Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 05

I’ve been a huge fan of Judge Dredd since he first came to the United States back in 1982 however I don’t think the quality of Judge Dredd was universally awesome and eventually I stopped collecting the comics. Eagle Comics had a few Judge Dredd comics running concurrently and one of the comics that I thought wasn’t up to the quality level of the main Judge Dredd comic was the Crime Files series. Somewhere around a quarter of the book is Crime File stories and they’re fine short stories but nothing compared to the huge events in the latter parts of the book. The bigger problem is that the scans of the stories are absolutely abysmal. A lot of the text, particularly highlighted words, are very hard to read and there is a lot of gutter loss. The book really picks up with the return of Judge Death, this time joined by Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis. This story arc is all drawn by Brian Bolland and it’s absolutely fantastic.As a long-time fan I’ve read a lot of Dredd story arcs but perhaps none are more memorable than the Block Mania/Apocalypse War arc. When I think of Judge Dredd this is the story I think about first. It starts innocently with several blocks going to war of a tiny incident and this is not the first time we’ve seen these mega blocks have lethal conflicts. This time, however, the war just keeps building and building until it becomes clear that some outside force is manipulating events. Then, things go absolutely off the wall. The Soviet Union launches a full scale all-out war and the number of dead in Mega-City one is astronomical. The entire city is basically obliterated nearly entirely. Judge Dredd goes into full war mode and kills enemies and anyone in Mega-City suspected of being a traitor even if the “traitors” are being controlled. Things get so insane that an entire populated planet gets destroyed and Judge Dredd personally kills a half a billion people. There is a ton of questionable moral decisions made by Dredd but in this story he is face to face with an imminent extensional threat and saves Mega City One by any means necessary.This ranks up there with The Judge Child Quest and The Day the Law Died as my favorite storylines and a must have for Dredd fans or just fans of great stories. It’s hard to top the mayhem of a story where more than half of the residence of Mega-City One die and all the residents of an equally large city perish. It doesn’t get much more hard core. This is the darkest Judge Dredd story I can recall.

Great place to start reading. One fun point is that one year in real life is one year in 2000 AD, aka Judge Dredd, and it started in 1977. There have been no reboots or alternate timelines. That means jumping in here is a neat sample with a rather huge event to top it off or a perfect place to start reading all of it, moving forward by Complete Case Files.The one downside is those Case Files stop around 2004 at the moment, but given the time to read the 38 currently out with volume 39 released in April, you have plenty of time to let the publisher get a few more volumes out. Also worth noting, these are not slim little graphic novels, they are 400 page books so you get plenty of story for your money.

This is the volume where Dredd is gaining popularity and the stories begin to tie together..Super Fun Read!!

I read online that #5 was the best place to start with the Dredd comics.This book starts out with some brief and cheesy progs that at least give you a bit of a glimpse into the world of Mega City One, however it then gives way to the little more futuristic and darker drama of the BlockMania/Apocalypse War saga, spanning almost half of the book. At this point, there's lots of death, and segments where Dredd and company openly execute citizens for various infractions and reasons, at one point killing civilians doomed to radiation sickness death without hesitation. So it goes from a Pg-13-ish mood to more R rated story. The story is truly apocalyptic, but entertaining as it depicts a future in which nuclear weapon use is commonplace. How Dredd and others manage to move about a city so vast is a bit of a trick, and I'm not sure what Dredd has done or is to be the 2nd in command of the city for most of the story, but I suspect it's his reputation alone.Starting here won't quite get you the 'origin' information you might want, but it seems to be the point at which the series matures to a readable level.Oh, and the artwork in the entire book is stellar. Carlos Esquerra's work for the Apocalypse war is great. It's nice in a way to have these pages in black and white, because I'd love at some point to take some of these and photocopy them to color in at a future date, for fun.

For early Dredd, this is definitely one volume to have. In addition to the highly-addictive Block Wars and Red-Dwan-esque Apocalypse War, this volume also features the return of Judge Death and the introduction of the other three Dark Judges. I re-read it (actually the first time I read it was back in the early 80's when I got turned on to Dredd after he was introduced here in America - sorry kids us old times love those kinds of self-references) in a single night. There are other stories in this volume as well, some good, some OK, but all page turners and it sure is nice to have that kind of continuity that these Complete Case Files afford. The writing is great - plenty of action, characters stay true to form and don't change just for shock value, and there is humor. One of the great things about early Dredd stories is the humor in them. Most of the time the humor is in mild subtle pop-culture/current event references but never at the expense of the characters or the story. No one is trying to deconstruct the fifties here for the 100,000th time. The characters and the story always takes itself serisously, even we aren't asked to.

This volume contained the best story i believed anyone should read, that story is The Apocalypse War one of the best Judge Dredd stories ive read so far and dare i say is one par with any other comic event from The DC or Marvel universe.

I'll set my stall out and say Judge Dredd is the absolute best character to emerge from grown-up British comics. These volumes from Rebellion have been excellent and quite generous releases, giving plenty of reading and showcasing the talents of some of the best comic writers and artists of the past forty years.JD Vol 5 is possibly the most iconic offering of the series. From the pages of early 1982 2000AD we get the return of Judge Death and the Dark Judges, with the freshly-revived Judge Anderson at her most highly-strung and penned by the inimitable Brian Bolland. Next, we have the Mega-Rackets, a glimpse of the eccentric criminal underbelly of Mega-City One featuring the imaginative talents of Colin Wilson and Ron Smith. The same artist pens the Hotdog Run, a three-parter that follows Cadet Judges on their Cursed Earth assessment test.So far, so good. Yet there is even space left for two of the most exciting, bleak and iconic strips ever to feature Ol' Stony Face. First is Block Mania, brilliantly portrayed by the kinetic art of Mike McMahon (some of the best work we've seen from him) and the pinpoint exactitude of Brian Bolland. It follows seamlessly into Carlos Ezquerra's epic artwork for the Cold War fable The Apocalypse War which sees Mega-City One decimated by a Sov-Block nuclear assault and invasion. One of the bleakest and most intractable challenges for Dredd, the judges are turned into a paramilitary resistance force against the robotic armies of East-Meg One.Although as a long-term fan this was pure nostalgia for me, if you're new to Dredd and looking for a place to start you couldn't do better than this volume to whet your appetite.

The fifth in the series reprinting every Dredd story from 2000AD, this volume covers progs 208-270 which were originally published between 1981 and 1982 (which was the latter part of my ‘golden period’ for reading ‘the galaxy’s greatest comic’). Although this features the excellent five-part “Judge Death Lives” (written by John Wagner - as TB Grover - and drawn by Brian Bolland) - which is worth the price of purchase alone - the longest run is the nine-part “Block Mania” which runs directly into “The Apocalypse War” (25 parts) and sees the destruction of Mega-City One (and ends this collection). There’s a lot to love here - the stories are bright and sharp with some nasty moments and clever bits of satire (all of it was written by either John Wagner or Alan Grant) and the artwork is astonishing (as well as Bolland there’s work by Steve Dillon, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon, Ron Smith, Colin Wilson, John Cooper, Barry Mitchell and Carlos Ezquerra (who drew most of “The Apocalypse War”). The strips are beautifully reproduced and there are so many iconic images that each story has something vivid to remember it by. Nicely nostalgic for those of us who enjoyed the comics the first time around, these 40+ year old strips are still essential reading and I’d very much recommend the collection.

I was 10 when I sought out the Titan novelisations of the seminal Dredd story ‘The Apocalypse War’ and indeed as Volume 1 was unavailable I went to a second hand comic store in Colchester to seek out Eagle Reprints of the first 13 parts of it. So suffice it to say, although I already had the largest story in this volume, it is sufficiently impressive I sought to buy it again! This should give some indication of my feeling about this volume! It feels like the culmination of five years hard work which pays off in a huge way.However, let us not exclude the other stories in these pages. The ‘Mega Rackets’ was a superb piece of world building, using several older stories as lead ins to descriptions of the major activities which organised crime undertakes in Mega City One. This is followed by the second appearance (and in many ways one of the best) of ‘Judge Death’ in ‘Judge Death Lives’, a story which introduces his three fellow Dark Judges. This then segues into several smaller stories, all of which are very good, culminating in ‘The Hotdog Run’ which features the returning Judge Giant.Then on to the precursor to the Apocalypse War, ‘Block Mania’ which still stands as one of my very favourite stories of all time as the diabolical genius of the Soviet pre invasion strike is revealed. Between this and the main story of the ‘Apocalypse War’ you have 35 weeks of writing which is consistently excellent, with art to match from Ron Smith, Mike McMahon and Carols Ezquerra as good as anything seen before or since. Literally every single episode in this volume probably hits 7/10 at the very least with most either 9 or 10. It’s (even more than it’s predecessors) a stunning collection, utterly indispensable (indeed the war even nearly 40 years on still provides a backstory for stories in Contemporary Dredd world on occasion) - a testament to how gripping the story was. A clear five star effort and on of Dredd’s very best.

This volume contains three of the best Dredd stories and was a true golden age of the comic strip. The Dark Judges make an appearance, resurrecting Judge Death and seeking to sentence all those who stand before them. Block Mania is an all out war between blocks as a city-wide fighting frenzy grips the residents of Mega City One. And finally, you can't pause for breath, and the Sov block invades Mega City One in The Apocalypse War.The Apocalypse War is my favourite epic of all time, and loses none of its gripping story telling, even though the Soviet Union is long gone. after all, this is the beginning of the 23rd century, and who knows what will happen between now and then! Ezquerra makes a welcome return in this epic, and his art adds greatly to it.Alongside these story arcs are some good mini series, which are well worth reading. This is a fat book, full of quality Dredd stories. Buy it, or report to the cubes for a 5 year stretch!If you only buy one Dredd Collection, make it this one.

This really does read like the end of the first chapter of Dredd's story, and a sign of the increasing complexity of the character and stories.This volume brings together plot threads, incidents and concepts built up over the first few years, only to culminate in the truly epic Apocalypse War.The first half of the book works hard at grounding Mega City One as a functional city, seen through its crime. What begins as almost frustratingly stand alone stories start to come together towards the end of The Crime Files, taking care to tie off loose ends left dangling for a few weeks.Then Block Mania is introduced into the already established contexts of Block War and the citi-def. The story is initially so trivial that it fits easily into the established theme of Life in MC-1. But it continues to grow until the whole city seems at threat.Then the War begins.Reading the Apocalypse War for the first time in twenty-odd years I am struck by its ambition and commitment. Having become used to modern American comic tropes, where Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again (until six months down the line), it is quite refreshing to read a story of such economy (100 pages or so) which really does fundamentally change the status quo. Carefully developed supporting characters are dispatched unexpectedly, a whole quarter of the city is obliterated in the space of two pages and characters are pushed to the limits. Dredd himself is no hero, gunning down collaborators in cold blood, dispatching a key character for a betrayal he had no control over and wiping out six billion people in calculated revenge.The entire epic is illustrated by a single artist. Carlos Ezquerra is at the height of his powers here and the story really benefits for having him illustrate the whole thing.I cannot recommend this volume highly enough, especially if you haven't read the stories before. I paid a couple of pounds for it in the kindle sale, but I am tempted to shell out full price for a hard copy just so I can loan it to friends.Buy it!(It wasn't until I finished this review that I realised I hadn't even mentioned Judge Death Lives! The original story was the high point of vol 3 for me, and the sequel is even better, but even that was completely overshadowed by the consistently amazing second half of the book).