Dredd: Uprise #1 - Rebellion

DREDD: UPRISE No. 1, October 2014

When a motion picture only earns just over $41,000,000, a demoralizing four million dollars less than what it reportedly cost to actually make, and despite some generally positive reviews as to its visual effects and acting, overall receives little critical praise, then there is not much chance that a second feature film will occur. No matter how popular its home media sales are or that it is subsequently ‘awarded’ cult hit status. Unless… the 2012 science fiction movie in question is based upon the popular “2000 A.D.” comic strip “Judge Dredd”, and the ‘official’ sequel is actually a two-issue mini-series scripted by Arthur Wyatt and drawn by Paul Davidson.

Interestingly though, even this thirty-page publication by “Rebellion” steers away from the rather insular and claustrophobic narrative of the film and instead of just showing Joseph Dredd (and Cassandra Anderson) bottled-up battling local criminals, portrays the entire Justice Department combating what initially appears to be the machinations of a seriously organized crime syndicate known as Uprise.

Indeed the future lawman is far from being the central character for much of the story, and predominantly just appears to push the main plot along. It is only when the seasoned veteran takes disgraced rookie street Judge Conti under his wing in order to search the “old Richardson building” for a suspected sniper, that Dredd is shown at his no-nonsense and dry-humored best. Instead, the British writer drip feeds the reader with a succession of one or two page long scenes, which quite quickly introduce a potentially overwhelming array of different characters to the Mega-City One uninitiated.

Most noteworthy however has to be Judge Darryl, “some old judge, probably hanging on to the job past the point he should have retired.” This portly double-chinned lawman is as violent as he is vindictive, and it is somewhat predictable that he is revealed to be the corrupt link in the chain of events which concludes the first instalment of “Dredd: Uprise”.

Unsurprisingly for such an evidently well-made and gloss-finished magazine, the artwork of Davidson is rather nicely done. The freelance illustrator’s Judge uniforms are especially representative of their ‘big screen’ counterparts. Whilst his impressive cityscapes are wonderfully detailed and sweeping as well. The man definitely has a style reminiscent of the late “Rogue Trooper” legend Brett Ewins, especially in his design of Oemling’s robot auxiliaries. Chris Blythe on colours must also take some credit for the lavishly rich look to the book’s drawings though, providing the comic with a suitably squalid overall feel despite incorporating a hint of red or green whenever the opportunity arises.

The regular cover art of "DREDD: UPRISE" No. 1 by Ben Willsher