Hello, hello, glad to see you here. Just thought I'd do a quick appreciation post on the 23d installment of the Complete Case Files of Judge Dredd. Complete Case Files is a series that'll of course end up covering the entire legendary lawman's career. But it is a career that isn't over and done yet, even though he's been active since 1977 on a weekly basis, the stories, and his age, progressing in real time, and we are all still following along in the same timeline as when we first saw him.
Yeah, when the Complete Case Files will finally be done and over with, it is going to be damn huge. Case Files 34, which'll be out later this month, collects the series up until prog 1275 together with the spin-off Mega-zine issues that came out during the time the included progs did.
I think that this week 2000AD released prog 2152.
That's still at least more than double the amount of Case Files until we arrive at that point, and still more when you realize that the amount of progs included in each Case Files has diminished since the inclusion of the Megazine issues in Case Files 15.
Where in previous Case Files we frequently got to read about 50 progs, leading to a steady accumulation of numbers, in later issues they would have to share that space with the Megazine issues, which frequently leads to less than two dozen progs per issue.
This is not a problem, as the Megazine is canonical and was conceived to explore the world of Dredd and the Mega Cities, frequently running in tandem with the prog stories.
But it does mean that there's going to be an unholy number of Case Files yet to come.
And Dredd's continuity is still ongoing.
That as a bit of an aside.
I just really wanted to talk about how good Case Files 23 (progs 940-959 and Megazine 2.81-3.07) in particular is. I can't remember having had this much fun since the Necropolis storyline in Case Files 14.
Things had been looking up since Case Files 19 and 20 where there were a few good stories, but which were deprived of being completely satisfying for me since my Case Files specifically had a few issues missing between progs. Imagine, I was having a lot of fun with the Inferno storyline and events were really beginning to spiral out of control, and all of a sudden there seem to be some pages missing, since Dredd is already in hand to hand combat with the Inferno storyline's main villain. Kind of took the wind out of my sails, let me tell you.
But in the previous 2 Case Files, the Chief Judge Mcgruder/Mechanismo storyline was finally dealt with in the really quite good Wilderlands story arc. And though Mcgruder is a memorable judge which I do have a certain fondness for, she did have the unfortunate honour of being the one in charge between Necropolis and Wilderlands, that very dreadful and dull and out-of-character period that most of wish that it rather did not exist.
And now, that second aside over and done with, we arrive at Case Files 23, which was an overall really enjoyable time, even though it quite stretched the bounds of credulity at points. Of course, this is a comic book with stories set in a sci-fi dystopia setting, so there's bound to be more than a few instances of outright fantastical bullshit, but this one nonetheless managed to up the ante a little bit.
What I mean is; take a look at the Case Files 23 cover.
That is Judge Dredd and his two greatest nemeses: Mean Machine Angel, and Judge Death. 3 characters who would as soon tear each other limb from limb as look at each other. And there's a story around that, and it is canon. And surprisingly it is very, very good.
The story is called The Three Amigos, and it is hilarious and bewildering and very, very satisfying.
It was written by John Wagner and it has art by Trevor Hairsine.
It concerns a band of Muties tearing across the Cursed Earth, trying to establish the United Mutant States of America. For some reason, nearby Tex-city is unwilling to stomp on the threat and so the Muties do what they want. Until of course, The Three Amigos ride into town.
I don't want to give anything away, since the moment you see that glorious piece of art where the three of them stand revealed, you're thinking that there's no way that this isn't just another dream sequence in order to please the fans by giving them another consequence-free appearance of Judge Death, but no: It's all real and it is all good, and it charmed the pants off of me.
There's a bunch of other good stories in here with the Three Amigos simply being the flat-out best, but Goodnight Kiss, Bad Frendz, The Decision, Repeat Offender, Bug Crazy, Face of Justice, Hot Pursuit and The Wall, are also all very impressive, and many of these and lesser others set up interesting story lines to come.
Loved it, and looking forward to what's next. I already read a bit of Case Files 24 last night, and the first story in there was already one that felt like it mattered, and which was engaging and well written. Yeah, I think Dredd's bad years are over.
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I did see that the next story in Case Files 24 has a crossover with another series as a certain robot makes an appearance, which means that I'm going to have to go and Collect the Ro-busters and the A.B.C. Warriors comics one of these days... Oh well. They do look awesome, and they're out in nice shiny hardbacks too.
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