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Review: Judge Dredd – Cold Wars

Nemesis

Judge Dredd – Cold Wars is a wonderful collection of stories from the pages of 2000 AD.  Each of these stories were featured in serial form in the pages of that storied magazine and as the title implies, they are tales that involve Dredd and his dealings with the Sov Empire of the Eastern Block.

The first story in this volume is ‘Get Sin’ by Rob Williams (Nomad, Cla$$war) and it was featured in 2000 AD progs 2001-2003.  This famous, or infamous, arc brought a conclusion to the Apocalypse War.  Dredd leads a team deep into Sov territory after an attack on Mega-City One that has decimated the population of that city, halving it.  Intent on retaliation and eager to end the war, the ruling council dispatches Dredd and his team to the wastelands of Siberia.  There, they are tasked with taking control of a Sov military facility, rescuing a captured judge, and launching a nuclear attack that will ultimately destroy East-Meg One and end the war.

Following that story we get a vignette story about the perils of living in Mega-City One once you have sacrificed all for your nation.  This story, titled ‘War Buds’, was featured in progs 2045-2049 and is written by John Wagner (Batman/Judge Dredd:  Ultimate Riddle, Xena Warrior Princess).  Here, survivors of Dredd’s Apocalypse Squad stage a breakout for one of their number who is facing forced euthanasia.  Scheduled for death because he has lost his mind (as a result of the actions chronicled in Get Sin), Costa is rescued by his compatriots and bundled out of Mega-City One.  The group hopes to flee to Texas City and find treatment for their war bud there.  However, Dredd is tasked with stopping them from escaping.  Although Dredd has sympathy for their position vis a vis their friend, he has no sympathy for the laws they have broken and inevitably he brings them to justice.  This story serves as a cautionary tale about the horrors of war and the bonds that can be formed in that crucible.  Meanwhile, Dredd is shown to have some empathy inside of him.  However, as always, that sympathy takes a back seat to his duty as a judge.

‘Black Snow’ (2000 AD progs 2055-2060), by Michael Carrol (Overman, Tales From the Black Museum), is the next story in this volume that traces Dredd’s interactions with the Sov Empire.  Playing off the real world events that occured in Tanduska (a region in Siberia) in the early twentieth century, the Sovs have created a system that sends meteorites crashing to Earth in an isolated wilderness area.  Eventually, those meteorites are mined and processed in a nearby factory.  Because of the constant bombardment from space, the area is full of radioactive material and various particles saturate the air and the snow, hence the title.  Rebels overrun the complex and when the Sovs fail to react, Dredd leads a team to liberate the facility and hopefully gain a foothold in Sov territory.

Following the events of ‘Black Snow’, Dredd finds himself adrift deep in Sov territory.  In ‘Echoes’ (2000 AD prog 2061-2064), Carrol forces Dredd to flee for his life.  In doing so he is captured by slavers and eventually he finds himself in the ruined remains of East-Meg One.  There Dredd comes face to face with the destruction he wrought all the way back in ‘Get Sin’.  Additionally, Dredd finds that the ghosts he conjured so long ago are tangible and real.  To combat this threat, Dredd enlists the aid of one of his companions and endeavors to finally put East-Meg One to rest.

The story concludes in ‘The Shroud’ (2000 AD prog 2065- 2068) also by Carrol.  Having dealt with East-Meg one, Dredd is captured once again and sold into bondage.  One of his overlords is a mutant with an intense hatred of the MC-1 judge.  Mirroring other POW type films and comics, Dredd eventually settles on a plan to escape the prison and exact his revenge.  However, because this is Judge Dredd, the plan is a clever mixture of science fiction, creatures and brutality.  Eventually, Dredd’s time in the east comes to an end and he departs the area for the moment, his dealings with the Sovs put on hold.

It is always difficult to score a book like this.  The stories in this book, while they have a continuing narrative, are the work of many years and a collection of artists and writers.  With that said, I will endeavor to score each story on it’s own, while providing an overall score for the book as a whole.  In general, I would say that this book is an exciting collection of stories that center around a pivotal event in Dredd’s life, and by extension the life of Mega City One.  The fallout from those events and the expanded look we get at the east and the Sov Empire is fascinating and worth the price of admission.  If you are a fan of Judge Dredd this is most assuredly a book that should be in your collection.

Overall Book Score:

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Get Sin
Writing – 5 of 5 Stars
Art – 5 of 5 Stars
Overall – 5 of 5 Stars

War Buds
Writing – 4 of 5 Stars
Art – 4.5 of 5 Stars
Overall – 4.25 of 5 Stars

Black Snow
Writing – 4 of 5 Stars
Art – 3.5 of 5 Stars
Overall  – 3.75 of 5 Stars

Echoes
Writing – 5 of 5 Stars
Art – 5 of 5 Stars
Overall – 5 of 5 Stars

The Shroud
Writing – 4 of 5 Stars
Art – 4.5 of 5 Stars
Overall – 4.25 Stars

Get Sin
Writing – Rob Williams
Art – Trevor Hairsine, Barry Kitson, Dylan Teague
Color – Dylan Teague
Letters – Annie Parkhouse

War Buds
Writing – John Wagner
Art – Dan Cornwell
Color – Abigail Bulmer
Letters – Annie Parkhouse

Black Snow
Writing – Michael Carrol
Art – PJ Holden
Color – Quinton Winter
Letters – Annie Parkhouse, Simon Bowland

Echoes
Writing – Michael Carrol
Art – Colin MacNeil
Color – Chris Blythe
Letters – Annie Parkhouse

The Shroud
Writing – Michael Carrol
Art – Paul Davidson
Color – Chris Blythe
Letters – Annie Parkhouse

 

Author Profile

Nemesis
Nemesis is a poet, writer and author of the upcoming novel The Long Game. He is a writer of science fiction and supernatural thrillers. Besides novels and short stories he writes for UK based ASAP Comics developing new stories for Level 8 and OPSEC. Nem is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and tries to bring those experiences into his writing.

He lives and works out of his home in Riverside, California with his wife and three children. When not writing he enjoys reviewing comic books and graphic novels for ComicCrusaders.com and living the Southern California life with his family.
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