Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos: Endgame

Judge Dredd

by John Wagner, Henry Flint, Colin MacNeil

Judge Dredd Mega Collection #18 collecting together:
Eve of Destruction (Progs 1765-1784)
Tea For Two (prog 1785)
Wot I did during the worst disaster in Mega-City History (prog 1786)
Chaos Day (progs 1787-88)
The Days After (prog 1789)
Wastelands (progs 1837-1841)

Genres: Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comics

Hardcover

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

And so Wagner, after carefully building his domino rally, finally kicks the first piece over and lets his creation take the most bitter blow it’s ever had. Wagner’s take on his creation has matured and mutated over the years, since Oz basically, with the silliness and dystopian nutcases balancing with Joe Dredd’s slow, weary journey to old age, complete with doubts over whether the Judge system is the right way to rule anyone. And here the big action past - take that Ruskies! Kapow! - hits the sombre older Dredd and boy is it a body blow. There is no victory here, probably the biggest loss ever suffered by an ostensible comic hero. It’s brutal and brutalising - and horribly prescient of the coronavirus - but incredible story telling. Has ever a creator turned on his creation so violently?

[Al No · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grim stuff that gets darker and darker as Wagner twists the knife. Some terrific artwork for what might well be the most successful mega-epic since The Apocalypse War.

[Philip Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is pitch black Dredd, full dark. You know how our heroes always save the day? This takes us to a day when the villains' plans are brought to full fruition. It's not pretty. Plague victim children are gunned down, a tiny dark panel shows a corpse covered in rats. You know things are bad when the light relief is provided by serial killer PJ Maybe.

That said, I loved it! The plot is tight, a sense of menace builds throughout and when armageddon arrives, it does so in epic technicolour "millions dead" glory. The artwork is strong throughout (I loved Henry Flint's contribution) and there are lots of eerily prescient elements: pandemic, lockdown, media manipulation and bio weapons. John Wagner imbues Dredd with a grim, world weary determination and there's great supporting cast with each of his fellow Judges deftly drawn.

If the long delayed TV show ever gets off the ground, they could do worse than start here. But it could never match this.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, but I’m not sure if I’m alone on this but give me a spell, a break, a rest with the Dark Judges already. I think there should’ve been one quarter of one book of the mega collection devoted to the Dark Judges and no more. It’s a part of the Dredd story that my eyes practically glaze over when I see they’re going to be involved. I think they should’ve been a curious sub-story at some point but not thing beyond that. I’m at 50 books out of 80 of my mega collection, and I hope I see very little of them again.

[Leila Anani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the more epic Dredd arcs - Soviet scientist Yevgeny Borisenko has crated Rage - a virus which turns everyone into rabid maniacs - He has infected several agents and sent them into Mega City 1 to bring the city to its knees - in retalliation for the destruction (inadvertently caused by Dredd of East Meg) - As well as the virus there is an airbourne version Tox-9 which is also detonated at key locations.

Dredd and the judges do their best, but it's clear that they are fighting a losing battle.

With a death toll estimating three hundred and fifty million citizens, it's hard to see how Mega City can bounce back from this one.

This is Dredd at its most epic - that makes it quite bleak, there's very little humour here, or character development because it really is all about the story. The artwork is solid, but due to the nature of the story very samey - corpses and explosions littering every page.

When the Department of Justice gets bombed the Dark Judges escape and go and bother PJ Maybe in what is probably my favourite chapter of this. We also get the later chapters dealing with the aftermath. Crime still goes on after the apocalypse and Dredd is still there to fight it.

This is an unmissable volume in terms of plot, but it's not my favourite Dredd story arc.

[Johnny Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's just destroy MC-1 shall we. One of those epic sagas that started long ago and has come back to haunt Dredd and his great city. Like all the disaster movies rolled into one if the disaster was a revenge tactic by terrorists and the terror a virus, plus missile attacks on key locations.
This story really kicks the teeth in and doesn't let up. Even the aftermath stories of a city trying to rebuild and the Judges trying to scrape what little trust they had with their citizens back.
The art just brings it to a horrific front, whether it is the Chaos Bug turning people or buildings being blown up you will feel the impact this arc has.
Brilliant!