JUDGE DREDD: IDW #18 "The American Way of Death - Part 2"

[COMMANDO FORCES]

And so the story continues!

Cover A - Shane Pierce
Subscription Variant - Michael Avon Oeming

The American Way of Death - Part 1
ART - Nelson Daniel
SCRIPT - Swierczynski

This starts with Dredd and Harvies (Pachoda) fighting all the Justice Department Prison droids, which seem to be awful shots, Harvies manages to take a load out with a weapon he's holding, some sort of laser shovel

They take refuge in a building and after a few bits of dialogue Judge Omar knocks on the door (don't forget, we are on Titan) and when he's let in he informs them of the stomm back in the city. We find out that the last Dark Judge is called Judge Blank and she banished him here. Their plan is to use Judge Blank as a conduit the other way and get back to the city.

Dredd borrows Omar's daystick and not his Lawgiver (in this version you can't alter the palm reader to use his Lawgiver, as Dredd tells Harvies 'it's not coded to me. I touch his Lawgiver, it EXPLODES.') They then fight their way out towards Judge Blank and use it as the aforementioned conduit to Mega-City One

Sadly for the citizens of the city Judge Cal orders the raising of the Containment Shield, trapping everyone inside Sector One behind a wall that vapourises anything that touches it. This happens right in front of Dredd and Harvies and luckily for Joe, he's found a new uniform and Lawgiver now.

We end with the pair taking on Judge Choke, Judge Sludge and Judge Metastasis and amazingly one of the cits that make up Metastasis is Harvies, the real one!


The writing of this is absolutely ludicrous. I can take a coincidence or two to help a story flow but this is like something from Scooby Doo. As for the art, now we all know we don't see Joe's face but the use of the hood at the start of the story just beggers belief

[Dark Jimbo]

Beyond satire, beyond parody, there is only IDW's Dredd series.

[Frank]

I'm sure I'll end up reading the IDW series eventually, but your exasperated summaries have been very entertaining in the meantime, John.

[blackmocco]

Commando Forces - doing the dirty work so the rest of us don't have to. If that's not worthy of a KTT, I don't know what is.

[Bat King]

I actually thought this was one of the better issues... And it is still rubbish.

Still not reviewing this. Still reading...

[Judge Olde]

I saw & read this yesterday. Minutes of my life I won't get back. It really is beyond dire. I'm sure IDW could have done something good with Dredd, but this really isn't it.

[BPP]

How much are people paying for the privilege of this? Its costing me 3.30 per issue at my LCS and I'm not sure I can justify that much longer.

SURELY there is a new creative team coming for this. Its been nearly two years..

[Magnetica]

I'm still subscribing to this.

Not really sure why.

A previous review was pointing out how it was merging Judge Death with the Day the Law Died.

Now it seems like they have added Titan to it.

3 all time classic 2000AD stories...mix them together and..you get...well its a bit like what happens to plasticine when you mix the colours together.

But actually its not even that...the one thing this series has been from the start is consistent....

Then again I could say England were consistent in the Ashes last winter.

[Judge Olde]

Anyone have any idea on their sales figures for this muddle? Burdis? A lot of our Dredd stories worked really well (asides from DOC), it would have been better if they'd simply changed the format, perhaps. Though I am sure there are a zillion reasons they couldn't just do that.

With some of the amazing work in other US titles, the art droid(s) working on this IDW nonsense seems to be on full malfunction. I can't imagine this making the mid 20's for issues & sadly it's one comic I'd like to see go. But then, where does that leave Dredd with the US audience. I hope a lot of them new already to leave this well alone & read 2000ad. . . 

[TordelBack]

(asides from DOC)

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless squaxx!   

[Frank]

Anyone have any idea on their sales figures for this

It sells the same number of issues as IDW's GI Joe, Godzilla, and Ghostbusters titles, but many fewer copies than the breakout success of their My Little Pony comic. Wolk and Farinas's Megacity Two sells surprisingly well too. Prog Dredd might very well be better than the regular US Dredd title, but IDW's Judge Dredd Classic reprint series sells half that of IDW's own original content.

Looking at some of the high profile titles which don't sell nearly as well as IDW Dredd is food for thought, but then so is the disparity between IDW Dredd and the top selling US titles.

[TordelBack]

I'm not in any hurry to showcase my ignorance about the comic book industry yet again, but once your book sells enough to cover its costs, surely the measure of (financial) success is how many copies of the trade you can shift over the long term?  Thus when you see something like 100 Bullets down in the 200's, it doesn't really reflect the fact that most libraries and many bookshops are going to be buying that content for years. Whereas Earth 2 up in the 20s, while not a bad book, doesn't strike me as a likely perennial.

With the Dredd Classics, there must be at least another two versions (some of them even with the pages in the right order) of that material on sale in most buildings that contain it.  That it shifts any copies at all is surely a success?

[COMMANDO FORCES]

As it stands, from the charts above, which your local comic shop can tell you the numbers, if you ask!

Chart position 236 - Judge Dredd #16 - $3.99 - IDW - 6,456
Chart position 262 - Judge Dredd Mega City Two #2 - $3.99 - IDW - 5,700
Chart position 366 - Judge Dredd Classics #8 - $3.99 - IDW - 2,588
Chart position 397 - Sinister Dexter #3 - $3.99 - IDW - 1,595

[Colin YNWA]

Just bare in mind that assuming they are the Comicchron figures (which I think they are but apologies John if I'm wrong there) they are estimates based on the figures from Diamond and only account for sales in North American (inc Canada). Other markets, so the UK for example, aren't included.

The UK is estimated typically at adding another 10% but you'd think (??? well maybe???) a Dredd title might do disproportionately better here?

All that said shame to see Sinister Dexter tanking so badly. With it I'd guess goes my last great hope of getting a decent trade reprint series for this strip going again... mind what do I know if there ever was a hope OR whether they won't try a trade problem... but I thought if this series did well it'd certainly help things.

[TordelBack]

All that said shame to see Sinister Dexter tanking so badly. With it I'd guess goes my last great hope of getting a decent trade reprint series for this strip going again... mind what do I know if there ever was a hope OR whether they won't try a trade problem... but I thought if this series did well it'd certainly help things.

It's a shame, I would buy a new trade series in an instant, and I was all set to support Sinister Dexter by buying the reprint until I saw it was launching with the not-very-good Money Shots and lost heart instantly.  I'm not sure how I would started it, but it wouldn't be with that.