Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 16
Reviewed by Martin Skidmore 08-Nov-10
An artistic generation was long past by 15 years into 2000AD’s history, but even when the art wasn’t great Dredd was generally good entertainment: the main trouble is here that most of it is by Garth Ennis, who was pretty dull at this stage of his career.
A generation was long past by 15 years into 2000AD‘s history – no McMahon, Ezquerra, Bolland, Dillon, Gibson, McCarthy and so on here. Instead we get some John Burns not at his best, except for a few really gorgeous pages, and a bunch of okay or limited lesser talents, though at least the longest story, ‘Raptaur’, has a decent job from Dean Ormston.
But even when the art wasn’t great Dredd was generally good entertainment: the main trouble is here that most of it is by Garth Ennis, who was pretty dull at this stage of his career. I particularly disliked the multi-part ‘Muzak Killer’, wherein someone Ennis tells us has “good taste” listens to the Doors while killing Kylie, which does not remotely fit with my idea of good taste. The energy level picks up when John Wagner relaunches the democracy referendum storyline, a thread that seemed to have been forgotten for a while, but that fizzles in a four-parter by Ennis that is all talking: there’s the sense that he hadn’t even begun to grasp the thrill-power concept on which Dredd was built. There is some very good character stuff, but he mostly seems to be working to modern American pacing, which doesn’t work at all in these short episodes. An extra note is that since a chunk of this is from the Megazine, there are no credits on several stories – surely a note added at the bottom of a page or more detailed contents at the front isn’t too much to ask?
As a final note, can any more regular readers of 2000AD around this time tell me if Dredd picks up from what is a fairly dull period in the near future? The price has jumped up and the page count dropped with the colour volumes, and with the drop in standards of writing and art, I am tempted to stop buying.
Tags: 2000AD, Garth Ennis, John Wagner, Judge Dredd
“can any more regular readers of 2000AD around this time tell me if Dredd picks up from what is a fairly dull period in the near future?”
Oh dear – the bad news is the dip in quality has only just begun in this volume and goes on for possibly 2 or 3 more. Basically there is a Wagner-sized hole in the 2000 AD Dredds from 754-888, so that means the next 2 volumes will be Wagner-free apart from his Megazine work. I assume they hope that the run of Ennis, Millar and Morrison Dredds will get in some more readers who might not have picked up these volumes (as the consensus is that this was the worst period for Dredd with some truly awful stories. Hell even Millar has described his 2000AD work as “shite” – I might argue with him about that when it comes to Canon Fodder or perhaps maniac 5 but his Dredds and his Robo-Hunter are truly awful), while the Megazine Wagner Dredds will keep the faithful hanging in and “Judgement Day” (which should be in the next one – it ran across 786-799 and Meg #2.04-2.09) isn’t so bad – the main concern with that was you had to buy both comics to actually understand the story, which wasn’t so great for those of us not buying the Meg.
That aside I’d personally suspect the Case Files 17 and 18 will be the worst of the entire run, so some people will probably sit this one out until 19 or 20 when the upswing in quality will kick in. Of course, your mileage may differ and there will be fans of the upcoming few issues. Also, as a reviewer, it might be your duty to “take one for the team,” so you can report back to the rest of us and let people know if it is worth sampling this issue. Rather you than me though. 😉
Haha, screw taking one for the team when it is this pricey! But I am interested in early Millar and Morrison, which might tempt me. I’m not sure.
The Millar Dredds kick in at 829 and they are generally pretty poor – the Millar/Morrison ones are later on (scattered between c. 850-950) and are a better. If you might be interested in those, then you might be OK as the Wagner Dredds keep rolling and they are usually quality. Once you are through the next couple of “difficult” volumes then everything picks up nicely and you get the next generation of artists (the majority of whom are top notch) and some of the newer writers coming in on Dredd, like Gordon Rennie (who “gets” Dredd more than just about any other writer apart from Wagner, at least until Al Ewing came along).
Thank you Martin for the initial review and thank you to everyone else for the supplementary comments, together they have been very helpful.
I had intended to stop collecting these with volume 15 and your respective statements have convinced me that I made the right decision (for once !).
It is unfortunate but inevitable that the Case Files would reach this rather difficult patch. Grant Goggans reviews a lot of the 2000AD trades and said this in his review of Case Files 15:
However, there should be plenty still in there to interest people – Ennis still delivers and the Morrison/Millar Dredds are worth a read and Wagner’s work will still be in there from the Meg. Fans of Mark Millar will also want to check it out, even if those of us reading them at the time found most of them to be… disappointing. Plus it means you’ll appreciate the rapid upswing in quality when it happens around Case Files 19 or 20 (going by Grant’s estimate) – if you stop now you may not restart and you’d be missing out a lot of great Dredd stories. I’m sure Grant will be reviewing them when they come out so keep an eye on his blog and see if it is worth jumping back in.
The sad fact is that the next few years of 2000AD trade releases are looking damn strong and quite a few people might save their pennies from the Case Files and put them towards some of the other volumes coming out – if you want to know what is in the thrillpipe, radiator keeps and updated list based on what information leaks out and the latest one is here.