Uri Geller. Joe Power. Mystic Meg. All have shown repeatedly that psychic powers are completely legit. Only closed mind dullards like Orlok call bullshit and bring up “facts” and “verifiable testing methods” to bring the mood down. Someone else who brings the mood down is Judge Dredd, a man who doesn’t like any psykers using their Grud given talents to make money. The jerk.
DATELINE:
June 2103 (Progs 216-217).
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?:
John Wagner and Alan Grant confound the spelling bee while Barry Mitchell throws a curveball.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT (IN ONE SENTENCE)?:
Dredd targets criminal psykers and their boss Rex Squeers.
WHO’S THAT IN THE HELMET?:
Psi Chief Ecks is no help whatsoever as he is too busy worrying about his dreams of being buried alive.
Judge Grant shows Dredd a floater he finds in the docks. I bet he does this in the toilets too.
IT’S CULTURAL, INNIT?:
It may be a stretch but one of the gangsters bears an uncanny resemblance to gangster actor George Raft.
Ray Milland was a classy American actor who achieved a fair bit of success despite being born in Wales.
ANY LAW LORE?:
Judges are trained to resist psi influence.
12 hours is the legal limit for any brain search.
It’s NEVER too late for a Crime Blitz.
Psi Division use Psyke Tanks to mind probe and sweat psykers.
CANON FODDER?:
Squeers mentions wanting to see Dredd in the city morgue. There is no morgue, only Resyk.
WHAT THE DROKK?:
In his office, Dredd keeps hard copy files of perps. Isn’t this highly impractical considering MAC is available?
Dredd’s attempt to flush out the perps using intimidation and harassment actually gets innocent people killed.
Dredd’s Lawgiver appears to be in his left boot at one point.
Aldo Pollo is a stunning example of an Italian stereotype. He’s only missing hand gestures and a violin case.
One of the Judges conducting the crime blitz is very fat and short.
The psykers make a hover transport driver hallucinate so he crashes. By a massive coincidence he heads for Dredd but let’s face it he could have crashed in any direction. This is therefore an extraordinarily random method to try and get Dredd.
How does Squeers know exactly where Dredd is patrolling in order to set the hitmen on him?
When talking about the dead perps. Soll confesses to Dredd that the men were “salesmen who worked for him” but he “didn’t set them” on the Judge. Er. Have you just admitted to something there, pal?
WHAT’S THE ART LIKE?:
Unsuited to the strip despite the good layouts, sadly. Though there was a nice bald lady in the restaurant at the start, the whole thing looks very scrappy and contemporary with the only outliers being some tubes connecting the blocks and the futuristic vehicles. The majority of the criminals appear to be dressed like 1940s gangsters too.
HOW MANY LINKS?:
This is a fairly bland tale that is not helped by the art. The plot holes and overall direction don’t really work but it’s good to see a different side of the criminal network as part of this series. There’s a nice Dreddism at the end to score this two links.
Everything Comes Back To 2000AD 