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Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files + The Restricted Files+ The Daily Dredds
Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol.24
The streets don't come much meaner than those found in Mega-City One. Only the Judges - empowered to dispense law and order - keep the city from falling into total anarchy. Toughest of them all is Judge Dredd - he is the law and these are his stories. In this 24th volume of the bestselling Case Files series, Dredd is faced with one of his hardest challenges yet - dispensing justice in the Big Meg's worst sector known as 'The Pit'! Also, the ultimate lawman faces a legendary war robot, when Judge Dredd squares off against the ABC Warrior Hammerstein!
Collects:
- The Cal Files (Prog #959-#963)
- Hammerstein (Prog #960-#963)
- Dead Simple (Prog #964)
- Ballad of Devil Angel (Prog #965-#966)
- C-H-A-M-P! (Prog #967)
- Man Who Broke the Law (Prog #968-#969)
- The Pit (Prog #970-#983)
- Stalking the Law (Meg #3.04)
- Tatoo Hell 1 episode (Meg #3.05)
- Compassion Fatigue (Meg #3.08)
- Killing Time (Meg #3.09)
- Judge Spotters (Meg #3.10)
- Blood Sports (Meg #3.11-#3.12)
- Ballad of Cindy Crawlskin (Meg #3.12)
- High Octane (Meg #3.13)
- Killing Grounds (Meg #3.13)
- Shooting (Meg #3.14)
- Tickers (Meg #3.14)
- Mondo Simp (Meg #3.15-#3.16)
Collects:
- The Cal Files (Prog #959-#963)
- Hammerstein (Prog #960-#963)
- Dead Simple (Prog #964)
- Ballad of Devil Angel (Prog #965-#966)
- C-H-A-M-P! (Prog #967)
- Man Who Broke the Law (Prog #968-#969)
- The Pit (Prog #970-#983)
- Stalking the Law (Meg #3.04)
- Tatoo Hell 1 episode (Meg #3.05)
- Compassion Fatigue (Meg #3.08)
- Killing Time (Meg #3.09)
- Judge Spotters (Meg #3.10)
- Blood Sports (Meg #3.11-#3.12)
- Ballad of Cindy Crawlskin (Meg #3.12)
- High Octane (Meg #3.13)
- Killing Grounds (Meg #3.13)
- Shooting (Meg #3.14)
- Tickers (Meg #3.14)
- Mondo Simp (Meg #3.15-#3.16)
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 12, 2015
1 person is currently reading
104 people want to read
About the author
John Wagner
1,285 books189 followersJohn 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)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 11, 2022
Back to the top form! The Pit is easily my favourite Judge Dredd story, and worth a whole half star all on its own.
The Megazine stories aren't so good, though, and knock off at least a quarter of a star. But you can't have everything.
The Megazine stories aren't so good, though, and knock off at least a quarter of a star. But you can't have everything.
June 28, 2025
Another solid Dredd collection! Some thoughts...
--The book opens with "The Cal Files", an interesting paranoia thriller from John Wagner that toys with the idea that Dredd is actually Judge Fargo's illegitimate SON, rather than his clone, suggesting that Dredd may have had a mother.
Now, obviously none of this really AMOUNTS to anything; the story is mostly about how Dredd deals with sniffing out secrets, and whether he's loyal to the judicial intelligence apparatus. But it is a fun hypothetical... and it's also kinda funny how this story's potentially world-shaking revelation for Dredd is that he ISN'T a clone of Judge Fargo, when around that same time the Judge Dredd movie would make it a world-shaking revelation for Joe that he IS a clone. Also, the artwork by John Burns is GORGEOUS!
--Mark Millar writes a vacuous and predictably edgy two-parter about judges suddenly going wild and committing crimes called "The Man Who Broke The Law". Dredd just outright kills a ton of the affected judges, and when he finds out who CAUSED it-- a former judge who lost an arm, and was reassigned to sleep machine duty (allowing him to plant subconscious messages in the judges to act out their deepest desires)-- rather than arresting him and shipping him off to Titan, he hands the guy a gun explicitly so he can blow his own brains out. Because I guess Mark Millar just figured that would be cooler.
--"Killing Time" is a charming little yarn about Dredd coping with having a mandatory 24-hour break from duty, and how he simply doesn't know what to DO with himself. It reminds me vaguely of the moment at the start of Batman Returns, where Bruce Wayne is just sitting sullenly in the shadows of Wayne Manor until the Bat-Signal activates him-- a moment that suggests profound loneliness and disconnection. But this story is explicitly a comedy about how Judge Dredd literally has no personal interests or human connections outside of his job; the joke is squarely on Joe Dredd, and how much of a hopeless tool he is when he isn't allowed to be "the law".
--Lastly, the biggest story in this volume is the first half of John Wagner's big storyline "The Pit", where Dredd is assigned to be the sector chief for the most neglected, run-down sector of Mega-City One. This is Dredd swinging for its own gritty, hard-hitting crime epic like The Wire or The Shield, exploring life in a bad neighborhood where the cops are crooked from the bottom up; so naturally, Dredd has to suss out corruption from the ranks of the sector house, meaning this story has kind of a massive ensemble. The only problem IS, all these judges are wearing identical uniforms and most of them don't get a lot of development, so it's kinda hard to CARE about who's crooked and who's clean.
The only new character who stands out as a distinct person is Judge Galen DeMarco, a tough and capable judge who's hidingsecrets of her own. She's clearly the character Wagner is most interested in-- I think she's the only one who comes back after this storyline-- but for this first half of the story, she's not a focus... so we get a bunch of interchangeable helmets running around, making it hard to tell who's who until we see a badge or read someone call out a name. Still, it's pretty solid stuff!
--The book opens with "The Cal Files", an interesting paranoia thriller from John Wagner that toys with the idea that Dredd is actually Judge Fargo's illegitimate SON, rather than his clone, suggesting that Dredd may have had a mother.
Now, obviously none of this really AMOUNTS to anything; the story is mostly about how Dredd deals with sniffing out secrets, and whether he's loyal to the judicial intelligence apparatus. But it is a fun hypothetical... and it's also kinda funny how this story's potentially world-shaking revelation for Dredd is that he ISN'T a clone of Judge Fargo, when around that same time the Judge Dredd movie would make it a world-shaking revelation for Joe that he IS a clone. Also, the artwork by John Burns is GORGEOUS!
--Mark Millar writes a vacuous and predictably edgy two-parter about judges suddenly going wild and committing crimes called "The Man Who Broke The Law". Dredd just outright kills a ton of the affected judges, and when he finds out who CAUSED it-- a former judge who lost an arm, and was reassigned to sleep machine duty (allowing him to plant subconscious messages in the judges to act out their deepest desires)-- rather than arresting him and shipping him off to Titan, he hands the guy a gun explicitly so he can blow his own brains out. Because I guess Mark Millar just figured that would be cooler.
--"Killing Time" is a charming little yarn about Dredd coping with having a mandatory 24-hour break from duty, and how he simply doesn't know what to DO with himself. It reminds me vaguely of the moment at the start of Batman Returns, where Bruce Wayne is just sitting sullenly in the shadows of Wayne Manor until the Bat-Signal activates him-- a moment that suggests profound loneliness and disconnection. But this story is explicitly a comedy about how Judge Dredd literally has no personal interests or human connections outside of his job; the joke is squarely on Joe Dredd, and how much of a hopeless tool he is when he isn't allowed to be "the law".
--Lastly, the biggest story in this volume is the first half of John Wagner's big storyline "The Pit", where Dredd is assigned to be the sector chief for the most neglected, run-down sector of Mega-City One. This is Dredd swinging for its own gritty, hard-hitting crime epic like The Wire or The Shield, exploring life in a bad neighborhood where the cops are crooked from the bottom up; so naturally, Dredd has to suss out corruption from the ranks of the sector house, meaning this story has kind of a massive ensemble. The only problem IS, all these judges are wearing identical uniforms and most of them don't get a lot of development, so it's kinda hard to CARE about who's crooked and who's clean.
The only new character who stands out as a distinct person is Judge Galen DeMarco, a tough and capable judge who's hidingsecrets of her own. She's clearly the character Wagner is most interested in-- I think she's the only one who comes back after this storyline-- but for this first half of the story, she's not a focus... so we get a bunch of interchangeable helmets running around, making it hard to tell who's who until we see a badge or read someone call out a name. Still, it's pretty solid stuff!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2017
Yeah! This is more like it. :-) I stopped reading the Case Files after volume 16 as I felt that volumes 12-16 were crap, basically. Colour came in, quality art went out. So did John Wagner, along with the decent writing and the signature feel that had been Dredd from the start.
After asking the 2000AD forum for advice I picked up again at volume 24 which is mainly written by Wagner again. Glad I did. I'd so missed this!
The volume is split into strips from the main 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine, and the content is presented in two chunks in the book. The 2000AD content is mostly an epic called The Pit, which is great, as is the the rest.
The Megazine content is pretty varied and generally not as good. Some of it is dire, actually. Thin writing and amateurish art. Some of the strips are very entertaining, though.
Looking forward to getting into volume 25!
After asking the 2000AD forum for advice I picked up again at volume 24 which is mainly written by Wagner again. Glad I did. I'd so missed this!
The volume is split into strips from the main 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine, and the content is presented in two chunks in the book. The 2000AD content is mostly an epic called The Pit, which is great, as is the the rest.
The Megazine content is pretty varied and generally not as good. Some of it is dire, actually. Thin writing and amateurish art. Some of the strips are very entertaining, though.
Looking forward to getting into volume 25!
April 16, 2023
Another mixed bag of Dredd. The 2000AD strips are solid if unremarkable (The Pit aside - possibly the best longer arc since Necropolis), never particularly bad but without anything truly superb.
Then there's the Megazine strips. Oof. One or two decent stories, but lots of terrible art and some truly poor writing into the bargain. Still, nice to see Hershey and Giant Junior resurface and get some time in the spotlight.
Then there's the Megazine strips. Oof. One or two decent stories, but lots of terrible art and some truly poor writing into the bargain. Still, nice to see Hershey and Giant Junior resurface and get some time in the spotlight.
February 10, 2021
Contains The Pit...
...one of the best Dredd stories. Made sector chief of 310, the worst actor in the city, Dredd's job is simple: clean up the sector! A great story that deserves its place in Dredd history.
...one of the best Dredd stories. Made sector chief of 310, the worst actor in the city, Dredd's job is simple: clean up the sector! A great story that deserves its place in Dredd history.
March 19, 2018
Good stuff, "The Pit" epic being the highlight.
June 5, 2019
Back to the top form! The Pit is my favourite Judge Dredd story, and easily worth a star or a half all on its own.
December 6, 2022
The Pit bits were really good epic story telling. And only to make things better on that one: Carlos Esquerra art.
But then there were stuff from Megazine. Way too experimental. Crappy stuff.
But then there were stuff from Megazine. Way too experimental. Crappy stuff.
March 5, 2015
Probably the worst of the Complete Case Files so far, there was little in the way of engaging and developing stories and some of the art-work was appalling.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews