It was a nice blast from the past to read a story about Americans where the Soviet Union was the enemy in it. A story that evokes a 1908s perspective on the future rather well.
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