Review by Frank Plowright
Originally covered over two volumes, of which this is the second, Tour of Duty has been expanded to three books for its presentation in the Judge Dredd Essentials series. Tour of Duty: Backlash is more or less Book One of that reprinting, but there’s enough difference to Mega-City Justice to merit a separate review. The primary difference to this content spread over Book Two and Book Three in the Essentials series is the addition there of material by writers other than John Wagner. It’s all acceptable and excellently drawn, but dilutes the core story.
In the 21st century Wagner plots his Dredd stories over the long haul, constructing great material over a few chapters at a time also pushing an agenda slightly forward in working toward a crisis point. Dredd’s gradual conviction that mutants should have rights has divided the city, eventually causing a schism among the Judges, and an election for Chief Judge resulting in a new leader.
It’s rapidly apparent the new leader recovering from injury can’t run the city, and that his manipulative deputy Judge Sinfeld has his own authoritarian agenda. Dredd is exiled to the Cursed Earth to oversee the development of settlements intended to house the mutants soon to be evicted from the city. Over almost the entire book Wagner contrasts Dredd’s activities away from Mega-City One with Sinfeld’s machinations there, Dredd aware Sinfeld’s corrupt, but seemingly politically manoeuvred into ineffectiveness. The masterstroke, though, is the involvement of the city’s Mayor Ambrose. Readers, but not Dredd or Sinfeld, know he’s actually genius serial killer with a spelling problem P. J. Maybe, and he doesn’t like the turn of events.
While others contribute, the bulk of the book is drawn by four artists. Mike Collins doesn’t have a style as distinctive as Colin MacNeil, John Higgins or Carlos Ezquerra, but is an impeccable storyteller packing the pages with easy to follow action and distinctive looking people. His sample art is paired with MacNeil, who drew much of the previous volume. His art’s more atmospheric, and he sure loves Dredd’s distinctive chin. Higgins and Ezquerra only arrive for the extended conclusion, Higgins polished, but at the start some Ezquerra pages look rusty, lacking depth and with his usual lumpy figures rounded off. It takes a few episodes for his mojo to return.
Having provided action, laughs and surprises, the ending is inconsistent. Wagner’s dispensed with a lot of Dredd’s recurring foes, so perhaps having Maybe also take the last exit is a step too far, but being true to the constructed reality, he wouldn’t have survived. That’s a small point in what overall is a great thriller reading better in this collection.
