The Law In Order: The Oxygen Board

It’s rare in the tales of the eponymous lawman that criminals actually escape his personal justice. Cities are nuked, brains are evacuated and encubement is handed out but just occasionally some fucker will slip through the net. Sure, this is mainly down to some dodgy writing but sometimes we get a story like this…

DATELINE:
March 2100 (Prog 57).

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?:
John Wagner pens an unusual script and Brian Bolland brings it to life.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT (IN ONE SENTENCE)?:
Criminals gas the oxygen supply in order to commit a robbery.

WHO’S THAT IN THE HELMET?:
Judges Jefferson J. Tex and Che seem to be Dredd’s go to posse.

ANY LAW LORE?:
53000 are killed and half a million injured so this is setting the tone for large stakes of civilian casualties that will continue to shock the readership.

WHAT THE DROKK?:
The Judges happen to have their respirators on at the time the gas is released?
As air is freely available in other stories like Land Race, couldn’t a person just open the door to their apartment and get oxygen free?

WHAT’S THE ART LIKE?:
Fucking amazing. Virtually every panel is magnificent.

HOW MANY LINKS?:
This has a rarity of the Judges not being the ones to administer justice since the perps get away and are only killed as a by-product of their actions. It is also unnervingly cold that so many die at the whim of the robbers who seem untroubled by this. Five links.