Trollheart

Okay, time for something a little different. Although I'm going through the Dredd (and other 2000AD character) stories chronologically, the magazine began in 1977 and is still running today, so there are well over 2000 issues. With that in mind, and a timeline of nearly forty years to get through, it will be a while before I get to the better stories (and let's be honest: some of the early ones don't quite cut the mustard, do they?) so to stem boredom - both in my readers (yes, you two over there! Don't be shy...) and myself, I'm going to introduce two new sections which will allow me to “jump forward” on occasion, and get to the gold without having to wait to wade through some of the ... um, not gold.

First is

Take your best shot!

This is basically a random Dredd story. No secret to how it's done: take 1 to 1960 (approx number of progs I have to choose from) and throw them into a random number generator. The number of the prog that comes up determines the story I write. Could be a year from the current one, could be ten, or thirty. So what comes up this first throw?
1662
That's a problem, as it's smack in the middle of a multi-part story, which I don't want to get into so soon. So instead I'm going to cheat slightly, and take the number of the prog preceding the opening of that story, which happens to be
1649
where we find this story:

Title: “Under new management”

First print date: August 19 2009
Prog appearance: 1649
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Carl Critchlow
Total episodes: 1

This might take some getting used to. We're jumping thirty years ahead, to a Mega-City One which is changed and may be unfamiliar, or even unrecognisable to some of us. There is a new administration being sworn in as the story opens, though the Chief Judge (see? I told you they eventually settled on that!) is hurt, and in a medical vehicle on his way to hospital. Meanwhile his administration has enacted tough new laws banning the immigration of mutants into Mega-City One (so, just like the good old days we've been reading about, then! They must at some point have relaxed their hardline attitude towards mutants in the city, but now they've gone back to the way things used to be, it would seem) while a human, one Bradley Jinks, awaits his fate for the murder of seven mutants. We're told he has been sentenced to thirty years in the “time stretcher”, which hopefully will be explained to us.

Jinks, under heavy guard, meets with his lawyer to see how his plea has been taken. He is admanant that muties don't count, and killing them should not be a crime. He says that Francisco, the new Chief Judge, understands this, thinks as he does, which is why, he says, the new occupier of the highest office in the Hall of Justice has enacted these harsh new anti-mutant laws. Jinks's lawyer, however, does not inspire confidence, being a robot firstly and secondly seeming to be a city-provided rather than a private one. And we all know how hard they work on their cases! There is big news coming out of Justice Central: the whole Council of Five, the legislative and advisory body to the Justice Department, have been replaced with men and women loyal to the new Chief Judge. There is a fleeting refernce to a previous associate of Francisco, who suffered an “accident” that took his life. It would seem that something is rotten in the state of Mega-City One!

In an antechamber, outgoing Chief Judge Hershey waits to be called, and ruminates over the decisions that have brought her to this pass, in particular her support of Dredd over some unnamed issue, which will probably take us ten years to find out about. Dredd himself is summoned to see the Acting Chief Judge, who is running things while Francisco is recovering in hospital. The man, a new appointee called Sinfield, advises him that it would be best if he disappeared for a while, following what he calls “the mutant fiasco”. Dredd is being reassigned to The Cursed Earth, the blasted nuclear wilderness that stretches between the main Mega-Cities, the remnants of what was once North America, now raddled and radioactive and home to a variety of deadly mutant species. Dredd has been here before. Sinfield tells him that deportations of mutants from Mega-City One will soon begin, and Dredd is the ideal person to oversee the “relocations”. He sees it both as a punishment, which it is, and a way of removing him from presenting any kind of threat to the new administration, which it also is.

Hershey, handing over the Chief Judgeship to Francisco, is advised to “spend some time off-world”, at least “until this mutie thing dies down.” She doesn't seem bitter or resentful, in fact she tells her successor that he fought a fair campaign, and seems more upset with herself than anyone. Obviously, as we're coming in sort of in the middle of this whole arc, I don't know what she means by siding with Dredd, but they've been friends (inasmuch as the tough lawman has friends) since the early days, so it's probably not surprising that she supported him. It's clear though that whatever decision she made, it led - perhaps directly, perhaps not - to her ousting and Dredd's soon-to-be confirmed exile.

Back at the Hall of Justice, as Jinks awaits news of his reprieve, a phone call comes through, but it is not the one he was hoping for. His appeal has been turned down, and he is subjected to the time stretcher, which appears to be a device which artificially ages you. Jinks was sentenced to thirty years, and was fifty-one, so that should have made him eighty-one years old after the event, but his heart was unable to take it and he dies on the time stretcher. There is little sympathy wasted on him.

Quotes
Vid announcer: “Chief Judge Dan Francisco was today moved to a med-bay. Within the Grand Hall of Justice this morning the new administration issued its first edict, halting all mutant imigration. While the city's mutant population nervously awaits developments, the fate of many normal citizens also hangs in the balance, among them the notorious Bradley Jinks, whose sentence of thirty years in the time stretcher for the gruesome killing of seven mutants is due to be carried out this morning.”
(Interesting developments. Yes, thirty years have passed, and you'd expect a lot to have changed, and it has. But it would appear that the original idea of mutants being banned from Mega-City One was relaxed, and then repealed (as the broadcast mentions the “city's mutant population”) probably under the more progressive and sympathetic rule of Chief Judge Hershey. Now, with her defeat and exit, the new adminsitration looks to re-establish the old laws, not only banning mutant immigration to the city, but, as the new head tells Dredd, actively expelling its current mutant population. Back to square one, it would seem.

It's also worth noting that the newsreader, or his or her scriptwriter anyway, considers even a homicidal maniac more of a “normal citizen” than one who has been warped through no fault of his or her own. The fact that Jinks “only” killed mutants may have something to do with that tolerance.)

Robo-lawyer: “Eye contact with client: exude confidence. I can confidently say that your plea for clemency is in the Chief Judge's hands at this moment, Bradley.”
Jinks: “How long's it gonna take? They're gonna Stretch me in an hour!”
Robo-lawyer: “Best symapthetic voice. Reassuring pat. I assure you, he understands the urgency. Oh yes. I can't guarantee a result, of course, but I've a good feeling about this Bradley. A very good feeling.”
Jinks: “You mean it? Yeah, yeah. That's how I feel too. I mean, muties: they're gonna kick them all out ain't they? What do they matter? It's normal cits like you and me...”
(Let's break this down. Jinks is obviously trying to convince himself he will be reprieved, and has fooled himself into believing the robot has his best interests at heart. This is unlikely. The droid is going through a programme, as evidenced by the (rather ill-advised) way he steps through the parameters - “Exude confidence. Reassuring pat” - and has obviously been supplied by the City, so will not be, shall we say, very good. Jinks sees mutants not even as people, so believes that his crime is not that great, and when the robo-lawyer tells him “I've got a good feeling” he stupidly believes it, forgetting that robots don't have feelings. Also, he thinks the new Chief Judge, with his public anti-mutant stance, will be on his side. Perhaps he is. But it would be a poor first act indeed for the new administration to pardon Jinks, and send the uncomfortable message that it's okay to kill muties. Even if it is.)

Acting Chief Judge Sinfield: “You've been too closely associated with the whole mutant fiasco, Dredd. We feel it would be wise to remove you from the firing line for a while. Some time out of the City would be good for us all.”
Dredd: “My punishment, is it?”
Sinfield: “It has been decided to establish new townships in the Cursed Earth. Modern developments where mutants can live decent, productive lives without fear of prejudice or violence.”
Dredd: “When do the expulsions start?”
Sinfield: “We feel you would be the ideal candidate to administer justice there. No-one else seems to care quite so much for mutant rights.”
(Let's break this down, too. Dredd realises of course he is being censured, punished for, presumably, siding with the mutants against the incoming adminsitration. Though we have jumped thirty years and can't possibly know what happened, it's not too hard to take a wild guess and say that Dredd and Hershey supported mutant rights, something happened (some massacre/catastrophe/tragedy by or involving the mutant population of Mega-City One) and Hershey was voted out. With her went Dredd's (probably) only ally, and he was left to stand alone.

In a sort of revival of the apartheid that plagued South Africa for so long, or the plight of the citizens of the Gaza Strip in Israel, or perhaps even harking back to the plight of Jews in World War II, mutants will now be removed forcibly from the City and sent to live in “townships” created for them in the Cursed Earth. The word could not have been better chosen, and conjures up the filth and poverty of shanty towns like those in South Africa. Here, the Acting Chief Judge assures Dredd with absolutely zero sincerity, the mutants will be free to live their lives free of fear, whereas of course right now they are feared and rejected, and if they're not, the new administration will ensure they are. Dredd, as (apparently) a champion of mutant rights, is being sent to “administer justice” there, which really means he too is being exiled to the Cursed Earth, and basically the new Chief Judge couldn't care less what happens to him.

Having opposed (we assume) the new administration, Dredd is now as he was then their enemy, and Sinfield and Francisco know that, were he left in the City, with whatever powerbase he retains, he would prove a problem and possibly even mount a challenge against the new Chief Judge, rallying people to his cause as the new rule of law tightens around Mega-City One. They don't wish to make a martyr out of him by having him executed (one assumes this might be within their legal power) or jailed, a focal point for a possible backlash and threat to their rule, so they couch the exile in flowery words and non-committal phrases, such as “some time away from the city would be good” and “best man to administer justice there”.

But Dredd can see through the bullshit. He hasn't survived as long as he has without being able to tell when he's being fed a line, and when Sinfield reveals the plan to build townships in the Cursed Earth, Dredd's terse question “When do the expulsions start?” is not even denied by the ACJ. He knows that Dredd knows this “resettlement” is far from voluntary, and amounts to ethnic cleansing of Mega-City One, but he is not about to admit it. Instead, he avoids the question, but Dredd has had the answer a long time ago.)

Chief Judge Francisco: “This isn't exile, Hershey. I have the deepest respect for the work you have done. I hope before long you can return; when the mutant business is sorted out, perhaps. I would be very grateful to have a Judge of your abilities to call upon.”
Outgoing Chief Judge Hershey: “Thank you once again. My congratulations. You fought a fair campaign, Chief Judge. I wi sh you luck. I hope you know what you've taken on.”
(Similar to the treatment Dredd is getting, Hershey is being removed from the picture. She is no doubt still a powerful figure and a possible rallying point should Chief Judge Francisco's edicts not go down as well with the citizens as he hopes. When he mentions “this mutant business” you could substitute “The Jewish question”. It's clear he wants her nowhere near Mega-City One - even Earth - while he “sorts things out”. She, for her part, seems a trifle naive (though again we don't know the full story) and congratulates him, saying he fought a fair campaign. I wonder? But now with both his main adversaries dealt with, it would seem nothing stands in the way of the new Chief Judge running this city as he sees fit.)

Robo-lawyer: “Hang on, Bradley. They're putting me through now. Yes, I see. Yes. Yes. Yes? Yes? (Getting more "excited" or at least animated with each "Yes?") It's a no, I'm afraid.”

Those clever little touches
I like the way that, as Dredd and Hershey are both reaping the rewards of standing against the new Chief Judge and his cronies, the panels jump from one to the other, so that we can see the treatment may be slightly differently meted out, but essentially it's the same. They are the defeated enemy, and are being dealt with similarly. It is a little confusing, as one minute you're looking at Sinfield talking to Dredd, the next panel you see Francisco's face and a shoulder and eagle emblem, and it takes a moment before you realise he's talking to Hershey. But well done and very effective.

Laughing in the face of death

The new incoming Chief Judge's name is Francisco. DAN Francisco! Not to mention his second, Acting Chief Judge Sinfield, sounds more than a little like a certain comedian.

The antics of the robo-lawyer, its matter-of-fact way of processing the case, are quite amusing, mostly because we know that most lawyers, if given the chance, would carry out their cases this way too. Too many of them only care about the money, or winning, and not their client or their client's victim, if there is one.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

Where there appears to be a punishment instigated that may have been created to deal with the no doubt overcrowding of iso-cubes. Since virtually everything is a crime in Mega-City One, it would appear that more cubes are occupied every day. In the Stallone movie, one of the Council of Five, Judge Silver I think, protested that they needed to be able to hand out death sentences for lesser crimes. That hasn't happened, I don't think, but now it would appear that for murder and other captial crimes a man or woman's lifetime can be sped up in a thing called the Time Stretcher, which prematurely ages the prisoner by whatever number of years the sentence calls for. Of course, as we see here, sometimes it's too much for the human heart to bear and it just snaps, resulting in an actual death sentence.

Messages

Again I'm guessing, but considering that Dredd is being punished by the victorious Chief Judge, it seems fair to assume that he was against him in some battle, legal or otherwise, and was certainly on the wrong side in this “war”. The message is twofold then: to the victor goes the spoils and though some men may be magnanimous in defeat, some will turn on their enemy and exact a terrible price. Dredd, however, does not show any signs of regret for “backing the wrong team”, and seems resigned to, even having been expecting, what comes his way.

The Dichotomy of Dredd

Again, we're talking thirty years forward in time here, but originally when we met him Dredd was resentful of mutants, even hated them, whereas now he appears to have been fighting for their rights. I guess anyone can change over time, but it will be interesting, as we go along, to mark the events that led to this, at our time, most unexpected change.

Nothing changes?

Prejudice is eternal, and man will always have and want someone to blame his misfortunes on. We who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Ask any Jew, or Native American, or aborigine. Ask the Incas and the Aztecs, the ancestors of today's African Americans, and the Sunni and the Shia. Ask the Croats and the Serbs, the Chechnyians and the Ukrainians, or any group in history oppressed by another, stronger one.

Final note: Yes, it's three decades on and of course printing techniques have come on in leaps and bounds since the seventies, but it still knocks me sideways the quality of the printing in 2009 as opposed to that in 1977. It's almost like comparing a Mini Minor to a Rolls Royce. The colours are more vibrant, more alive, more ... dramatic somehow. There also appear to be more of them. Whereas back in the earlier Progs we have yellow, red, black, blue, green (and then only partially, maybe one page or one panel on a page) here there are golds, russets, mauves and crimsons.

And every page is in colour (at least, in this Prog) with the drawings almost seeming three-dimensional. Even the lettering is better, more refined, less cartoony, more ... mature, I guess. You can't imagine speech-bubbles with BANG! And ZOK! And THWAK! As they were in the original Progs. Here, it's much more refined and it's almost like reading a novel than a comic. There are also a lot of --- I don't know what the technical term is --- captions? --- those small boxes that describe the action, scene or even sometimes characters' thoughts without being speech balloons. This gives the magazine a much more introspective, cultured appearance. Art, rather than comic book.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

The other regular deviation from our chronological trawl through the thousands of Dredd stories will be this, which will occur at unspecified but relatively regular intervals.

The Judge Dredd Hall of Fame
A classic Dredd story, often a multi-part one, and one that has earned its place in the Dredd Hall of Fame. As time went on and Judge Dredd became more popular - eventually, the most successful story in 2000AD (no other character has had not one, but two movies made about his exploits) - readers began to tire of the one, two or three-episode basic stories, and the writers wished to stretch themselves too. So larger, multi-episode plots were envisaged, and thus was born the Dredd epic, which would run over multiple issues, often stretching into months at a time. In theory, this really began with Robot Wars, but that was a paltry nine episodes long, and didn't really qualify as a true epic. In time though, there would be many. Of note the ones that come to mind include The Day the Law died, The Four Dark Judges, The Judge Child, Unamerican Grafitti, and the granddaddy of them all, The Cursed Earth. But the one I want to look at this first time out is this:

Title: “The Apocalypse War”
First print date: January 2 1982
Prog appearance: 245
Writer(s): John Wagner and Alan Grant
Artist(s): Carlos Ezquerra
Total episodes: 25

The Apocalypse War, Episode One

The dire warning in the opening panel leaves no room for doubt that this will be a hard-hitting story: “For millions of people, today will be the end of the world”.

Prior to this, Mega-City One has been in the grip of what has been known as first Block War and then Block Mania. To quickly explain: all citizens live in tower blocks, and during Block War hostilities broke out between blocks, and there were was fighting, death and destruction of property. It now seems, with Block Mania, a condition known to exist that pushes inhabitants over the edge of sanity and heightens aggression, leading to the outbreak of Block War, under some sort of control, that this has all been a dastardly plot orchestrated by Sov-Blok, the Russian counterpart to Wagner's futuristic America. In East-Meg One, their capital city, the Diktatorat, the ruling body of the Sov-Blok, holds a meeting in which they plan nothing less than the total destruction of Mega-City One.

At just past 3 AM, missile silos launch their deadly payload into the skies, while orbiting the Earth, a fleet of war satellites take down America's own orbital platforms. The oceans are no refuge either, as deepsea defence pods known as SKUNKS (Solo-operated Concealed Underwater Nuclear Kill-pods) are blasted by torpedoes dropped from East-Meg strato-v bombers. Finally, Mega-City One's own missile silos in the Cursed Earth are destroyed by sov bombers. Taken completely by surprise, Mega-City One is left reeling from the unexpected and unprovoked attack, and with Block Mania still in full flight, most of the citizens neither realise nor care that they are at war: they're already at war, with each other! Dredd orders that the antidote for Block Mania be issued to key personnel, ensures that a retaliatory strike has been ordered, and then has a moment to wonder why? Why are the Sovs launching an all-out attack? They must know there can be no winner here. Haven't they been paying attention to history, especially that between these two superpowers? MAD mean nothing to them?

Still, the war has begun and Dredd is damned if Mega-City One is going to go down without a fight!

Quotes
Judge Vlad: “We will hit them without warning! Without mercy! We will pay them back for the indignities they have heaped upon us! Before this day is out, I promise you, Mega-City One will be crushed, and its decadent citizens will be slaves to the might of our glorious East-Meg!”
Supreme Judge Bulgarin: “Spare us the speech, Vlad. I assume we're ready? Let the apocalypse begin!”

Bulgarin: “We have waited a long time for this moment. Let us hope your plan works, Judge Snekov.”
Judge Snekov: “It will. Our enemy is strong. Naturally we must expect to receive some damage in the initial stages of the war. I estimate.... let me see ... up to twelve percent of our population will perish in the first hour.”
Judge Vlad: “Twelve percent? But that's alarming! We must broadcast to the people immediately! Advise them of the reason for their sacrifice...”
Bulgarin: “The people? What have they to do with it?”

Chief Judge Griffin: “I suppose I'd better inform the citizens.”
Dredd: “The citizens? What makes you think they'd be interested?”

Griffin: “I don't understand, Dredd. It's illogical. The Sovs must know it's a war they can't win!”
Dredd: “Maybe. Or maybe they know something we don't!”

Those clever little touches

I like how the responses of Dredd and the Sov Supreme Judge to the idea of informing the citizenry of the situation are mirrored, though while the Sov dismisses the people with a contemptuous snort: to him, they're nothing more than cattle and he doesn't care if they die, Dredd is more worried about that fact that most of Mega-City One is deep in the throes of Block Mania, and fighting nonsensical Block Wars amongst themselves, thus depriving the city of any means of defending itself. The two quotes seem very close, but they are in fact a world apart. Still, you can't help wondering if, deep down, Dredd doesn't really harbour the same contempt for his people. Were he to be presented with a foolproof way to save his city by sending millions to their deaths, don't you think he'd take it, and think the bargain cheap?

Laughing in the face of death

Hard to laugh about something as horrifying as all-out nuclear war, but it's amusing that the Sov Judges have such interesting names. Judge Snekov, who masterminded the “sneak” attack, Judge Vlad, who must be based on our old friend upon whom Stoker drew for the character of his famous vampire, and doesn't Judge Bulgarin (whose first name is Josef) look very like Stalin?

Other than that though, nothing to laugh about. War's a serious business, nuclear war even more so.


I'll ask the questions, Creep!

The obvious one is the one Chief Judge Griffin voices. For years now, both Russia and the USA have known that they can't launch nuclear attacks as this will provoke an immediate and fatal response from the other, and each will destroy the other. It's what kept the peace in the Cold War, and was referred to as MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction. When you know you can kill someone but that he will without question kill you if you do, then you find it harder to pull the trigger. The old Mexican standoff. So each may hate the other, but they're both afraid to push too hard: nobody in their right mind wants nuclear war. So why are the Sovs now making the first move? Sure, as expected, Mega-City One has retaliated, and within minutes there will be millions dead on each side. But what will that accomplish? Most of America (and presumably Russia and the rest of the world too) is already nuclear wasteland, so this has been done before. Is anyone really stupid enough to try it again?

Seems the Sov-Blok is. But what can they possibly expect to get out of it? Or is there some deeper, darker purpose behind their plan, something Dredd and the Judges of Mega-City One can only wonder at?

I AM THE LAW!

Faced with the almost unthinkable prospect of nuclear war with the Sovs, Dredd acts almost like a Chief Judge himself, issuing orders and deriding Griffin's attempt to announce the onset of the war to the city's population. One thing is certain: he will make sure the Sovs pay for this day's work, and if Mega-City One goes down, he's going to make sure he takes the Sov-Blok with him!

Messages

Obviously the clear one will be that there are no winners in war, especially a nuclear one, and all the preparedness in the world can't protect you against a sneak attack, as the US found out on December 7 1941. But I'm unsure whether Wagner and Grant are here saying it's better to have your defences on alert, or that it's a waste of time spending your budget on them. It's clear that there have been strained relations between the two powers, as we're told at the start of the story, though whether this has been alluded to previously or not I can't remember, and as we're jumping forward five years here I can't say for sure, but certainly in the real world this was eight years before the Berlin Wall would fall; Brezhnev was in power and would be succeeded by Andropov as Premier, and only with the arrival of Gorbachev in 1985 would the USSR (as it was at the time) begin to pull back from the frosty relations it had maintained with Europe and especially the USA.

Writing in 1982, Grant and Wagner must still have been happy to view the USSR as a threat, and comfortable enough to write a story that might seem believable back then. Yes, the Cold War was more or less over, but each superpower existed in its own separate bubble, in an uneasy state of truce, as Soviet spy planes passed over American installations and vice versa, and the arms race heated up. History has sadly shown us that, though one man can make a difference, he doesn't live forever and if his successor does not carry on his work then all that work can have been for nothing. A drunken boorish Yeltsin was not what Russia needed to follow Gorbachev, and slowly and rather alarmingly, they've slipped back to almost the Cold War days of Kruschev, again seen as a threat to world peace.

Perhaps, bleak as it may be, the message is never trust the Russians.

Nothing changes?

You would think after, at this point one hundred but at the time of writing two hundred years, the Russians and the Americans would have sorted out their differences and learned to live in peace. But even as we see today, with Putin pushing against his so-called allies and doing whatever the damn hell he wants, the days of Gorbachev and Glasnost are well and truly over. And when you have two superpowers in the world, there's always going to be tension and there's always going to be the potential for conflict. Not quite the Earth Gene Roddenberry imagined, where war, poverty, crime and injustice have been eliminated!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

First print date: January 9 1982
Prog appearance: 246
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Carlos Ezquerra
Total episodes: 25

The Apocalypse War, Episode II

Note: A quick explanation: everyone in Mega-City One lives in massive tower blocks, the equivalent I would guess of skyscrapers, though presumably much bigger. Each block is named, usually after some icon or famous person, hence the rather odd/familiar names used throughout this and other stories whenever dealing with habitation blocks.

As Block Wars rage on through Mega-City One, Sov-Blok nuclear missiles target the city and destroy much of it. The city's laser mesh grid, designed to protect the huge metropolis like, we assume, a force field, is not up to the task as there are thousands of missiles being launched at once, and they were not designed for such an onslaught, so H-Wagon defences are brought up too, but even this may not be enough. The odd Cityblock is able to take out a missile or two, but this is pure coincidence: locked in Block Mania, they assume this is some other block firing and retaliate accordingly, completely unaware that their entire city is under attack. Meanwhile, Mega-City One's retaliatory strike has claimed millions of victims in the East; the Diktatorat, safely underground now in their nuclear-proof bunker, see the destruction and loss of life as vital to drain as much of Mega-City One's defences as possible. The more missiles the Meggers send, the less they'll have to send when the Sovs decide to put the second phase of their attack (one would assume there is a second phase; the Sovs are not just relying on taking out as much as they can with their missiles and then calling it a day!) so everything is going according to plan.

Not so of course for Dredd and his people, who are suffering massive casualties and, more to the point, were taken unawares and so have not been able to emulate the Sovs and get their leadership to safety. Any moment now a lucky strike could take out the Hall of Justice. Back in the Sov-Block, Bulgarin contacts the leaders of Mega-City Two and Texas City (which will sometimes be referred to as Mega-City Three) and assures them that their beef is with Mega-City One only; if neither of the other two cities interfere they will not be targeted. Happy to leave Mega-City One to its fate, the Chief Judges of each of the other two cities agree they will not get involved. Bulgarin sneers at what he sees as their cowardice as the communication link is broken, promising their time will come, and then he issues orders to unleash stage three of their attack. Oh yeah: stage one was initiating Block War, the attack is stage two. So what will stage three be? Invasion? Surely not.

Quotes

Bugs Bunny blocker (watching the missiles fall): “Them blockers down south are sure throwing down some heavy stuff!”

Magnus Pyke Block City-def: “We got them! The fleapit was overdue for a cleanup anyway, and we were just the block to do it!” (They disrupted one of the Sov missiles with a sonic cannon and sent it hurtling into the infamous slum known locally as the Flea Pit).

Chief Judge Griffin: “The East-Meg sneak attack has hit us hard! We're losing on all fronts!”

Vlad: “Four sektors down already! Death toll over seven million! Why are we allowing their missiles to penetrate?”
Snekov: “It is vital that we drain as much of their strength as we can at this stage. You worry too much, Vlad. Everything is going to plan.”

Bulgarin: “By now you will be aware of our pre-emptive strike on the warmongering, imperialist Mega-City One. This matter is strictly between our two cities. Our allies will not interfere, unless your cities foolishly decide to aid the enemy.”
Texas City Chief Judge: “We don't want no world war! Texas City will not intervene, as long as the other East-Meg cities keep their word.”
Mega-City Two Chief Judge: “Mega-City Two will also remain uninvolved, provided no hostile act is perpetrated against us.”
Bulgarin: “I assure you comrades, nothing could be further from our minds.”

Laughing in the face of death
As the missiles fall, we see the Bob Oppenheimer Reclamation Project targeted. First of all, this is clever, as Robert Oppenheimer of course was the brain behind the first atom bomb, forerunner of the nuclear missiles now homing in, and second, as a reclamation project this site has obviously been renovated and rebuilt, and is about to be destroyed. As one onlooker groans “Not again!”

One of the I guess street names in the Fleapit is ... Parasite Boulevard.

Although they couldn't have known at the time, the word “vape” is used here, obviously meant as a shortened form of “vapourise”. Interesting that in our twenty-first century culture, this has now come to refer to the smoking of electronic cigarettes...

Return of the Nitpicker!

Just a small point, and it may not even be one, but when Snekov speaks about the other two Mega-Cities wishing to save their necks, it's spelt “knecks”. Is this a deliberate Russian (Sov) spelling, or has the letter got a little confused with all these “k”s?

I AM THE LAW!

Although he's standing right beside the Chief Judge, and given that, at this point, so far as I know anyway (though I could be wrong: we are after all time-jumping here) he has no special powers, no status other than as a senior Judge, Dredd seems to be taking over, issuing orders, demanding updates, virtually ordering even the Chief Judge around! Not a man to sit and wait for events to overtake him, Dredd knows that Mega-City One has limited time to respond to this sneak attack, and he wants to make sure they make the Sov-Blok pay for their treachery. He defers to Griffin, yes, but kind of only in a paying lipservice kind of way. Reading this prog, it's pretty clear that the man in charge is Judge Dredd.

Final note: when I started synopsising this episode it seemed to me that, not that surprisingly, much, indeed perhaps all of the story would be taken up with the arrival of the Sov missiles and their impact on their target, Mega-City One, and to some extent that's true. Laced with the usual black humour, this second episode does a good job of demonstrating the horrors of nuclear war. However, later in the episode we get two vital and key pieces of information, surely important to the plot.

The first is when Supreme Judge Bulgarin makes contact with Mega-City Two and Texas City, securing their promise that they will not interfere in the attack on Mega-City One, in exchange for assurances they themselves will not be targeted. Of course, we no more believe these oaths than we would a used car salesman, but the two Chief Judges seem to be taken in, or perhaps are just grateful for breathing space to prepare their cities for an attack they assume will be launched once Mega-City One has been brought to its knees.

The second piece of information is that there is indeed a third stage to the Sovs' plan, which is about to be put into place and which, presumably, we will hear of in the next prog. It's also interesting, if not a little chilling, to see that Snekov and Bulgarin at least are prepared to sacrifice millions of their countrymen to sap the strength of the Mega-City One attack. Vlad seems to be the only one decrying this; one might assume he may not last long into the story.

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The Batlord

omg that ****ing avatar kill it!!!!

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Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

chula vs TH fight to the death for worst avi of all-time

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Trollheart

May I just say, in the spirit of Christmas, **** you both.

Actually, you're right: I was wondering where this headache was coming from.

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Trollheart

First print date: January 16 1982
Prog appearance: 247
Writer(s): John Grant
Artist(s): Carlos Ezquerra
Total episodes: 25

The Apocalypse War,Episode III

Judge Snekov proudly explains stage three of the Sov-Blok plan to destroy Mega-City One. Massive ten-megaton nukes are even now detonating all along the eastern seaboard, which will cause a huge deadly tsunami which will take down the huge Atlantic Wall surrounding the city, and leaving it easy prey to the Sov attacks. As Dredd and Grifffin fly over the city they are caught in the backwash of the detonation of one of the missiles, crashlanding into one of the towers, Betty Boop Block. Checking on the Chief Judge, Dredd sees that Griffin is hurt but alive; he needs medical attention soon though, so he and the H-Wagon's pilot, who is uninjured, leave the vehicle and head out into the block, in search of help. Unfortunately, with Block Mania still raging, some locals are watching them with less than friendly eyes...

Quotes

Dredd: “Tidal wave! Atlantic Wall breached!”
Griffin: “Estimate damage?”
Tech: “Total!”

Dave Attenborough blocker: “Holy moley! Do you see what I see?”
Other blocker (as water pours in through the wall): “Only Jacques Cousteau Block could have thought this one up!”

The Sov plan, stage three, as explained by Judge Snekov: “Our pre-emptive strike has crippled the enemy. We must now press home our advantage. As the display shows, ten magaton devices are detonating all along the Mega-City One eastern seaboard at this moment. The resulting blast will throw up a tidal wave over a kilometre high and over 1,500 kilometres in length. By the time the wave hits the Atlantic Wall it will have doubled in height. Its destructive power will be, quite simply, unimaginable. For Mega-City One it will be the beginning of the end!”

Betty Boop blocker: “Stinkin' Judges payin' a social call!”
Other Betty Booper: “What are we waitin' for? Let's socialise 'em!”

Houston, we have a problem!

Maybe. Snekov tells the Supreme Judge about nuclear devices being detonated all along the eastern seaboard. How did they get there? Are we supposed to believe that Sov agents were able to plant them without being seen (“Nothink to see here, Komrade!”), or are there Sov agents working within Mega-City One? Hopefully this will be explained, as otherwise it's a huge plot hole, as the attack on Mega-City One pretty much hinges on this.


Laughing in the face of death

One of the first tower blocks to go over is called Giant Haystacks Block! I'm sure the huge wrestler never went down so quickly!

The usage of both Dave Attenborough for one of the names of the blocks (as this is, essentially, a natural disaster, although deliberately created) and that of Jacques Cousteau, famous for his television shows of the seventies when he would explore underwater, is particularly well done.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

First print date: January 23 1982
Prog appearance: 248
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Carlos Ezquerra
Total episodes: 25

The Apocalypse War, Episode IV

Unsurprisingly, the Betty Boop Blockers turn out to be easy prey for Dredd and Daley, as they blow them away with the practiced instincts of Judges, and the fatalistic realisation that these men are too far gone to attempt reasoning with them. Perhaps another, less experienced man might have tried to get through to the manic Blockers, but Dredd and Daley know there is only one way this is going to end. The Blockers are well armed though, and as a hand bomb is lobbed towards them Daley throws himself upon it, sacrificing his life for that of the Chief Judge. Barely breaking stride, Dredd continues on alone, Griffin slung over his already-injured shoulder.

Finding an abandoned skimmer in the parkway, he takes it and manages to fly outside the Block, where Justice Central, monitoring the situation, sees him and brings him underground by means of hydraulic elevators which seem to be set into the ground, taking him into the TCB (Tactical Command Bunker) deep underneath the city. There, Dredd hands over the unconscious Griffin and gets his own wounds seen to. As a call from Sov Supreme Judge Bulgarin comes in, Dredd suggests McGruder or Ecks should take it, but McGruder is missing, presumed dead, and Ecks is definitely dead, so it's left to him to shoulder (sorry) the responsibility.

Bulgarin confidently demands Dredd's, and the city's surrender, and by way of persuasion launches a fresh strike, which he says will change Dredd's mind about continuing the fight.

Quotes

Dredd (to Bulgarin): “Don't tell me, creep: you've called to apologise!”

Betty Boop Blocker: “Boop-poop-ee-do, Judgy boys! It's dyin' time!”

Med-tech (trying to fix Dredd's arm on the move): “You're not making this any easier, Dredd!”
Dredd: “Nothing's easy these days! There's a war on, or hadn't you heard?”

Judge Gunton: “Tactical Command Bunker North reports Judge McGruder not yet arrived, presumed dead. TCB West took a direct hit: Judge Ecks is definitely dead.”

Laughing in the face of death

Not a lot to laugh at here. The cry of the Betty Boop Blocker, using Betty's signature catchphrase , is mildly funny, given the context.

Dredd's own grim humour, even in the midst of such chaos and death, comes through as he faces Bulgarin on the screen and tells him he assumes the Supreme Judge has called to apologise about the attack.


I'll ask the questions, Creep!

It's not really a question so much as an observation, but if TCB West has indeed taken a direct hit, can it be that even down here, miles under the city, the Sov nuclear missiles can hit their targets?

I AM THE LAW!

Dredd makes it clear to anyone who opposes him in Betty Boop Block that he is not in the mood for talking or reasoning his way out of a situation. He shoots first. What do you mean, ask questions later? What questions? He shoots first. That's it. I guess it's interesting also to note that Block Mania by its very nature must now be seen as a crime, or at least, anyone engaging in it seen as a criminal, as Dredd does not rattle off his customary chant - “Attacking a Judge: six years creep!” or whatever – just shoots the guys down. Mind you, it is a case of kill or be killed.


Nothing changes?

As ever, the ruling classes have their bunkers to flee to, ostensibly from where to direct the defence of their city, but in reality it's a bolt-hole for those who are more interested in saving their skins than facing what's coming. However, in the case of the Judges, it does in fact seem to be an entire underground command-and-control facility. Nevertheless, none but the Judges are invited to attend, though of course by now so much of the city is locked in senseless Block War that they wouldn't even be able to understand if they were told about it. You do wonder, though, if the Block Wars were not raging and people were milling about in confusion, desperately seeking shelter, would the Judges allow them into the highly-defended secret bunkers?

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The Batlord

But seriously though, you need to check out Excalibur, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Captain Britain in England fighting supernatural weirdness and meeting King Arthur. It's like the most ridiculous moments of late-70s/early-80s X-Men brought into the 90s and turned up to 11.

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Trollheart

Ah, Captain Britain. I remember laughing at him in my youth. Maybe. You never know. Are you saying he's in Excalibur?

Hold on a sec: did you just say "Kitty Pryde"??

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