Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Judge Dredd – Mega-City Manhunt | Comics

Dark Judges are defeated and Judge Cal issues a manhunt against Judge Dredd now that he is Chief Justice.

Although Judge Dredd has managed to repeal an invasion of Dark Judges, he could not quite save Sector One. Back in Mega-City One, a ship returning from Titan moon carrying Chief Justice Morgan and other members from Council of Five is shot down on order from Judge Cal now that he has declared himself as acting Chief Justice.

Dredd is now a wanted fugitive roaming around with his Titan escapee friend Pachoda when consciousness of Judge Anderson alarmed them of a hovercraft from Special Judicial Squad that came to investigate the situation. Among their ranks was Judge Verrity, a keen officer of law who wanted to find out what really happened there.

When she decides to arrest Dredd, her colleagues turned against her and in an ensuing chaos, Verrity is shot. Though she survived the crash, her traitorous partners were not so lucky and she sensed a plot by Justice Department to cover-up something. So, she gets out with a shoulder wound and goes back to her sector looking for answers.

Despite being under an insane surveillance state, Joe managed to slip through and apprehend Cal to make him answer for his crimes. Before he could start questioning, the corrupt lawman falls and finds Verrity holding Dredd at gunpoint. He shots her with a stun round and flees Hall of Justice at once now that acting Chief Justice is down.

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Judge Dredd – Mega-City Manhunt | Comics

Verrity later continued investigation once she regained consciousness after a while and wondering why Dredd didn't kill her and broke into Chief Justice's personal chambers; she discovers the clone program that Cal has been keeping secret from everyone. She found some more evidence to pin against her superior and then left.

Outside at Sector Nineteen of Mega-City One, he is barraged by mass of deputized citizen-Judge to arrest, subdue or outright kill Joseph Dredd somehow for a handsome amount and lifetime free health care. Using a little bit of disguise and some help from Anderson, he barely made it out alive but then gets shot in the street by a woman.

While his body is lying on road counting down his remaining moments, Anderson sees a major breakout of villains within his mental block only to realize his memories are flashing before him in his final moments. She finds Dredd and desperately tries to get him back on his feet to regain sense but Joe believes that it is already too late.

Meanwhile, Cal wakes up in many of his cloned body scattered through MC-1 at Sector Six and starts giving orders to his men. In paranoia, he asked his men to revive Joe so that he can vent within his psychic blocks to look for any conspirator he had who knew about all of his misdeeds and they arranged for Cal to enter Dredd's mind.

Within the corridors of his mind, both Cassie and Joe see Cal breaking in as a god-like figure with complete control over their space. Not realizing Anderson is residing there rather than a simple memory, he tosses her out and proceeds to taunting Dredd of eternal torture only for her to come back and slip right into his vessel.

Cal immediately wakes up claiming that Judge Dredd is innocent of all charges and therefore ordering his confused men to revive him at once. Nevertheless, their running has still come to an end as MC-1 is threatened by cyber vigilante group called G.O.D. as a result of Deadeye riot and Judge Verrity still howling on their tail.

Here is your links to buy "Judge Dredd – Mega-City Manhunt" from IDW Comics in issues on Amazon.

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Judge Dredd 26

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Here is your link to buy "Judge Dredd – Mega-City Manhunt" from IDW Comics on Amazon.

Judge Dredd – Mega-City Manhunt

Drawing conclusion to strong run of Judge Dredd monthly ongoing series from IDW Comics in 2015, "Mega-City Manhunt" is a six-part storyline by comic-book writer Duane Swierczynski (Godzilla, Harbinger Wars) and artist Nelson Daniel (Joe Hill's The Cape, Wild Blue Yonder), collecting issues #25-30 from the series.

What slowly build up a grand plotline though "City Limits", "The Long Fail", "Into The Cursed Earth", "Thirteen Badges", "The American Way of Death" and "Black Light District" eventually comes to a decent wrap up by Swierczynski and Daniel.

Right after he rose to power by eliminating Council of Five, Cal unleashed a state of tyranny and used SJS as his private goon squad. Anderson and Dredd managed to successfully thwarted attempts by Dark Judges to take over MC-1 and then return back to deliver justice to Cal, not being aware of his cunning contingency plan to tackle them.

Overall, Swierczynski tactfully connected all loose threads he had been leaving behind from the very beginning of the series. Judge Verrity could have been a featured character fighting alongside this iconic 2000AD duo for another few arcs though. However, ending it when all ties have knotted together was a best time to finish it on high notes.
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