Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files + The Restricted Files+ The Daily Dredds

by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Brian Bolland (Illustrator)

Judge Dredd rides into action in this fifth volume collecting together some of his most exciting cases. Arch-nemesis Judge Death rises from the grave once again in Judge Death Lives, citizen is pitted against citizen in Block Mania and the apocalypse comes to Mega-City One in the all-time classic Dredd epic, The Apocalypse War.

Judge Dredd rides into action in this fifth volume collecting together some of his most exciting cases. Arch-nemesis Judge Death rises from the grave once again in Judge Death Lives, citizen is pitted against citizen in Block Mania and the apocalypse comes to Mega-City One in the all-time classic Dredd epic, The Apocalypse War. Featuring art by such comic legends as Brian Bolland (Batman: The Killing Joke), Carlos Ezquerra and Mike McMahon and written by John Wagner (A History of Violence) and Alan Grant (Lobo/i>) this tome is a worthy addition to any Thrill-seeker’s library!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Fiction, Dystopia, Graphic Novels Comics

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 1981

About the author

John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Judge Death's second showing is pretty great, but I think it should also have been his last one. Or the second to last before Necropolis, at most. These days the Dark Judges have been milked for all their worth and more: Judge Dredd is a flexible comicbook where a lot of things go, but unkillable supervillains ain't one of them.

This first Hotdog Run really is pretty brutal compared to the later ones. In stories such as Hunting Party and Sturm Und Dang, everyone survives and passes. Perhaps over the decades, even the Justice Department has learned - figured out how to get the lessons across better - but in this version it really emphasizes the harsh nature of the training to be a Judge, and how much is needed of the cadets, and how easily you may be found wanting.

And then of course there's the main event, the Block Mania and the ensuing Apocalypse War. I appreciate Day of Chaos trying to make a citywide berserk plague something to be taken a little more seriously, but overall it's still just a fairly weak shadow compared to this first going. You just can't top nukes.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnificent. I’d never actually read The Apocalypse War but it really is great. The stories before that aren’t quite as good, apart from Judge Death Lives which is a classic and contains the single best frame of comic art in existence.

[Mhorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Features one if the most insane Dredd epics ever, the apocalypse war!

In Dredds early years there are two tremendous, borderline insane epics. One is of course, The Cursed Earth. The other is The Apocalypse War. Beginning as a scheme from the rulers of Sov City East Meg One to bring Dredds city to the ground, it's mayhem and craziness frm beginning to end!

[Martyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the reasons I loved 2000AD the first time around was that the story lines seemed to have some sort of planned arc, whatever the relative merits of that storyline. This volume is no exception and I delighted in the fact that the 9 episode arc of the Block Mania story was simply a scene setter for the 25 story Apocalypse War.

The Apocalypse War mirrors the other early epics in the Dredd series, in that I never got round to reading the whole thing before; I missed a lot of progs in the early years until my awesome father decided he was going to bring 2000AD home every Monday regardless of my waxing and waning tastes! So it's great to be able to catch up like this.

The Apocalypse War is, of course, melodrama in the extreme but it's also a science fiction opera crying out for a movie treatment. It deals with big political issues but also tries to get at the human aspects of survival. I think it does a great job of showing the fate of the masses (the 99%?) when two competing forces lose their minds; because, let's not pretend, the law in Mega City One and its favorite Judge are at best Conservtive in tone and so the citizens are not likely to be leading happy lives regardless of who wins the war. This story also predicts quite nicely what may happen should rogue, or not so rogue, leaders get their hands on destructive weaponry.

The reason that 2000AD works so well is that there is no pandering - even as a 10 year old I remember being blown away by some of the story lines, in fact I remember not understanding some of what I read. As an adult I'm able to appreciate the nuances a lot more and it's made me a bigger fan.

[Eddie B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book in one day. My experience with volume 4 made my expectations high. And the hype on «Judge Death Lives» made them even higher. I wasn't very fond of «Judge Death Lives» nor those long "epics" that take up the second half of the book: «Block Mania» & «The Apocalypse War». In fact I preferred the shorter stories of the first half.

[Alex Habgood · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you wanted to read some iconic Dredd story, that really move the world forward, case files 5 is probably a good starting point. Stories include:
-The Mega Rackets
-Judge Death Lives
-Hot Dog Run
-Block-Mania
-The Apocalypse War

These seem to be setting up some of the most iconic characters and world building of the series. Mega-City One is no longer a daily grind for Dredd, where crime never changes. Instead Judge Anderson and Judge Death are resurrected, it establishes the hot dog run as a rite of passage for judges, and the city itself as a setting is drastically altered.

So now the interest is seeing how Dredd adapts to this new reality.

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, let’s get the non Block Mania/ Apocalypse War stories out of the way. Wagner seems to be coalescing his ideas of Dredd’s world at an incredible rate, helped no end by Grant. The Mega Rackets widens the scope of the series but still focuses things on actual crimes. We get a Futsie story, some more Cursed Earth shenanigans including the first Hot Dog Run and a general tone of writers and artists in complete control of their universe. Hell, even Death comes back with company, including probably the most iconic panel in Judge Dredd history

Which they then utterly destroy

For some reason, in all my years as a 2000AD reader I have never read the Apocalypse War series - all the precursors and responses, but never the actual thing. As a huge fan of Day of Chaos, I now appreciate how much that exists as an echo and response to this. Block Mania slowly builds the tension (whilst also incorporating gonzo violence), with McMahon and Bolland taking their leave of the strip, Ron Smith capably carrying much of the story and new artist Steve Dillon knocking it out of the park in his first story. It carefully builds on threads and ideas the story has been creating over the last four or five years and inexorably builds to a climax. Beat for beat it’s an approach Day of Chaos refines and comments upon

And then the war itself. Over in nine days, much of Mega City One is destroyed while Tex City and Mega City Two look on in powerless horror. The story becomes in essence a cross between SF horror and old fashioned war comic, but one that spends 3/4 of the time having the ostensible good guys (and that ostensible is really stretched here, for the first time) lose horribly before bouncing back and devastating the Sov Block in retaliation. Day of Chaos is mostly build up with the devastation a terrible domino effect of events towards the end. This is all action and drama and mayhem and incredible violence and horror. Ezquerra finally debuts properly on the series he designed and it’s astonishing to see one of these epics done by one artist all the way through. It’s like the strip was waiting for him to show up and demonstrate exactly how this world looks

The story is flawed and at times very scrappy, but it’s definitely a real step up in showing what the comic could do. For all those faults, it’s an astonishing work of mature confidence and arguably is the high water mark of the early golden years of Dredd as a series

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judge Dredd is a total badass riding around on his motorcycle and stomping on all the creeps of Mega-City One! I heard this volume of the Complete Case Files was a good place to start if you're new to Judge Dredd. I've never really read these types of old school hero comics before but something about Dredd interested me. I suppose the dystopian setting had a big role in that.

While I'm definitely a new fan of Dredd as a character I have mixed feelings about the comics. The tone just seems a little off, it's an odd mix of silly and serious. There are goofy aliens and the blocks are named after 1970s pop culture and Dredd has a Jar Jar Binks-esque robot named Walter. The crimes are sort of kid friendly with things like addictive "candy" and then you have villains playing Russian roulette, which I personally think is really dark. So I had a hard time figuring out who the intended audience was (which was important to me because I bought it for one of my nephews).

My absolute favorite story in the whole collection was Judge Death Lives. There you get to meet Judge Anderson for the first time in this collection, and instead of goofy sci-fi stuff there's another dimension with these weird undead villains. It's very dark and a little scary. While there are still silly elements (they're judging the living because the living commit crime?) I felt like there was finally a good mix of seriousness and intrigue. I also enjoyed the art in this part of the series, with easily read text and full page pictures. And come on, Dredd is so badass!

"Gaze into the FACE OF FEAR!"
For a moment the icy chill of terror courses down Dredd's spine. The shock of this gaze can kill an ordinary man. But Dredd is a Judge - and Judges are not ordinary men!
"GAZE INTO THE FIST OF DREDD!"

At the end of this collection you get into the Apocalypse War which comes in 25 parts, plus 9 parts of Block Mania that lead up to the war. I sort of enjoyed Block Mania more and I imagine the Apocalypse storyline was more exciting during the Cold War. It was definitely action packed if that's something you like! I think my opinion might have been influenced by Ezquerra's weird small lipped Dredd, I preferred the more snarly frowny versions by Bolland and Smith.

[Michael Emond · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the case file people in the know say is one of the best because of the Apocalypse war (which runs 22 chapters) is in it. And while I enjoyed this - my first Judge Dredd book - I actually would say the AW was my least fav part of the book. It was SUCH a downer with so much death that it became almost absurd. And yes, that is a weird criticism of a book that is all about extremes and the absurdity of life in this bleak future society but that chunk was even too much for me. Also, I really hate the art of Ezquerra. It is (to me) very amateurish. But luckily the first half of the book was so strong I still enjoyed this book.

It is hard to describe Dredd, since it is so different than most comic books I read. And while I am glad not all of them have the bleak tone of this book, I will say it was a very interesting read for its uniqueness. Basically, what we have is a sci fi future where the authors explore themes from the present day when they are taken to extremes. What saves it from being too bleak is the character of Dredd. He wins. He wins in a no nonsense way that takes no prisoners. You break the rules - you die. A forerunner of the Punisher in every way.

These volumes are an amazing value for the money. Would I buy another? I'm not sure. But I am glad I have this collection of a very unique comic book character, with some very creative stories told in 5-6 page segments.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Returning back to the dystopian world of Judge Dredd and Megacity 1 after almost 2 years away was just what I needed, and picking up the saga again with The Complete Case Files 05 was just the place to do it.

It's already been said in multiple reviews before me that 05 contains some of Dredd's best stories and I whole-heartedly agree. Aside from the often praised and even more frequently mentioned "Apocalypse War" and "Block Mania" arcs, there's another run-in with Judge Death (who has brought along some pretty terrifying friends this time), a pseudo-prequel in "Hot Dog Run", that gives some more back story to the training of judges, and some one-off strips that breath more life and creativity into the fictional world of 2100's America.

I almost gave this one a 5 star rating, but the horribly stupid "Stookie" storyline and a few instances over over-inked panels brought the rating down a bit.

Still though, so far, 05 is easily my favorite of the Dredd canon and continues to show the evolution of Dredd's storyline.

[Alex Sarll · Rating 5 out of 5]

My girlfriend was reading this while we were on holiday, reminding me what a brilliant stretch of Dredd this is - the return of Death, now with his mates in tow (and hence one of the single best panels in comics history, when Dredd faces Fear) - plus Block Mania and The Apocalypse War, the first Dredd epic not to outstay its welcome, and to really justify its sprawl. Excellent stuff.

[Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to Judge Dredd. I bought the recent Dredd Humble Bundle and this was the suggested starting point. As someone with absolutely no prior knowledge I found this a very easy read. Dredd is a brilliant character, and the world of Mega City One is fascinating. What I love is the multi issue story arcs that really explore what it means to live in this future.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw Dredd 3D in September of 2012 and loved it. I knew who Judge Dredd was, being an Anthrax fan in the '80s and all. Heck, I can even brag about seeing the abysmal Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd film in the theatre. The 2012 film really grabbed me, though, so much so that I decided to do some digging to see if there were any collected editions of the character. Boy are there collected editions! There was an entire library of completist-minded phone books entitled The Complete Case Files.

I immediately set out on a mad quest to collect them all. Many of them were out of print, only pouring gasoline on my OCD completism. I must own them!, I thought. They wouldn't have gone out of print if they weren't so good that every single copy sold! The good news is that yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and Santa bought me the entire collection for Christmas 2012. The better news is that these are being reissued here in the United States by Simon & Schuster.

For those of you who are not familiar with the character, Judge Dredd is a no-nonsense, tough as nails lawman in the future. After a nuclear war, people are grouped into habitable zones called Mega-Cities. Judge Dredd takes place in Mega-City One, which is a population centre which encompasses most of the East Coast of the United States. The Judges deal with the rampant crime of the future by being judge, jury, and executioner all in one. Their gun is called their Lawgiver, and fires six different types of bullets.

The strip is, at times, a black comedy and satire precursor to both Robocop and Futurama. It reads well in that regard and even better as a straight up action strip. The over the top violence has a cheekiness to it which is decidedly British. This is way more violent than American comic books of the day. The layout and largely narrative free nature of these stories served as an inspiration for decompressed comic books some 20 years later. Rather than learn how to use this spaced out storytelling method for maximum impact like the British did, American writers just used it to pad out story arcs to fit a trade paperback. This material was way ahead of its time and holds up extremely well over thirty years later.

Being a weekly strip, there isn't much of the way in recaps in each story aside from a box or two of text. This keeps the story flowing and moving forward, making the most of the six or so pages per issue. There are a few “key” arcs in this book. Judge Death Lives!, with it's absolutely brilliant Brian Bolland artwork, is pure genius. Judge Death returns with three other judges from his dimension, Deadworld, with Judges Fear, Fire, and Mortis in tow. To end the menace once and for all, Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson journey to Deadworld, where all crime was committed by the living. All of the living were sentenced to death. For some reason this makes complete sense and makes me wonder if the machines will come to a similar conclusion once they assume dominance in our society.

The next arc is arguably part of the third arc in this book, but I'll leave that up to the 2000 AD experts of the world to argue about. Block Mania sets the stage, with the citizens of Mega-City One engaging in, well, block wars. You see, each block in the city is a gigantic apartment complex filled with shops and whatnot. Residents often spend their entire lives in these without ever leaving them. The city is overcrowded and mostly poor, so the chemical that contaminates the water merely throws a match on gas soaked rags. There are many gags laced throughout this arc. Some of the blocks have amusing names, all of which are based on celebrities.

The Apocalypse War is a 25 part epic. (Mild 30 year old spoilers ahead in this paragraph.) With Mega-City One in disarray and the judges spread thin from the Block Wars, now is the time for the Soviets in East-Meg One to strike. Nearly half of the population is killed from their nuclear assault. Bear in mind, this was originally published at the height of the Cold War. I can still recall growing up when the Russians were our enemies. Mutually assured destruction and all that jazz. I'll leave it up to Anthrax to some this one up for you. Taken from their song I Am The Law (1987):
When the Sovs started The Apocalypse War
Mega-City was bombed to the floor
Dredd resisted and the judges fought back
Crushed the Sovs with their counter attack

One of the recurring themes popping up in the strip is the Futsies, who suffer from Future Shock. Future Shock a sort of insanity developed by those unable to cope with the advent of technology and robots doing nearly all jobs. Cripes, we are on the verge of that here in the halfway mark of the second decade of the 21st century, let alone in the early 22nd century that this book takes place in.

So it took me just over a year to read the first five of these books. I currently have all of them, which means that I have 16 more and all 4 Restricted Case Files books. 2000 AD has plans to reissue the Daily Star strip reprint books later this year. In any case, given my current productivity reading this in and around my other reviews, you can count on seeing periodic Judge Dredd reviews until at least 2019, and that's before factoring in the forthcoming volume 22 and beyond. I'll be here doing these reviews for as long you'll be here to read them...and even if you're not I'll still be here doing them. Haha!

Please note the review of the materials used is for the version produced for North America by Simon & Schuster.

There is no table of contents or page numbers, so you have no indication which story is from what issue unless you start counting when you read the book or refer to sites like Comic Book Database. This might not annoy some folks but it annoys the piss out of me and hampers my reading enjoyment.

Also annoying is how only the issue covers featuring Judge Dredd are collected in this book, and they are all grouped in the back. They are presented in black and white. Some of the story pages, often the first two, were originally published in color but are presented in black and white here. These 400 plus page phonebooks are like Marvel Essentials or DC Showcase Presents lines, so I will give them a pass for being in black and white. I just figured that I would mention it since the type of people that read The OCD zone find this information to be helpful.

[Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Dredd

For five years or so in my teens I was an avid 2000AD fan and I still have a bunch of Eagle comics (and Titan books) covering classic Dredd tales from the first ~250 progs.

But I never owned The Apocalypse War. Was nice to finally get it and Block Mania in a single volume.

This stuff still holds up. There's a lot of humour and a lot of great ideas. Now I'm older I also see some layers of satire Wagner put in there which passed me by at the time.

[Nicholas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kitschy, with a B-movie feel to it and yet somehow oddly entertaining. I think the more recent Dredd 3D film nailed the original work a lot more accurately than the Stallone movie of the early 90s. Anyway, watching the more recent film peaked my curiosity and I had it on good authority that this was the best introduction to the Dredd universe......meh.

I appreciate the universe created by Wagner here and there's certainly a lot of potential, but the characters are caricatures and the protagonist never in any real danger in spite of the insane situations he finds himself in. The deus ex machina is invoked far, far too many times and it seems like Dredd is able to solve cases and know exactly what happened and who's responsible the first moment he views a crime scene. Often times the only thing that remains is finding some pesky evidence with which he can feel vindicated when he dispenses justice.

The first half of this collection is a nice introduction to the Dredd Universe, mainly consisting of one-shots that give highlights of types of crimes that are commonplace in Megacity One. It also introduces the character to the main players who have significant roles in the major, multi-issue Dredd story arcs. The second half is the Apocalypse War - a 10 issue story in which East Meg One (the former Soviets) launch a surprise nuclear attack on Mega City One and the Cold War plays itself out to horrific consequence. Wagner gleefully kills off a billion inhabitants of his universe between the two sides and the Judge becomes a military commander. There's nothing really unexpected or even particularly interesting about the way the war plays out, even from a science fictiony tech perspective. Amazing miracle weapons are countered by even more amazing and physically impossibly weapons and Wagner writes of the invention or progression of story in significant areas with a wave of the fingers.

This is probably something you had to grow up with to really love and appreciate. For the price, there's certainly a lot of comic here if it's your thing. I think my approach was altogether wrong. Now that I've got a sense of Wagner's work, I think I might stick to reading just io9's 11 essential Dredd stories and skip the rest. Granted, the bulk of these stories are from the early 80s, but they didn't age very well. Here's hoping the more modern stuff has some depth.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: I love the Judge Dredd universe!

What a fantastic volume! This is epic in nature as it collects together the much talked about Apocalypse Wars in other smaller collections. Well here it finally is! Also the prequel story that led up to the Apocalypse "Block Mania" is included and with these two stories we have (the pages aren't numbered) what looks like just a little over half of the book. That's one complete storyline for over 200 pages of this 400 page volume. Some major action takes place here and this is just a stupendous volume to read. The first half of the book follows along the regular vein with short stories and occasional 2 or 3 part episodes of crime in Mega-City One. But not only do we get the epic Apocalypse story, in the first half comes the return of Judge Death and Judge Anderson in an awesome episodic storyline. Simply a fantastic dose of the Judge Dredd universe. Dredd's character becomes more and more dark and hard with this volume as well. His "the end justifies the means" philosophy is put into full action. I really can't wait for Vol. 6 to see how the world is put back together after this destruction!

I haven't read the other Case Files but I've already got 01 and I'm going to try and get caught up by the time 06 comes out (no date as of yet). I am majorly hooked!

[Mat Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this again at the start of 2023. It is a great access book. So much good stuff. A solid introduction to crime in Mega City 1. The return of Judge Death and his mates. And a cracking story ''Block Wars'' which leads wonderfully into the Apocalypse War. Less Bolland and McMahon here, but great stuff from the return of Ezquerra and a bit of Steve Dillon. Really good.

B4.

Nailed it. Sure, parts are dated. But here we have a series of stories which explain what the Judge's lives are like, then the return of the super Judge Death and his buddies, followed by more cool mini stories, Block Mania and the Apocalypse War. I mean, all which makes 2000AD ace is here.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

Find this book at Hillingdon Libraries

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Presented as a good introduction to Judge Dredd, and it was. Block Mania, Judge Death and other classic stories.

[Philip Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A meaty tome chock full of sci-fi action goodness. This was a gaping nuke crater hole in my Dredd collection but I see why it's rated so highly. It starts off with some knockabout stories concerning crime rackets in Mega-City One. The writers have a ball with the terminology ('Umpty Baggers', 'Stookie Glanders', 'Chump Dumping' etc) and it would now be classed as good "world building" mapping out the weird and wonderful "Big Meg".

These tales are wrapped up nicely before we get a classic Judge Death story. The Brian Bolland artwork is fantastic - including one iconic panel - but I have a confession to make: sacrilege though it may be, I never really 'got' Judge Death. It's only when we get to Block Mania that we enter epic bonkers brilliance territory. This leads straight into the blockbuster which is the Apocalypse War and the amps are turned up to 11.

Mega-City One is victim of a sneak attack by Sov Block's East Meg One (subtlety abounds) and we get the full kitchen sink thrown at us: the late great Carlos Ezquerra's art was never finer with war robots (Sentenoids), massive tanks, mushroom clouds and catacylismic cityscapes. Written in 1981, this was a time of powerful anti-war dramas (eg. "Threads" and "The Day After" on TV) but '2000AD' comic uses the apocalypse as a cool backdrop for some hugely enjoyable OTT action. Yes, it's violent (although not that graphic) but it's shot through with humour eg. the rival Block names and increasingly harsh fate meted out to failed Sov troopers. In the midst of the carnage Walter the Wobot pops up to play a pivotal role: I know he's a bit divisive amongst fans but I'm on Team Walter.

My twelve year old head would've exploded with thrill overload if I'd read this in 1981. It's all black and white, in more ways than one: the incredibly detailed drawings and inky captions were sometimes hard to make out in my print edition but there's a satisfying heft to this chunky book. Dredd is his usual pleasingly uncompromising self. He doesn't have any super powers, just his arsenal of Lawgiver pistol, Lawmaster bike and stub gun laser, all of which are less sci-fi as each year passes. Drokk it this was great fun.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifth in the series reprinting every Dredd story from 2000AD, this volume covers progs 208-270 which were originally published between 1981 and 1982 (which was the latter part of my ‘golden period’ for reading ‘the galaxy’s greatest comic’). Although this features the excellent five-part “Judge Death Lives” (written by John Wagner - as TB Grover - and drawn by Brian Bolland) - which is worth the price of purchase alone - the longest run is the nine-part “Block Mania” which runs directly into “The Apocalypse War” (25 parts) and sees the destruction of Mega-City One (and ends this collection). There’s a lot to love here - the stories are bright and sharp with some nasty moments and clever bits of satire (all of it was written by either John Wagner or Alan Grant) and the artwork is astonishing (as well as Bolland there’s work by Steve Dillon, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon, Ron Smith, Colin Wilson, John Cooper, Barry Mitchell and Carlos Ezquerra (who drew most of “The Apocalypse War”). The strips are beautifully reproduced and there are so many iconic images that each story has something vivid to remember it by. Nicely nostalgic for those of us who enjoyed the comics the first time around, these 40+ year old strips are still essential reading and I’d very much recommend the collection.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even before the Apocalypse War main event, the stuff presented here is very good. It cleverly begins with another block war which is very destructive but not on the same level as what leads into the world destroying showdown. Judge Death and his cousins are featured too, we even get a brief glimpse of their world in which life is a death sentence. The 'Hot Dog Run' is very cool with Judge Dredd and Judge Giant taking cadets into the wastes to test their warrior skills, in which not all of them come back alive.

Then comes Block Mania that shows the Judges really can't handle full blown chaos and are very easily drawn away from enforcing 'the Law'.

Block Mania isn't even resolved before Apocalypse War. Carlos Ezquerra's art is sharp and brings to mind R Crumb's Book of Genesis and Basil Wolverton's Bible. The war here is immense and hopeless. Dredd pulls out all the stops even killing civilians and pulling off high risk assassinations. The Soviets have him and the remaining Judges outmatched. The sickening feeling that happens when Dredd sends world destroying nukes at the Soviets only for them to completely nullify that attack but not without heavy casualties. The whole thing is desperate and in many ways is like a sci-fi action remixing of Stalingrad. Excellent stuff.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dipping my toe into Dredd for the first time. Not disappointed at all.

This gets better as it goes along. We start with Dredd solving different crimes on the streets (and in space and in the Cursed Lands) of Mega City One. Good way to get to know our 'hero' and the dystopian world he dominates. We then get a story with, I assume, a major nemesis - Judge Death! (I also assume that Death appears in earlier case files). Here we get the awesome panel line of 'Gaze into the Fist of Dredd'. The action is ramped up when we get to the epic Block Mania, but even that is a precursor, and directly relates to, the even more epic Apocalypse War.

I loved the anything goes nature of the stories, Wagner and Grant can do anything in their story. They control the world. Where else will you have the hero, without a moments hesitation, press a button to casually annihilate half a billion people! Epic Stuff. I also loved the speed of the stories, no chance to catch a breath, a cliff hanger every five pages. Some nice humour too, for example in the names of the blocks.

[Bernard Convert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnifique recueil qui finit sur Apocalypse War, une guerre d'annihilation totale entre Mega City One et East-Meg One la mégapole "sov". On y voit réapparaître avec un grand plaisir Walter the wobot qu'on n'avait pas vu depuis longtemps. Le meilleur épisode à mes yeux est Judge Death Lives avec au dessin Brian Bolland. Death est ramené à la... mort par trois autres joyeux drilles, les Dark Judges, Fear, Fire et Mortis. ("Oh, Janine ! You promised you wouldn't kill her if I helped you" "WE LIED !" ). Mais surtout la belle Judge Psi Anderson revient à la vie, libérée du cercueil de Boing où elle tenait Death emprisonné dans son esprit. Elle aura ensuite sa propre série, Anderson : Psi-Division.

[Kurt Rackman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll set my stall out and say Judge Dredd is the absolute best character to emerge from grown-up British comics. These volumes from Rebellion have been excellent and quite generous releases, giving plenty of reading and showcasing the talents of some of the best comic writers and artists of the past forty years.

JD Vol 5 is possibly the most iconic offering of the series. From the pages of early 1982 2000AD we get the return of Judge Death and the Dark Judges, with the freshly-revived Judge Anderson at her most highly-strung and penned by the inimitable Brian Bolland. Next, we have the Mega-Rackets, a glimpse of the eccentric criminal underbelly of Mega-City One featuring the imaginative talents of Colin Wilson and Ron Smith. The same artist pens the Hotdog Run, a three-parter that follows Cadet Judges on their Cursed Earth assessment test.

So far, so good. Yet there is even space left for two of the most exciting, bleak and iconic strips ever to feature Ol' Stony Face. First is Block Mania, brilliantly portrayed by the kinetic art of Mike McMahon (some of the best work we've seen from him) and the pinpoint exactitude of Brian Bolland. It follows seamlessly into Carlos Ezquerra's epic artwork for the Cold War fable The Apocalypse War which sees Mega-City One decimated by a Sov-Block nuclear assault and invasion. One of the bleakest and most intractable challenges for Dredd, the judges are turned into a paramilitary resistance force against the robotic armies of East-Meg One.

Although as a long-term fan this was pure nostalgia for me, if you're new to Dredd and looking for a place to start you couldn't do better than this volume to whet your appetite.

[ComicNerdSam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some ok-to-good stories, but then this series kicks into overdrive as soon as the Block Mania storyline starts. Then it flows straight into The Apocalypse War which is (so far) the absolute best Judge Dredd story. Full octane warfare against two fascist states, all drawn divinely crude by Carlos Ezquerra. If you're given the chance to read only one Judge Dredd book before you die, you have to make it this one.

[Daniel Sevitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this collection is a series of bog-standard Dredd vignettes. The kind of stuff I'm getting tired of.

But with Blockmania and then The Apocalypse War Saga running across almost an entire year of weekly comic strips, this collection takes off and delivers something truly epic. This is stunning plotting and a story that is finally big enough for Dredd. Hard to believe 12 year old boys were reading this in the early 80s.

[Sean Flatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am on a Judge Dredd marathon bing reading of all the Judge Dredd graphic novels book since his appearance in 1977. I have already read them all over 10 years ago, so it was a trip down memory lane to relive these brilliant times and to thoroughly enjoy these graphics novels once again. I simply love the stories plots, the drawings and the dialogue as well.
Overall a brilliantly graphic novels. Best wishes Sean

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great material - both the smaller case files in the beginning and the bigger stories around Judge Death and The Apocalpyse War. Note on the latter: It is an achievement in itself to feature constant nuclear assault for about hundred pages or so while still keeping the story very entertaining.

Gaze into the fist of Dredd, creep!

[Derek Moreland · Rating 5 out of 5]

The volume where Judge Dredd as serialized fiction clicks into place. Every story in this collection leads beautifully and succinctly into the next, from Mega-Rackets to The Dark Judges, Block Mania in the magnificent, definitive Apocalypse War. Previous volumes have been varying degrees of Very Good—Volume 5 is unequivocally the Best of Dredd.