"Essential Judge Dredd: Judgement Day" Trade Paperback Review

After introducing readers to the world of Judge Dredd with such indisputable classics as America, The Apocalypse War and Origins, the Essential Judge Dredd collection gets into muddier waters with this - the complete Judgement Day. In a nutshell: Judge Dredd versus zombies.

This ambitious crossover not only spanned two books upon its release in 1992 (2000AD, Dredd's regular home, and its spin-off title, Judge Dredd Megazine), but also brought in creator John Wagner's other signature character - bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, from the Strontium Dog series. With the Earth under attack from a multidimensional necromancer named Sabbat, Dredd and Alpha are forced to put aside their differences in order to save the world. Once again, it's Judge Dredd versus zombies, and the action more than lives up to that promise.

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As an introduction to Dredd, it's a perfectly servicable one, if somewhat light on the strip's usual satirical bite. Having taken over the reins from series creator John Wagner, this is Garth Ennis's attempt at a mega-epic with the scale and stakes of, say, The Apocalypse War. Chock full of nineties excess, Ennis is a little too in love with the idea of Dredd The Badass, resulting in one of the more one-note Dredd stories out there. Ennis himself admitted, later on, that he cribbed a bit too much from other stories when writing this one (particularly the aforementioned Apocalypse War), and this generally holds true throughout.

Regardless, it's still Judge Dredd and Johnny Alpha versus zombies, and a lot of fun when taken on its own terms. Sabbat is a deliciously sadistic villain, and the portions of the story illustrated by the mighty Carlos Ezquerra and Peter Doherty are some of the best-looking Dredd visuals out there (even if I still hate Sabbat's cape). Doherty's prologue is particularly atmospheric, featuring Dredd and a handful of Cadets running into Sabbat's zombies out in the Cursed Earth. The action continues with a suitably apocalyptic battle against the zombie hordes, and then a fun dust-up between Dredd and Alpha. Artist Chris Halls lets the side down a bit, but has had enough of a kicking for it in the thirty-odd years since the story was first published, so we won't focus on that here.

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While not held in the same esteem as other Dredd stories, Judgement Day is a solid work of blockbuster sci-fi action, featuring amusingly macabre humour (I still quote the line "our doom is nigh - I quite fancy being the nighest!" today), memorable gore (Sabbat pulling a bullet out of his own head) and one of the most iconic closing lines/pages 2000AD ever produced. First time readers may not come away with the best first impression of the strip's true range, but it's a good sampler of the comic at its most action-packed. Even the least essential of the Essential Dredd is still... fairly essential. 

Having first read it at thirteen years old, Judge Dredd: Judgement Day was, at the time, the greatest comic book story I had ever read. It's Judge Dredd versus zombies, after all.

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