Judge Dredd by John Wagner
The residents of Mega-City One have been infected with Block-Mania by the East-Megs as part of the Sov plan to enslave the city and divide it into rival groups. The fight starts because the judges of Mega-City, led by Judge Dredd, will never yield to another city.
Judge Dredd by John Wagner
Amazon.com
The character Judge Dredd is meant to be a spoof of Dirty Harry and other lawmen from Hollywood. His stern expression, outrageous clothing, and ‘I am the law!’ mantra are all intended as humour. However, in this volume, Dredd becomes incredibly grave.
A spilt ice cream cone triggers a block war, which is how it all begins innocently enough. Dredd destroys 500 million people to bring everything to a close. Mega City One is invaded and destroyed in the middle (not for the first or the last time). Dredd makes difficult decisions without regret, shooting accomplices or allowing citizens to become radioactively poisoned. Although not hilarious, it’s still good.
The majority of the artwork is by Carlos Ezquerra, and authors Alan Grant and John Wagner keep the action moving quickly.
It’s fantastic because it’s genuinely a subversive comic, which is great. The globe has been largely devastated as a result of a nuclear conflict, according to the scenario. These megacities are where everyone currently resides. The existence of megacities today is intriguing. Everybody resides in these enormous megacities with hundreds of millions of residents, and these cities are governed by judges who are themselves the absolute fascist law. On-the-spot sentences are possible. On-the-spot executions are possible. They serve as both the jury and the executioner simultaneously.
The society, however, is hideous, with utter unemployment and unbridled consumerism. And because there is no longer a meaningful society, everyone has turned into a bit of a moron who needs to be directed by this brutal authoritarian law.
The stories frequently made fun of ideas that were popular at the time in the media. In this storyline from the early 1980s, for instance, the Soviet-controlled East Meg One (formerly Moscow) uses social unrest in Mega-City One (a conurbation of 800 million people covering the eastern seaboard of the USA) to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike that obliterates half the population. This illustrates how Cold War anxieties were very much at the forefront. The resistance is led by Judge Dredd, who also uses East Meg’s nuclear weapons against it, causing the death of an additional 500 million people.
There are a ton of bizarre illustrations showing dozens of missiles swarming the city and a substantial death toll. You can see that the West and the East were both mirror images of one another. They are both brutal totalitarian governments. The sole distinction between them is which one is more consumerist.
Great art, non-stop action, and a biting sarcastic commentary on the madness of the Cold War standoff were the main themes of the comics, which were the pinnacle of pulp science fiction.
