Consider the politics of interplanetary law. Say there’s some geek wanted for crimes in your home and naturally you want to arrest the creep but the local plod says you can’t. What do you do? Do you send in the troops to take him out? Do you hire some “tourists” to throw some poison his way? Or, do you hire a heavily armed hairy man ape to sort this out for you? You know, maybe Obama and Putin should have hired Burdis for their respective jobs…
Taco Bell is always a mistake…
DATELINE:
February 2105 (Progs 305-307).
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?:
John Wagner and Alan Grant explore extra-terrestrial law and Steve Dillon does some good alien work.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT (IN ONE SENTENCE)?:
An alien bounty hunter comes to Mega City 1.
WHO’S THAT IN THE HELMET?:
Chief Judge Hilda McGruder gives Dredd grief for being up on his feet.
Judges Street and Wilding are injured by Trapper Hag’s grenade.
IT’S CULTURAL, INNIT?:
Lenny (Leonid) Brezhnev was the medal loving former leader of the Soviet Union throughout much of the Cold War.
DAMAGE REPORT?:
Dredd gets some minor internal injuries.
WHAT THE DROKK?:
Dredd is a little harsh on Hag. He is an alien with his own set of alien values and following a bounty hunting code yet Dredd says that he should kill him as “no-one ever deserved killing more than you”. Hag has killed several Judges and flouted the Law but He’s not a mass murderer like Orlok, Kazan or even Cal.
Having bested Hag, the alien expects to be slain but Dredd says “We don’t do things like that in our city”, somehow forgetting that he shot an unarmed man dead last story.
WHAT’S THE ART LIKE?:
Dillon’s art is amazing here. His layouts are genius and he gets to let rip a bit on the designs of the aliens, though it might be not a great stretch to say there’s something “Chewie” about Hag. The size comparison with the bounty hunting mofo makes him an imposing figure too and Dillon gets to draw the zipper on Dredd’s tunic as off centre. Clearly Dredd dresses to the left then. The only silly things are the Lawmaster wheels. These seem to be tapered, which is fine, but the axis shown for this taper is impossible.
HOW MANY LINKS?:
Five. The stakes are high here as Hag seems to be more than a match for Dredd and there’s a real personal investment as Dredd loses officers under his command. There’s also something worrying about Dredd submitting to Hag, kneeling before the alien’s enormous chopper. Nice bootknife action too.
Everything Comes Back To 2000AD 