Judge Dredd: The Mega-Collection #34. Originally serialised in 2000 AD Progs 156-181 and Judge Dredd Megazine 3.64-3.69.

It’s March 1980. So we’re three Dredd mega-epics down, and it’s to the series’ credit that they are all very different, and have provoked very different responses from me. I found The Cursed Earth (1978) to be fantastic – an incredible achievement. I wasn’t so enamoured with The Day the Law Died (1978). While parts worked, the whole thing just didn’t come together effectively. So where does The Judge Child (1980) sit for me?

Let’s start with structure. It seems clear to me that going into the six-month epic, the behind-the-scenes team on the strip must have had at least some of the view of The Day the Law Died that I did forty years later. The Judge Child is not a single story stretched over 20 (or 26 in this case) episodes as that epic was, but much more akin to The Cursed Earth with a series of shorter stories all fitting under a “framework” story. Dredd is even sent out into the Cursed Earth on a mission to save a City – it’s very clear that model of story was seen as the best way to do a long story.

Which I think is accurate – but they don’t pull it off as well here as in The Cursed Earth. That story worked because the individual parts were all well-realised and exciting in and of themselves. Although there are some really good mini-arcs within the Judge Child, there’s nothing with the sheer energy and ferocity of the Satanus episodes, or the epic world-building of the Bad Bob Booth story. The Battlefield and Jigsaw disease strands are highlights for me, but they are standouts amongst largely average stories.

They also don’t fit well into the overall framework. I promise I’ll stop comparing with The Cursed Earth soon, but all the pieces in that story are heading towards a specific goal and make sense in building the world around Mega-City One as we move forward. Once we head out into space after the Angel Gang, what do we actually learn about Earth and MC-1’s place in the Galaxy? Not a lot. We learn that space and aliens are weird, which is fine, but there’s no sense of connection. These stories could all be taking place without the connective tissue of the Judge Child Quest.

So what about characters? The idea of sending Dredd and a crew of Judges off into space is brilliant, and there are some parts of this story that use that to good effect. But overall the concept isn’t committed to, kind of like the rule of Cal in The Day the Law Died. Despite being set in space or on alien worlds, a lot of the stories are just things that could have happened in the Big Meg with very little re-writing. It would have been great to have seen the street-bound lawman really challenged by being space-bound. But that isn’t really played with at all.

Similarly, the idea of Dredd working long-term with a team is played with a bit, and then sort of ignored. While the Lopez Moustache Drama is mostly played for laughs, it at least opened the door into how Dredd’s stickler tendencies would work with younger Judges. There’s also a fantastic, if short, scene where Dredd deals with Hershey after Lopez’s death that does wonders for Dredd’s character. But otherwise it’s a waste – and this is particularly the case with Hershey. She is introduced really well, and then given lots to do in a few of the early space stories. But she’s then quickly sidelined and literally left behind for most of the last block of episodes. This is a real shame – she was a great foil for Dredd, and could easily have been given a bigger role in the final run of episodes.

We also get some new villains to see us through a lot of this arc. The Angel Gang are fairly effective, and is a classic example of the kind of comic nastiness that Judge Dredd always pulls off well. Mean Machine in particular is such a bonkers idea that he always tends to up the entertainment value. They work well taking over parts of Xanadu and acting as the law, but become basically cannon fodder for Dredd towards the end as they’re picked off one by one.

So I know I’ve been negative, which I really try not to be in these posts. The individual parts are entertaining enough, but when tasked to analyse them as whole… this is why I’ve got to almost 800 words of this post and haven’t even mentioned Owen Krysler.

Because everything to do with him is where this all falls spectacularly down. I had my doubts in Part 1 where it was all set up as a “mystical prediction”, obviously influenced by the method of finding the Dalai Llama. I’ll fully admit this is my own bias, but I’ve never found mysticism as a story-telling device very engaging. It can work for me, but it has to work extra hard to do so (I’m looking forward to talking about Shamballa [1990] in quite a while). Combine this with a threat almost 20 years in the future, and the whole thing lacks focus and urgency.

Then, as we move forward, that whole thing is dropped. The Judge Child just becomes the Macguffin that sends Dredd out into the Cursed Earth, then into space. Again, that’s not necessarily bad in itself, but to have a whole story under this title for 26 weeks and then not really do anything with that concept? That’s a brave call.

This approach particularly comes into focus in the run-up to the finale. As I was reading it, it seemed clear to me that the strip believes that the 26-part Judge Child epic is actually about… The Angel Gang. They get basically five solid episodes of character antics, and then get picked off one-by-one by Dredd in dramatic fashion. Now the Angel Gang are fun, and I don’t have a problem with this approach out of context. But to then deal with the entire Judge Child issue in less than a page? That really left a sour taste in my mouth as a reader. This story didn’t start as Judge Dredd Vs. The Angel Gang, so to end it that way doesn’t seem fair.

I think I can squint, turn my head sideways a bit, and see what they were going for. The end of a long and epic quest can be difficult to pull off. The heroes win and succeed (satisfying but formulaic), or they don’t (unlikely in a long-running series). So I think they decided to go for a bit of cheeky parody of epic tales and have the hero get to the end and go “oh, this isn’t what I wanted. Bye”.

Which works, but only as a concept. I read this over about 5 weeks (doing the Daily Dredd posts). I’d love to know what readers who diligently read this over 26 weekly issues thought. Because all stories require a level of trust between authors and reader. That kind of plot twist would have been pretty effective in a 6-part story (or thereabouts). But to invest people in a plot that would have stretched 6 months back in 1980, and then turn around and say it doesn’t matter is… problematic, to put it mildly.

I know that the producing schedule of these strips was hectic to say the least. This marks the start of the writing partnership of John Wagner and Alan Grant, which will produce a true golden age of Dredd over the next decade. But they obviously haven’t clicked here – I almost wonder whether the production team grew sick of the concepts they set up in Part 1 as they went along, and just sidelined them. Because the big issue here in this entire run is one thing – commitment.

Dredd’s stories work well when there is commitment to what’s happening. Wacky plastic melting disease? Many, many people die. Stop a plague of black spiders? Destroy an entire Cityblock. But after all the big and amazing concepts are introduced at the start – there is no desire to follow them up whatsoever. You could almost cut out the entirety of Part 1 and the nonsense with Judge Feyy and you’d still basically be able to follow this story. After Part 1, I have no sense whatsoever that Mega-City One is in any danger. From a narrative sense, that’s a problem.

We get hints towards interesting things. Owen’s evil nature is actually pretty well layered and introduced, and is a fascinating concept. But because of the finale, it’s all wasted. We get a sense in the middle that the Angel Gang are taking Owen to a figure who may be behind all this… but that comes to nothing as well.

This goes back to the bond between authors and reader. The narrative of The Cursed Earth works so well, including the finale, because it honours its commitment to the reader: we start with a threat to Mega-City Two, and we end with that threat being dealt with. We still get shocking moments like the death of Spikes, but we leave that story feeling satisfied. The Judge Child breaks its promise. This story needed to end with Owen back in Mega-City 1. We needed to get some kind of closure on that story. I would have loved to have seen some of the weaker stories excised from the overall episode count, and an additional two or more episodes added after the death of the Angel Gang to just have Dredd deal with Owen. The idea of Dredd having to deal with a hugely powerful and malevolent child could have worked so well. Instead we get Dredd, as a surrogate figure for the comic itself, just walk away basically saying “I’m bored of this game”.

I know I’ve piled on this story, and it must seem ridiculous now if I say that I actually mostly enjoyed it as I went along. I just wish that when viewing the story as one long tale, they’d had the commitment to see their premise through to the end. There’s also a perfectly reasonable point of view that these stories shouldn’t be overanalysed, and just enjoyed. But I think the problem is Judge Dredd has shown itself to be more than just a throwaway boys comic before, and can stand up to rigorous analysis. So it’s always a little disappointing when it falls short of that mark.

Similarly to The Day the Law Died, The Judge Child works better in retrospect because of some of the characters that are introduced that stand the test of time. Judge Hershey will become one of the main characters in the entire world; the Angel Gang will be back in different ways. It also just opens up Dredd’s world to more adventures in space, which will be both a blessing and a curse. Feyy’s prediction, and Krysler himself, will also be back to trouble Dredd a few times.

The main epic is paired with Dead Ringer (2000), another planet-hopping adventure twenty years down the line that even revisits Uggo and his clan – in verse of course. Wagner’s story is paired with seven different artists which adds to the eclectic, episodic feel. The overarching plot is a bit of a stretch – Dredd has to track down a Big Meg citizen who is the clone of the President of the East Eurpoean Enclaves, so he can impersonate the injured President and secure a much-needed trade deal – but even that can be seen as a homage to The Judge Child!

Overall this is a fun romp, with 20 years of writing growth from Wagner actually providing a tighter plot and some subtler humour. There’s a lot of great scenes and lines as Dredd’s prey, the hapless Citizen Jiggs, is so terrified of Judges that he flees them despite the fact they don’t want to chuck him in a cube. Hershey’s brazen decision to basically replace another city-state’s leader to load up the City’s own coffers also leads to some blackly humourous moments.

Despite my issues with The Judge Child‘s structure and resolution, its legacy in characters and story ideas – and how fun Dead Ringer is – demonstrates that the Dredd world will always have room for escapist fun.

Next time: Be pure! Be vigilant! Behave! Be back here next week! We’ll be looking at Nemesis the Warlock: Volume One.