Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 08
Contains 2000 AD Progs 376-423
Now a full 3 case files after the apocalypse war I started
to want more epic stories. The last two volumes (And years in publishing) were
primarily focused with showing the aftermath of the Apocalypse War and while the wars shadow will always hang in Judge Dredd akin to September 11th here in the States, the volume begins moving on. This Volume we get three extended Dredd semi-epics this time around, none of which are
related to the apocalypse war.
Moving on from the apocalypse war as it kicks off
a semi-epic story “Dredd Angel”. Leads into “The Hell Trekkers’ and concludes
with “City of the dammed” while some may be better than others all three are
great stories. The first two of these stories call back to the complete case
files 04 the Judge child but I enjoyed them more than the Judge child.
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| The cursed earth is always bonkers |
The first of these two and the longest clocking in at 29 progs “The Hell Trekkers’ features the
return of Mean Machine Angel in a story with the questionable Morality of
having his brain tricked into seeing Dredd as Pa Angel because they need his
help to hunt down a McGuffin, the story has some solid action, and some great
comedy as Dredd has to somehow control Mean Machine while in character as Pa. I
mostly appreciate it for its reintroduction of Mean Machine which was to great
a villain to be written out so soon in such a average story.
“City of the Dammed” Is my favorite story this volume, probably
because I always enjoy Dredd with Anderson and it adds an interesting layer as
blinded he becomes very reliant on her. Story-line wise, its ok though. It involves
everything from time travel, to vampire judges, and even the Judge Child. It
still is an action packed fun story which deserves a look with Dredd being pushed to his limit.
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| Some truly crazy stuff happens in city of the dammed and it justifies some Dredd stories which I previously disliked. |
The final semi-epic in this volume is “The Hunters Club” Is a
very strong change of pace as its not even from Dredds perspective. The Hunters club is a social club which hunt random
citizens. This concept is later revisited a couple times in a few gags much
later in the series which is part of what makes Dredd’s world great, how a
small story like these can have callbacks years later.
Fun Fact: This story legitimately was the inspiration for the British Goth Rock Band the Hunters Club which were active from the 80s through the early nineties. I can’t personally recommend their music, but its worth checking out in support of a fellow fan.
The 8th Complete case file also has some fun
standalone progs sprinkled throughout Thirteenth Assessment is my favorite amount
them though, 99 Red is ok, and Croc has a few good panels, the rest are forgettable
though overall this volume is worth a read.
As always here are some amazon links for those interested.
US Readers
UK Readers
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