Reviewer: Will Cooling
Story title: Judge Dredd: America
Written by: John Wagner
Art by: Colin MacNeil
Lettered by: Annie Parkhouse
Editor (original): Steve Macmanus
Publisher (original): Fleetway
This review refers to the version contained in the Titan Books TPB The Complete America.
This is the greatest comic story ever.
That’s not hyperbole, that’s not me showing bias towards John Wagner or Judge Dredd that’s the simple truth. This story manages to excel at three very different functions/genres of comics being as it is the most mature, sophisticated political comic, the most thorough and true “deconstruction†of a franchise character and yet still be the most true, the most moving love story I’ve ever read in comic book form. For a story to do one of those three things as well as this series does would earn it a ten in my book, that America with its searing tale of two life-long friends living under the totalitarian rule of the Judges does all three shows what we’re dealing with. However, before we get into the story let’s take a look at the environment that led to its creation…
In storyline terms America was an epitaph to some seven years of storylines with its reflections on the state of the supplanter to the union. For seven years Wagner had been showing how the movement for democratic reform to the hitherto unquestioned totalitarian dictatorship of the Mega City One Judges (who are not only endowed with the power of instant justice but run the whole city) had grown in confidence eventually finding itself on the cusp of success when they were granted the referendum they desired. Yet the very month this story started, Wagner along with Garth Ennis had delivered a chilling comment on the majority inclination to be led and/or their dissatisfaction with untrustworthy politicians when the citizen’s of Mega City rejected of democracy in favour of the “devil you know†amid widespread apathy. A twist that in these days of 59% turn outs for British General Elections seems uncannily prescient. Predictably some democrats refused to accept that the people had rejected freedom and some have decided to promote the ballot box from the barrel of a gun.
The story’s “real world†context was notably for three things. Firstly this story was one of the launch stories to Dredd’s monthly solo title Judge Dredd The Megazine (the “The†was later dropped), which hoped to distinguish itself from its parent title 2000AD by exploring and developing Dredd’s world. Secondly, the time was 1990 and the British comic industry was as future Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000AD editor David Bishop explained “in thrall to the notion of adult comics†with publications such as Crisis all attempting to match the maturity of such groundbreaking titles as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. In many ways the often blissfully immature 2000AD had been passed by this trend content to plough its successful furrow of pop culture satire, cosmic happenings and riotous action. Thirdly, John Wagner, co-creator of Judge Dredd and undisputed leader writer of his 2000AD stories since Prog 9; a 12 year stint (some of which was done with writing partner Alan Grant) had decided to quit writing Judge Dredd for the weekly to concentrate on launching the Meg (as it quickly became known) and his US work. Therefore for his first Dredd story for the new title offered him a chance to deliver not only an epitaph to the democracy storyline but the definite statement on the type of person Dredd and the nature of the regime he serves and embodies.
This statement is delivered in what may be appear to be an unusual but actually a very apt and effective manner. One of the truisms about the Judge Dredd series is that it isn’t half as interested in Dredd as it in his home city of Mega City One; a sprawling metropolis that takes up the majority of the North American Eastern Seaboard and is home to some 400 million people. This focus had primarily been on the pop-culture of the society and so defined the strip as usually a comedic script where the nature of the Judges rule was unquestioned. With this story Wagner uses the tried and tested convention on focusing on the Big Meg rather than Dredd to show the true nature of life under the Judges. His gaze descends in particular on two people, friends from childhood Bennett Benny and America Java as he charts their different paths through life; one makes his allowances with the system and prospers whilst the other sticks to her principles and tries to fight. This difference causes them to drift a part only to be thrown together at the worst possible time…
It’s in handling these two central protagonists that Wagner shows the deftness of writing that marks him out as the greatest ever. While America is very much the hero of the peace, the strong one fighting the dictatorial Judges its Benny that is placed at the heart of story. All the action (with one group of notable exceptions) is told from his self-loathing perspective as he recounts the story in the fully knowledge of its ending. This is frankly genius, whilst Benny is a pygmy compared to America his reaction is that of the average citizen. The Judges rule through intimidation and fear something that can only be gotten across by a narrator who is afraid of the Judges themselves something that America is not. In addition, not only do we get from his narration the power and effectiveness of the Judges but also the depth and strength of his feelings for America, how much he loves her only to see her reject him first for the cooler guys and then for the cause she loves. The feelings he feels for his lifelong friend are so believable and beautifully expressed. Both his feelings for America and the Judges were formed early in childhood and we Wagner brilliantly illustrates both in numerous flashbacks to their childhood with a particularly powerful scene showing a Judge confront a beaten 5-year old Benny and threatening to arrest him for fighting. This taut, vivid scene just steps up the dynamic between the Judges, Benny and America for the whole story as we see the Judge brazenly intimidate and control the frightened Benny while America tries to stand up for him and set the record straight. There is also incidentally a wicked quip at the remoteness of democracy and irrelevance of America to modern Mega City One when the Judge calls control for a background check and has to spell out America.
Ah America, obviously with a name like that there’s some pretty heavy metaphors and allegories at play. Strangely in industry dominated by the liberal left (and given the script’s reputation as being anti-America among certain quarters) America is a sympathetic and sophisticated metaphor for America and The American Dream. She’s born to two Latin American immigrants and we see in the moving and prophetic scenes depicting her birth that despite the dictatorship of the Judges they still see this as the Land of the Free and Opportunity. As she grows she represents much of America; self-confident, glamorous, principled, unyielding and naïvely optimistic, totally transfixed by the twin ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and the belief that you can achieve anything you want hard enough. And in the context of Judge Dredd universe where America has died she is suitably doomed as well. Wagner is at his masterfully best as he shows her maturing from a principled and outspoken student to an advocate of peaceful process to an embittered, brutalised terrorist and finally nemesis. Whether you choose to see that as a parable for a fall of America I’ll leave to you.
Benny also reflects a side of America and that’s the collaborator, the man who plays the system and wins, the man who ignores the freedoms his forebears regarded as indivisible and indispensable due to the fact that he’s got all the creature comforts in the world. His and America attitudes towards the Judges cause their lives diverged after when leaves home after his mum dies (she had been at university) and shows how the system rewards its own with Benny becoming rich off writing and performing jingles whilst America is repeatedly arrested and suffers perhaps an even greater violation to a women than rape. Again these details are not revealed to us in a linear narrative with the details of America’s life coming much later after her reunion with Benny. It’s this reunion that shows Wagner at his best with the shock and surprise at their reacquaintance magnified by the awkwardness and danger of the situation. We see how America had ended up a member of a fully-fledged terrorist grouping and as she later reveals she no longer cares about peaceful protest she just lusts for revenge. This meeting and their candlelight meeting is what the Ancient Greeks would call the Peripateia of the story; the moment after which there is no going back for the central characters. In America the meal (or more specifically the morning after) is the point where the tragedy is confirmed as America drags Benny into a situation that his complicit manner is ill suited to.
But what of Dredd? Where does he fit into a story that defines his true nature better than any other story before or since? Well Dredd naturally fits into the narrative as its him whose leading the case to arrest America and smash the organisation (Total War) that she’s a part of. The blood stained, nihilistic and visceral finale where he leads the Judges in a perfectly executed ambush reveals so much of his character, the ruthlessness, and the tunnel vision and in a final aside to Benny his lack of regard for lawbreakers. However, that isn’t the main feature as far as Dredd’s concerned. Throughout the story Wagner cuts away from Benny’s narration as we get straight-to-the-camera monologues from Dredd-no more than five or six in total. Here we see Dredd brutally state what his beliefs are and why he does what he does. Sometimes they are a comment on the action; for example after the confrontation between the Judge and the child Benny and America we see Dredd explain the purpose of such encounters. However the three most famous and effective are a crushing, logical and succinct case for what amounts (in the colloquial sense) to fascism. It is these that bookend the story with the first two pages given over to a Dredd monologue with what if I didn’t see Wagner as a better writer I would call an Orwellian line “Justice Has A Price/The Price Is Freedomâ€. The last monologue and the close of the story is a brutal and chilling damnation of America that has never, ever failed to send chills down my spine when I read it. The joy of these pages is two-fold; firstly it allows the fascist to have their say, which greatly benefits the tension and sense of tragedy in the story because it just allows the possibility that perhaps all America’s struggle is in vain, perhaps democracy isn’t all its cracked up to be. Secondly so much of Dredd’s character comes out with his choice of language i.e. “limp wristed liberals†shows a stilted machismo that infuses his far-right politics while his explanation of how intimidates citizens shows his cynicism and practicality.
Wagner’s writing really is an absolute marvel with this story for two reasons. Firstly you must consider the career of the man writing this. This is a man who started work in comics in 1968, who had co-created the character in the mid-seventies, who had wrote either solo or with the assistance of Alan Grant the vast majority of the Dredd stories since his return to the character in Prog 9 (after a dispute over the direction of the character) until Prog 753. He was the equivalent of Stan Lee and Chris Claremont rolled into one. Yet while Claremont was ploughing a familiar furrow and still hasn’t grasped a way to tell a modern X-Men story here is Wagner doing to Dredd what The Dark Knight Returns does to Batman. And that is no understatement by the way, even though the world of Dredd may sound obviously harsh and totalitarian that had not been the way it had been portrayed for the majority of the scripts lifetime this really was a reimagining and in some ways a deconstruction of Dredd’s world. You’d think the way that writers tend to aged very badly (Byrne, Claremont, Lee and even a personal favourite Pat Mills spring to mind) that his career longevity never mind his attachment to the character would stop him from performing the feats he has here.
The second amazing thing about the writing is how ahead of its time it is. I’m not just referring to the sophistication of the series in terms of political analysis, characterisation, etc but also in some of the storytelling devices that Wagner uses. In particular Wagner, a usual most compressed writer uses many of the devices that would later be popularised by Brian Michael Bendis in the decompressed era i.e. reaction shots either facial or physical, defining a “scene†with landscape shots, etc. In addition he usually such devices to effortlessly show how dominant and ever present the Judges with almost ever street corner having a Judge. To see these tics of a most recent style of storytelling used so expertly 14 years ago is surprising to say the least.
Not only is the quality of the writing beyond comparison but also the art is the most devastatingly beautiful I’ve ever seen. While the early nineties is remembered in America as the attack of the Image clones over here its remembered primarily for the popularisation of painted art as waves of Bisley clones were embraced due to the success of Simon Bisley’s work in Slaine: The Horned God and Judge Dredd/Batman: Judgement in Gotham. MacNeil stood apart from these despite also being a painter. Where as Bisley’s work was more inspired by fantasy and his linework became more and more anarchic MacNeil’s work here is more naturalistic and restrained. In many ways the tone is reminiscent of Alex Ross with the main difference being that (on the whole) MacNeil doesn’t photo-reference giving his work a less bulky and more flowing look. His paints are also expert with the alleged overuse of the colour brown in many early nineties painters not in evidence here with MacNeil utilizing a rich and varied colour palette. In addition he sometimes switches to a ghostly, almost pencilled monochrome for the odd panel often highlighting a flashback or a comment from America. As for his panel layouts, well they are just breathtakingly daring and varied with him utilizing a variety of styles from traditional boxed panels to more informal panel separations. Amazingly accomplished art that brilliantly brings out all the emotion and pathos in the script.
In concluding I reiterate my opening; this is the greatest comic story ever. It manages to combine political analysis with franchise character deconstruction with a most potent love story. In addition it continues perhaps the most shocking yet effective and most obviously foretold ending in the history of comics or any other medium. If you think that this story doesn’t appeal to you then either I’ve failed in my review or you’re a flat out philistine. This simply has something for everyone who can appreciate good comics with a mixture between high and low characterisation, excellent yet unpretentious dialogue and some of the most chilling and effective action scenes you’ll scene. You cannot call yourself a serious comic book fan and not have this story in your collection; it’s that essential. It’s out there waiting for you, in English, in print and easily available. There’s no absolutely no excuse.
