The Monthly Megazine Issue #433: Is It Deliverance Day For Death?

The Monthly Megazine – doing just what it says, taking you through the latest goings-on in the sister monthly to 2000 AD, 30+ years and still going strong!

The latest Judge Dredd Megazine hit shops and digital on Wednesday 16th June – yes, I know, this is late… blame life!

Anyway, this issue we get the finale to the excellent Dominion by David Hine and Nick Percival, along with that incredible wraparound cover, full of all the brilliance and grotesque beauty that you’d expect. There’s continuations of the saga of the demonic dildo in Devlin Waugh, more from those Diamond Dogs, and another return to The Returners. But starting it all off, the beginning of another Dredd multi-parter from Rory McConville and Staz Johnson.

Okay then… if you’re all sitting comfortably, we shall begin…

JUDGE DREDD: PROJECT PROVIDENCE – PART 1 – Rory McConville, Staz Johnson, colours by Pippa Bowland, letters by Annie Parkhouse

A brand-new project dealing in time travel from the Judges in MC-1 – because that’s always gone so well for them in the past, hasn’t it?

This time, under the lead of Judge Grant, they’ve already sent a first squaduk  of Chrono-Agents six months into the future, sending back info about tech that the Judges haven’t even imagined. You can understand Chief-Judge Logan’s thinking, with MC-1 still desperately reeling from Chaos Day, they’re way behind the other countries in weapons development, so this Chrono-solution might be the thing that gives them the drop on the opposition, even if most of Judge Grant’s tech boffins are fugitives from other countries.

Anyway, forward four months since the announcement of the time travel project, and Dredd is, predictably, not exactly enamoured by the whole thing.

The trouble is, the new advancements do seem to be working out there on the streets and in the Tek-Div.

But, as you’d expect with anything twisty-turny timey-wimey in MC-1, there’s going to be a price to pay somewhere along the line – especially when the foreign cities begin to see their drawing board tech on the streets of MC-1.

DEVLIN WAUGH: THE RECKONING – PART 2 – Ales Kot, Mike Dowling, letters by Simon Bowland

Poor Titty, the indignity of it all, trapped inside a little drawstring bag, protesting to anyone out there that all he wanted was to do good, to not go back to hell…

So, time to send Titty back. Devlin’s got the binding spell sorted, has the tight spells, and then… well, it’s never really a surprise when the devil changes the rules, is it?

Where to start here? Sure, Ales Kot’s story is enthralling, milking every last bit of our love for Titty out of us (no, not in that way, get yer mind out the gutter), but the real star is Mike Dowling’s artwork. It is just… well, wow. We start in tight 9-panel grids, pulling back from Titty, making a couple of pages of Titty talking look so beautiful – and seriously, how many artists can say they’ve made page after page of zoomed-in panels of a talking dildo look beautiful?

After that though, once the spells get cast, then Dowling really does let loose and it’s a wonderful thing to see. The dread that he gets into every panel, the incredible texturing he gets onto Devlin (and Titty), leading to that double-page spread of the actual working, and then the darkness descending and the reveal… it is just the most amazing work.

DIAMOND DOGS – BOOK 2 – PART 3 – James Peaty, Warren Pleece, letters by Simon Bowland

Ex-Diamond Dog gang member and still current Brit-Cit Justice Department informer, Nia, has a job to do – with the target being the key underboss in the Euro-Cit Crime Union, currently having a little trip to Brit-Cit.

So, it’s all about getting the gang back together and getting into position. Of course, the sweetener to the deal was that the Euro-Cit boss, Eric Du Pont, happens to be the man who killed her dad.

Cue flashback to Nia and Dad, with a mystery locket daddy gives to daughter, something that’s probably going to be coming up later in the series.

And then it’s back to the now, Nia and the Dogs having a teat-gas chat with Big Pig, all to get the security gig at the next meeting between the Brit-Cit crime bosses and Du Pont’s Euro-Cit Crime Union.

It’s all going so well, but that’s just not going to last, is it?

THE RETURNERS – AMAZONIA – PART 2 – Si Spencer, Nicolo Assirelli, colours by Eva De La Cruz, letters by Jim Campbell

The last work of the late Si Spencer, who sadly passed early this year. The Returners, the group of disparate individuals returned to life, are back in South-Am, with a Justice Dept on their trail.

There’s another little addition to their group now, the Judge who sent them off in the first place, on the run from the South-Am Judges herself. And then things get a bit weird indeed.

A frequent criticism I had of this one was that it was light on the details, with very little going on each episode, albeit with all that gorgeous, open artwork from Nicolo Assirelli. But here, we actually get a hell of a lot more going on than normal, and it definitely improves things – with absolutely no difference at all to the standard of the artwork.

THE DARK JUDGES – DELIVERANCE – PART 10 – FINAL PART – David Hine, Nick Percival, letters by Annie Parkhouse

This series of the Dark Judges has really rather had it all – the fascinating storyline, the over the top ridiculousness, the gags, and that beautifully grotesque artwork… we even got to see Nick Percival’s new alien designs for the Dark Judges; all in all, this one’s been tremendous fun all round.

This episode, we get a neat resolution to all that’s gone on, with the Dark Judges being pitted against one another after uncovering the secret behind the magnificently nuts Kalula.

Oh, and we get this, possibly the line of the series…

If you were all going to live after you die, what would be the point of killing you? Moronsssss!

It’s been a blast, and it’s a series that I’ll be looking forward to seeing return at some point.