I've been looking forward to reading "Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man" for a while now, as I've been getting the impression that Ken Niemand is considered a rather good and inventive Dredd writer. Apart from "Surfer", recent Dredd trades have felt rather flat, so a return to form would definitely be welcome.
Unfortunately that hope has been dashed by yet another lame set of stories. "A Penitent Man" has some potentially intriguing ideas - SJS doing dodgy things to keep convicted ex-Judges out of MC1 - but it's handled in such a by-the-numbers way. I was yawning over the ho-hum idea of yet again making everything dystopian even more so. "Of course" they're all bad, "Of course" they do whatever they want. The story tries to ratchet up tension by ratcheting up the scale, until at the end of the first part of the triptych, there's an army of SJS Judges lining up, but in the end it falls flat. "Asher stays with me," says Dredd, and that's that. No "Too bad, Dredd, this is an SJS matter now". No plans to push Asher under a zoom train the next day.
By the time we get to the second story, the pivotal strong idea of Asher trying to be an honest man depite MC1 is thrown away. Within a few pages we see him beating someone up, getting illegal access to Justice dept computers, and planning to go less than slightly legal with an operation that may restore some of what was taken from him on Titan.
The story is drawn by Tom Foster, who, as we know from the cover of "Every Empire Falls", can do a very good Bolland, but the work is uneven. It's very proficient and looks great in places, but not always. We see the 'side view of grumpy Dredd looking at <person> like he's smelled something bad' shot more than once. Sometimes it looks good (and Bolland-y), but other times Dredd looks like a gummy old Popeye wondering where his false teeth have got to. It's all drawn with skill but just look at Dredd riding away on his Lawmaster at the bottom of page two of "An Honest Man". We know how long those Lawmasters are, but Dredd looks like his seat is only centimetres from the front of the bike. The very next panel, at the top of page three, has a helmeted Judge talking. We can't see his badge and he's in no way differentiated from Dredd. I was completely confused for a moment, thinking it was Dredd, then rationalising that the 'riding away' panel was actually Dredd saddling up and here he was speaking before riding off, until I realised what was going on, and this is part of the problem. He could have been helmetless, or had a beard, or been a different skin colour, or drawn holding something or with his badge showing, or even been drawn with Dredd visible in the background. The art is certainly very professional, and well done technically, but it's variable all round.- lookl, story telling, choices in panel composition. It doesn't help that the SJS play a large part in things, as, in my opinion, they have the stupidest and most awful uniforms of all the MC1 Judges.
Like "Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge", the paper stock is super-thick again. I'm not sure if this is to make the book feel more substantial, or just a cost (or supply) issue, but more than once I thought I'd turned over two pages at a time and spent a few annoying seconds trying to separate what none should separate. This wouldn't be a problem if the book ihad page numbers, but it doesn't. Having advocated (to derision!) for page numbers since the first JD Case Files appeared, and being very appreciative since they were introduced, I don't understand why Tharg isn't ensuring every trade has page numbers. I'm sure P14 has extra capacity.
I thought this was the first Kenneth Niemand I'd read, but looking back I realise I'd already read some of his work in the equally underwhelming "Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge". Considering that this is all as lame as "Judge Dredd: Regicide", my new suggestion for the identity of Ken Niemand has to be Arthur Wyatt & Rob Williams. I don't know if anyone else has suggested that he could be more than one person, but remember: Niemand is an island.
Unfortunately that hope has been dashed by yet another lame set of stories. "A Penitent Man" has some potentially intriguing ideas - SJS doing dodgy things to keep convicted ex-Judges out of MC1 - but it's handled in such a by-the-numbers way. I was yawning over the ho-hum idea of yet again making everything dystopian even more so. "Of course" they're all bad, "Of course" they do whatever they want. The story tries to ratchet up tension by ratcheting up the scale, until at the end of the first part of the triptych, there's an army of SJS Judges lining up, but in the end it falls flat. "Asher stays with me," says Dredd, and that's that. No "Too bad, Dredd, this is an SJS matter now". No plans to push Asher under a zoom train the next day.
By the time we get to the second story, the pivotal strong idea of Asher trying to be an honest man depite MC1 is thrown away. Within a few pages we see him beating someone up, getting illegal access to Justice dept computers, and planning to go less than slightly legal with an operation that may restore some of what was taken from him on Titan.
The story is drawn by Tom Foster, who, as we know from the cover of "Every Empire Falls", can do a very good Bolland, but the work is uneven. It's very proficient and looks great in places, but not always. We see the 'side view of grumpy Dredd looking at <person> like he's smelled something bad' shot more than once. Sometimes it looks good (and Bolland-y), but other times Dredd looks like a gummy old Popeye wondering where his false teeth have got to. It's all drawn with skill but just look at Dredd riding away on his Lawmaster at the bottom of page two of "An Honest Man". We know how long those Lawmasters are, but Dredd looks like his seat is only centimetres from the front of the bike. The very next panel, at the top of page three, has a helmeted Judge talking. We can't see his badge and he's in no way differentiated from Dredd. I was completely confused for a moment, thinking it was Dredd, then rationalising that the 'riding away' panel was actually Dredd saddling up and here he was speaking before riding off, until I realised what was going on, and this is part of the problem. He could have been helmetless, or had a beard, or been a different skin colour, or drawn holding something or with his badge showing, or even been drawn with Dredd visible in the background. The art is certainly very professional, and well done technically, but it's variable all round.- lookl, story telling, choices in panel composition. It doesn't help that the SJS play a large part in things, as, in my opinion, they have the stupidest and most awful uniforms of all the MC1 Judges.
Like "Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge", the paper stock is super-thick again. I'm not sure if this is to make the book feel more substantial, or just a cost (or supply) issue, but more than once I thought I'd turned over two pages at a time and spent a few annoying seconds trying to separate what none should separate. This wouldn't be a problem if the book ihad page numbers, but it doesn't. Having advocated (to derision!) for page numbers since the first JD Case Files appeared, and being very appreciative since they were introduced, I don't understand why Tharg isn't ensuring every trade has page numbers. I'm sure P14 has extra capacity.
I thought this was the first Kenneth Niemand I'd read, but looking back I realise I'd already read some of his work in the equally underwhelming "Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge". Considering that this is all as lame as "Judge Dredd: Regicide", my new suggestion for the identity of Ken Niemand has to be Arthur Wyatt & Rob Williams. I don't know if anyone else has suggested that he could be more than one person, but remember: Niemand is an island.