Comic Review: Judge Dredd Anderson PSI Division

Continuing my misadventures with IDW's Anderson Psi-Division. 101 pages of Judge Anderson written for a North American market. I hope they don’t mess it up.

The cover is already annoying with the artist’s version of Judge Anderson’s uniform partly unzipped and with standard fingers against the skull in a psychic pose (it turns out there are more similar pieces with the zip getting lower and lower). I'm bored of that weak-ass way of selling this character to the masses. Judge Anderson is a kick-ass character in 2000 AD, yet they always try to make her a pin-up. Then we hit the actual tale “The King of the Six Sectors” and Anderson is drawn finally in a beautiful, professional way. Why didn't this artist get given the cover?

The King of Sector Six starts with Anderson's birth tale. Slightly different from the classic tellings as it follows the IDW universe rather than 2000 AD and has Anderson born during the Year One Tale, when Juves across the city became psychic. Heavily leaning into how she got her powers, jump forward 24 years, and Anderson is now a PSI Judge.

While she sleeps, she sees a vision of a local museum coming under attack and heads over to foil the crime. During the action, a mutant PSI uses their powers to knock out everyone and everything in the block (at the cost of their own life!? Weird choice). Only Anderson's unique powers can save her from the blast and she is left standing alone versus an armed gang of Robbers. Following a short gunfight (maybe a page and a half), most of the gang escapes, except one now dead perp. Using what little time is left, Anderson can probe their dying mind and realize something is up in the Alabama Morass.

Soon Anderson is headed to the Alabama Morass (a massive swamp corrupted during the atomic wars) via Texas City and has a new partner for a few pages a Texas City Judge called Degroot (kind of a fantastic character, but their role is small, so no point linger on it). During this section, we get crocodile gunfights and scorpion death traps before discovering a completely wiped-out mutant settlement. As the Judge searches, it seems all the settlers are dead, all save one mutant child called Rami. Through this child's memories, Anderson learns of the name Ashberry and of the five men responsible for the murders of the settlers and the robbery. With this information, we are soon zoomed back to Mega-City 1 and a quick cameo by Judge Dredd. We learn from Dredd that Ashberry was somehow involved with the 2080 Juve riots. The two cases are starting to link up, and we may get a team up. But then, out of the blue, weirdly, Dredd doesn't seem to care and disappears into the city, leaving Anderson to solve this on her own. Very weird to bring him in like that and then kick him out so abruptly.

In the next bit, we discover that Ashberry seems to be a ghost, a criminal boogieman. We follow Anderson as she starts shutting down operations in Ashberry's 6 territories, hoping to flush him out. This soon brings results, and Anderson is getting Ashberry's full attention with a full PSI hit squad after her. It is also revealed that Rami (the mutant child) is aiding Anderson from Texas City to help discover the whereabouts of his clansman (Poorly explained). Now that Ashberry is onto her and possibly supported by a corrupt Sector Judge, Anderson tracks Ashberthry's lair to Tomassi Industry, a considerable benefactor to Justice Central specializing in Weapons, Vehicles and Defence Solutions. No wonder this guy seems untouchable!

For the final chapter, we are then treated to a classic James Bond movie ending. The villain is revealed; the villain does not kill the hero for no reason; the villain then explains his plans, the villain is caught out by the hero escaping, and revenge is dealt out. The ending came way too quickly and way too obviously.

Overall, it lacks a story you should care about, and though the art was pretty, it is not enough to save the tale—a bit of a flop for me.

If you read this tale, let me know your thoughts below. Cheers for reading.