DC,$4.95
Short Review: Two hard men, untouched by Hollywood.
At a time when both Judge Dredd and, to a lesser extent, Batman are being made-over for the Movies, it's refreshing to see that their third team-up is true to the original forms. This is easiest for Batman, since the comics have established a fairly wide range of depictions, and the movies are clearly outside these; no-one expects to see the movie Batman in any comic apart from the movie adaptation. The character is essentially the same in all versions, and that's the important thing. The same is true for Dredd, as viewed from England: Everyone knows what he looks like, and everyone knows how he acts. But the Movie is the first sight of Dredd that most Americans have, and there's always a danger with Big Companies that they'll pull the character towards the merchandising. Thankfully, the two writers are old hands at Dredd, and can write him in their sleep.
Unfortunately, this is more or less what's happened. The plot involves Batman, Dredd and a few other tough guys from various realities being summoned to a strange city for a winner-takes-all contest. Without the background of Mega-City 1, Judge Dredd loses a lot of his humour, and is reduced to repetitively re-sentencing the perp that gets moved with him. Apart from that, he's just a tough guy, a role that Batman shares until he figures out exactly what's going on. The painted art is good throughout, although the last quarter, by Dermot Power, does succumb to redrawing Dredd closer to the film.
In short, the book is a straight forward runaround with lots of bad guys. If you like the characters, get it. Otherwise, it's probably not worth it.
Andrew These reviews are copyright the authors