JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE CASE FILES: VOL. 2

Writer: John Wagner, Pat Mills, Chris Lowder 

Year: 1978-1979

Publisher: 2000AD

Pages: 320 (progs 61-115)

Volume 2 of Judge Dredd ups the scale of Dredds world by introducing readers to the first of what are known as “Dredd epics” months long storylines that usually have massive stakes. (yeah, this came before it was customary to write for the trade, but a lot more happens in this than in your average contemporary trade of New Avengers. This was big news back in the day)

Anyway, this book actually contains 2 epics, the first of which is named “The Cursed Earth” and is a fairly simple premise. The heretofore unseen Mega-City 2 is suffering the rage virus from 28 days later & goes insane. Dredd and a small band of judges are tasked with crossing continental America with the cure and face numerous challenges on what’s known as the cursed earth. He also brings a criminal with him, who gets the most character development throughout the storyline.

The terrain is described as being a lawless, radioactive ruin, but we never see any consequences of this. It is in fact heavily populated and seems based on the old west. My only complaint is that out of this 25 part story, 4 programs are not included for copyright reasons, with brief paragraphs explaining the plots.

Judge Dredds group come upon 2 warring factions that are based on McDonalds and Burger King in one two-part story and a group of genetically engineered 20^th century corporate mascots on the other. This is slightly irksome as one would imagine that these stories could be reprinted with altered art and dialogue & not really impact the story and as this is in black & white and each prog is quite short, the cost would be negligible.

Anyway, the second storyline (titled “The day the law died”) concerns the rise to power of a clearly insane chief judge, forcing Dredd to form a guerrilla movement against him. It’s fun to see Dredd operate from the wrong side of the law but the pacing of the storyline is rather slow, especially when compared to the lightning fast action of cursed earth.

The collection is rounded off with a few tid-bits and smaller stories.

The bottom line.

Another great collection topping the first in sheer scale and growing character development. The missing programs are very annoying (especially when the series is titles “the complete case files” but ultimately, forgivable. The grander storylines and larger cast are a welcome addition to what is already a great series.

Next stop.

Judge Dredd: The complete case files: vol. 3