Trollheart's Futureshock: Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and the world of 2000 AD

[Trollheart]

Disclaimer: Although it may seem like it, I am not copying Batty here, nor jumping on the comic book journal bandwagon, such as it is. I had this idea long before I took my sabbatical, and have been thinking about it for about six months. In fact, when I saw Batty’s journal I was annoyed, because I had intended to be the first to broach this subject in the section. Those of you who know me know I do not rob other people’s ideas; I’m all about being original and if possible first. In any case, as you will see from reading the introduction below, this is not intended to be anything like Batty’s journal. I know he’ll say I ripped him off, but I didn’t.

Back when I were a kid, as I’ve gone on about at length several times, we had little in the way of the sort of amusements kids have these days. We had no mobile phones, no internet, no X-Boxes or Playstations. We had maybe three or four television channels, and quite often these could be unwatchable due to bad reception, a term the younger ones among you will greet with blank incomprehension, and not realise how lucky you are not to understand. For a fuller explanation, and an idea of how it was in my day, see my article about television in my main journal.

If we wanted to entertain ourselves we either played outside (shock!) or read comics. Yeah, you knew I was coming to it, didn’t you? As a child you had not too many choices. You had the “funnies” --- The Beano, the Dandy, Whizzer and Chips, The Beezer, Topper etc, wherein unlikely characters like Billy Whizz, The Bash Street Kids and Desperate Dan would make us laugh in mostly pretty formulaic ways, and the stories never had much originality about them. There were the rivalries back then --- you were either a Dandy or a Beano reader (I was Dandy; more a Korky the Kat man than a Biffo the Bear) --- but generally speaking they all more or less worked to the one pattern. Then as you got a little older, as a boy you could have the football comics --- Shoot, Match, Striker and so on ---- or the war comics like Warlord, Battle Picture Weekly and War Picture Library.

I was a Battle kid, and followed the adventures of D-Day Dawson, Major Eazy and the rest with rapt fascination, occasionally allowing Warlord a look in, as I checked out the exploits of their eponymous character, as well as Killer Kane and Union Jack Jackson (seriously!), wishing they were in my comic, because again you could be one or the other, but not both. A silly, childish rivalry that carried on into our teens. But although I enjoyed the war comics, I was at heart a geek, and science fiction and fantasy were my weapon of choice. However, in the late seventies and early eighties there were no comics based specifically, or even partially, on those topics. The closest you could get was Eagle, which was laughably “stiff-upper-lip” with lantern-jawed Dan Dare taking on the Mekon and his alien horde in the name of England and the Queen. Yuck.

Then one day I noticed an ad on the TV for a new comic. It looked exciting, it looked thrilling, and it was (apparently) run by an alien! Wow! I rushed out the next day to buy it, and a love affair began which endures to this day. 2000 AD—still so named, even though we are now almost fifteen years into the twenty-first century—became my perfect avenue for escape from the humdrum drudgery of a life in Dublin, with little prospects of adventure, going to a school I hated and living with an abusive father. Rather ironically, it was created by two of the men whom publisher IPC had turned to in an attempt to rival Warlord, and who then produced Battle Picture Weekly. I would shut myself up in my room, having come home with “The Prog”, as it became known, and lose myself in the adventures of the heroes and villians depicted within those pages.

2000 AD was the first comic to take children, or even young adults, seriously. The war comics had, to a degree, but they spoke to us, if at all, through the likes of the letters pages, as soldiers, as if we all wanted to march off to war. To be honest, sometimes I did of course dream of emulating the deeds of my heroes in that comic. but what was I to do? World War II was over, long over, and despite the mostly positive spin put on the characters, war is hell and I knew that. So I didn’t really want to fight in one, no more than I wanted to be a footballer. And I didn’t, unlike a lot of impressionable kids, want to be an astronaut or space ranger, but I loved reading about them and it helped fuel my (completely unfulfilled) writing ambitions.

Another thing 2000 AD brought to the genre, which had been sadly lacking, was a wicked sense of humour. Sure, Warlord and Battle had their moments, when the men --- exclusively, men; women did not fight in war --- took a break from the killing fields and sat back with a cigarette or played the opposing team at soccer. But generally the stories were hard, brutal, uncompromising, though nothing compared to another title which had briefly arisen and assured itself of its place in history a year earlier, the infamous Action. But I digress.

2000 AD was the first comic to bring dark, acerbic humour to its pages Even on the mean streets of Mega-City One, the mostly hopeless and despondent population could crack a joke, and even the dour, grim-faced Judge Dredd occasionally allowed a tiny smile --- inside, never ever outside! --- to break through. Like the time he faces a man four or five times his size, one of the denizens of Mega-City One who were rather unkindly if accurately called Fatties, Two-Ton Tony Tubbs, who sulks “I have no friends” to which Dredd replies, deadpan, “You’re telling me! Looks like you ate your friends!” Or the other, unnamed judge who advises a citizen “You’re under arrest!” When asked what for, the judge replies “What do you mean, what for? For turning into a giant spider!” The luckless man, who situation we will not go into here, asks rather reasonably, “Is that a crime?” to which the obviously confused judge shrugs “You know, you’ve got me there!”

Although the world of 2000 AD was not to be made fun of --- there was some very dark material being used --- humour was, and probably still is, a constant thread that runs through it, like a silver lining in a particularly heavy cloud. It showed us that not everything has to be taken seriously all the time, and probably pointed the way for many of the later one-liners and catchphrases, from Arnie to Willis and from Vin Diesel to Van Damme. But although the aforementioned Judge Dredd was and remains its most famous son, about whom two movies have now been made, with varying success, the comic also had some other huge heroes. Johnny Alpha, the mutant bounty hunter from Strontium Dog. Slaine, Irish warrior from mythology. Rogue Trooper. Ace Garp. Halo Jones.

And overseeing all of this, like some benevolent alien grandfather, loomed The Mighty Tharg, a green extraterrestrial who was said to come from a planet orbiting Betelgeuse, the red giant star. He would introduce each issue, which as I mentioned became known as “Progs” (short of course for programme) and give us an idea what we could look forward to this week (something no other comic had done; almost like a table of contents or an announcer on TV reeling off the list of shows to be broadcast that night), as well as perhaps dropping in a few interesting tidbits about himself. He liked to eat plastic cups, we were told. His power came from the odd, vaguely Indian-like emblem on his forehead, which he called his Rosette of Sirius. And he called us “earthlets”, to distinguish us from our parents or the older boys and girls. We were charged, too, with the task of spreading the word about the comic, and he would always sign off with the words "Splundig vur Thrigg" and open with the phrase "Borag Thungg", obviously hello.

In this new journal I’ll be looking at comics deeply --- or more accurately, one comic --- but unlike The Batlord I will not be venturing into the worlds of Marvel or DC. My focus will be almost exclusively on this publication, and I will be writing in detail about the characters and stories, the future heroes and legends who came out of the pages of 2000 AD. I will be concentrating firstly on Judge Dredd, detailing his adventures and explaining about his backstory, the world he inhabits and how this affected me growing up. Later I will move on to Strontium Dog, my second favourite character, and after than I don’t know: I haven’t really thought that far ahead. Occasionally I may venture into the realm of specific graphic novels, such as V for Vendetta and Watchmen, though if that happens it will be some way down the line.

For now, I will be looking at Dredd and in the next, and first proper, entry I will be writing about his very first adventure, when he roared onto the pages of 2000 AD and changed the lives forever of millions of hungry, jaded and impressionable young boys.

[The Batlord]

Oh look, an imitator. How droll.

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Oh look, an imitator. How droll.

Shut ... just shut your... look just shut up ok? Didn't you read my disclaimer? You just happened to get there first. If it hadn't been for Metal Month ... grrrr mumble mutter revenge take soon everyone pay....

[The Batlord]

Nah, I'm sure it's just a coincidence that, after six years on this forum, you just happen to make a comic book journal only a few short months after I did. Don't worry, nobody's calling you "derivative" or anything.

[Trollheart]

As I said, I intend to begin my extensive coverage of 2000AD by looking at the adventures of this guy

one of their most famous sons, if not their most famous. So much so that they have already made two movies about him, and he later progressed from a character in the magazine to starring in his own, eh, megazine, as well as countless annuals, graphic novels and other related publications.

Whether he invented the slogan or not, the phrase “I am the law!” has passed into popular consciousness now, and will forever be linked with him. He was, and is, one of the toughest and least compromising lawmen ever to stride the mean streets, and he makes little distinction between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, mighty and humble. To Dredd, once you break the law --- in any way --- you’re his.

And believe me, you do not want that.

So how about some background, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the future’s most feared cop. After the last world war, most of the Earth lay in ruins. What remained of society has gathered together in huge cities, which in the USA are comprised of three, and which cover the entire landmass, with a huge, barren, desolate wasteland in between. These cities are called Mega-Cities, and are numbered from one to three. Dredd plies his trade in Mega-City One, although occasionally he has ranged farther afield. With so many people crammed in to so relatively small a space, and unemployment at catastrophic levels, the hundreds of millions of inhabitants of Mega-City One frequently engage in crime, though these can range from the very trivial, like jaywalking or petty theft, right up to murder and other more capital crimes. Each carries its own penalty.

After the third world war the Judges, who had been set up forty years previously, seized power and abolished the US Constitution in a popular uprising. Setting themselves up as the government, military and police force of the Mega-Cities, they rule with an iron fist. Essentially, the world is now one huge police state, and Judges hold power on every continent and in every major city. Judges are granted free rein to pursue, arrest, prosecute and even if necessary execute criminals, as long as they go by the book. There are terrible penalties for Judges who try to rise above the law.

Of these Judges, Dredd is the most feared and respected, and one of the oldest. At the time of writing he is in his seventies, as in 2000AD time passes normally, so having begun his career in his early thirties Dredd is now approaching what most people would see as retirement age. But back when we meet him first, he is a young, tough and unwavering cop. Never actually born, Dredd was cloned from the DNA of the first ever Chief Judge, Fargo, as was his “brother”, Rico, who crops up later (and in one of the films, but we won’t be going there). He quickly established himself as a star cadet and soon hit the streets as a fully-fledged Judge, bringing law and order (and mayhem) to the streets of Mega-City One.

Dredd is as unyielding as rock, tougher than steel, colder than ice. Some say he has no emotions, and he’s certainly never been seen to laugh or cry, at least publicly. Created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, Dredd is always depicted wearing his helmet, and his face is never seen. This is part of the two creators’ desire to present the faceless, remorseless visage of the police; this is not a face you can argue with or wheedle your way out of paying for your crimes, because you don’t see it. All that is visible of Dredd is his chin and nose, the rest is shrouded behind his visor and helmet. His eyes, in particular, you do not see, but you assume they probably don’t even know how to blink.

Dredd, like every Judge, takes his job very seriously and will never let a perpetrator (“perp”) away with anything, no matter how small. Mega-City One’s prisons are full of “iso-cubes”, where people can be incarcerated for days, months or even years, but even that is preferable to the sentence of death pronounced and carried out on the spot if the crime merits it. In short, you don’t fuck with Dredd!

He does have a first name, but we don’t learn it until years later. Dredd is essentially a loner, though he does have other partners who occasionally help him bring in the guilty. These we will meet as the stories progress.

For now, let’s dive into the very first ever Dredd story, oddly enough not run until “Prog 2”, the second issue of 2000AD, but though coming slightly late to the party, Dredd has made up for it by becoming their most iconic character and the only one to move beyond the comic’s confines, and has starred in every single issue since.

[Trollheart]

Episode I: Judge Whitey

First print date: March 5 1977
Prog appearance: 2
Writer(s): Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell and Peter Harris
Artist(s): Mike McMahon (original; this is the colourised reprint, which was created by Carlos Ezquerra)
Total episodes: 1

The year is 2099, the place New York City. In the towering metropolis that the old city has become in the almost twenty-second century, the likes of the Empire State Building, once the pride of the New York skyline, have collapsed into ruins as much taller buildings claw their way into the futuristic sky, and this erstwhile icon of the American Dream is little more than a shell of itself, a hideout for criminal gangs. It is to this old landmark that a Judge speeds, on his way to make an arrest. The “perps” though have seen him coming, and are ready with a laser cannon, which they unleash before the Judge can get within firing distance, and he is blown off his bike. Their leader, Whitey, exults that he has killed a Judge and vows that Judge Alvin will not be the last of their number he kills, though he does profess disappointment that it isn’t the famed and feared Judge Dredd that he has killed. Putting on the dead Judge’s helmet he capers around, proclaiming himself Judge Whitey.

Back in the Halls of Justice, the Chief Judge congratulates Dredd on lowering the crime rate since he came on the job. Just then a call comes in from Justice Central, to say that Judge Alvin’s motorbike has returned with him cuffed to the handlebars, dead. There’s a note from Whitey, taunting the Judges. Furious, the Chief Judge wants to send in an air squad to take out the whole rat’s nest once and for all, but Dredd restrains him. “Who will have respect for the law”, he asks, “if we can’t handle one criminal?” He climbs aboard his bike and heads to the scene. Cleverly, though, and not wanting to run into the same trap his late comrade did, he sets his motorcycle on automatic, so that when Whitey and his crew start blasting, he is already behind them and firing.

With his other two companions shot dead, Whitey is arrested and Dredd sentences him to life in prison for “the most odious crime of all --- the killing of a Judge.” Whitey laughs, saying no prison can hold him, but Dredd grimly informs him that he is going to spend the rest of his life on Devil’s Island, which might not seem so bad until you see that this is a huge, high-rise prison right smack in the middle of one of the city’s busiest motorways, where the speed limit is 250 mph and massive juggernauts hurtle by day and night. No peace, no rest, no chance to escape: the perfect holding area for the city’s worst criminals.


I AM THE LAW!

Very early on, we’re told that Judges have the power to dispense whatever sentence the law requires to any perps, or criminals they arrest. They have some leeway but must always follow the letter of the law: a Judge couldn’t for instance sentence someone to death for littering; the punishment must always fit the crime. It seems to me a bit odd that Dredd did not shoot Whitey. He shot both his companions out of hand, and to be fair, he had no actual proof that either of them had been involved in the murder of Judge Alvin, and yet he let the guy live who boasted that he was the killer. I guess it was really a case of sacrificing logic for a plot device, as Mills obviously wanted to introduce the idea of Devil’s Island, which is a pretty clever one. Ain’t no way you’re getting out of that prison!

Dredd mentions at the end, when the Chief Judge ruminates that they will all one day end up like Alvin, that there is no better way to go in his book: dying in defence of the law. If there’s one thing that’s crystal clear and unalterable in Dredd’s mind it’s the law. He makes no exceptions and accepts no excuses. He doesn’t have a mother, but if he did, and she broke the law, he’d send her to the iso-cubes without a second thought.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Like any series starting off, be it on TV or in a comic book, some aspects of the story are being tried out here, and will change over time. New York City quickly becomes Mega-City One, which remains the metropolis in which Dredd live and works, although he does venture outside it from time to time. His motorbike will soon be named as a Lawmaster and vastly upgraded, his gun will be called a Lawgiver and will have a vast array of settings for dealing with any situation. Although a clever idea, I don’t believe Devil’s Island is mentioned after this, all perps just being sent to the iso-cubes, or the juve-cubes for younger offenders. The map below shows the layout of Mega-City One, but even that has changed over the course of the series, expanding its borders and going from approximately 150 million people to over 800.

Later, too, criminals like Whitey would have been unable to fire a Judge’s weapon as he does here, as it is confirmed that a Lawgiver is coded to the specific DNA pattern of the Judge to whom it’s issued, and even another Judge picking it up and trying to use it will cause it to self-destruct, possibly taking off the arm of the offender.

[Trollheart]

Episode II: The New You

First print date: March 12 1977
Prog appearance: 3
Writer(s): Pat Mills
Artist(s): Mike McMahon
Total episodes: 1

In a desperate attempt to hide from the law, who are hot on his tail, “Scarface” Joe Levine heads into the “New You” Face Parlour, where cosmetic surgery is carried out in minutes and you can have a new face by the time you leave. Forcing the technician to give him a face change at the point of a gun, Levine is so pleased with his cleverness and so emboldened by the difference in his appearance that he decides to wave to Dredd, who is heading along the highway on his bike.

However, he is aghast to find that Dredd recognises him! Has his elaborate plan all been for nothing? He speeds away but Dredd follows. Reluctant to cause injury to innocent citizens, he is unable to use his gun and so instead puts his Lawmaster on automatic, and jumps from it at high speed to land on Levine’s vehicle, where he shoots him, causing his transport to veer off the road and crash. Dredd jumps back onto his Lawmaster just before the vehicle crashes. As he stands over Levine, the dazed, shocked criminal asks how Dredd was able to recognise him, with his new face? Dredd replies stonily that it was his voiceprint that gave him away. When he spoke to the Judge, Levine’s voiceprint was analysed and came up on Dredd’s display, warning him as to the perp’s identity. Had he not been so smart and overconfident, he might have got away with it.

QUOTES
Levine: “I broke more laws than you've done face-changes honey. So take a look in the mirror at your face: you wanna stay pretty? Then do as I say!”
(Even faced with the barrel of a gun, the technician at The New You is worried that she will be seen as having been complicit in the crime about to be committed. Often, fear of the Judges trumps even the fear of injury or death).

Dredd: “Levine! You have just added speeding to your long list of crimes!”

Levine: “I got rid of my ugly mug, so how did you recognise me?”
Dredd: “When you spoke, your voiceprint matched the one sent to me by Control. Just like fingerprints, everyone’s voice is different. All lawbreakers’ voiceprints are on file at Justice HQ. When will lawbreakers learn ... in the 21st century no-one can escape justice!”
(In 1977, this could have been one of the earliest instances of law enforcement identifying someone from their voice. It certainly was the first time I had heard it being used.)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Already, just one issue later, we’re seeing some pretty major changes, as mentioned in the last episode’s notes. Dredd’s bike is now officially a Lawmaster --- though his gun is still not named. New York City has been absorbed into the vast sprawl of Mega-City One, which at this early point uses the numeral, as in, Mega-City 1, but will soon switch to the spelled version. Jail is called “the time-stretcher” (unless Levine was having a dark joke at his own expense, seeing that he would have to be carried out on a stretcher) but we’ll come to know it as “the iso-cubes”and later just “the cubes”.

We will also see Dredd’s attitude towards bystanders change over time. Here, he fails to shoot at Levine for fear of hitting some innocent or causing a crash. Later on, as he gets older and more hard-bitten, he will come to see these people more as hindrances, obstructions standing in the way of justice, and may not be so touchy-feely about them.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

Robbing from Futurama here, I’ll be using this section to talk about aspects of the future city, future living, even future dying, in Dredd’s world. A whole culture and history was built up around Mega-City One and the world that stands, at this point, on the cusp of the twenty-second century, some in fact most of it very inventive, some quite comedic and some downright disturbing!

Here we learn about The New You face parlour, where those who have the money and the necessary papers --- one would assume the city has to give permission for a citizen to change their appearance, and maybe report to Justice HQ afterwards for new identity papers, to prevent perps doing exactly what “Scarface” Joe Levine is doing, using a new face as a way of dodging the law and losing himself in the heaving thronging city --- can have their appearance altered in a very short time, emerging as quite literally a new person. As a huge percentage of the population is unemployed, you would have to assume that places like The New You are the pervue of the rich and the indolent, those who can afford to change their faces whenever they wish to. Hard to imagine the ordinary joe having the sort of money that this sort of thing no doubt costs.

[The Batlord]

I've made two attempts at checking out Judge Dredd, but unfortunately all I come up with are dead links and corrupt rar files. I've been led to believe that the "Complete Case" files collections are a good way to start, but no luck so far. Other than that there are a million different series, graphic novels, and TPBs, so I'm just asking, if collections of classic early stuff is a no go, what would be good stuff to start with? Are the solo titles any good? If so, which ones and what time periods? New stuff good?

Oh, and I'm sure you weren't particularly impressed with that first Dredd movie, with Stallone, (although I thought it was fun in a mindless action movie kinda way) but have you seen the new one, with Carl Urban? It's vastly superior and one of the best action movies I've seen in a good while. Even justifies the use of 3D.

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I've made two attempts at checking out Judge Dredd, but unfortunately all I come up with are dead links and corrupt rar files. I've been led to believe that the "Complete Case" files collections are a good way to start, but no luck so far. Other than that there are a million different series, graphic novels, and TPBs, so I'm just asking, if collections of classic early stuff is a no go, what would be good stuff to start with? Are the solo titles any good? If so, which ones and what time periods? New stuff good?

Oh, and I'm sure you weren't particularly impressed with that first Dredd movie, with Stallone, (although I thought it was fun in a mindless action movie kinda way) but have you seen the new one, with Carl Urban? It's vastly superior and one of the best action movies I've seen in a good while. Even justifies the use of 3D.

OK well first I can send you the files I have. One is the complete Judge Dredd, the other the complete 2000AD. Um. They're seven gigs each. But if you want them uploaded I'll do so. I think I got them from KickAss Torrents before us Irish were blocked from it, so you may be able to download them from there, but if you want them uploaded let me know. You need CBR to read them, but I'm sure you have that.

It's hard for me to say where to start, as I as a kid started with prog 1 as it came out and followed it religiously for at least two decades. The "epics" are great --- The Judge Child, The Cursed Earth, Judge Death, The Day the Law Died etc --- but to get a real feel for Dredd I think it's better to go from his first story onwards. You could follow it here if you want; I'll be updating quite a bit.

As for the movies? Yeah Stallone ruined it in the first minute. Dredd NEVER took his helmet off! That was as iconic as Dirty Harry's Magnum 44! But yeah I enjoyed the second one, far superior and the idea of staging it all in one place was brave, and I feel worked well. I hope Urban returns.

[Trollheart]

Episode III: The Brotherhood of Darkness

First print date: March 19 1977
Prog appearance: 4
Writer(s): Malcolm Shaw
Artist(s): Mike McMahon
Total episodes: 1

A bunch of mutants from outside the city walls break into Mega-City One and are tackled by the Judges. They are beaten off but they take the mayor's son with them, presumably their reason for the incursion: Dredd is assigned to return the boy safely to his father. Disguising himself as one of the mutants, who belong to a cult called --- you guessed it! --- the Brotherhood of Darkness, Dredd knows that he will need his Lawmaster when either his cover is blown or he is ready to reveal himself, and so pretends that he has stolen it from a Judge, which earns him much praise and respect from the other “Brothers”.

As they travel into the blasted wilderness that lies beyond the city, Dredd notices that the nuclear winter has had a terrible effect on what was one the Eastern Seaboard of America. Huge, mutant insects watch the passing of the column with unblinking, pitiless eyes, and Dredd realises that the Brothers' own eyes have adapted to life in the wasteland: they can only see in the dark. As night falls and the mutants settle down to their feast, Dredd makes his move, taking out the guards and then hissing to the mayor's son to follow him, no questions asked.

But they are discovered of course and the Brotherhood come at them. Knowing of their aversion to light, Dredd hits his headlights to full beam and for good measure fires a few flares into the air. The mutants, cowering back from the unwelcome brightness, fall back and Dredd leads his convoy of hostages back to Mega-City One.

QUOTES
Dredd: “Fighting off hundreds of crazy guys is just the sort of soft job a Judge like me needs!”

Dredd: “Out of bullets so it's back to the stone age!”
(He takes a crossbow from a vanquished mutant. Of course this is historically and factually incorrect: crossbows were not invented till around the Bronze Age, but I'm sure Dredd doesn't care about that!)

Dredd (thinking): “Grief! The atomic radiation has even affected the insects! That Praying Mantis must be over forty metres tall!”

Dredd (thinking): “I'd feel a heel if I freed him (the mayor's son) and left the others...”
(Again, this attitude will change over time. A later Dredd would leave the other citizens to their fate. Not worth endangering the mission, which only stipulates that he rescue one individual).

Mayor's son: “Mega-City! We'll soon be back in civilisation, Judge!”
Dredd: “Sure kid, and tomorrow I'll be shot at with laser cannons instead of ancient crossbows. That's civilisation for you!”

I AM THE LAW!
Although it's his mission to go out into the wasteland and rescue the mayor's son, the sense of lawlessness, the lack of rules under which these mutants live rankles Dredd. If he had the chance and the excuse he'd probably execute them all, but he has not been authorised to do so, and there are probably many more of them than he realises. Plus, they surely know the territory, so he would be a fool to try to take them on on their own terms.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Although not named at the time, the desert outside Mega-City One is known as The Cursed Earth, and a whole major story will revolve around this inhospitable place, when Dredd has to travel its length. That's a year from now though. Also, as mentioned, Dredd's attitude towards innocent people will change as his years on the force march on. The Dredd we see here, believe it or not, is kind and soft-hearted compared to the one we will come to know.

One final change: though he thinks and doesn't say it, Dredd uses the word “grief”, but later on Wagner and Mills would invent their own slang for Mega-City One, and words that we use would be phased out.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

After the nuclear war of 2070, all three mega-cities were intact thanks to advanced shielding but everything outside --- basically, the entire United States --- was rendered a wasteland, deemed uninhabitable and earned the name The Cursed Earth. But as in most harsh environments, as Jeff Goldblum said in “Jurassic Park”, life finds a way, and mutated organisms --- humanoid and other --- have appeared, the humanoids scratching a meagre subsistence living from the hard, unyielding soil while cults and religious groups have sprung up all over the place. It is not an area to be travelled, even under heavy guard, and its denizens are not allowed inside the mega-cities.

Occasionally, as in this story, stronger or more zealous bands of mutants break through into the cities (although there is no explanation in this story as to how the Brotherhood of Darkness got in) and take what revenge they can on the inhabitants of the cities, whom they see as having abandoned them to their fate. To the Mega-Citizens, the Cursed Earth is the equivalent of Hell, and they are very glad of the dome and the high city walls that separate them from that awful wilderness.


I'll ask the questions, Creep!

This is the section in which I'll pose any questions I have about the stories or episodes, anything I think that wasn't properly explained, any loose ends or anything that doesn't make sense to me.

My question about this episode is: how did the Brotherhood of Darkness get into the city? It's supposed to be under tight control by the Judges, especially as regards access from the outside. Surely these hooded and robed mutants were not admitted to the city without some sort of check? And while we're at it, they apparently can't stand light: I know Mega-City One is dystopian and dark, but I expect it must be well lit. So how did they move around inside this well-lighted city?