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Exclusive preview: Fortify your winter with 2000 AD's frosty new Judge Dredd: Cold Wars
The grim lawman operating under the notorious handle of Judge Dredd is set to lay down more swift and inexorable justice come March, when 2000 AD presents an entirely new collection of some of the best futuristic Dredd tales in the galaxy.
Titled Judge Dredd: Cold Wars, this 145-page, critically acclaimed gathering features Judge Dredd’s snowbound adventures in Mother Russia, and SYFY WIRE has an exclusive 11-page preview to warm your insatiable Dredd desires.
After returning home from a harrowing mission deep into Soviet territory, Dredd discovers himself in conflict with fellow comrades of a different past engagement remembered as the Apocalypse War. Operating under strict orders handed down from the Justice Department, Dredd heads back to the frozen wastelands of Siberia, where things begin to tumble out of control in an avalanche of danger. Now even his extensive training and brutal mindset might not be enough against the savage cold, rebellious mutants, and the deafening echoes of the past.
Resurrecting the Cold War, this timely satire on turbulent current events examined through the tough lens of Dredd’s violent world is written by veteran 2000 AD creators Michael Carroll (Every Empire Falls, Judges), Rob Williams (Trifecta, Doctor Who), and Dredd co-creator John Wagner. This exceptional edition also shines a spotlight on pulse-pounding artwork via 2000 AD luminaries Trevor Hairsine (Cla$$War), Dan Cornwell (Rok of the Reds), Paul Davidson (Moon Knight), and Colin MacNeil (Wolverine).
Inside, Williams' "Get Sin" tale teams him up again with Trev Hairsine for a Justice Department revenge mission against the Sovs.
"In a prior story the Sovs took ex-Chief Judge Sinfeld prisoner and slaughtered the escaped inmates of Titan penal colony," Williams tells SYFY WiRE. "Those men may have been criminals, but they were once Judges, and so there must be an answer. And so Justice Department sends a small commando unit, led by Dredd, behind enemy lines to, effectively, sentence an entire Sov prison to death. And they have to get out of an impossible underground castle with Sinfeld. It's basically me blatantly riffing on Where Eagles Dare. Which is no bad thing."
Supplying the visuals to Michael Carroll's stories in this collection, “Black Snow,” “Echoes,” and “The Shroud,” are some of the creator's favorite collaborators: artists P.J. Holden, Colin MacNeil, and Paul Davidson, colorists Quinton Winter and Chris Blythe, and letterer Annie Parkhouse.
"Their input brings the world of Judge Dredd to life in ways that mere prose cannot do," Carroll explains to SYFY WIRE. "Like the others in this collection, our tales are effectively aftershocks of the Apocalypse War, even though that happened almost 40 years ago in Dredd’s time. It’s that duration that perfectly illustrates one of the greatest strengths of Judge Dredd."
Carroll continues: "The Big Name superhero comics (the 'Flights and Fights in Tights' brigade) feature massively important world-shattering events at least twice a year, but they lack the key element that would actually give them the weight and impact for which the creators are striving: resonance. In the real world – and in the world of Judge Dredd – it’s often only the memory of an atrocity or disaster that prevents it from happening again. I like to think that’s what my stories are about, more than anything else: survival. So, bleak as some of the scenarios might be, hope will always have a stronger hand than despair!"
March into Mega-City One with our early look at this excellent new Dredd graphic novel in the full gallery below, then tell us if you'll lay down the law and pick one up when Judge Dredd: Cold Wars rides into town March 5.
