The Law In Order: The Apocalypse War

I once read a story about a Jewish cosmic zombie, who is actually his own father and whose mother was impregnated by a magical holy spirit. In this fiction, said zombie will apparently grant you immortality if you accept him as your master. If you don’t, you get to spend eternity in hell because a woman who was fashioned out of a rib once ate a piece of fruit in a Magical Garden. As amazing as that made up tale sounds this story is far better and you should all stop what you are doing and read it…

DATELINE:
July 2104 (Progs 245-270).

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?:
John Wagner and Alan Grant combine in perfection and Carlos Ezquerra hits it out of the fucking universe.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT (IN ONE SENTENCE)?:
The Sovs launch an all-out attack on a weakened Big Meg and Dredd must lead a crack team to destroy East Meg 1.

WHO’S THAT IN THE HELMET?:
Chief Judge Griffin is captured by the Sovs and brainwashed. Dredd is forced to execute him for treason and thus he becomes the second Chief Judge that Dredd has had a hand in killing.
Judge Daley gives his life to save the useless Griffin, jumping on a hand bomb to take the blast.
Judge Teape was in the armoury and was apparently shit at the job.
Judges Josef Bulgarin, Snekov and Vlad head up the Diktatorat until they are murdered by Kazan.
SJS Chief Hilda McGruder is the only member of the Council of Five to survive the war and is sworn in as Chief Judge.
Psi Chief Ecks is killed in a direct strike on TCB West. He didn’t see that coming, did he?
Judge Gunton is the controller at TCB East until it gets smashed up. After fulfilling his usefulness, he’s killed shortly afterwards by Sirhan Sirhan block maniacs.
Judge Hackett loses his shit at the Sov attack and gets chinned by Dredd.
War Marshal “Mad Dog” Kazan leads the East Meg 1 invasion and seems unhealthily obsessed with chickens. His wholesale tyranny is brought to an end when Dredd shoots him.
Judge Izaaks is initially an aide to Kazan but his constant fuck ups gets him demoted to Kadet and he is forced to try his hand at Russian Roulette every morning. It is this loss of respect that leads to him ending the war.
Judge Plaski makes the mistake of appealing to Kazan’s good nature and is ordered to place himself under arrest.
Judges Domer and Hodge are killed by advancing East Meg 1 robot forces.
Judge Spitz is killed due to his shitness with the respirator.
Judge General Pukov has some interesting theories on population control and after airing them to Kazan he is sent to Siberia.
Judges Lesney and Windermere are part of Dredd’s guerrilla group.
Judge Perrier turns the tide of the war with her procurement of stub guns.
Judges Kranski and Wilson are both killed by overheating stub guns in the battle of Dan Tanna junction.
Judge Daley (yes, another one) is also killed at Dan Tanna, but this time by a Strato V.
Judge Souster saves the day by cutting off the Sov advance with an act so awesome they eventually gave him a memorial.
Judge Lieberman is killed due to his inability to master basic Lawmaster functions.
Judge Tolstoi makes the mistake of relaying bad news toKazan. He is thus sent to Siberia.
Judges Schmidt and Tucker are zapped by a Strato V.
Judges Gogol and Podgorny are too busy on their first date to notice Dredd has popped out of Fargo’s hole.
Judge MacIntyre’s defeatist talk gets him a final, final warning from Dredd.
Poor Judge Underhill is made to give a printout (yes, a fucking printout) of every Judge available.
Judges Ocks, Kwan, Costa, MacDonald, Hershey, Anderson, Hamble and Morant are personally selected for a suicide mission to kill 500 million people.
Judge Ivan is stabbed by Dredd as he bravely stands guard.
Zoltan is an East Meg torturer with a chin beard. That’s the sure sign of a cunt second only to a goatee. As a consequence he is killed by Izaaks.

IT’S CULTURAL, INNIT?:
Sirhan Sirhan was the man prosecuted for the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Although if you ask Julius Howe, he was probably an MK Ultra stooge.
Bob Oppenheiner was the brainchild behind the atomic bomb, used here like it is going out of fashion.
Dan(iel) Webster was a leading American statesman and senator during the nation’s Antebellum Period.
(Werner) Von Braun was a Nazi scientist who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians during World War 2. Despite this he was recruited by the Americans to work on their space program.
Magnus Pyke was a British scientist and media figure known for his enthusiastic gestures.
Miriam Stoppard was a British doctor, author, television presenter and agony aunt.
Giant Haystacks was a British wrestler of the 1970s and 80.
Betty Boop was is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer.
Bugs Bunny was a smart mouthed rodent featured in many cartoons.
Billy Smart was a British impresario and circus performer whose animal treatment wouldn’t pass modern standards.
Betty Crocker was a brand name of the General Mills corporation.
Dan Tanna was the lead character of the 1970s TV series Vega$ played by Robert Urich.
Rikki Fulton was a noted Scottish comedian.
Mario Lanza was an American tenor and film star.
Jacques(-Yves) Cousteau was a French marine explorer, inventor and ecologist.
Sov presenter Mikhael Parkinov is clearly a nod to talk show host Michael Parkinson.
Dredd’s decision to be the one to press the button is eerily similar to the scene in Fail Safe when Brigadier General Black drops a nuclear load on New York.

DAMAGE REORT?:
Dredd gets a broken left arm in the H-Wagon crash. Despite this he manages to gun down a shit-ton of block maniacs.
A day or so later he shoots himself in the chest and almost dies.

ANY LAW LORE?:
Chief Judges are sworn in on the Book of Law.
Sector 403 is nuked again in the conflict. The unlucky bastards.
Mega City 1 has three fortified Tactical Command Bunkers (East, North and West) for times of crisis. Each TCB has an all channel override for citywide broadcasts.
The Hall Of Justice was occupied by East Meg forces on the 4th day of the war. After a firefight with Dredd, the Halls were ablaze and the structure is burned to the ground.
Each Total Annihilation Device (TAD) is capable of wiping out East Meg 1 twice over.
Justice 2 is hidden inside a city block for special occasions and the odd birthday party.

CANON FODDER?:
“God help you, Mega City 1” is used.
This war is specifically between two cities and is even stated as such. This pisses on what other writers have tried to claim later on. Yes, Millar, I mean you.
The war lasts approximately nine days, and only a writer who doesn’t read the source material would make such a fuck up to say otherwise.

WHAT THE DROKK?:
Why would Mega City 1 have SKUNK stations in the Mariana Trench? This is the Pacific and close to Hondo territory so surely if the Sovs know they are there, so does everyone.
When Mega City 1 is attacked, Mega City 2 and Texas City sit it out due to fear of the Apocalypse Warp shielding. This is especially selfish of Mega City 2 as they had recently been saved by a Judge from the Big Meg, the ungrateful pricks. I can understand the Texans not caring, they don’t give a fuck about the Big Meg- oh, wait…what’s that, Michael Carroll?
TADs are the ultimate weapon and seem to be in shorter supply than the standard nukes (which are used in the saturation bombardment of the southern sectors). How did Dredd’s team know that the Bostok 7 silo had TADS?
Also, TADS may be the ultimate weapon but as we see with the laser screens, they are still subject to interception measures. Because of that, their effectiveness is somewhat dampened. Maybe it’s just the threat of them which is the point.
It is mentioned at one point that the skies belong to East Meg 1. Er, don’t other cities have satellites and orbital craft?
Dredd loses his badge in the H-Wagon crash and yet this re-appears later. Maybe he carries a spare.
Walter and Maria steal a Sov flyer with Walter clearly assaulting a Sov Judge. Even though it is war time and citizens are expected to fight, would his programming allow him to do this?
When Dredd is dressed like Gogol, is he speaking Sov? There is a part later on in the silo where a Sov detects a Mega City accent on the big chinned fuck, so presumably Dredd’s either not a Sov speaker or his accent is not fluent enough to pass muster.
As with the above, are the Bostok 7 silo crew all speaking English? The Meggers not only seem to understand them, but at one point they also communicate.
The Sov prisoners are deposited back at the smoking hole that was their city. Won’t this be a death sentence due to the radioactivity?
McGruder is sworn in by using her stump on the Book of Law- is this legal? Does this explain why Hadrian Volt was sworn in by placing his cock on the book?

WHAT’S THE ART LIKE?:
Ezquerra’s art in this is nothing short of a masterclass and ranges from the devastation and detail of mass evacuations to the stunning design work which seems so different it has to be futuristic. In particular I love the iconic design of Carlos’s H-Wagon and the tech on offer by both sides of the conflict. Bulgarin is clearly modelled on Stalin although Kazan appears to share some of Stalin’s more ruthless traits. The tidal wave is particularly amazing (and an act of genius) plus those splash pages (for this was the time of the colour centre spread- each one better than anything in Playboy) were phenomenal.
It’s a nice touch relating to the impregnable nature of the man, but Dredd is the only one not sweating in the tunnel. Even when he is checking out a topless Cassandra Anderson.

HOW MANY LINKS?:
Despite the initial shock and awe there is a stunning message here as this is a war between opposing Judge forces. Nothing says this more than Bulgarin’s and Dredd’s attitudes about the people/citizens not really being a factor in the information about the attack being disseminated. It is only in the later parts that we see the Citi-Def units fighting alongside the Judges and that speaks to the nature of city loyalty. Despite the sometime animosity between the Cits and the Judges there is a real sense of comradeship here with each looking to destroy their common enemy for the love of their city.
Throughout this tale there are equal measures of brutality (the casual slaughter of citizens by the Sovs as well as the execution of collaborators by the Judges) and comedy (the Apocalypso and the “raining citizens” line) and only a strong story like this can carry both effectively. There are even moments of gut wrenching hope and tragedy where Judges seemingly save a bunch of citizens (including kids) and then execute them as they are all rad poisoned. Ditto for the citizens blown up as they are simply in the way of holding the East Meg advance to buy the resistance time. And that’s the mark of a good story- you feel for those affected but also understand that sacrifices have to made because you know the scale of this is immense and there are no easy choices. Which brings us nicely to Dredd’s decision and the far-reaching consequences. This was the only other option other than surrender, which was unthinkable for the Judges. Though it means the murder of innocents, the Sovs had done exactly the same (though that doesn’t make it right) and so equal aspects of revenge and respite were part of this push of the button. It’s interesting that MacDonald was the one ready to press the button until Dredd took over and thus had ultimate responsibility for the act. With surrender unthinkable to how he has been bred and programmed, it’s the only possible way to save his city and remains a seminal moment in Dredd’s history. The big bad of the piece (Kazan) being in a state of shock after the destruction of his city is well played and he is so deeply entrenched in his mania that he executes his own men who proffer peace. His final words are a reflection of his madness so in the end he becomes an irredeemable villain. He’s actually a lot like Trump (sorry Flint) in that he’s obsessed with firing his subordinates whom he perceives as disloyal. There the similarity ends because Trump won’t do it face to face because he’s a chickenshit. Finally there is a real gut punch when Dredd executes Griffin on live Tri-D and turns the gun on himself. In short, this is my favourite Dredd story and for that alone it gets seven gold links strapped to a TAD and shoved up Kazan’s dirtchute.