Review: Batman Vs Judge Dredd

Another day, another Judge Dredd crossover. And this time it's the caped Crusader who gets the nightstick, literally.

Please note. This is the British version from publisher Rebellion. This edition is NOT DC.

I'm not a superhero comic reader, mostly as I don't like the hero worship culture but also because: with my need for completing series; it'd be a bad can of worms to open.

But as I do want to read every Dredd comic I wanted to eventually read this one too.

Now I actually read this a while back and found that I didn't really like it. I recognized that some of  it was due to bias and as I didn't want to get supernegative I took a break to be able to come back to it later. These days however, all I can look at is this cover staring back at me in mute accusation.

SO... I guess I'll get it out of the way. With lots of pictures and a minimum of writing. Maximum quality entertainment from a minimum effort, or so I hope.

This book contains several crossovers; Judgment on Gotham, Vendetta in Gotham, The Ultimate Riddle, Die Laughing and the Lobo/Judge Dredd crossover.

Judgment on Gotham is probably my favourite. with Simon Bisley art and a cool, (almost) serious storyline where Dredd and Batman meet for the first time (see above).

The violence is brutal and yet there's occasionally time for some fun.

A SuperFiend.

Yes, that's right. A clash of the two most iconic (super)heroes from the british and american markets can't happen without their equally iconic supervillains. In Judgment on Gotham an alliance is formed between several key villains, including the always hilarious Judge Death, Mean Machine Angel and Scarecrow.

I always imagine Death's voice to be the voice that Barry Yandell used to voice Fink in Borderlands 2.
Sounds a lot like a naughty, sibilant Joker, as voiced by mark Hamill, I suppose.

The art makes Death twist in bizarre shapes and he pops like never before and it's quite alot of fun to see the bizarre shapes Bisley makes of him.

Some other things I want to mention is that there seems to be subliminal bat-styled art on every other page and it can be a game to spot how much of it you actually notice.

Also, Anderson shows up, heavily sexualized, and though I like it,  maybe your one strong female character shouldn't get this kind of treatment. Though again, I did like it. No, no pictures.

A nice wrap-up to the story too that isn't reliant on 'to be continued' deserves a mention.

Next, we have Vendetta in Gotham.

This short comic seems to be more of an intermezzo piece, and a bit of fan-service with Dredd and Batman just straight-up duking it out for whole pages (which is pretty cool).

With Cam Kennedy art that isn't bad and isn't good, just uneven, It's a step down from the promising start that was Judgment on Gotham. But maybe it's just that coming straight off the first comic, it can't help but be a let-down.

There are some inspired art moments but nothing that'll redeem the throw-away story.

Say what you want though, but this is damn good art.

Dredd literally comes back to Gotham to just beat the crap out of Batman on a night when Ventriloquist/Scarface (I don't really know much of Batman's mythos so forgive me if I'm getting it wrong) is brewing up a dastardly scheme. The story ends with the promise of something big yet to come... Judgment 3: die Laughing.

But first we have another story to go through; The Ultimate Riddle.
The name of this one will give away who the Villain is (just like Die Laughing does, really).
The story begins with Batman following up a riddle from the Riddler. He riddles it swiftly out though as he is promptly whisked away to an intergalactic cage match where he will have to fight against various baddies from far-away corners of the galaxy, including his old sparring partner; Judge Dredd.

The story isn't anything to write home about and isn't inspired or even very interesting in any way. If the stakes are only about the lives of your heroes it's hard to get invested, I suppose.

Despite the lacklustre story, the art is pretty good with chores divided between two artists; Carl Critchlow for the first half (which I personally feel is the better part, I prefer the thin lines of Critchlow to Power's thicker ones, or at least in this comic) and the latter half of the story by Dermot Power.

'Die Screaming': foreshadowing Die Laughing?

As I said, despite the cool art, if the ending is a foregone conclusion it's hard to be entertained. I did spot a cool little throwback to the first comic though.

It's as if we're just finishing that first conversation. Neat.

What bears mentioning is that all these stories were written by Alan Grant and John Wagner, the godfathers of Judge Dredd, and as such, despite their shortcomings, all the stories do FEEL like Judge Dredd comics.

Then we come to the one we've all been waiting for; Die Laughing.

Aaaaaaaaaand... It's got Glenn Fabry art...

Thriiillllleeeeeeeuuuhrr!!!!

Glenn Fabry is incredibly talented award-winning artist who is revered throughout the comics industry. With truly iconic and instantly recognizable painted art stretched out over various well-known properties. Everybody seems to like his stuff.

But me personally... I just can't stand his faces. I've seen him in his run on Slaine and in covers for Preacher and Hellblazer but I've never been able to warm to him.

It takes an incredible amount of talent to do what he does, to sculpt bodies and faces into a anatomically correct and life-like painting, but I've never liked any of it.

Good then that there's more on display than faces in Die Laughing.

Mortis is born.

Body horror and grotesquerie backed up by some incredible talent. Truly a joy to behold.

The experimental work of Bisley from earlier in the volume on Judge Death's shape  is built upon and improved. We see the Dark Judges like never before.

Yes,  Die Laughing doesn't just bring the Joker, It brings all 4 of the Dark Judges as well.

The story begins in Gotham, where Batman sees the Joker use a warp jump device to transport himself into another dimension. Soon after, a wounded Anderson appears in his Bat-cave to enlist his aid in combatting the crisis that has been foreseen in Vendetta In Gotham.

Batman warps into Mega City 1 where 10 000 citizens are just about ready to lock themselves into a pleasure dome for an existence of hedonism and wild debauchery.

Trouble is afoot as Batman and Judge Dredd find that the Joker has allied himself with the dark Judges and that they're planning some fun mas- murder in the Pleasure Dome.

There's so many jokes here, and so much fun to see. but the fun is a bit offset by the sordidness of the plot.

Literally in a Theme Park Meting out Death, having the time of their lives undead existence.

 The bodies just look unappealing and half the people have got those crazed Glenn Fabry faces.

On the other hand, at least this isn't sexualized.

The only ones who look unapologetically badass are the ones with helmets on (or cowls).

And it's this that does it for me. Despite the bizarre faces, unappealing bodies, a plot involving hedonism and people strapped into clothes too tight for them. Despite any and all personal preference. What I'm here for is Batman and Dredd being badasses. And that is what we get. And They have rarely looked this good. Bisley's earlier work is almost consistently trumped.

So Yeah, still a very cool comic. And artwise it's undeniably the best one in the book.

And here we arrive at the last of the bunch.
It's the one that confirms my earlier held bias against comics and why I never picked up comics when I was growing up: they're just plain weird.

We arrive at Lobo/Judge Dredd: Psycho-Bikers VS. The Mutants From Hell.

You know, the Batman crossover I get, Batman I understand.

But look at this, What the hell is this?

Dredd is normal but his world for sure isn't, so I should really not be so surprised to be looking at what is essentially a buff Elric with a mouse as his favourite companion.

At first I didn't like it at all. And ending the comic with this bizarre thing seemed an ill-advised thing to do.

But, looking back and looking closer... It really is just another Judge Dredd comic isn't it?

Intergalactic bounty hunter tracks his quarry down to Mega City 1 and comes into direct conflict with Judge Dredd, Trouble ensues. We've had this exact scenario a couple of times actually.

Art by Val Semeiks and John Dell.

So why the negativity? I'm assuming it's because the story is uncluded in this book.
If it had been placed amidst the rest of the regular Judge Dredd strip it would've stood out more, Coming after the art of Bisley and Fabry though, it's just another step down.

However. on its own. It IS a good Dredd strip. It's some Classic 'Dredd in action' and the art is easy to keep up with and pretty, if you stop comparing.

All in all...

Having some time off and some time apart from this comic really helped because I'm brimming with positivity now.
It also helped me experiment with this review and how to quickly and efficiently do a comic review.

Now this comic can go on the 'Read' shelves and I can start looking forward to some more Dredd to buy.