50-Word (Comic) Review: Judge Dredd//The Beating-Part Three- The end of an arc, and a compromise that destroys all that came before

Writer: John Wagner
Artist: Patrick Goddard
Published in: PROG 1960 of 2000AD
Release Date: 9th December 2015


Spotlight on state sanctioned violence, on the order following sociopath Dredds of the world, and as the finish line draws near, a compromise. Stockholm syndrome cowardice bows to slave state programming. Why? Writer? Editor? Owner? A false dawn of ‘Rebellion’ then back to the slave game of Police state obedience.


Rating: 5/10 (Good, but then three panels destroy it all)



How do they expect the reader to feel? Do they not care? I say ‘they’ because I don’t know who blame for what has happened at the end of this arc. Was it the writer? Did he not know how to end the story? Did he feel like he had gone too far, and deliberately rein himself in? Or did the editor look at the story, get worried that it was a bit too close to the truth, and order a compromised ending where everything would be brushed under the carpet? Who knows? They do, but they’re not going to tell me, are they?

The entire story arc of Judge Dredd/The Beating was about Police brutality. It was about the Police (as representatives of the state) and how they are given the authority to murder anybody that doesn’t instantly surrender, prostrate themselves on the floor and kiss their royal boots. 

This wasn’t a story about racism or racial profiling, or anything like that. It was a story about what the cops are allowed to get away with, because they ARE the state. Cop violence is the reality of the state. It is what the state actually is. The state is coercion backed up by the threat of violence from uniformed order following thugs. That statement is as true in a democracy as it is in any third world Islamic s***hole (hello Saudi Arabia). 

The state is always going to back-up it’s uniformed enforcers, because without the uniformed enforcers, there is no state. There’s a huge debate still raging in the US about this, and although the majority of protestors have mixed up ‘racism’ with what it actually is (statism) the issue of Police brutality is quite a hot button topic at the moment. So to see good old 2000AD deal with it over the past three weeks was a nice surprise for a comic book reader like myself who has become depressingly used to seeing reality being COMPLETELY IGNORED in his comic books. 

I read the last two issues of this arc, beamed like a anarchist Cheshire cat, and ran to the Internet to tell everybody how great it was that Matt Wagner was writing about something that actually had some kind of relevance in the real world. Do you know how many people actually review 2000AD on a weekly basis? Worldwide it’s hardly anybody at all, just me. I’m the only one who can be bothered. What does that say? Seriously, if the comic was so bloody cutting edge and essential reading, how many reviews do you think that it would get? It would be a heck of a lot more than just my half-hearted, moaning and complaining efforts, that's for sure. 

I want to say good things about this comic book. I really do. I’m always looking on the bright side, searching for the gems amongst the muck, and hoping, hoping, hoping that it will break through the toxic, circle-jerk cloud of neoliberal, progressive, multicultural guff that is choking the US comic book industry in 2015. I want 2000AD to be a beacon of sanity amongst the comic book progressive unreality that is coming out of the US right now, and occasionally, it gets close. 

And now, here comes the comedown to my goodwill party of delusional naïve optimism. In this, the final instalment of the Judge Dredd/The Beating arc, John Wagner has taken all of that goodwill, all of that hope and expectation, all of that praise that I showered upon him over the past two weeks, digested it, and cr***d it back all over face. 

Why am I so upset? What exactly has John Wagner done? 

He has written an ending to the arc (in the final three panels) where he reveals that Judge Dredd didn’t actually beat anybody to death at all, and is in-fact a hero working for the greater good. John Wagner has turned the embodiment of state sanctioned violence into a misunderstood hero, and in such a bumbling, unsatisfactory and unconvincing way that it reads like an addendum, added onto the story at the request of a panicking government/cop worshipping editor. The story ends as cuckolded as possible, signifying to the readers that there is no problem with cop violence, no problem at all. Go back to sleep. Thanks for reading. Reality is now closed for the foreseeable future. 

Do you see why I might be a little bit upset about this? A narrative that was exploring the very real problem that cops can beat you to death, and get away with it, has been turned into a story about the individual personality of Judge Dredd, and how he’s not really as bad as you first thought him to be. 

All of the contemporary concerns about state sanctioned violence have been left hanging in the wind. Nothing has been resolved. State authority is still legitimate. State sanctioned violent coercion is still legitimate. It was all about Judge Dredd. He didn’t beat a man to death. You have nothing to worry about now.

 I trusted a writer, and at the final hurdle, he massively compromised, and went back on everything that came before. This feels like (and here’s a dated reference) the Bobby Ewing shower scene in Dallas. Trust has been betrayed, and there’s no coming back from this one. 

Who made the decision? Will I ever find out? Does anybody at 2000AD even care? Probably not, and that’s the worst thing of all. I have read the story. I paid to read it. I reviewed it. I wasted my time, and my money. I’m the sucker here. I’m the idiot. They are laughing at me, and my anger, frustration and sense of betrayal will be completely ignored.

50-Word (comic) review: 2000AD-PROG 1959- Reflections on a world gone wrong

Writers and artists: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 2nd December 2015



2000AD, you really are spoiling me. What can I complain about when your stories are about Police brutality, political corruption, false justifications for war, resistance to tyrants and the ‘highest’ being questioned by the ‘lowest?’ This is how you get with the times. This is how you actually say something.


Rating: 10/10

Check out the following quotation from ‘Defoe//London Hanged’ by Pat Mills- 

‘By what authority are the highest in the land to be questioned by the lowest?’ 

Look at the front cover on this issue of 2000AD (by Cliff Robinson) where an unrepentant Judge Dredd is caught on a camera phone beating a civilian to death for the crime of talking back to him. 

Read ‘Bad Company//First Casualties’ a story where ex-soldiers find out that the war they risked their lived for was based on fear propaganda and lies. 

Something happened to 2000AD recently. I don’t know how or why, but something clicked, and rather than being lost in the silliness of identity politics (like US comic books) they started to reflect real world concerns within their narratives. 

When I read a typical DC, Marvel (and most of the 'indie' US books as well) I read nostalgia, style over substance, identity politics and the worship of collectivism and state authority. 

When I read 2000AD I read about individuality, resistance and the desire to be free from those that wish to enslave and control. PROG 1959 of 2000AD has three excellent stories: Dredd, Bad Company and Defoe. These three stories are UK stories. You will only get them in 2000AD. 

When people ask me- ‘Why should I bother reading 2000AD in 2015?’ I will point them to these three stories. If you care about the world around you, about what is happening now, then you will get a heck of a lot more insight from these stories than anything that you will read coming out of the almost completely worthless US comic book industry. 

For a story to excel, it has to reflect the times in which it is being written. We don’t live in the 1990’s anymore. The cold war is over. Things happened. They continue to happen all around us as I type these words. Comic books need to reflect these realities. We are not children, and we don’t need a ‘safe-space’ to protect us from harmful reality. 

When we get with reality, things change. Politicians cannot fob us off, as they always try to do, and they have to actually engage with the people that they are supposed to represent. 

That’s us, we are the people that are supposed to be in charge, not corporations, not banks, and not arms dealers. We get with reality and things start to change, so when I read 2000AD reflecting the real world of 2015 back into their narratives, that makes me very happy indeed.

Comic Review: 2000AD-PROG 1928: Three? That’s just being greedy.

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th April 2015



PROG 1928 of 2000AD is a bit of a laugh, and features a pleasingly juvenile obsession with breasts. I like that, and I like the fact that in a world obsessed with neo-liberal definitions of political correctness a comic book can still be just as silly as they used to be in the gloriously sexist comic book days of my youth.

The PROG doesn’t begin so humorously though, with Judge Dredd injecting some unpalatable, but essential truth into it’s narrative. That truth being that the state (in the form of its uniformed goons) will murder you if you fail to obey its commands. We are seeing this in the US at the moment, whether the protesting crowds realise it or not.

People in Baltimore are rightfully angry right now because Police are not being punished for their murderous actions, but the people appear to be under the mistaken belief that the murders are race related. They are not. They are power related.

The state (as embodied in it's uniformed agents) murders, because that is what states do, and when you vote for the red or blue liars you vote away your freedom, giving them the power to legally murder you if you fail to comply with their directives.

‘They know the law, and they know what happens if you break it.’ 

So says Judge Dredd, the order follower in a uniform, the man empowered by the state; the state empowered by the voter. The message is clear. Vote and you vote for state violence. That violence will be used against you if you fail to comply with the orders of the state. It’s not about skin colour; it’s about giving away your rights. That is Statism. That is what you are voting for.

Orlok had a special guest appearance from a slap headed female character who looked a lot like Tank Girl this week, but apart from that there was little going on. I’ll give it a pass though, as the story is usually interesting, it’s just a bit threadbare this week.

Slaine features the fantastically named villain ‘Lord Weird,’ and more insight into how childhood trauma creates a pacified and obedient adult.

Some adults use drugs to anaesthetise that childhood trauma. Others put on a uniform and ‘serve’ the authoritarian control system, masking their pain by causing pain to others, feeling like they are powerful when they are little more than traumatised children looking to gain power by joining a human slavery system.

Slaine is a rare man, a man who refuses to repeat the mistakes of his father, refuses to hurt people because he has been hurt, refuses to join a control system, defiantly shouting, ‘I am my own man.’ 

Slaine represents freedom, and his message is that to be truly free you have to fight to be free.

Slaine has unbelievably art, everybody knows that, but it’s also saying something important, something that needs to be said, especially in our increasingly enslaved, pacified times. That is rare, and that is why it is (and I’ve said it before) reason alone for you to be spending your money on 2000AD in 2015.

PROG 1928 of 2000AD starts to get funny now, and the last two stories (Grey Area and Strontium Dog) are tremendously amusing in a boyish, juvenile, let’s see what we can get away with, kind of way. Two is good, but three? That’s just greedy. Sorry, I’ve said too much, just get the book, have a giggle, and thank me later.

2000AD has been exceptional recently. I always get a lot out of it, and this week’s addition adds some giggles to the mix alongside the more serious, adult, let’s think about the nature of authority stuff that I always go on about in my reviews. It’s a tremendously entertaining book, and the perfect to way to start your new comic book week.


Best story: Slaine/Primordial: 10/10 (Still awesome)

Worst story: Orlok/Rasputin Caper: 6/10 (A bit tepid this week, but it’s still a good story)

Overall rating: 9/10 (Heavy giggle factor this week and a lot of fun)