Mega City Zero (IDW)

[dweezil2]

As this is officially coming to an end after issue 12, anyone heard any rumours regarding IDW Dredd V3.0?

I'm sure artist Ulises Farinas stated that something is happening Dredd related in 2017.

[I, Cosh]

As this is officially coming to an end after issue 12, anyone heard any rumours regarding IDW Dredd V3.0?

I'm sure artist Ulises Farinas stated that something is happening Dredd related in 2017.

Think he was talking about the movie sequel.

[blackmocco]

Farinas has mentioned on his FB page he'll be writing Dredd in 2017. Spoke to him at SDCC and he said IDW were interested in returning Dredd back to more recognisable environments and stories.

(He's a very nice chap.)

[dweezil2]

Farinas has mentioned on his FB page he'll be writing Dredd in 2017. Spoke to him at SDCC and he said IDW were interested in returning Dredd back to more recognisable environments and stories.

(He's a very nice chap.)

Good news that Dredd will have further presence with a U.S title next year! 

[Rogue Judge]

It Seems the IDW book will live on, in this new annual!

Ulises Farinas (W/A/C), Erick Freitas (W), Dan McDaid (A), Pablo Tunica (A), Pablo Tunica (VC),

It has been 10 years since the events of Mega-City Zero, and Judge Dredd continues his mission to restore order to a lawless land. But what has been happening on Luna-1 and in Mega-City Two, and how might that affect Dredd's sworn duty? The mystery of The Blessed Earth begins to unfold here!

[COMMANDO FORCES]

They've even dared to make a subscription cover at that price.

[Jim_Campbell]

I'm sure artist Ulises Farinas stated that something is happening Dredd related in 2017.

There's also John McCrea's as-yet-unannounced Dredd thing he's writing and drawing for IDW, which is due March-ish next year.

[Colin YNWA]

I appreciate I'm in a minority here (a very small one at that!) but I for one am quite happy to see this incarnation of Dredd continue, if surprised.

Didn't seem to be doing great numbers and critical reaction (from the little I've seen beyond the Boards own response!) wasn't overwhelming.

Still I think its provided a really fresh and very different version of Dredd, but one I've enjoyed on its own terms.

[James Stacey]

I have enjoyed it for what it is. Leaving aside the 'it's not our Dredd' argument it's readable and batshit crazy in its own way.

[Dreddzilla]

Finally finished it and I must say I am at a loss for words here. It's definitely the most bizarre Judge Dredd series I've read to date.

I want Dredd to succeed in America, but this series isn't going to do that, I mean it just ended in such a clusferfudge that I'm having a somewhat difficult time figuring out what I read. 

[Rogue Judge]

I am also baffled by this series as well. I'm not entirely sure what they are hoping to achieve by making it so bizarre and non-linear. IDW should just follow the formula 2000AD has established over the last 40 years.

I did enjoy parts of this series (mostly the first 6 issues and the mystery behind waking up in the green) but the ending was pretty confusing. [spoiler]Why was it that Iggy was the grass and she needed to be destroyed before reality could be restored? Did Berger bestow that upon her - if so how and why Iggy?[/spoiler] Too many unanswered questions...that I don't particularly care are answered in the series.

However, I didn't hate the series; the art was great throughout and I am curious do see where it goes next. Hopefully the February annual provides some clarification and a new direction.

[Colin YNWA]

Well just finished a re-read of Mega City Zero and read over three nights with limited distractions I'm going to declare it a qualified triumph of a comic.

Why qualified?

Well I love Dan McDaid's art, but I'm not sure it was the right choice for this story. It needed something sharper, cleaner to allow the ideas in the story, to allow the considered madness to really shine. Dan McDaid's art it hard and bitter. It looks jaded and tough and in that would be perfect for so many Dredd's. Having read this we could only dream of what a success it would have been drawn by Brendan McCarthy or with co-writer's Farinas' art. Maybe that would have been too obvious, and the very juxtaposition was a choice to reflect one of the key themes of the story... just don't think it helped the appreciation?

If you look at the Jesus Redondo issue though I do get a sense that issue moves that way. Redondo being almost a middle house between what the art was and what I could envisage it to be, still tough and hard, but with a clean crisp line that carried things more clearly.

Anyway the art is great, just not the right art for me on this tale.

The tale itself is also a qualified triumph. Its a bit of a cliche to compare things to Alice in Wonderland... but I'm old, lazy and dumb enough to do it anyway. This is Dredd in Wonderland. Its broken story structure like the the various crazied scenarios that Alice finds herself in. Each depicting commentry on one aspect of society before lurching via hole, biscuit, potion or whatever to the next. This is exactly what Mega City Zero does. It retains Dredd's social inspection, while at the same time providing a very close examination of Dredd and his world by throwing him unceremoniously out of it.

I loved the very direct commentry on online behaviour, mascultiity and more it hammered home some really nice satire, seemingly jarringly, but with a coherant story pulling you through when you looked at it read the way I have. And I have to say it ended the story magnificently when for long periods I could not imagine how it would and couldn't quite remember.

The qualified bit is that even read in one go (ish) it does hammer and it is jarring. The very things its trying to be do make it a struggle at times. Flipping you the reader around as it does Dredd. Disorientating you with him and hammering so many ideas home sometimes its hard to keep track. Still with a bit of effort and an open mind it really worked.

As I've said before its certainly not our Dredd. But we have loads of our Dredd, so I'm really happy the team that produced this book had the courage not only to give us a brave and original new story and way to explore Dredd. But did so with such conviction and dedication to their abnormal aims.

Well worth a revisit.