Yep, this is a good one. And like broodbilk this is the first time in an age where Lawless didnt take the number one spot for me- for the same reasons. I'm not one for musical comics- going right back to that Robo Hunter story in the prog back in the day, I've found them generally irritating.
That said, this one was better than most as the lyrics served the story and the story was fantastic as I would expect from Lawless. And, of course, the art was phenomenal.
But still, top thrills for me were Dredd, Megatropolis and Dreadnoughts- and of those I would not like to choose between them. While Dredd was as youd expect, a superb piece of writing and art, Megatropolis was instantly absorbing and probably the best example of art absolutely fitting the tone of the story in a way that is seldom gotten exactly right in comics... it was probably Dreadnoughts that impressed me the most.
I've not read the "Early judges" books, but the way this was ripped off the front pages of the newspaper (figuratively) in front of me and from the headlines of the news I'm watching while writing this actually put a shiver up my spine. If this were a lesser writer than Mike Carroll I'd worry that the mirroring of this story by current events would put the comic at risk of media ire for having dared to go there. As it is, I hope some media outlet picks up on it because this is 2000AD at its very best and proof if any were needed that comics can be relevant to people over the age of six.
I'm not a fan of these Judge Death spin off things- neither this one or Deadworld do much for me, but the art here is nice. The Anderson strip was perfunctory and stuck out like a sore thumb when surrounded by much better material and I have no idea what The Returners is about or why it is there.
Encyclopaedia part one was as I expected it to be. Are we to have this every month for the next year with no more comics? Hmm. Not happy about that, but hey ho.
SBT