First print date: February 27 1982
Prog appearance: 253
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Carlos Ezquerra
Total episodes: 25
The Apocalypse War, Episode IX
As he leads the remnants of his people to face the advancing Sovs, Dredd is heartened to see that his words have not fallen on deaf ears, as he witnesses the sight of Mega-City One's Weather Control on fire. Without this vital component, Kazan and his men will be subject to the usual vagaries of weather that we here in the twenty-first century live with. Perhaps Dredd will get lucky, and a stray lightning bolt will take out the war marshal? Already, things are slipping out of hand, as the Meg witnesses something it likely has not seen in a long time: heavy flurries of snow. As we learned in an earlier episode, weather is controlled by a popular vote, and naturally, most of us want good weather. I mean, given the choice, would you vote for rain? Or snow? Or freezing fog? But now the weather is beyond man's control and is doing just whatever the damn hell it pleases, and Kazan is finding it hard to advance in such unpredictable conditions.
He is less than impressed, however, with one of his captain's ideas to exterminate the population! You can't blame Judge Pukov (really? Pukov?
First Snekov, then Vlad, now Pukov! Oh, Wagner
is having fun with those Russian names, isn't he?) - after all, Block War is rampant, and even if he knew that the man who now reprimands him is part of a command structure which created the environment for this mania, it doesn't help him when every single citizen attacks – sometimes each other, but sometimes the invaders, who they probably think are working for another Block (not Blok, as in Sov-Blok! Oh I
am having fun here!) - and he faces madmen on every front. Nevertheless, Kazan says he has a better solution, and orders his squadrons of Strato-V bombers to release gas upon the city. This time, however, it does not kill the population but brings them to their senses, being the antidote to the virus which created Block Mania in the first place.
Everyone is back to normal – and no doubt wondering, rather like Custer is said to have said about the Indians, where the fu
ck all these Sovs came from? - with one rather important exception. Walter has been, as we know (and don't care) on the way to take Maria to see Dredd. When the Strato-Vs release what he takes to be deadly gas (can't blame him: this was their initial tactic when they invaded) he grabs a respirator from a dead Judge and puts it over her head. Unfortunately, this quick thinking has ensured that of all the citizens of Mega-City One, the only one who now remains a Block Maniac is Dredd's landlady!
Quotes
Judge: “Drokk! The whole weather system's on fire!”
Dredd: “Somebody got my message!”
Judge Pukov: “The Block Mania contaminant causes them to fight anything that moves. I've had to issue orders for total extermination of the population.”
Kazan: “Fool! You can try your theories of total population extermination out in Siberia, because that's where you're going to be for the rest of your life!”
(This is an interesting one. Obviously, Kazan is angry with Pukov and is banishing him to Siberia. But, is he going as a prisoner to a work camp or gulag, or just being posted there? The threat could mean nothing, a simple “We'll see how much you want to exterminate populations when you're freezing your arse off in a labour camp!” But it could also be that he is telling Pukov, while yet furious with him, that he will have the opportunity to do what he wants to do when he is posted to Siberia. Hard to say which.)
Blocker (watching the Strato-Vs release the gas): “Hey look! What Block do you reckon
they're with?”
Dan Webster Blocker: “Hold it right there! What's your Block?”
Maria: “Mario Lanza Block! We make-a da pasta out of you!”
Walter: “Shut up Mawia!”
Dan Webster Blocker: “Mario Lanza, huh? Pasta, huh? Seems to me they'd be better off dead!”
Judge: “They're acting normal again.”
Dredd: “Of course! That's it! They're spraying the Block Mania antidote!”
Laughing in the face of death
Kind of funny when an unidentified Blocker seems to think that one of the rival Blocks has Strato-Vs at its command.
The Walter and Maria scene is not as funny as it should be.
