Essential Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War

by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Carlos Ezquerra (Artist)

The Essential Judge Dredd graphic novel series - the ultimate introduction to the Lawman of the Future!

When the citizens of Mega-City One’s massive city blocks declare war on each other, Judge Dredd realises it is merely a prologue to an all-out nuclear attack by East Meg One! As warheads rain down, Dredd leads a brave guerrilla resistance against the Sov forces, building to an earth-shattering decision that shakes his world to the core!

This second wide-screen blockbuster volume in the Essential Judge Dredd graphic novel series presents The Apocalypse War, the mother of all ‘epic’ Dredd storylines, which forever fixed the character in readers' minds and ensured Carlos Ezquerra's title as the definitive Dredd artist in comics’ hall of fame.

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

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 2021

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

[alpacaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Total classic.

[Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The past, people will often wistfully opine while starring off into the middle distance, is another country – only in this case, that is actually true.
Kind of.
Continuing 2000AD's repackaging and rebooting of the Dredd back catalogue, the second instalment –The Apocalypse War – gathers together 24 issues from 1981-1982.
Now for you younger folks out there, brought up to fear brown terrorists with a penchant for planes, you might be interested we had our own Big Bad back in the day.
For fourty-odd years we lived in the shadow of The Cold War, a brutish ego-fuelled stand-off between The West (America and friends) and The East (The Soviet Union and all who trudged under her). It was basically lengthy double-bluff about who would use their nuclear missiles first.
(Spoiler alert - it wouldn't have mattered, we all would have died).
This period of Dredd, then, tackles this subject head on with East Meg One attacking Mega-City One through chemical weapons and then a land assault.
And only Dredd can save the day.
The political commentary is not subtle here, and East-Meg's Stalinist regime is straight out of a school history book.
That's not a negative, by the way, just an observation. If you know how power changed hands in The Old Country, you'll see it played out again here. If this is new to you, it's an interesting and not unvaluable lesson.
The main story is not light, so it helps that the writers were able to have some fun with Block names (Betty Crocker Block, Joan Collins Block, Henry Kissinger Block...), Dredd's robot butler and his cleaner.
But through the darkness shines a gripping story told in two sections (Block Mania and The Apocalypse War) with fantastic artwork, sharp writing, more Judges than seems reasonable and the discovery that an issue of 2000AD would have cost you 16p.
The past is anther country indeed...

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

A guerra fria tornada quente, de forma ficcional no futurismo distópico de Judge Dredd. Com a cidade a ser tomada por uma febre de guerra entre quarteirões, Dredd depressa se apercebe que algo de sinistro está por detrás do rebentar de loucura violenta. Mas não espera a escala da conspiração: uma forma dos arqui-inimigos de East Meg One enfraquecerem a mega cidade, e, num ataque fulminante, conquistarem Mega City One. Quase são bem sucedidos, com as defesas e forças ofensivas dos Juízes aniquiladas. Mas Dredd e um punhado de resistentes não desiste, combatem os juízes soviéticos em modo de guerrilha, e conseguirão o impensável: infiltrar-se em East Meg One, causando uma detonação que transformará a cidade em crateras radioativas. Uma aventura de Dredd vinda dos anos 80, que sublima muito bem os à época aterrorizantes medos de confronto nuclear entre superpotências, transpondo esse medo para o futuro moldado pela radiação nuclear do mundo das megacidades.

[Mat Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it again - soooo true!!

I love this story for so many reasons.

Art! The long-ass prelude to the Apocalypse War is Block Mania. Mick McMahon, Brian Bolland, Ron Smith and Steve Dillon all draw this story. It is very special because it is the last Bolland and McMahon piece, so in a way it is goodbye. There will be more Dillon and Smith pieces to come, but to see them all collaborating on this story is lovely.

Then we get into the Apocalypse War, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra. Brilliant. I have really warmed to his work over time. I found it quite jarring initially. This story and his art did not hit the sweet spots until I read this essential version. I really like the case files but there is so much content, that sometimes the story benefit from (colour) focus.

The story is great. There are so many Cold War themes explored including total destruction and from a character standpoint, the sheer terrorism from all characters. Judge Dredd does some utterly deplorable things in this book and so does Anderson and Hershey. We can relate after the nuking of Mega-City one and murder of Judge Giant and the Chief of Justice. But damn!

Seeing this collection in colour is great. The technology and weapons, scope of destruction and beautiful artwork comes to life. I suppose for some, losing the black and white takes away something, but I adored it. This book has really injected me with the desire to read the other essential books. Bring it!

[Grump · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool art. Sorta dumb repetitive writing. That’s probably because it’s 25 installments from 2000AD. East Meg One makes everyone from the city blocks from Mega City One go crazy. There’s a lot of “Lucille Ball block is ready to kill” and “Jimmy Walker block is here to fight!” or “Donnie Osmond block will die for this!” Then everybody gets nuked. There are some funny bits where Dredd kills people without much dickering. He pulls it off in the end with the help of his Italian landlady and his gay robot.

[Jack "THATLegoRobber" Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

The whole storyline is excellent and I enjoy the character of Dredd but the dialogue seems pretty repetitive and over explaining what each character is doing at that point which I think is victim from each issue only being around 5 page long.

Apocalypse War focuses on the Judges, mainly Dredd, in times of nuclear war and how they handle the war which is by basically becoming war criminals if the Geneva conventions even exist in this universe. While it is just funny to just see the Judges committing war crime after war crime the story also shines a light on how normalised nuclear wars have become in the future. I enjoyed seeing Dredd take lead over the rest of the Judges as it adds another side to this cool character.

I really like the side issue the story starts with as its related to the main plot and it gives a bit more spice to the Antagonists as it shows how meticulous they have planned the invasion of Mega-city One.

As I said previously I don't really fuck with the 5-7 page issue setup as I just think everything seems rushed which makes some of the dialogue drag. Another issue I have is that it seems like theyre trying to introduce us to Dredds character in every single issue which makes it rather annoying to read at points.

Anyways, an excellent action focused storyline nonetheless but a few issues stopped it being any higher for me than it is.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

I prefer the black and white art but this is still an excellent brutal story of pure escalation. The colors are very digital and not too great in Block Mania but for the main event, Apocalypse War, the colors are more fitting. If it is in color, I'd think a water color approach that Lynn Varley took in Dark Knight Returns would be more the idea way to present this story.

Apocalypse War is an all time great story. Dredd is nothing if not relentless even though he's been thoroughly defeated. Even in Block Mania the Judges were spread thin and couldn't handle their own population going into complete chaos. The use of severe weather like human hurricanes and skies turning into flames bring this thing to Biblical proportions.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic to revisit. Not as fully imagined as the Day of Chaos series, but it's really Dredd's original sin - themes that will not be fully explored in the comics for ten years or more after the Apocalypse War

[Abe Something · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not fully picking up the “Dredd is the enforcer of a fascist ruling body” thread that I thought ran through these books, but perhaps that’s faded into the background by this time in the continuity…? Going to read another one or two of these because it was a lot of fun!

[Kavinay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant through block mania but then drops off severely and becomes a slog through the apocalypse war itself. Not a coincidence that this is roughly when Wagner is no longer scripting either.

[Sophie Ingley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just as good as I remember it being, perhaps even more so!
The full colourisation of the strip is fantastic, and I was thrilled to find Block Mania has been included in the volume.
Classic Dredd. Loved it very.

[Scotty Putty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art in the 1st arc wasnt good. The apocalypse war was alright.

[Darren-lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Edmund Bloxam · Rating 3 out of 5]

As subtle as a brick, but, nevertheless, an interesting sequence of events.

Nuclear war, huh?

[George House · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid Judge Dredd comic run, fun plot and villains, not my favorite, but is good

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Dredd stories, and surprisingly bleak at times too! Great art throughout, a timeless read.

[Al Capwned · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prologue is better than the main event, which is the typical Judge Dredd apocalypse story, although this one is considered THE apocalypse story I guess.

[Collen Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't finish -- the dialog was absolutely awful.