review by Joe Vaz

PB 100 pages
Available in print from: Diamond (OCT141616) and UK newsagents
Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app

There’s a reason why 2000AD is still the greatest comic around, three decades after it’s launch. There are many reasons, actually, great characters, astounding art, riveting story lines and never-ending weekly thrills. But now in Prog 2015, available Wednesday 17th December, 2000AD is bringing back the Dark Judges, Judge Dredd’s greatest foes.

It’s been two years in the making and has become one of the most hotly anticipated 2000 AD series ever – and now Dark Justice is coming! The Dark Judges – return in a brand new epic story beginning in the bumper (100-page) Christmas edition of the legendary British comic book, 2000 AD.

Written by Dredd’s co-creator John Wagner (A History of Violence) and featuring exquisite fully-painted artwork from Greg Staples, Dark Justice sees Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson again have to face the quartet of undead alien superfiends from a twisted dimension where life itself was declared a crime – Judge Death, Judge Fear, Judge Fire, and Judge Mortis!
While Wagner returns the Dark Judges to their roots in SF horror, Staples has spent two years painstakingly hand-painting this 11-part story and it is, without question, some of the greatest work of his career.

Judge Death has been missing for years and Fear, Fire and Mortis’s brief freedom from confinement during the anarchy of The Day of Chaos was brought to an end by serial killer PJ Maybe, who ignominiously trapped them in three wine bottles. Now, as thousands of rich emigrants board a luxury spaceship to seek a better life elsewhere, they may end up with a deadly cargo none of them anticipated!

This first part simply sets the stage, but it is clear to see the calibre of art and story-telling that will follow in the next issues.

The Dark Judges have been Dredd’s most popular nemeses since they were created by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Brian Bolland – terrifying and unkillable mass murderers wearing freakish mockeries of Judge uniforms who have returned again and again to slaughter their way through Mega-City One, but always finding themselves vanquished by Dredd and Anderson.

With 100 pages of brand new content, 2000 AD Prog 2015 features NINE new stories, including one brand new series and the return of some old favourites, from Pat Mills’ The Visible Man to the revival of Max Normal (“The Pinstripe Freak” from the world of Judge Dredd), to the political polemic of Mills’ Savage, and The Order, a brand new SF/fantasy adventure series from Kek-W and John Burns set in the 13th century.

Don’t miss out on your copy:
2000 AD webshop2000 AD iPad app

The full listing for 2000 AD Prog 2015:
Judge Dredd: Dark Justice by John Wagner & Greg Staples
Savage: Grinders by Pat Mills & Patrick Goddard
The Order by Kek-W & John Burns
Ulysses Sweet, Maniac For Hire: Psycho Therapist by Guy Adams & Paul Marshall
Max Normal: No Comics For Old Men by Guy Adams & Ben Willsher
Jaegir: Brothers in Arms by Gordon Rennie & Simon Coleby
The Visible Man: The Screams in the Walls by Pat Mills & David Hitchcock
Low Life: The Really Big Christmas Sleep by Rob Williams & D’Israeli
Judge Dredd: The Ghost of Christmas Presents by Michael Carroll & Karl Richardson

 


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