Chapter III
First print date: May 14 1977
Prog appearance: 12
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Mike McMahon
As Dredd and the Judges battle the robots they take heavy losses. Over a hundred of their number have fallen, but they have erected steel barriers which are designed to keep robots out. They have, however, reckoned without the industrial robots. Remember the Heavy Metal Kid at the exhibition? Well he's back, with a few of his mates, and they tear through the barriers like paper. As the Heavy Metal Kids tear through the Judges' lines, they begin to fall back. But Dredd guns his Lawmaster directly at them. As they pound the ground around him, trying to squash him, the much smaller, more nimble Dredd evades them. It's literally like trying to squish a bug with a sledgehammer!
Finally, unable to sustain all this pounding, the road gives way and the Heavy Metal Kids plummet a mile to their doom, Dredd just managing to make it off the overpass by the skin of his teeth. The battle has been won, for now, but as Dredd tells Judge Jack, the robots can build other robots, but men dead remain dead and are not easily replaced. If this is to be a war of attrition, the robots have the upper hand. They never tire, they never question orders, they never stop and they never slow down. And there will always be more, more, more of them. The encounter has taken its toll on Dredd, who has not slept for seven days now, and he is brought back to his apartment, on the verge of collapse.
When he is told that Call-Me-Kenneth has set up his control centre in Sector 9, deep inside robot held territory, Dredd fights off his weariness and staggers out the door, climbing back on his bike to head towards his confrontation with the robot leader.
QUOTES
Broadcaster: “Citizens are advised to stay indoors. The Judges are handling the situation!”
Call-Me-Kenneth: “Judges fight like demons, but even they cannot stand against us!”
Judge Jack: “Judge Dredd. A hundred and four Judges are dead. Many more wounded.”
The Heavy Metal Kids: “Mash! Bash! Grind! Smash! Eliminate the fleshy trash!”
Heavy Metal Kid: “Hello, fleshy ones!”
Judge: “Judge Dredd is sacrificing himself like a true leader!”
Dredd: “The robots will just build more. We can't build more Judges!”
Maria: “What have you-a done to-a my Judge?”
Jack: “He'll be okay. Look after him Maria. He hasn't eaten or slept for seven days --- just killing robots. He needs rest. He's almost like a robot himself.”
Dredd: “Too many Judges have died already. We cannot risk more. War leader against war leader --- that is how it should be. I, Judge Dredd, will destroy Call-Me-Kenneth. And I will do it ... alone!”
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Finally, the weapon of the Judges is named. In the opening panel Dredd advises his men to “set your Lawgiver guns to high-explosive.” The Lawmaster has not yet been named.
Laughing in the face of death
Although this is not a light-hearted story, there's always time for some humour. Here, the Heavy Metal Kids, perhaps copying the band for which they were named, sing “March, march, into the fight! We'll crush the fleshy ones tonight! For Call-Me-Kenneth says it's right for slaves to kill their masters!” There's also a big grin on the faces of the Heavy Metal Kids that makes them, I don't know ... cute in some way? Another robot holds up a sign that says “Make war not breakfast!” And Maria's fussing over Dredd is comic relief in itself, especially as he shakes off her attentions.
I'll ask the questions, creep!
I'm a little confused. I thought that Judges were the law enforcement in Mega-City One, but twice now we've seen police. Are they a more local sort of force that perhaps deal with less serious crimes, things the Judges shouldn't be bothered with? Or are the Judges like a special elite force, the SAS or Navy SEALs of Mega-City One? I think that fairly quickly though these nondescript police are phased out, and Judges take over, becoming the only law enforcement throughout the city.
