Judge Death: The Wilderness Days (Judge Dredd Megazine vol.2 #209-216)

"I'm a natural born killer." - Judge Death

Of all of Judge Dredd's many enemies, the Dark Judges and their leader Judge Death in particular, have to be the most popular and enduring.  No matter how often they are defeated and imprisoned, they'll always find a way out to continue judging the living merely for the crime of being alive.  Their warped thinking is that because all crime is committed by the living, life itself must be a crime.  They quickly wiped out the population of their own Earth and via reality shifting shenanigans, came across to Dredd's Earth to continue their mission.  This storyline focuses on Judge Death, the only one of the four Dark Judges to escape in a previous storyline, and his road trip across the Cursed Earth (the radiactive wasteland outside of Megacity One) as he considers how to enact a quantity over quality policy of judgement. Normally he likes to do his killing up close and personal, pushing his hand into a person's chest and squeezing their heart until they die.  But feeling that judging a whole world alone might be a bit beyond him, he starts to search for weapons of mass destruction to aid him in his task.  This storyline also gives us a peek into his mind as he interacts with the various humans he meets along the way.  The story is penned by veteran 2000AD scribe John Wagner and the art is by Frazer Irving whose thick, black linework gives it a medieval woodcut look that befits the somewhat dark subject matter in hand.

A small farmhouse in the Cursed Earth, a family working outside it.  A rangy figure comes into view.  It is Judge Death and "I mean you no harm".  However the woman points a shotgun at him while the old man says "It's the Devil Incarnate" and the two young boys cower behind them.  The woman tells Judge Death to get lost or she'll cut him down where he stands.  Judge Death shrugs and says:

Judge Death: "I can ssee I am not wanted.  Sso be it.  I havve never been one to impossse myselff.  What happened to the old tradition of welcoming ssstrangers."

The woman says he is "too damn strange" for her liking so he leaves, bidding her a "good day" as he does so.  But he lurks close by waiting for nightfall as he needs to be careful out here, he has no way of repairing damage to his body.

Not even children are safe from Judgement.

It is out in this wilderness that he understands the vastness of this world and his task.  So many born every minute, faster than he can bring them to justice, "each one a new sinner born into crime". 

He returns to the farmhouse and lures the woman out to the barn where he impales her on a pitchfork and shoots the old man with her shotgun.  She yells at the children to run before Judge Death kills her via a squeeze to the heart.  The boys run, but Judge Death has found the quad bike and is able to catch the older one and runs him through with the pitchfork.  The younger one hides in the cornfield until Judge Death gives up looking for him and moves on.

Next day his father, Hocus Ritter, returns home to find his family killed apart from Morty who he holds tight when he finds him alive.  He says Morty can tell him all about what happened once they have buried the others.

Biking across the Cursed Earth, Judge Death comes across some circled wagons and kills everyone there.  He makes use of the gun, but:

Judge Death: "Where possible I have come to prefer passing sentence face-to-face.  Up close and personal.  Justice with a smile".

Next day he comes across a lone dwelling, feeling vaguely unsatified by the previous nights judging.  There is a man sitting outside the house drinking tea.  He is blind and invites Judge Death to sit down and have a chat and a cuppa.

The friendship of the blind.

He asks if Judge Death is travelling far, and Judge Death complains that it is such a big world with so many sinners, maybe he should leave back to his own world or find one smaller.  Then he scolds himself saying if he shrinks from the magnitude of his task he has no right to call himself a Judge.  And his brother Dark Judges need freeing as well. 

The blind man seems unfazed by what Judge Death is saying, and just makes polite interjections every now and then.  Three men walk past and shout at him that Judge Death "doesn't look right".  Judge Death shoots two of them, the other flees.  The blind man says he should be careful with the gun, "somebody could get hurt."

Judge Death reiterates his philosophy that crime is committed by choice, therefore choice is a crime.  "Simple logic.  Yet so few of you seem to grasssp it" he hisses.  The blind man comments that "you sure have a lot on your mind stranger".

Truly an evil book!

The blind man decides to let Judge Death into a secret of his saying, "you seem like a decent sorta fella."  His home is on top of a "mine" that leads to a library of books that predate the war that saw the formation of the megacities, "the answers are all in there stranger" he says.  Although he cannot read them, he likes to hold and touch them, "be warmed by the knowledge burning inside."

He leaves Judge Death to read in peace.  Outside the friends of the two men Judge Death gunned down have arrived looking for revenge.  Judge Death meanwhile has found a book called "Great Mass Exterminations".

Judge Death: "As I absorbed the words of the ancients, my course of action became clear.  I must complete the task I had begun - the annihilation of the human race.  Satisfying as individual executions may be, I had to be prepared to make sacrifices.  Sheer weight of numbers demanded I seek a more comprehensive solution".

The gang outside seal the mine up with a huge rock, but Judge Death tosses it aside easily and kills several of them, he allows the rest to flee because he will kill them later instead when he enacts his new plan.

You shall be Judged!

When it is just him and the blind man left, sadly the blind man says "don't usually get a man so wrong" as he realises he is next to die.  And Judge Death slowly squeezes the life out of his heart.

Judge Death: "And I took him down and laid him out in the place that he had loved.  Among the words of the ancients.  He had been useful.  He deserved no less.  And they say I don't have a heart".

Still following his trail of death is Hocus Ritter.  He finds one settlement in which only some nuns survived and leaves his son with them to continue his quest for vengeance.  Meanwhile, Judge Death's bike has broken down, but he is almost immediately picked up by a kill crazy couple, the female "Nirvana" and male "Slide".  They shoot people as they drive past and Judge Death thinks, "sinners, perhaps.  But their hearts were in the right place."

"Jay" makes some new friends.

They stop at a small settlement and go order food in a diner.  Nirvana asks the other patrons if they know where there are weapons of mass destruction as "Jay" is looking for some.  When the patrons try to leave, she shoots them and Judge Death kills the diner owner when he protests.  Then the three of them go on a rampage and wipe the settlement out.  Later while Slide sleeps, Judge Death and Nirvana go on a bicycle ride.  She asks if he wants to sleep with her, he kills her with an arm through the chest in response.

Judge Death: "I fffear I'm well passt that ssstage, my dear.  Ssstill.  Iff we're talking fffull penetration..."

I can't believe they got away with that joke! Anyway, then he goes and kills Slide and takes all their weapons and the car and sets off again, looking for clues to something to help him wipe humanity out.

After a couple of days and nights travelling he finds himself in "a veritable den of iniquity", Las Vegas. Unable to control himself he passes judgement on a man playing the slots. He is arrested by a pair of Judges and allows himself to be taken, thinking he'll get closer to the seat of power that way and maybe get some information on tracking down some W.M.Ds.

"Spin, spin, spin the Wheel Of Justice.  See how fast the bastard turns!"

The Hall of Justice is in fact a casino with a Vic and Bob style wheel of justice that has various punishments people can bet on as it is spun, with the sentence carried out there and then.  Judge Death's turn comes up and the wheel picks disembowelment for him, but he kills the two Judges sent to carry the sentence out, then he rips the wheel off its mount and flings it at the other Judges coming for him.  The Chief Judge, now somewhat freaked out, agrees to see him in private in the Council Chambers.

There he tells Judge Death that sometime ago a Judge called Dredd came through the town and put "The League Against Gambling" in charge.  So they bided their time and struck back and ran the "goody-goods" out of time bar one, the former Chief Judge Rudy who is just a head on a small dog's body.  Rudy is somewhat surly and is on the receiving end of a few zaps from a device the Chief Judge has.  Asked what he wants, Judge Death says he is after W.M.Ds to end the human race.

Not-at-all put off by this answer, the Chief Judge says he can help but only if he gets some quid pro quo.  If he agrees to a ten night run fighting in the arena as "The Dark Destroyer" with people paying 10,000 creds to fight him for the chance of one million if they defeat him, he'll help him out.  Judge Death grits his teeth, thinks of his mission and agrees.

The "Dark Destroyer."

His first bout lasts less than one minute as he punches his opponent's head clean off.  We then get a montage of him punching through various challengers, when one opponent tries to avoid him using fancy footwork, Judge Death briefly possesses him and crushes his skull.  When his first night comes to an end, he is left alone in his dressing room.  Then Rudy appears and says he has important information for Judge Death.

He knows where he can find W.M.Ds. But first he wants Judge Dredd's assurance he'll wipe the whole of Vegas off the map with them, Judge Death agrees so Rudy shows him his information. He taped a council meeting where the Chief Judge states they will string "the Dark Destroyer" along for another ten night run then kill him, because even he won't be able to withstand twenty guns.  This enrages Judge Death and as Rudy tries to stop him, he marches to the Council Chamber killing everyone in his path, "sometimes the effrontery of sinners would try the patience of a saint - and mercy knows I am no saint".

Immortal but not invulnerable.

Sadly for him, he can't indeed stand up to twenty guns and his body is blasted to bits, while his spirit howls "Foools! You cannot kill what doessss not livvve!"  Along  with Rudy they escape the building.  Rudy says he's got them into a fine mess, but Judge Death says they can make him a new body.

They sneak up on a nurse out with an old male patient, Judge Death takes control of the nurse and goes and buys a Judge Death cosplay outfit the merchandisers are stocking due to his popularity.  Then he takes the old man back to the hospital and into the pathology lab, dresses him in the outfit, kills him and uses the "dead fluids" to soak the body and turn it into a vessel for him.  He leaves the nurse and takes control of it, and kills her.  Rudy is unsure he should be helping him now, "I was a good guy once" he says.

Judge Death: "I prefer you consssumed with hatred and bitterness.  Ifff you know what'sss good for you, keep it that way."

Back with Hocus Ritter, his horse collapses with exhaustion but he soon comes across another settlement decimated by Judge Death.  When they hear of his mission of vengeance they give him a car and he keeps following the trail of the dead.

Rudy shows him the silo.

Judge Death and Rudy arrive at what is labelled a "research facility" but Rudy says "everyone in these parts knew what they were up to".  Judge Death rips his way through the fence and goes inside and is greeted by a tank ful of robot troops.  When they hear he is looking for W.M.Ds they take him to see the General.

The General is old, wheelchairbound and practically senile.  When he admits during a rant that he is the only human left in charge, Judge Death possesses him.  He orders the robots to take Judge Death to the weapons and obey his every order, but first they need to leave them alone.  He relaxes his hold on the confused General and then strangles him.  Afraid, Rudy tries to sneak off, but Judge Death says he hasn't had his reward yet.  Then he goes with Rudy to inspect the missiles, ready for firing in forty-five minutes.

Ritter has made it to Vegas, but when he sees someone dressed as Judge Death he attacks him mistaking him for the real thing.  Then he sees more and attacks them too.  Two Vegas Judges arrest him and when he realises his mistake he apologises, but it falls on deaf ears and they drag him off to the Hall of Justice for sentencing.

Ritter arrives in Vegas.

Back at the missile silo, one of the robots says they are supposed to receive confirmation for launch on the Red Phone.  Exasperatedly Judge Death possesses it and makes it ring which is enough to get the launch codes given to him.  There are not enough missiles to wipe out the whole human race so he picks Megacity One and Las Vegas as targets.  Rudy nervously thanks him and tries to sneak off, but Judge Death says "you can't go just yet.  You'll miss the best part of your reward!"

Rudy is tied to the missile aimed at Las Vegas so he can see the destruction "firssst-hand!"  Then Judge Death launches all the missiles.  In Megacity One interceptor missiles are dispatched to deal with them.  Meanwhile in the unsuspecting Las Vegas, Ritter's punishment is the electric chair.  As they start to fry him, he calls for his horse, while Rudy and the missile he is strapped to hit Las Vegas wiping out everyone in a mushroom cloud of death.  But Ritter and his horse's spirits are suffused in a heavenly light much to his confusion.

Unleashed destruction!

Unfortunately for Judge Death none of his missiles aimed at Megacity One get through.  He is philosophical about it though:

Judge Death: "Ssstill I never exxpected it to be an inssstant sssolution.  No victory worth havving comess eassy".

However in retaliation, Megacity One launch a couple of missiles of their own at the base and it is blown to bits, Judge Death along with it, "Fools!  You only postpone judgement. I shall return!" vows his disembodied spirit.

Ritter's revenge after death.

On the astral plane he is in for a nasty surprise.  Hocus Ritter is waiting for him and Judge Death is shocked when Ritter hurts him.  Ritter keeps attacking him.

Ritter: "Not enough! Nothin' can ever repay you for the hurt you handed out!"

They fight and Ritter calls for help and a whirlpool of angry souls appears and grabs ahold of Judge Death.  "This cannot be -! Thisss iss my domain! I hold power here" he cries.  But he can't stop himself being dragged down by the "lost souls cryin' out for retribution! Such power is greater than you!" says Ritter.

Ritter: "Burn Devil Judge.  Burn in the pits of Hell!"

And Judge Dredd disappears, hellbound, with one final "it cannot be!" And then he is gone and the storyline comes to a close.

The end of Judge Death...? (nah)

It's an interesting ending for a 2000AD/Megazine story.  The world of those two publications has tended to strike me as somewhat atheistic, although there are outliers like the Devlin Waugh stories that confirm the Catholic church at least has survived in some form.  So a biblical punishment for Judge Death seems like it's been a long time in coming.  Is it the end of Judge Death? Well I am only a humble trade reader but I assume he manages to find his way out of hell, he's too good a villain not to use.  Because he is so full of go-ahead, can do enthusiasm for his self-imposed quest to wipe out all life, and does it with such a blackly comic approach you almost forget about the truly awful stuff he does, which is why having Hocus Ritter as a sort of morality anchor all the way through works so well and pays off so nicely.  There's also an interesting indictment of the effectiveness of Judge Dredd's approach to problems as well with the reveal that it didn't take long for the clean-up he enacted on Las Vegas while passing through to revert back to the same-old, same-old with Rudy as the victim of a pretty horrible transformation.  With no one in any position of strength left to defend the cleaned up Vegas Dredd's reforms were basically ignored in the long term after a short term gain. As I said in the intro, Frazer Irving's art is superb, very individualistic and striking, while John Wagner proves he still has what it takes to make the Judge Dredd world live and breathe.  If you don't want to track down the original Megazines, it is also collected in the trade paperback "Judge Death: The Life and Death Of..." along with a couple of other serials and one-offs, including "Young Death" which I have also covered on this blog (and a big thankyou to my very good pal Lucy for the book).  Highly recommended.

Judge Dredd: America (Judge Dredd Megazine vol.2 #1-7)

"Justice has a price.  The price is freedom" - Judge Dredd

I don't know if you have noticed but it's a scary time over in US politics land.  With Donald Trump promising to deport all Muslims and build a wall between Mexico and the USA, well, I know he doesn't stand a hope in hell in becoming POTUS,  however his campaign has turned over a rock under which many people were hiding their noxious, authoritarian opinions and now, rather than be a bit ashamed of those beliefs are shouting them proudly in support of Trump's candicacy and I doubt they'll be going away when he inevitably fails.  So it seems as good a time as ever to cover the critically acclaimed Judge Dredd serial "America" which examines the things America has always prided itself on standing for and how often the reality falls short of the "Dream".  Of course the USA in question is the dystopian future of Megacity One, but it perhaps is telling that immigrants of the Dreddverse believe an image of it very close to our own idealised America.  And with the current militarisation of the US police force, acting as judge, jury and executioner towards young black men whose only crime was being young black men perhaps we can we say we're starting to find the worlds largest democracy beginning to embody the more frighting aspects of Megacity One's system of justice?  Interestingly Dredd barely appears in this story, but the totalitarianism he stands for looms over it as we follow the life of the daughter of a Puerto Rican family named America through the observations and narration of her best friend Benny Beeny as they grow up and make their very different lives in Megacity One and the journey from wide-eyed idealism to... well you'll see.

Dredd's law.

Actually the story begins first with a mission statement from Judge Dredd standing over a body covered in a blood-spattered stars and stripes flag.

Judge Dredd: "I stand four-square for justice.  I stand for discipline, good order and the rigid application of the law - and grud help any limp wristed liberals who say different.  The people like it that way.  They need to know where they stand.  That's why I like to see that Statue of Judgement standing there.  Towering over Liberty.  Kind of a symbol".

[Interestingly this puts the climax of the events told here quite a long way in Dredd's past, not long before in the pages of 2000AD he had ended up resigning as a Judge and going into exile because he'd lost faith in the brutal effectiveness of the system as he got older freeing sixty-odd democracy campaigners as his last act as a Judge, but we'll cover that period another time. The references to early Judge Dredd storylines such as the war with the Sov's and Blockmania seem to bear this out.] This is Benny's story, narrated as a retrospective.  He wants to tell us about how he loved a woman and still does, "though the spark that animated her has long since been crushed out."

Benny: "And I'll tell you how I betrayed her - and when I've finished you'll despise me for what I did."

He was there from the moment she was born "into this sick world".  And we are shown the birth of a baby girl, Benny is there as a baby, along with his mother.  She asks what Mr. Jara is going to call his new daughter.

America, born of immigrants.

He says the city has taken them in, and given them prospects, "America - the lan' o'the free a' the brave".  So in honour of their new home in Megacity One she is to be called "America".

Benny: "America... how like her name her life would be.. born in hope, with a dream - died in disillusionment and despair."

Then we jump forwards a few years.  Benny is recovering from being beaten up by some bullies.  While America comforts him, a Judge approaches them.  Benny thinks back how because of this meeting he had always been afraid of Judges and symbols of authority.

The adults would tell them the Judges were there to protect them and make the streets safe. But he would see they were afraid of them too. And at night they would be put to bed with the dire threat the Judges would come for them if they didn't sleep.

Benny: "So we didn't need ghosts or goblins or vampires.  We had the Judges.  And they were worse.  We knew they existed."

The Judge reaches the stricken Benny and America and yells at Benny for fighting saying he has enough evidence he is a troublemaker to put him in a Juve-Cube.  Benny whimpers that he is not a troublemaker and pleads not to be sent away.  America tells the Judge to leave Benny alone.

Benny being bullied.

The Judge sneers at her, she responds that she can say what she likes, "my dad says America is a free country"  The Judge says her dad is living in the wrong century, this isn't America anymore, it's Megacity One and that she and her dad have a lot to learn.  He calls in to dispatch to see if Benny or America have records, when told they don't he gives them a warning and departs.

Benny is tearful at this, and future Benny remembers she was the strong one while he was the one who usually ended up crying.  "He was a bad man" says America to Benny when Benny sniffles that the Judge might tell his mum.

Benny: "But we made her cry, in the end me and the Judges.  Oh yes, we got to her in the end."

Benny and America are teenagers next, at a lecture about how the country was founded on "life-liberty-and the pursuit of happiness".  This causes her to stand up and say the Judges have taken Liberty away, they arrest you for dropping litter, can break into your home and beat and torture you on spurious reasoning, and if your not up to scratch genetically they call you a "mutie" and toss you out of the city.

America: "And Happiness - there's a joke!  Look around you!  You see any happy faces? So much for Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness".

The teacher says well, they are alive, "one out of three's not bad."  After the lesson Benny and America go and talk somewhere private.  She is frustrated that the Judges took the power and "nobody seems to give a damn".  Benny says people don't want to take on the Justice Department"it's a lot easier to play it their way".  Then he sings a comic song he made up about Judge Dredd and makes her laugh.

You will never escape their view.

She says he's a natural comic, but she wishes she could see the funny side of things.  She says people come to America "to escape tyranny.  To be free, to have the right to decide for themselves how they want to live". 

She says people need to stand up to the Judges and tell them to stay out of their lives.  She shows Benny the pro-democracy posters she has, which freaks out Benny, it's a crime to have them and put them up.

Benny: "I begged her to stop.  I tried to make her see you could play it by their rules and still live a good life."

She says he's wrong, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness weren't just empty words.  "People died to make sure they'd always be a right".

Benny goes with her once to a pro-democracy meeting. He was terrified and she never asked him again.  After picking up her first conviction at fifteen for putting up pro-democracy posters she became a known troublemaker flaunting her involvement in the cause.  And slowly she and Benny began to grow apart.

He is deeply in love with her by now.  Two weeks before the graduation bop, he asks her to go with him.  She says she is already going with a man called Doody.  Benny blurts out all his repressed feelings for her, and all she can say is she does love him "but... not that way".  Benny turns to leave and she hugs him saying "please don't cry".

Benny gets friendzoned.

He went to the bop alone an performed a couple of his comic songs, "everyone laughed, except the comedian".  America went to West Sector U to study politics, Doody went with her.  When Benny's mother died, she couldn't come and support him as he said goodby as she was at a protest.  Her father does come and watch with Benny as Mum gets recycled, he says of Megacity One, "I weesh we never come... ees no' the great dream place - ees no' America anymore."

Later that night Benny writes America a letter cutting ties with her.  He still has it as she kept it.  He moves out from the block they grew up in and goes to make his own way in the world.

Benny: "The next time I saw America she would have the blood of four Judges on her hands."

Benny was in Megacity Two when war came to Megacity One.  When he returned he looked for America at West Sector U, "no records remained".  His old block survived and he goes and asks about the Jara family.  The neighbour doesn't recall a young woman but remembers the father, "killed hisself - went mad with a Stanley laser.  Got his wife an' a few of the neighbours".  He asks for Benny's autograph, but Benny walks silently away and soon stops looking for her.

Benny: "So I hoped she was alive and I wished her well.  And not a day passed when I didn't think of her."

He had some breaks in his career. He was the voice for some popular jingles, then an agent heard a recording of some of his comic songs and gave him a spot on a popular show.  After that he was made.  Big private residence, pool, garden, droid servants, "I'd been right.  You could play it by their rules and have a good life."

Benny enjoys the fruits of success.

But he lived alone, had a few brief relationships but no one measured up to America.  And now and then he "sought refuge with the ladies of the slab"  And that's where he next encountered America.  He is surprised and when he tells her he can't believe she's sunk so low she urgently tells him to go.

Then she pulls a gun and shoots two Judges as they drive past hitting one in the chest and the other through the head.  Her partners in crime roll up in a pod to collect her, a big man called "Kurd" points a gun at Benny saying "he's seen you"  You know the rules!" and he shoots Benny through the throat, before dragging a distraught America into the pod and making their getaway as Benny bleeds out by the two dead Judges.

Ouch!

More Judges arrive and set up a crime scene, confirming the bullets as from a gun that was responsible for at least two other Judge murders.  There was a note pinned to one of the dead Judges saying "Total War".  Benny is being stabilised and taken to hospital, the Judges think he got unlucky and blundered into an ambush but Dredd wants to question him anyway, "I want these creeps.  I'll give 'em total war."

Once Benny comes too in hospital, only able to communicate by typing, Dredd interrogates him.  When he feels Benny is being less than forthcoming he yells that he could arrest him for obstruction of justice and does he want to do his recovery in the cubes?! 

So Benny lies to Dredd providing a vague description of Kade, and that the woman was tall and dark haired and he didn't recognise them.

Benny: "If I could have talked I wouldn't have held out for a minute.  He'd have squeezed it out of me, had me crawling for the priviledge of informing on you.  Oh yes.  I'm no hero.  We know that only too well."

After he's given his statement, Dredd leaves him be.  Dredd says to a fellow Judge that Benny was likely in the area looking for a slabwalker, but they decide not to prosecute him for consorting, "creep's already lost a career anyway."

Benny lies to Dredd.

Soon Benny is able to leave the hospital back to his lonely home.  A floral company van gains access to the exclusive estate his house is part of, and drives up to his front door. Inside Benny is pouring himself a drink when the doorbell rings.  And there, holding a bunch of flowers, is America.

Benny invites her inside.  He has a cyber implant in his neck allowing him to speak.  She apologises, and he says he's being fixed up with one programmed with his own voice.  His driod butler comes in and says he recognises her from the hologram Benny keeps by his bed.  It says to her that she looks like she could do with a good meal.

Surprise!

Benny and America talk and she thanks him for not informing on them.  He says, "I did it for you, Ami.  Not for Total War."  Killing Judges is murder no matter how you dress it up. She says "there's no other way" but for now she doesn't want to talk about it.  Over supper they reminisce about their childhood.

Benny: "We talked long into the night.  For a few hours it was just like old times, as if the real world had never intruded on our lives".

But finally he tells her the Judges will catch her, and she agrees.  He asks why she doesn't stop, she can come and live with him, she knows how he feels about her.

She says she can't stop now, "they hurt me, Benny.  I can't stop hating them".  He says they'll talk about it in the morning and goes to order his droid to make up a bed for her.  But she has other ideas and points at his bedroom invitingly before pulling him inside...

Benny's dream comes true.

Next day she shows him the letter he sent her.  She kept it because even in her darkest moments she knew someone cared about her out there.  She says she needs one hundred thousand untraceable creds by thursday.  Benny realises she wants the money for Total War, "so that's what this was all about!  Grud!  I should have known!" She responds that last night happened because she loves him.  He says he doesn't think he knows her anymore.  They "better get reacquainted" then she says.

At the big democracy march some years ago she was there, four months pregnant with Dood's child.  The march was ruthlessly suppressed when Justice Department agitators placed in the crowd threw rocks at the Judges.  Dood was beaten and died on his way to hospital.  She was sent to Rehab for "Re-education".

America's sorry tale.

Then the Judges tested the child she was carrying and told her it had a "genetic abnormality" and she had a forced abortion.  She ended up in the Psycho-cubes due to this.  But as she calmed down she realised she had to play along, and got released and hooked up with Total War.  She tells Benny the money won't be used to hurt anyone and if he doesn't want to help she'll leave him alone and he'll never see her again.

Benny: "Oh America.  Were you using me even then?  You knew just the right words to twist me with - never see you again.... No!  I won't believe it of her."

So he agrees to help, "thursday you said..?"  And on that day he meets with America at a drive-in, they sit and hold hands on the swings.  Benny feels contented.

Benny: "If only it could have stayed like that - if we could have walked away, together, turned our backs on the tragedy that had been so carefully laid out before us.  But life doesn't work that way".

He asks her what the money will be used for.  She says it's best he doesn't know.  But he presses her on the matter so she admits it will be used for explosives, "we're going to blow up the Statue of Liberty".

Benny and America's last happy moment.

She says it's to make a point, to make headlines.  The Statue is a "sick joke" - there is no Liberty and "sooner or later the message will get through."  He gets the rest of the details from her, date and time, that they'll be using two hover-pods, one packed with explosives and her piloting the escape pod. He hands her the money and as she leaves she turns and looks at him, "as if she knew."

Then the story shifts to the night of the planned attack.  Dredd and a whole lot of Judges are staking out Lady Liberty.  One reports to Dredd that Benny has been spotted in a pod nearby, should they pick him up?

Dredd: "Negative.  Let him watch.  He earned it."

The two Total War pods fly in and the Judges use disrupters to bring them down.  Kurd climbs out of his and surrenders, he is cut to pieces in a barrage of fire from the Judges as are his companions. America's pod crashes and she crawls out leaving a trail of blood towards a stars and stripes flag on the ground.

Benny: "Yes I remember America.  Struggling to rise - taking those last faltering steps across the concourse."

A Judge shoots her and she falls.  Benny runs to her side.  He babbles that he couldn't do it, be party to terrorism and bloodshed.  Dredd had promised him she wouldn't be hurt, just the others.

America left bleeding.

Dredd tells him to "save your tears from someone who deserves them... she was a Judge killer."  Benny demands to know that if they knew who the people involved were and were tracking them, why wait and take them now, why do it like this?

Dredd: "A little demonstration - to encourage the others.  You're not the only one in show business".

Benny shouts "Damn you!" at him before directing a quieter one at himself.  We then arrive in the present and we see the woman we've been seeing glimpses of throughout the story is Benny, his mind now in America's body and he is performing in this manner for the first time.

America's shell, her spirit long since departed.

She had been declared braindead before she got to the hospital.  He had her made over to his custody and kept her on life support before he made his decision.  Perhaps it was because he couldn't bear to be the one to switch her off and end her life forever.

Benny: "And I know that I did it to punish myself.  Because not a day passes when I don't see her face in the mirror and remember what I did."

But he also wanted to keep her dream alive, because she was right about the Judges, you've got to keep fighting, "you've got to keep looking for America."

Never give up...?

And so it ends.  A remarkably grown up story by veteran Dredd scribe John Wagner, rarely have we seen Judge Dredd so unsympathetic, such an embodiment of a system designed to crush dissent and force the population into accepting the lack of freedom they have in their lives.  It's interesting that despite representing revolutionary zeal, America's personal hatred and bitterness, admittedly caused by what she is fighting against, become twisted into a narrative of revenge where she is happy to exploit a man who loves her to help her in getting that revenge.  In the end Benny's fear of the power of the state trumped his love for America, now there's a metaphor, and he sold her out so he wouldn't lose his cushy lifestyle.  Oh sure, he maybe thought at the time it would be better if America was locked up rather than be party to mass murder and him along with it, but his act of contrition, while epically odd, shows he has no illusions about his motives anymore.  Everytime I see a scandal uncovered in the USA, like the NSA spying scandal that people didn't seem to care about, I think of this storyline.  While it is a criticism of the direction our America is going which resonates more now than when it was first published in 1991, it is also a tribute to the ideals that America was born out of, and how you can't keep taking those things for granted. A downbeat story that works on a number of levels, America is well worth checking out if you are new to the Dredd universe and want an encapsulation of the world he strides through, even though you may have a hard time reading stories where he is the hero afterwards.

Megacity Undercover 2: Living The Low Life (Judge Dredd Megazine #271-274, 2000AD #1624-1631, 2000AD 2010 Special, 2000AD #1700-1709)

"A mad city sometimes needs a mad Judge" - Thora via Dirty Frank's Journal.

Alert readers might notice that I never did volume one of Megacity Undercover.  There is a reason I have jumped to the second volume and that reason is "Dirty Frank".  The Megacity Undercover stories are about the undercover "Wally Squad" of Judges who operate in the Low Life the most deprived and crime ridden parts of Megacity One, written by Rob Williams and drawn by a variety of artists.  The first book started with a Wally Squad character called Zero stealing a large quantity of cash and escaping from his job and the clutches of the Judges.  Then the rest of the strips concentrated on the adventures of female Wally Squader Aimee Nixon, the stories although decent, were nothing special just fairly run-of-the-mill gritty cop drama.  Then one of the other Judges in the squad, Dirty Frank, drawn to look like Alan Moore and always referring to himself in the third person started stealing some of the lime-light.  And with the second volume, we get three arcs, one about Aimee, a character who I find somewhat... boring.  And two fantastic ones featuring Dirty Frank which I shall look at in more detail, plus a festive one-off.  The Dirty Frank stories also have the advantage of being drawn by D'Isreali, an utterly fantastic artist who has a very distinct style well suited to black and white artwork and adds much to the enjoyment of the escapades of the disreputable Mr. Frank.

 In Aimee's story - WAR WITHOUT BORDERS - she uncovers a plot to smuggle "Sov" citizens (Russians) into Megacity One in an operation disguised as a pro-democracy union one.  She angst a lot about her existence in the Low Life and accidentally compromises herself so she can't tell the other Judges about the Sov angle.  But really this is Dirty Frank's book, so lets begin with his first arc collected in this volume.

CREATION - The story begins with a Judge with a stomach wound crawling through a snowy landscape.  He ends up lying on his back looking at a glowing snowflake on his glove.  Then the action returns to what I assume is the present and Dirty Frank, the tramp like Wally Squad member is talking to a child and telling him to be wary of him.  The child wants to know who he is:

Child: "Judge Dredd!"

Dirty Frank: "No".

Child: "Chief Judge Hershey!"

Dirty Frank: "No"

Child: "Robo-Wing, night glider of awesome!"

Dirty Frank: "You just made him up."

Introducing Dirty Frank

 The childs mother calls the kid away, and Thora - the head of the Wally Squad - arrives with a thuggish looking fellow called Cameron.  He's Dirty Frank's replacement.

Thora: "There's only so much crazy the badge can take.  It's over."

Back at Wally Squad HQ they discuss a new drug called "Creation" which allows people to imagine they are God's of their own private universe.  Frank wants to know if he should infiltrate the Creation network.  Thora says there has been some discussion about keeping the drug legal as it's sedating the populous of the Low Life. So for now he and Cameron are to do some street digging.

Aimee Nixon turns up to see Frank off on his last case.  Frank calls her the best Wally Squad Judge he has ever worked with and he and Cameron leave.

Dirty Frank: "Thankyou for coming Aimee.  Now Dirty Frank and his replacement Bertrand Russell here must away."

Cameron: "Nice ass."

Later we are privy to Dirty Frank's journal where he notes Cameron is at least useful for physical intimidation.  They chase after a Creation dealer which leaves Dirty Frank out of breath and seriously pondering if this is over for him.  Cameron has caught the man and they ask him what he knows about Creation.

The action cuts to two men admiring a billboard advertising household products with a biblical theme.  One man says he did good right?  Pushing through all the permits.  The other person says he can tell the "Big Man" himself and a person who looks like a demon shows up.

This won't end well...

We are then introduced to Thadeus Manning III a fussy little man in a bowler hat who works for the planning permission bureau and is investigating why permits were allotted that gave one company a monopoly over one city sector.  He discovers the man who pushed the permits through hanged in his own home.

The action then moves back to Dirty Frank and Cameron.  Cameron says Dirty Frank gives him a headache "everytime you open your crazy mouth".

Dirty Frank: "That implies brain function at least."

Cameron points a gun at him and tells him to stop talking.  He wants to know if Dirty Frank even carries a weapon.  Dirty Frank doesn't.  He then tells Frank that they're supposed to be able to go back into uniform tommorrow if needed.

Cameron has some harsh words.

Cameron: "Do you honestly think you could do that Frank?"

He than says Dirty Frank is crazy and he's going to hit some drug dealers.  He busts in on a bunch of people nodding out on Creation.  Suddenly Cameron sees a cherub floating in front of him.  He freezes up and leaves the scene.  Dirty Frank meanwhile ponders the Biblical billboard outside.

Later he and Cameron get caught in a rain of frongs, localised to the Low Life. They then chase a drug dealer who escapes via boat, but then a huge whale appears and swallows him up.  Cameron freaks out and says it's somehow Dirty Frank's fault.

Cameron: "You're a drokking disease!  You're infecting things!  You're turning me crazy!  You make everything around you crazy!"

Dirty Frank has a small flashback to being the Judge with the stomach wound and the snowflake on his palm.  Then he and Cameron escape the whale.

Not an everyday occurance in MC1

We then see a motley collection of villains and a man with his back to the reader who says they've all had a glimpse of what's going on out on the streets.  The demon man says "It's time to turn up the heat."

Meanwhile Dirty Frank and Cameron are hit by a huge tidal wave racing through the Low Life.  before they can get into real trouble, the fall out of the water into the bit where the waters have parted.  Dirty Frank's case notes wonder who is to profit from all this chaos?

Various Biblical scenes are occuring in the Low Life.  Joseph's are singing and burning bushes are giving out celebrity gossip. Thora has gathered the Wally Squad to find out how they can "turn off the crazy".  Then her finger creates a powerful energy projectile and unable to control it she blows a hole in Wally Squad HQ and everyone gets separated.

A serendipidous meeting.

Dirty Frank and a catatonic Cameron are floating on a makeshift raft and discover Thaddeus holding onto a spire.  He joins them on the raft and yells about the billboard monopoly.  Back with the demon-man.  He says all the villains have paid half a million cred each to take advantage of the choas and plunder the Low Life.

Dirty Frank reaches one of the billboards, he smashes it and as the billboard flickers off, the water ceases to exist and Dirty Frank, Cameron and Thaddeus go plummeting towards the ground.  The billboard flickers back on long enough to create more water to slow their descent so when it finally breaks for good they hit the ground not too hard.  They are all still briefly knocked out.

Dirty Frank remembers the snowflake on his palm again.  Then as he recovers, he asks how Thaddeus has been able to keep his sanity in the face of the chaos.

Thaddeus: "This city.  She sustains and tethers me.  Even in what appears to be her most disorderly, most hopeless state, I see order."

Dirty Frank sees a huge snowflake in the air and says he knows what Thaddeus means.  Dirty Frank punches Cameron a couple of times to bring him round, then tells him to go with Thaddeus to disable all the billboards.  Cameron apologises to Dirty Frank:

Cameron: "Frank, I'm sorry I lost it there for a while.  This type of stuff... it's not me.  Maybe, maybe this shouldn't be your last case after all."

Dirty Frank: "Maybe.  We shall see."

The demon-man and the assorted villains are cuasing mayhem.  The demon-man says the "Big Man" has shown them the future.  Dirty Frank arrives alone and says he's going to put a stop to it.  He is mocked by everyone, but ploughs on asking why the Big Man has targetted the Low Life.  The demon-man says he has "vested interests" in the area.  Dirty Frank then tells the criminals to do what they must, he's "just an unwanted redundant man on his final job". The criminal's all shoot at him and he blocks their shots with his hand saying "ah it works".  Then he turns into a shining, winged hero and starts to fight the demon-man.

Take that demon-man!

Dirty Frank says that it took a needlessly ambiguous flashback and a blow to the head to realise the billboards were projectin nano-technology that reacts to the Creation drug.  They put it in the water supply to infect everyone and the criminals got the antidote and access to a crime jamboree.

As they fight, Dirty Frank says "where there are nightmares, there are also dreams and the power of belief."  When the demon-man demands to know how he is doing this Dirty Frank says he "sees order where others see chaos."  He smashes a fist through the demon-man then turns his attention to the other criminals.  Unfortunately the billboard effects wear off and he is back to normal.

The villains all point guns at him, but then get blasted into little bits by Cameron who has arrived on the scene with a massive gun.

Cameron: "Guess everyone has their own roles in this world, huh, Frank?"

A happy end for Frank.

And with all the billboards turned off and things back to normal it's decided to let Dirty Frank stay on as a Judge.  The story ends with a flashback to Frank in the snow being rescued, imagining he is on a beach somewhere.  Dirty Frank muses that he is not mad:

Dirty Frank: "Dirty Frank is just more.. imaginative than most, that's all.  And sometimes that's just enough to save the day."

And so ends the first Dirty Frank arc.  There is a one-shot that follows called JIVE TURKEY in which the dreadfully hungover members of the Wally Squad meet on Boxing Day and discover Dirty FRank isn't there.  He's infiltrated a criminal organisation of fatties and is presented with a huge turkey he must participate in eating to keep his cover.  The rest of the Wally Squad go to rescue him, but find him merrily eating the turkey even though the rest of the criminals have shot each other and Dirty Frank has arrested the ring leader.  There is a lot of spewing.  This is a nice bit of fun because the next Dirty Frank arc, Hostile Takeover is very dark and serious indeed.

HOSTILE TAKEOVER - The story begins with a Japanese geisha looking woman staring out of a top floor office window.  A man comes over to her and says "Nixon, he is ready for you now".  Then the action moves to Dirty Frank who has supplied a giant robot in ladies clothes for a bank robbery plan.  "Cross dressing Trev" is defended by Frank for his gender expression and the gang leader shrugs and says as long as it gets the job done.

Dirty Frank: "You are a man of honour and rare wisdowm, crazed gang leader Jay."

Cross Dressing Trev in action.

He and Jay storm a bank on top of Trev and break in through the ceiling.  With corrupt Judge Stewart letting them be.  Inside the bank Frank asks if he has done enough to meet the Big Man.  Jay says he'll get to meet him soon.  Dirty Frank makes a note that this brings him closer to his overall goal of taking the Big Man down...

We then jump forwards thirteen days.  Dirty Frank meets with his Wally Squad boss Thora.

Thora: "Have you decided?"

Dirty Frank: "Dirty Frank has.  It's a no".

Thora: "I'm really sorry about that."

She pulls a gun but gets shot dead by a sniper bullet.  "So am I" says Frank to himself.

Back in the present a horder of samurai burst into a Low Life casino and masscare everyone then rob the place.  "The Big Man is gonna be pissed" when news of this is bought to him by corrupt Judge Stewart.  An angry Dirty Frank is there, describing in his notes the actions of Stewart as "a betrayal of the badge."  Jay goes to meet the Big Man alone, leaving Frank still desperate to meet him, hiself.

Aimee Nixon.

Aimee Nixon shows up on her motorbike and offers Frank a life.  She says the Big Man is turning into Dirty FRank's White Whale.  Suddenly a man steps out in front of them and holds out a katana.  It severs Aimee's good arm and she crashes the bike.  Samurai's appear and start to beat Dirty Frank. Aimee saves him from a killing blow and says "I'll help you.  A show of goodwill, please."  Dirty Frank is allowed to live although they knock him out.

When he comes too, he is surrounded by Judges and on a medical trolly.  He jumps off and rushes over to corrupt Judge Stewart and attacks him, telling him to tell him where they took Aimee.  But Stewart doesn't know.  Dirty Frank reveals his corruption and Stewart is arrested.  Stewart is taken to a place where Cameron can work him over.  Stewart sneers, saying the bruises will show and torture is illegal for Judges.  But they are going to beat him, put him in a turbo-heal tube, take him out rinse and repeat. 

Cameron has his uses.

Outside the room, Thora, Eric (a man stuck in the body of a toddler, long story) and Frank discuss this new faction making a play for the Big Man's turf.  Eric wonders why they've bothered coming all the way from Japan, Frank says the Big Man makes serious money from the Low Life.

Dirty Frank: "And where there is money.  There is the desire to take money.  Violently."

The story then moves to some scumbag rich men who are sniping random Low Lifers with tranq bullets.  A samurai appears and says they'll allow them to do it with real bullets at one million creds per shot.

Samurai: "The Big Man no longer runs this trip.  The Big Man no longer runs the Low Life.  There is New Management".

Aimee Nixon is strapped to a gurney and asks to make a phonecall.  She calls Thora and says one word "Akeldama".  Thora grimly says "Got it" just as Stewart breaks from his torture.

A full on gang war erupts in the Low Life.  Jay's gang is wiped out, only Jay survives.  He comes to Dirty Frank hoping for some help.  Dirty Frank says the best way to win this gang war is to use the Big Man's location to flush them out and into a trap.  Judge Stewart will back them up with a big gun.

Corrupt Judge Stewart.

Later Dirty Frank meets Thora in a bar, and she says the Judges are springing the trap now.  Thora says whoever has Aimee is cutting a deal with her.  Dirty Frank says the actions of her abductors aren't those of friends.

Thora: "No friends out here Frank...you know that.  Only angles."

Dirty Frank then goes to where the trap will be sprung.  Jay heads up the steps to the Big Man's house but gets decapitated.  The samurai and the Judges get into a fire-fight and in the confusion Dirty Frank goes into the Big Man's house, only to fin he hasn't been there for over three days.

Dirty Frank witnesses Thora blowing the head off one of the Samurai, who says to her before she does it that "he wil kill her for this."  Two days later, Eric and Cameron are trailing Dirty Frank and a bored Eric starts talking about killing himself and Cameron.  Dirty Frank notes that Stewart is still in the field thanks to Thora and he can't trust her now as he saw her commit murder.  He then spots Stewart speaking on a non-Judge comm device (a cellphone).  Dirty Frank just doesn't know who to trust anymore.

Not the most comforting conversation ever.

A gang of Japanese business on a plane are welcomes to Megacity One by a posse of Judges with heavy weaponry.  Dirty Frank witnesses this and is shot at by one of the Judges.  He falls through a hatch and Stewart looks down on him saying he'd be dead of not for the fact "she" wants to make him an offer.

There is a quick cut to Cameron leaving Eric's dead body in the car they were in.  The corrupt Judges take Dirty Frank to the top of a tall building.  Thora appears and sends the Judges away.  Dirty Frank ask if they work for her now.  She recuited Stewart after the torture session and now she wants Frank to join them.

Thora says they are just trying to keep the yakuza (Japanese mafia) out of the Low Life - "protecting what's ours".  Dirty Frank wants to know why they don't just arrest them.  Thora says that's "a little old fashioned."  She gives him several days to think things over.  As she leaves Dirty Frank asks if she knows where Aimee is.  She doesn't.

Thora pleads with Frank to join her renegade Judges.

Dirty Frank then discovers Eric's body and confronts Cameron about it.  After a scuffle which takes out some more samurai's, Cameron says Eric was going to kill him on Thora's orders and he acted in self defence.  With him and Cameron the only non-corrupt members of the Wally Squad, they wonder what to do next.  We then see that it was Cameron who sniped Thora in the flash forward.  He deals with the Judges bar Stewart who he shoots to disarm.  Dirty Frank looms over Stewart who also gets his finger sniped off to show no messing about, and asks him to tell him about the Big Man.

The action cuts to the Judges warring in the streets with the samurai and their giant robots.  Suddenly Frank appears with the huge Cross Dressing Trev and saves some Judges lives by crushing their opponents.  Then the shooting stops.

Trev says the day!

Dirty Frank is interviewed over the events by some Senior Judges.  The yakuza violence has stopped because they have what they want, they have the Low Life.  The yakuza fought the Bog Man who is probably dead now, who ran organised crime in the Low Life and enforced it with a large scale force of corrupt Judges defending his interests.  "Who was the Big Man" one of the senior Judges asks.  Dirty Frank does not know.

Two weeks later, Dirty Frank is neatly trimmed and back in uniform.  The Wally Squad's been put on hold for now and Frank is to behave like a normal Judge.

Dirty Frank: "Limitations and rigid definitions are his.  Neutered...Defeated."

He travels to a secret location where Stewart is strung up and being beaten by Cameron.  He admits Thora was taking orders from someone via cellphone. 

Some enhanced interrogation..

Frank finds the cellphone hidden in Thora's room at the sector house.  The memory has been wiped so he gets them from the cellphone company.  One number was registered to an penthouse rented by a Hondo company that doesn't exist.  He also found a recording on the phone:

Dirty Frank: "One word.  An instruction to warfare.  To protect the Low Life.  Akeldama.  Translation from Aramaic:  Field of Blood.  A field in Jeruselem bought with the money Judas earned by betraying Jesus.  And where he is said to have hanged himself.  No friends, just angles.  Aimee... where are you?"

A neat and tidy Frank looks way wrong.

And that brings "Hostile Takeover" to an end.  A real twisty-turny, urban thriller in which Dirty Frank is forced into a far more serious role than normal and proves well up to the challenge with his street honed instincts doggedly following the various trails being thrown up in front of him.  It's a shame the story ends on the downer of him being forced back into uniform, how long will he survive the restrictions of the normal Judges life?  I know there has been a further story in this series, so I am keeping an eye out for it being collected because I love Dirty Frank and want things to work out well for him.  His day in the limelight during the "Creation" storyline works on the wonderful conceit that one day trapped in the chaos of a snowy landscape, Frank found order in it through a snowflake and that was how he was able to transform himself into a superhero using his ability to discern order out of the chaos the drug and billboards were conjuring up.  It goes without saying D'Israeli's artwork is superb and Rob William's writes a fine example of the future police prodedural.  Come on Rebellion, release the next Megacity Undercover/Low Life book, I need to know what happens since you left us trade-waiters hanging!