Comic Review // Judge Dredd Complete Case Files 04 (Part 1) - The Judge Child Saga
Welcome to Judge Dredd Complete Case Files 04 (Part 1), aka The Judge Child Saga. If you haven't read the others leading to this one, be sure to click on the comic review page above and have a nosey around.
The timeline setting for this book is the years 2102 to 2103 and represents the works of Progs 156 to 207. So, with no more time to waste, let’s jump the Drokk in!
Fluff
"Judge Dredd – the future lawman with the powers of judge, jury and executioner at his disposal – faces some of his most challenging cases yet in this fourth volume of his earliest adventures. From the all-time classic Judge Child saga to the first appearance of legendary perp Chopper in Un-American Graffiti, this collection is heaving with thrills and action-packed entertainment!"
Pages: 387
ISBN: 1907992537
Writers: Alan Grant, John Wagner and Kelvin Gosnell.
Artists: Brett Ewins, Brian Bolland, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon, Ron Smith and Steve Dillon.
The Strips
The first section of the book is about the Judge Child Saga and covers Pages 7 to 180!
Story: The Judge Child (Part 1)- Dredd is set the task by Chief Judge Griffen to locate Owen Krysler, aka the Judge Child. According to the dying visions of Psi-Judge Fey, this child would save Mega-City One in the Year 2120.
Highlight: This seems like an auspicious start to this series. We'd better let it all be set in the Cursed Earth!
Story: The Judge Child (Part 2)- Dredd visits the Neutron Flats, home to a large slave market. Can he hope to find the Krysler Child here? At this time, we are introduced to the Brotherhood of Trash and their leader, Faro, a religious cult built around the discovery of 21st-century junk.
Highlight: Judge Dredd agrees to be sold as a slave in order to gain access to the trash mines of Faro. Along with how Faro has taken on the ideals of the ancient Egyptians and has built pyramids in Memphis!
Story: Judge Child (Part 3)—Judge Dredd has arrived in Memphis, home to the Brotherhood of Trash. Dredd watches a sphinx statue being built in honour of Faro, the Garbage King. The Bird Boy has told Faro that he will die tonight and has prepared a send-off worthy of the Gods of Old. Judge Dredd is happy to hear he has finally found Judge Child.
Highlight: Faro himself. Hailing from Texas City, Faro discovered the junk mines and has become filthy rich. But with the great wealth has come a pure madness. I love this dude!
Story: Judge Child (Part 4)- With Judge Dredd now captured and the Judge Child unconscious, the Faro funeral can begin. But as soon as Faro enters the Pyramid, all hell breaks loose amongst the slaves. Dredd capitalizes on the moment and escapes to hunt down Faro and the Bird Boy. After a showdown with Faro and the Brotherhood of Trash, Dredd discovers he is too late to save the boy! Leaving the tomb with the boy in hand, a rainstorm starts overhead. As the rain pours down, the marking on the boy’s head disappears. Where is the Judge Child?
Highlight: The Brotherhood of Trash's Dancing Dervishes, a band that plays trash instruments beyond belief.
Story: Judge Child (Part 5)- Dredd, still on the trail of Judge Child, has arrived at Texas City. We also find out about Pa Angel and the Angel Gang (eek!!), along with the fact that Texas City Judges are rounding up all mutants and shipping them out of the city. After checking the city's database, Dredd discovers a new Pre-Cog working at Mutie Land and decides to visit it.
Highlight: Mutieland- a theme park where Norms could pit themselves against Cursed Earth Mutants, but it also has freakshows, pre-cogs, animals etc..a sci-fi version of the old traveling circus.
Highlight: The Angel Gang: The first outing of the Angel Gang consisting of Pa, Link, Mean and Junior. These guys will soon form the main villains of the piece. Also, Mean will go on to become a fan-favourite villain (expect a character fact file post soon).
Story: Judge Child (Part 6)- As Dredd confronts Brother Death at the location of Judge Child, he is ambushed by a mutant monster unleashed by the Angel Gang. Having to defend himself from two threats, Dredd misses his chance to capture the boy, and the Angel gang escapes into Texas City. Later that day, Dredd is informed they have sold a spaceship and left the planet! The tale is heading to space!
Highlight: The Thing from the Pit—Found in the Cursed Earth Swamps; this creature has one eye, small bird-like legs, a tiny claw arm, and one massive human arm. It is truly terrible and more than a match for Dredd. I would like to attempt to build this creature.
Story: Judge Child (Part 7)—The adventure is moving into space, which was only previously dealt with during the Luna tale. It will be great to see what the galaxy has in store. Before we even leave the solar system, we get our first adventure: the missing mining rig Echo Bravo 4. Dredd and Hershey go to investigate and discover the Rig has become fully conscious and has killed the crew out of fear of being upgraded.
Highlight: The crew gets introduced to four new Judges: Larter the pilot, Lopez Engineer, Hershey Street Judge and Winslow Accounts. Instantly Dredd throws Winslow out off Justice One as he can't stand accountants. Dredd also takes an instant dislike to Lopez because he has a mustache (haha).
Story: Judge Child (Part 8) // An Alien Tale—This story introduces us to a race known as Om from the planet Ombra. Buggo is the tale's hero, and it's a love story. Dredd appears in the last few panels and watches Buggo celebrate.
Highlight: This seemed more of a filler piece for the writers to catch up on the tale. It was funny enough and very 2000 AD.
Story: Judge Child (Part 9) // Body Brokers- The Judges have arrived at Lesser Lingo, a world that uses Bio-Chipping to prolong life for the wealthy. Having lost the trail, Dredd strikes up a deal with the locals; in exchange for finding their President, they will tell Dredd the location of Oracle Spice- a drug that, when taken, will give you essential information.
Highlight: Alien Constabulary—An alien race forced into a form of slave labour, the Alien Constabulary does most of the work on the planet, including the police force. If they work in the city, they willingly amputate their wings, while the Wild Ones keep theirs and live outside the city.
Story: Judge Child (Part 10) // Body Brokers 2- Dredd is hunting down the Aliens who stole the president's bio-chip. Heading out into the wilds, Dredd comes face to face with the warrior tribes and learns about the blight of this species.
Highlight: 49- I love the Alien Constable’s British bobby-inspired outfit.
Story: Judge Child (Part 11)- Justice One has entered the Hadean System and has come across a planet that shouldn't exist. As they move closer to investigate, the planet suddenly opens up, and tendrils come out to attempt to entrap the ship! Justice One is swallowed whole and has become the newest lunch offering for this creature.
Highlight: The weird hungry planet like the idea of a lifeform that looks like a planet, tempting explorers before eating them. It was kind of like a Venus flytrap.
Story: Judge Child (Part 12) // Battleground- Dredd and his continue searching for the Oracle Spice, hoping its powers will lead them to Judge Child. Still in the Hadean System, the team has encountered a world called Argos. A world inhabited by twelve races, all super aggressive!
Highlight: The races on Argos seem to organize televised War Games. Players randomly select an equipment option and a battlefield and then fight a battle as if it were a sport.
Story: Judge Child (Part 13) // Battleground 2- Dredd and Hershey are stuck in the middle of strange Alien games. As the death toll rises, Dredd decides to take matters into his own hands in hopes of ending this death game.
Highlight: The program hosts a pair of frog creatures, all with names like Dik and Doc. They are wearing cheesy 1940s news reporter outfits.
Story: Judge Child (Part 14) // Battleground 3- Dredd and Hershey have claimed one of the Alien flags. Now, they have to survive to claim the other. This tale arc has been dragged out one part too many. Honestly, I'm glad to see it end, so let us move on.
Story: Judge Child (Part 15) // Necromancer- Having finally secured the whereabouts of the Oracle Spice, the team head for the Planet Necros. A planet locked in an age of darkness and ruled over by Murd. The planet seems locked in a medieval era, with castles and creepy monsters controlling the human population.
Highlight: Murd the Oppressor- Necromancer of Necros- Lord of Darkness- keeper of the sacred toad. A wide-eyed troglodyte with a powerful voodoo magic about him/her/them.
Story: Judge Child (Part 16) // Sagbelly- Murd has captured Dredd and discovers some of the secrets of Oracle Spice. Mainly, it comes from a giant wart on a massive toad called Sagbelly. Soon, Dredd is fighting for his life as Murd attempts to feed Dredd to Sagbelly.
Highlight: Sagbelly- A massive toad that eats human flesh, has a crazy long lifespan (well, until it meets Dredd) and produces Oracle spice. What is the writer tripping out on?
Story: Judge Child (Part 17) // Jigsaw Man- With the oracle spice secured, Dredd forces Lopez to take a sample of the drug. Whilst under the influence, Lopez's visions lead the team to the planet AB in the Warp System. Here, Dredd discovers a human male was dumped on the planet and was waiting for deportation when he developed a wasting illness called the Jigsaw Disease.
Highlight: The deportation building known as The Foot Hospital is shaped like a foot. In fact, all the architecture of the world is to be admired.
Story: Judge Child (Part 18) // Jigsaw Man 2 - Dredd is chasing down Prosser, aka the Jigsaw Man. In the earlier stripped, Prosser robbed the alien doctor of some pills that he believed would cure him. Unfortunately for Prosser, they are, in fact, mercy pills and speed the process up. Dredd has only one hour to hunt down Prosser before the final piece is gone!
Highlight: More of sadlight? Judge Lopez finally succumbing to the Oracle Spice :( But at least Dredd knows where the Judge Child finally is, Xanadu!
Story: Judge Child (Part 19) // Salesman—As Justice One heads for Xanadu, they pick up a distress call and recover an alien named Rinus Limpopop Quintz, a collector of rarities. What could go wrong?
Highlight: Dredd, Hershey, and Larter are being shrunk down to the size of miniatures. I'm excited to see where it all goes.
Story: Judge Child (Part 20) // Salesman 2- Dredd, Hershey and Larter have all shrunk in size. We are then treated to a B-Movie adventure as they struggle to regain height.
Highlight: The creepy Justice Robots. They creep me out!
Story: Judge Child (Part 21)- Finally, the return of the Angel Gang. I haven't seen these guys since part 6, in 2000 AD terms, fifteen weeks ago! But what a comeback now on Xanadu! The Angel Gang are making themselves at home, crashing their spaceship and taking over as the sheriff in a local town. Dredd is also on Xanadu and seems to be catching up with them.
Highlight: Mean Machine Angel- I love this dude. In this strip, he headbutts and destroys not only a car but also a building. Pure mania!
Story: Judge Child (Part 22) // Blind Hate! - Dredd is on Xanadu attempting to get info on the whereabouts of the Angel Gang. Unfortunately, the locals aren't being too helpful. Whereas elsewhere, the Angel Gang is ruling Drybone with an iron fist, first becoming sheriffs and now the town’s justice system.
Highlight: The introduction of Old Joe Blind and his blind horse. Their backstory is unfortunate, but finally, Dredd is chasing the Angel Gang down!
Story: Judge Child (Part 23) // Fallen Angels! With Old Joe Blind leading him, Dredd has finally caught up with Mean Machine and Link Angel. We finally get the gunfight we are waiting for! During the chaotic fight, Mean gets his dial stuck on 4.5 and goes on a headbutting rampage that results in the death of Link Angel and Mean as he headbutts a gas station!!
Highlight: Dredd, quick on the draw, blows Mean's arm off! Lucky for Mean, it was his real arm, not a metal one.
Story: Judge Child (Part 24) // Grunwald's Kingdom- Grunwald is a Kingdom for Fugitive Robots and not a great place to be a human. Pa, Junior and the Angel child are racing towards their goal of reaching the Grunwalder himself, but with Dredd close behind, can the Angels reach their goal?
Highlight: All the droids, first up the mosquito droids that act as watchdogs and then the hairy droids who implant their victim’s hair onto their bodies. Those are such creepy and cool ideas.
Story: Judge Child (Part 25) // Hell's Angel - The Grunwalder is indirectly aiding Dredd in his hunt for the surviving members of the Angel Gang. Knowing Dredd was gaining on them too quickly, Pa sends his last son to set up an ambush. Laying in wait, Junior kills poor Old Joe Blind and then attempts to lead Dredd into another trap. Sadly for Junior, Dredd ambushes him, injuring the crazy Angel member.
Highlight: Dredd lifts Junior above his head and sentences the crazy villain to death before throwing him into a river of lava. Justice Served.
Story: Judge Child (Part 26) // Judgement on Fire Mountain - We've made it finally, with the strip doing a recap of the last scenes as Dredd launches Junior into the Lava stream below. Seeing his final boy die, Pa Angel rages and charges at Dredd. But before Dredd can do anything, the angel child takes his revenge and plunges Pa into a lava pool, as the child laughs maniacally.
Dredd has finally reached his goal. As he stands in front of the Judge Child, he passes his Judgment: "The Boy is Evil; he could only bring disaster upon us!" With that, he leaves a bitter Judge Child with the Grunwalder and returns a disappointed team to Mega City 1.
Highlight: Dramatic finale to this saga. I Wish Pa had taken a bit longer to finish off.
Overview
So here ends the Judge Child Saga, which spans 173 pages and 26 weeks in 2000 AD! It is truly an epic tale. For myself, the standout parts of the saga were Texas City, The Angel Gang, The Necromancer of Necros, The Salesman, and The Jigsaw Man. The tale's disappointments include the deaths of every Angel Gang member and the Judge Child himself.
The Judge Child being Evil was of no surprise, being so heavily hinted at throughout the last third of the story arc, and when Judge Dredd calls to leave him with the Grunwalder, you are left wondering, 'Why do we bother reading all this?'. I would have loved Dredd to chase the Angel Gang across the galaxy and give them a showdown worthy of the villains they are. Also, the Angel Gang deserved more page time; I wanted to see them get up to more crazy stuff and visit some of these planets. For example, I could imagine them having a fantastic time on the War Planet.
Overall, though this was a great piece, we experienced life outside of Mega City 1, returning to the Cursed Earth, visiting a different city and then seven different planets. The cast of characters in this tale alone was staggering and has inspired my modelling and painting for the foreseeable future. It also left me wondering what Dredd has against mustaches (RIP Judge Lopez). But ultimately, it has left me wanting to be back on the streets of Mega City 1, which will be covered in part 2 of this review.
