Comic Review: Judge Dredd Lawman of the Future Issue 18

This is a rough cover. It wasn’t until after completing the issue that I realized what I was looking at. Turns out it is Judge Dredd hiding from an Alien. Urgh. I hope the artwork for the story is better. Inside the comic, we have three tales: Fast Living - A story embracing the fast lanes of Mega-City One, Cursed Earth - Part two of the epic monster hunt; and First Strike - the all-new two-part adventure.

We kick it off with Cursed Earth (Part Two) - With the monster discovered, it is up to our Judges to kill the mother Gila and help the miners escape. During the adventures, it is found that the Head Miner, Bronson, knew the Gila was there, and due to his actions caused this incident to happen. Of course, Judge Dredd is unimpressed and soon arrests Bronson for his crimes. It's a great way to end the Monster Hunt comic, and I enjoyed the pace of this arc.

The usual filler follows this story: some chocolate adverts and a double-sided Judge Dredd poster in a similar format to the earlier Mean Machine. It has nothing to write home about.

The following tale is the cover piece, which finally helped me realize what I was looking at. First Strike - Has us travelling to space and visiting the Valhalla Space Station, designed to protect Earth’s space lanes. Unfortunately for the Justice Department team onboard, they have come under attack by an unknown alien species who seem able to morph spaces. With the Justice Department team overwhelmed and the self-destruct set, the alien continues onto its true destination - Earth. Fearing a first strike by alien forces, the Council of Five task Judge Dredd with the exotic hunt and hope they can stop what is to come—a great start to the story and a much better showing than I expected. Also, the SJS head judge is so badass.

We end the issue with Fast Living. A lovely one-shot story dealing with the lives and crimes of the citizens who spend their lives living on the fast Mega-ways of Mega-City 1. We get to experience their lifestyle, schools, shopping and crime. This seems to be a retelling of a 2000 AD story arc I remember, and it does a great job of showing us Mega-City life. I would love more of this type of story.

With that tale complete, we have reached the end of the issue. For me, Cursed Earth is the stand-out tale, but overall, this was a very strong issue. I am surprised this series of comics didn’t last longer, and I can image that with a stronger leadership and vision, it could have grown in strength. It's weird to think we have six issues left.