Spector: Incorruptible

by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra (Illustrator), Dan Cornwell (Illustrator)

Just a few years into our future, faced with unsustainable levels of corruption within the branches of city government, and a police force that is equally rotten, Spector is created. A robot detective, untainted by corruption and beyond bribery, Spector is charged with cleaning up the city. But it is an uphill battle, as many people currently in positions of power want the robot to fail.

Written by John Wagner (A History of Violence), this standalone graphic novel represents the final work of Carlos Ezquerra (Judge Dredd), with Dan Cornwell (Rok of the Reds) completing the story.

Genres: Comics

112 pages, Paperback

Published April 24, 2025

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

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun story, can't get enough of these 2000AD stories from Wagner and Ezquerra.

[Alex Sarll]

The last Wagner/Ezquerra collaboration* feels at times like a deliberate riff on their earlier work, seeing how many parameters they can change while still telling a story about an unstoppable future lawman. So where Dredd is a human who comes across more like a machine, Spector is a robot trying to be more human. And instead of his city being a place of chaos with only the Law keeping it halfway habitable, this seems like it would be a decent place if not for the corrupt authorities. It's not even a badass loner story, Spector much more willing to work as part of a team and aware of how much he needs his support staff. But for all those tweaks, and the humour leaning more overt and less black, the appeal is fairly similar: people who richly deserve it getting their comeuppance (yes, I know, the most fantastical element of the lot).

*Yeah, only for a couple of chapters, alas. But Dan Cornwell certainly doesn't disgrace himself while trying to fill those impossible shoes for the rest of it.