Robots are a funny bunch. One minute they are blindly serving your every whim by allowing you to strap a dildo to a roombah and the next they are hunting down Sarah Connor in a strangely erratic fashion. Still, so long as the metal pricks stay out of the wrestling world then it’s fine. We don’t need the pure sport of grappling tainted by anything fabricated in any way…
DATELINE:
July 2104 (Progs 271-272).
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?:
John Wagner and Alan Grant knock out another gold one and Carlos winds down after the epic.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT (IN ONE SENTENCE)?:
Wrestling droid Precious Leglock sets up his own robot city in the ruins of Sector 555.
WHO’S THAT IN THE HELMET?:
Chief Judge Hilda McGruder sends Dredd into Meka City to deal with the robots.
DAMAGE REPORT?:
Dredd suffers a broken jaw and a smashed rib on his left side.
ANY LAW LORE?:
The Apocalypse Monument is constructed.
Almost a thousand Judge Cadets, some as young as five, perished when they made their last stand at the Academy of Law.
The ruins of said Academy are set up as a temporary Justice HQ.
The Judge force is at half strength.
65% of the city lies in ruins and compulsory labour units are established. The Tories would fucking love it.
WHAT THE DROKK?:
Dredd uses a high explosive round at close range on Leglock instead of hitting him with armour piercing rounds.
Rather than try something else, Dredd tosses his gun away and then assaults the robot with a boot knife. Genius.
An Apocalypse Monument? Really? Wouldn’t the time and money be better spent on rebuilding other vital infrastructure?
WHAT’S THE ART LIKE?:
This is nice and at the same strength of the previous massive run so Charlie was obviously still in the zone for this one. His robots are diverse enough to be interesting and Leglock himself was striking enough to stand out.
HOW MANY LINKS?:
A nice touch of musical mayhem opens this and the story serves as a bridging point to the problem of the city rebuild. There are some nice touches here such as the excuses the robots give for not wanting to draw the angry attention of Leglock (“he’s requesting permission not to make a request”) and the fact that an egotistical robot has risen to command an army of directionless mooks. Hey, wait a minute… Six links.
Everything Comes Back To 2000AD 