Judge Dredd: The Chief Judge's Man

by John Wagner, William Simpson (Illustrator), John Burns (Illustrator)

Armon Gill believes he is doing Justice Department a favour by murdering its most vocal opponents at the behest of the Chief Judge - but he's a puppet and Dredd must find out just who's pulling the strings.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2006

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

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

JUDGE DREDD: THE CHIEF JUDGE'S MAN is one of the better smaller story arcs of Judge Dredd and deals with a lot of subject matter related to the character, his motivations, and the world he inhabits. The premise is someone is killing democracy protestors and other political enemies of the Judges. Armon Gill is a genetically engineer super-soldier that used to be a member of the Space Corps of Mega City One. I'm not sure what they've been doing this entire time since we haven't seen much in the way of a military beyond the Judges but I'm willing to deal as it works better than another renegade Judge.

Armon Gill is an effective antagonist as he's superior to Judge Dredd in terms of fighting ability, physical power, and equal in determination. He's also an extremely intelligent individual. Armon believes he's working for Chief Judge Hershey and eliminating threats to his homeland. Obviously, it's not actually Judge Hershey and I almost feel like they could have strung along that revelation a bit longer despite how ridiculous it seemed. Whatever the case, Dredd is forced to fight the guy tooth and claw while knowing there's a rot within the ranks of the Judges. The sequel story picks up with a prison escape and Gill's fanatical loyalty to "Hershey" having been tested.

Solid entertaining Judge Dredd.

[Damian Herde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back to Mega City One, this is a set of connected stories following a murderer who kills on the orders of the Justice Department.

A genetically-modified, experimental soldier is bred to be tougher, but is jailed after killing a civilian. A rogue Judge sees a role for him in getting rid of pro-democracy supporters who are ideologically opposed to the Judges.

Judge Dredd actually investigates in this collection, tracing the killer, and unraveling the mystery of the killer’s handler from within the Department. Solid stories and decent art.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recent Reads: The Chief Judge's Man. More of John Wagner's Judge Dredd. As calls for democracy rise in Mega City One, a mysterious assassin is killing activists. But who is pulling their strings? Chief Judge Hershey or someone else. It's time for some detective work by Dredd.

[David Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A no frills thriller.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book. Interesting story, well-written, very nice artwork and I enjoyed it.
Cool murder mystery and the first Judge Dredd book I have read and I was impressed. I will now probably read more!

[Mhorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Dredd tale

Someone in mega city one is murdering citizens. Not just any citizen. Citizens with an anti-judge bent. Who is this madman? Does he work for the chief judge? Or is something more sinister at hand?

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good old fashioned Dredd, no nonsense gets the job done and great art