Review: Predator vs Judge Dredd vs Aliens

PvJDvA is a really nice hardover collecting the two crossover storylines where Judge Dredd fights a Predator in one story and Aliens in another. I've seen alot of reviews and comments lamenting that the title and cover here are misleading and I can't say that they're wrong. On the one hand, it's a really good title and I'd be hard pressed to think of a better name for this collection, though there is only one aliens story and that is Incubus, so the little addendum "Incubus and other stories" in the title is blatantly misleading. The art on the cover just seems to reinforce the confusion and I do think that another type of drawing might have been better. Though again, ask me for a suggestion and I won't have a clue.

So not a great start, but a look at what's beneath the dustjacket makes it all better.
Some beautiful black faux leather with shiny red letters embossed on the center. A very nice bit of work.

Naked and Beautiful.

Anyway, now the nitpicking and bookporn are out of the way; the two stories are in full color with the original single issue covers included, sometimes with variant covers as well. And they look for the most part really good. I particularily like the chapter 2 Dermot Power cover for predator and literally all the Aliens covers. Seriously, they all look fantastic. The quality for the art and the story varies with both crossovers so I'll begin with predator first.

Predator vs Judge Dredd was ok.

Sexy psi-judge, screaming predator, pugnacious Dredd.
Instant classic cover.

A Predator comes to Mega City One and starts killing off judges and soon Judge Dredd is in hot pursuit. As the bodies start to pile up Dredd is aided by auxiliary Psi-Judge Schaeffer, a descendant of Dutch Schaeffer, (Arnold Schwarzenegger from Predator 1). With the might of the Judge department at their backs, it's a race against time as they try to stop the Predator's deadly killing spree.

The story felt like it could've been something much more special. in fact, it felt just like a regular dredd story. What could have been something epic turned out to be a run-of-the-mill Judge Dredd 3-parter with a foregone conclusion where Dredd tackles a hostile alien at large in his city. It's pretty familiar and seemingly the only thing that makes it stand out is the Predator brand recognition. Does that make it bad though? Should it even have been something more epic? Maybe easily slottable into the rest of the Dredd canon was the better call. The nature of the Predator makes it perfect for small storylines rather than epic ones. But even with that taken into account I have some quibbles. And maybe that is my fault, I don't know, maybe my hopes were up too much. Pre-read expectation is always the enjoyment killer.

But then, bad art might kill some of it too.

Second, about the art; it's a personal thing; I didn't like it so much because I'm not a fan of this type of art. I prefer Dredd with clean lines and less ridiculous cartoon proportions, both for people, buildings, shadows and the predator itself.

But damn anyway if the art for the climax wasn't balls to the wall awesome. I'm sure you might have glimpsed the art somewhere before as everybody does seem to pick the final battle art to endorse this particular story. The dreadlocked predator engulfed in flames at the top of a building, Lasers, napalm, war droids and a close combat knife-fight where Dredd fights without a shirt, looking like a steroid abuser  vs the Predator set against a backdrop of smoke and fire.

Alien bbq.

I've got some more to say later, but as it's spoilerific I'll do it at the bottom of the post behind a jump.
Now for the second story.

Judge Dredd vs Aliens or "Incubus" was pretty damn good.

Very inventive... Note the
Powertower bleeding into the light effects
coming off of the Alien egg.

Where the Predator story could easily have slotted in almost anywhere in the Dredd continuity. Aliens v Dredd definitely has it's place in the canon leading me to believe I was definitely a little too early in reading it (I'm right now just past complete case Files 15 and about to read America). There are elements of three storylines present, all of which I have had no familiarity with. I recognised the Mechanismo robots but apparently there's ties to the "Out of the Undercity" and "Origins" storylines as well. I got this information from the Dredd Reckoning site review;
http://dreddreviews.blogspot.be/2012/10/judge-dredd-vs-aliens-incubus.html.
The site is well worth checking out for Judge Dredd fans, and that review in particular as it has some in-depth critical ruminations on themes that I had no idea were in both the Alien Franchise and the Judge Dredd vs Aliens story. Reading it did make me realize I don't really have alot of thoughts on AvD So I'll just keep this short.

A new power tower is being built in Mega City One and a protest at a nearby hospital gets in the way of traffic flow where Dredd and fellow judges are sent in to ease congestion. When shots are fired and a man is gunned down by a known felon Dredd rushes him to the hospital. Before the man can be taken to surgery a creature bursts from his chest and escapes into the hospital's airducts. As a team of verminators is sent in to exterminate the creature, Dredd follows up on information of the known felon's past whereabouts. As bodies pile up and acidic blood rains down on an unsuspecting city, Dredd and the Justice department find more than they were prepared for.

A particularily bloody adventure.

A Very violent, action packed story filled with blood (acidic or not), gore and gunfire rendered in pretty great artwork by Henry Flint. I'm not a huge fan of his faces but when he draws fire or when acid is nastily chewing through judges his art is damn fun to look at. This is in part due to Chris Blythe's fantastic coloring.
Energy weapons, fire and acid have their own eye-catching glow and the effect it has on nearby objects is mesmerizing. Also, though everything is pretty grounded there's a big variety of colors on display, just coming from Strontium Dog, it's quite noticable.

A fast paced plot with lots of moving elements with mounting stakes and repercussions. Alot of fun and easy to read.
My favorite part was the Verminators' storyline, when their mission spectacularly goes out of control.

Very recommended.

Yeah, it really goes to hell from here.

And by the way, as I'm not someone who's such a big a fan of the Alien franchise, and don't know much about it, can I just say that Incubus is a good name for the Alien. Of course, the name is the brand and that could never be changed but it becomes a little problematic if you drop the Alien in a world that has already had who knows how many different alien species. In comes Giant;

And though that explanation of the Incubus demon is a little selective, the general gist of it, and the name, work both really well.

Exposition spouting Giant (junior?) makes a good case,
Though it really made me wonder
where he got that bit of esoteric information from.

Ok, For those who feel like this might be something they want to read. stop right here because I'm going to talk about some elements of the Judge Dredd vs Predator story. I will literally spoil the ending.
For those who don't give a damn and who'll never pick this up either way or to those who've read the story. Read on. SPOILERS AHEAD.




So yeah, I said before that people always endorse the Predator story mostly by showing art of the final battle between Dredd and the alien. And you know, it's really quite badass. Napalm and buildings in rubble, war robots shooting lasers and a ripped Judge Dredd knifing the battered Predator surrounded by smoke and fire.

Except. That's not actually what happens here is it?
Some isolated panels from that climax make it seem as if it's the greatest thing ever. But when you're actually reading the story, it's something quite different. The cool stuff is still there but it has a slightly different context.

What happens is that the Wardroids distract the predator long enough so that Dredd can shoot it in the back 4 or 7 times (the panels are a little confusing here) before Dredd gets distracted and the Predator backstabs him in turn. And then it takes Dredd's gun.

Now, the Predator had figured out before that point that all the lawgivers were boobytrapped to explode if anyone or anything other than their owners used them. And it tries to use Dredd's lawgiver anyway, knowing that it will lose its hand. The excuse given is that the Predator was sick and was trying to hurry its own death along. It's hand explodes and then Dredd stabs the thing and its all over.

And I thought that was kind of anti-climactic. When it's over we still don't know if Dredd is actually good enough to go up against a predator. Sure, sure. These things are written in a certain way and there were time constraints and a bunch of other excuses but I still felt we deserved better here.
Despite that, because of the end, I enjoyed it. the vivid colors, Dredd being more badass than usual, the tragedy of this particular predator and the sad part that we don't really know why it did what it did. And that moment..., when Dredd says "Good boy Fido, Here it comes" I just feel so sorry for the poor fucker.

The callous murder of a poor defenseless alien.

Knowing that the predator chooses to make himself defenseless still didn't seem to make any sense, there seemed to be no reason. No explanation was given for its sickness either. and then I hit upon a line of reasoning that might give the answer.
In the panels where Dredd is shirtless, bulging muscles on display, and where with an epic one-liner he taunts the predator, he was a complete badass. just saying "Good boy Fido, here it comes." gives me a visceral thrill. It's an absolute perfect throwback to the epic oneliners from the badass Men movies from the past, think of John Mclane shouting yippee ka yay or Hasta La Vista from Arnold himself.

But in retrospect looking at that one liner from the point of view from the Predator, it smacks of unneccesary cruelty, here is this once great galaxy travelling hunter literally disarming himself and there goes Dredd, taking away the last little dignity that once great hunter had. It shifts the focus from the Predator's choice; to die, to the badass Dredd, who is just quipping oneliners, and he kills the predator without even knowing why. The alien sags down and curls up around its wounds and Dredd quips again, adding insult to injury. the beast screams and falls down dead.

Then the judges state that the predator knew that the lawgiver was boobytrapped and question why it would activate it anyway, but they offer up only facile reasons as answers.
 "I don't know, Maybe it was ready, it was sick, dying, its pain was so great it wanted to die..."
"So it took on one final challenge-- one it knew it couldn't win. Thanks."
"You should be honored.'

Yeah, no. The last action the predator takes is blowing its own arm off. It stops fighting.
There's nothing heroic or honorable in Dredd then knifing the shit out of it.
Keep in mind that the Predator has a track record of not attacking unarmed enemies.
So what are we to make then of it taking away its own offensive capabilities?*

It's probably no accident either that the last shot of the entire story is a picture of the predator.
Curled up around his wounds, looking like a murder victim.

I think Wagner was again being deliberately subversive.
Giving the lie to the archetype of the badass one-liner spewing action hero and showing him as a simple-minded brute incapable of empathy towards those who stand in his way.
Of course this isn't a new idea, and definitely not in the Judge Dredd stories which have a long history of being subversive. (keep in mind, I haven't read America)
But I wasn't expecting to see it in a throw-away crossover series anyway. This could've just been delivered as fan service but Wagner actually gave some more meat on the story's bones.

Anyway, the reason why I talked so much about Dredd Vs Predator is that I've seen most people either just dismiss it or praise it to high heaven and I didn't think it might have gotten credit where it was due.

But hey I'm probably talking a load of bollocks here because there's always some dick who thinks about this stuff way too much. And I know that my reasoning doesn't bear it out everywhere either. There's no real definite anwers. Make of it what you will.


*Yeah it still had that wristgun, but that doesn't really fit with my analysis does it? So kindly forget that :)