Comic Review // Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 05 (Part 1)
Welcome back for another epic review of Judge Dredd's Case Files. This time, we delve into number Five, which I believe to be one of the best. A bold, striking purple cover greets us from this 404-page tome. Spanning progs 208 till 270 (62 progs worths), it covers the Mob wars, the return of Judge Death and the Apocalypse war years of 2103-2104. I love this era of Judge Dredd as we see great artwork, stunning stories and the rise and fall of some great heroes and villains. I will break this book into separate sections, starting with the Mega Rackets. So, let us jump in.
Story: The Problem with Sonny Bono—In the future city of MC-1, housing is a real nightmare. To combat this, certain blocks become designated 'Problem Blocks', the idea being that all ex-criminals, rent dodgers, and troublemakers live there in an attempt to segregate them from 'normal' citizens. Sonny Bono Block is one such place, and soon, its citizens are in open revolt against MC-1 and Judge Dredd.
Highlight: The ending to this tale is quite comical and a classic Dredd answer to a problem.
Story: The Mega-Rackets Body Sharks- Body Sharking is a prevalent crime in MC-1. It is the legal dealings of the bodies of living humans. It is a crime so popular that it will affect one in four citizens! The story revolves around Ratner’s Rest Home for the Semi-Dead. On the outside, it looks like a cryogenics rest home, but inside, it is a front for Remington Raters Body Sharkers. Here, you can leave a loved one and take a significant loan on their body! If you don't pay, the loved one ends up dead or stripped of organs... Even criminals will come here to fund robberies or off-world transport. In this tale, we see how hard it is for the Judges to shut down these operations and how the main Kingpins are never caught.
Highlight: The whole idea of Body Sharking is genuinely an exciting crime. It shows how low people of MC-1 will sink to secure money and power.
Story: The Mega-Rackets Perp Runners- We continue the Mega-Racket theme this time with Perp Runners. Perp Runners are criminals who aid in the escape of other criminals off the world. To shut down one operation, Dredd undergoes facial surgery to look like escaped criminal Icepick Joe and hires a perp runner. Soon, things turn sour in the world for Dredd as the runners uncover and capture him. Once caught and chained, Dredd bears witness to the full extent of the ship crew’s crimes. The criminals, once aided by the perp runners, are, in turn, sold to alien slavers for a pretty profit! Then the perp runners fill up on Aliens wishing to visit Earth, who, unfortunately for them, never get there as they are dumped into the vacuum of space (an act called chump dumping). With the ship preparing for another Chump Dump, Dredd escapes and panics the aliens onboard. Using the confusion, Dredd can force the crew to surrender.
Highlight: Unable to prove Slik Ike Kolorado as the man in charge, Dredd informs him that the last batch of perps (the ones sold into slavery) is heading back to earth. Maybe the street Justice of MC-1 will get Slik.
Story: The Mega-Rackets Umpty Baggers- The illegal manufacture and sale of the super addictive Umpty candy. Judge Dredd believed he had solved the Umpty problem years ago after forcing its creator, Uncle Umpty, into a deep space exile. What he hadn't planned on was the Jong crime family raiding the spacecraft that carried Uncle Umpty. Now with the knowledge of how to produce the candy a massive black market business has evolved in MC-1, even some Judges have been lured into the crime!
Highlight: Even though the Jong family is gone, the recipe is still loose in MC-1, meaning this crime is here to stay.
Story: The Mega-Rackets Blitz Agencies- Basically Murders for hire. Once paid, they will stop at nothing to get the job done. Annoyingly for Dredd, no blitzer has ever been captured due to an explosive in the brain stem that acts as soon as the user knows they are captured!
Highlight: Once a contract is removed, the blitz agents keep coming. The victim in this tale chooses life in an ISO-Cube over the idea of constant assassination attempts.
Story: The Mega-Rackets Psykers- The mob can make anything or anyone into a business, including psykers. In the city of the future, some citizens are born with psychic abilities, be it able to read minds, predict the future, or, in this case, alter and manipulate a man’s mind. Having witnessed another death at the hands of a psyker, Dredd decides to apply some heat to the organization protecting the psyker. Soon Dredd has pissed off the mob enough that they permanently end their contract with the psyker in question.
Highlight: Synthetti Men that aid in the killing of Restaurateur Aldo Pollo.
Story: The Mega-Rackets Numbers Racket- A specialist fraud involving a company's computer code. Once the underworld accesses the coding, they can manipulate the company and bleed it dry of wealth. After the death of a numbers specialist due to an acid bath, Dredd is soon on the trail of Lumpy Lepke, one of the most significant number game mobsters in MC-1. Using subterfuge, Dredd is able to anger Lepke just enough to link him to the crime, and then all hell breaks loose.
Highlight: Dredd dropping from an overpass tunnel onto a moving mopad, classic badass Judging.
Story: The Mega-Rackets Stookie Glanders- Since the discovery in 2059 that the glands of a xeno known as a Stookie have been proven to delay aging, Stookie Glanders has been making big money. Made illegal in MC-1 as Stookies are an intelligent race, the gland farms have now moved into the Cursed Earth. Making the ability to shut them down all the more complex. After a routine search of a Cursed Earth trawler, a Stookie escapes, tattooed on him with the location of one such farm. Soon, Dredd will lead the charge to close the business for good.
Highlight: A pretty action-packed strip as we watch a squad of Judges tear through a bunch of perps working at the farm. Purely practical and brutal work!
Story: The Mega-Rackets Mob Wars—In MC-1, mob wars are rare. Most crime families have decided it is hard enough fighting Judges to fight each other, too. But after the Xeno race, Mophioso comes to town, and everything changes. The mobsters have to make a choice: work for the Mophioso or die! Of course, this doesn't go down well with some of the families, and soon, it is open warfare in the underworld as the Mophioso push to take control.
Highlight: Dredd uses the situation to clear out the mob. At any point, from when they first came, Dredd could have deported the Mophioso, but instead, he allowed them to fight the mob. This is a brutal and underhanded way to deal with the MC-1 mob problem.
And with that, the Mega-Racket tales come to an end. This was a grand opening to this book. The artwork was on point, and the tales, in my opinion, are the correct length at a couple of progs per piece. The standout stories for me are the Stookie Glanders, mainly due to the Emberton artwork, and the Perp Runners, showcasing the lengths criminals will go to to make money. I also enjoyed that Dredd has to rely on the underworld to solve many of the crime problems. We see Dredd manipulate the situation and then stand back, ready to clean up what is left. This opens up Dredd's character and shows off how far he is willing to go to protect the law and his city.
Be sure to check back soon, as the next installment involves the sinister Judge Death and the return of Judge Anderson!
