Member Review
Review by
Kaushik K, Reviewer
My introduction to Judge Dredd was via the 1995 Stallone movie. I quite liked it, to be honest. As someone who wasn’t familiar with Ol’ Stoney Face and living in the pre-Internet age, I had no idea of the ‘sacrilege’ committed when Dredd removed his helmet. I loved the dystopian setting and the action sequences. It was only much later, while reading the novelizations by Dave Stone and David Bishop that I started getting a hang of the world of Dredd. In parallel, I was also working my way through Mack Bolan, Able Team, and Phoenix Force – the Holy Trinity of American action-adventure paperbacks where brave White American men stabbed, mowed down, and blew up thousands of people because the “Godless commies” wouldn’t want Mom’s apple pie.
And I cheered them on.
Fast forward a few years later. I’d read the Dredd novelizations, and also started going through the Warhammer 40,000 books. I’d also had developed a more critical view of the world and beginning to understand that the over-the-top nature of the Imperium in WH40K and the super-authoritarian yet super-chaotic Mega-City One were not meant to be taken at face-value and that the writers were cautioning us about what could happen if we went down a slippery slope.
A few more years later, I am a little bit wiser (though my wife would not agree) and realize that the Dredd stories, Garth Ennis’ MarvelMAX Punisher run, and WH40K were meant to satirize the state of the world. I also realized that Mack Bolan was not meant as satire but played sttaight.
All of the above is a really long-winded and self-centered way to segue into the topic of this review – Michael Molcher’s I AM THE LAW. A book that brings together the Dredd storylines and the socio-political milieux in which that storyline was written. The book’s written by Mike Molcher, 2000AD Brand Manager, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Dredd-verse as well as deep, first-hand knowledge of UK politics.
The book’s organization is very interesting. Each chapter is named after something or someone in the Dredd-verse. The name signifies the theme of the chapter. For example, the chapter titled UnAmerican Graffiti is about graffiti lampooning authoritarianism. The chapters alternate between the relevant Dredd storyline and the real-world events that almost mirror it. For example, the chapter titled “The Return of Rico” starts with vignettes of Dredd’s ‘evil twin’ brother Rico and from there proceeds to connect that storyline to the idea of dirty cops.
Over the course of the 16 chapters, we are given a front-row view of the collapse of democracy [as in the concept that people’s choices matter, not the political system], and how the Dredd storylines have been influenced by this collapse and have, on occasion, even predicted the collapse. Molcher helpfully points us to some of the utterances of Ol’ Stoney Face that can serve as slogans for the powers that be – e.g., “You can’t trust the people” from the America storyline.
The thesis of the book is that power only begets more power. In Dredd’s world, the awesome weapons and limitless resources that the Judges have concentrated in their own hands in the name of keeping the Mega-City One residents safe has done the opposite – as evidenced by the Block Wards, Chaos Day, and the Apocalypse War. Similarly, in the real world, making police forces similar to military units and increasing their budgets while school-teachers have to pay for supplies out of their own pocket have resulted in mass shootings, increased levels of lethal crimes, and movements likes “All Cops are Bastards”. Yet, both in Dredd-verse and in the real world, the powers that be refuse to understand the data and insist on prolonging the vicious cycle.
When this book gets the inevitable second edition, I’d like Molcher to delve into the more recent storylines, especially the Judge Smiley and Maitland storylines. I’d love to read his analysis of Judge Smiley flat-out telling Dredd “We’re fascists” and how Maitland’s plan to wipe-out crime could fare in the real world.
And I cheered them on.
Fast forward a few years later. I’d read the Dredd novelizations, and also started going through the Warhammer 40,000 books. I’d also had developed a more critical view of the world and beginning to understand that the over-the-top nature of the Imperium in WH40K and the super-authoritarian yet super-chaotic Mega-City One were not meant to be taken at face-value and that the writers were cautioning us about what could happen if we went down a slippery slope.
A few more years later, I am a little bit wiser (though my wife would not agree) and realize that the Dredd stories, Garth Ennis’ MarvelMAX Punisher run, and WH40K were meant to satirize the state of the world. I also realized that Mack Bolan was not meant as satire but played sttaight.
All of the above is a really long-winded and self-centered way to segue into the topic of this review – Michael Molcher’s I AM THE LAW. A book that brings together the Dredd storylines and the socio-political milieux in which that storyline was written. The book’s written by Mike Molcher, 2000AD Brand Manager, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Dredd-verse as well as deep, first-hand knowledge of UK politics.
The book’s organization is very interesting. Each chapter is named after something or someone in the Dredd-verse. The name signifies the theme of the chapter. For example, the chapter titled UnAmerican Graffiti is about graffiti lampooning authoritarianism. The chapters alternate between the relevant Dredd storyline and the real-world events that almost mirror it. For example, the chapter titled “The Return of Rico” starts with vignettes of Dredd’s ‘evil twin’ brother Rico and from there proceeds to connect that storyline to the idea of dirty cops.
Over the course of the 16 chapters, we are given a front-row view of the collapse of democracy [as in the concept that people’s choices matter, not the political system], and how the Dredd storylines have been influenced by this collapse and have, on occasion, even predicted the collapse. Molcher helpfully points us to some of the utterances of Ol’ Stoney Face that can serve as slogans for the powers that be – e.g., “You can’t trust the people” from the America storyline.
The thesis of the book is that power only begets more power. In Dredd’s world, the awesome weapons and limitless resources that the Judges have concentrated in their own hands in the name of keeping the Mega-City One residents safe has done the opposite – as evidenced by the Block Wards, Chaos Day, and the Apocalypse War. Similarly, in the real world, making police forces similar to military units and increasing their budgets while school-teachers have to pay for supplies out of their own pocket have resulted in mass shootings, increased levels of lethal crimes, and movements likes “All Cops are Bastards”. Yet, both in Dredd-verse and in the real world, the powers that be refuse to understand the data and insist on prolonging the vicious cycle.
When this book gets the inevitable second edition, I’d like Molcher to delve into the more recent storylines, especially the Judge Smiley and Maitland storylines. I’d love to read his analysis of Judge Smiley flat-out telling Dredd “We’re fascists” and how Maitland’s plan to wipe-out crime could fare in the real world.
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