It's comic-reading time, and of course we're heading back into the wonderful world of 2000 AD! It's been a little while since I've done a proper comic review, so I thought it was time to put that right. This time, we're stepping back into Mega-City One, but we're taking a slightly different route through the city.
Forget the familiar world of Judges Dredd and Heresy for a moment. Instead, we're going undercover and exploring the lives of those special Judges who spend their days infiltrating the criminal underworld.
Welcome to the Wally Squad!
These are the Judges who go deep undercover, sometimes spending years living among the very criminals they're supposed to bring down. But what happens when you spend too long pretending to be someone else? What happens when the line between Judge and criminal starts to disappear?
That's the territory we're exploring in Mega-City Undercover Volume 01, and I absolutely loved it.
The Details
Title: Mega-City Undercover Volume 01
Writers: Andy Diggle, Rob Williams
Artists: Henry Flint, Jock, Simon Coleby
Letterers: Annie Parkhouse, Elie De Ville, Tom Frame
The Cover
The cover is a classic Mega-City One landscape, featuring one of the main characters, Lenny Zero. The sun appears to be setting over the city, with the skyline beautifully presented in warm oranges. It's a gorgeous piece of artwork by Jock, and something a little different from some of the more traditional 2000 AD covers. It immediately sets the tone for what we're about to get into. This is a different side of Mega-City One, and I think the cover captures that perfectly.
Story: Lenny Zero
We kick things off with a triple Lenny Zero story arc, and what a way to introduce a character! This is a classic introduction story that gives us a good look at our main character. We discover that Lenny has been a Street Judge for fifteen years, although it's not entirely clear how long he's spent undercover.
He's also fallen in love with Mona and has reached the point where he wants out of the Justice Department! What better way to introduce an undercover Judge than by having him pull off one of the biggest crimes a Judge could possibly commit?
It's a shocking introduction, and I absolutely love it. It immediately makes you question who Lenny Zero really is and whether there's any way back for him.
Highlight: Caesar Piccante's Mob
Little Caesar is a particularly creepy old character. He's been transferred into his third cloned child body and is actually around 200 years old! Then there's Marv, the mob's muscle, whose name apparently stands for Multiple Armed Robbery with Violence. You have to love 2000 AD's sense of humour!
Dead Zero
Lenny is now on the run and hiding out in a rather impressive fat suit, pretending to be Porx of Robo Junk. Unfortunately, his hiding place doesn't stay secret for long when Trapper Khan arrives on the scene. Lenny is forced into pulling off a stunt that, if successful, could finally give him his freedom.
Highlight: Trapper Khan
An off-world bounty hunter who happens to be a man-tiger! Seriously, how cool is that? He's got some rather nasty tricks up his sleeve, including Spider Bombs. Definitely the sort of character that makes you stop and admire the imagination behind 2000 AD.
Wipeout
With Lenny's supposed death cover blown and Little Caesar now hunting him down, there's really only one option left. All-out war against the Piccante Mob! It's a brilliant way to bring the Lenny Zero story to a close, with plenty of action and some wonderfully ridiculous moments.
Highlight: Lenny teleporting Little Caesar off the toilet mid-crap. Honestly, sometimes you just have to admire the creative choices being made here. Hahaha!
Low Life
Next up, we move into six Low Life tales, where we meet more characters who quickly became a favourite of mine. I feel I need a Wally Squad in Sector 102.
Paranoia
Aimee Nixon is an eleven-year veteran of the Wally Squad and has spent more than two years working undercover on the streets of Low Life. Just as her work is about to pay off, Street Judges burst in and kill her informant. Following some rough treatment of a perp, Nixon finds herself having to defend her actions to her boss, Judge Farnsworth. After a bit of a dressing down, she's soon back out on the streets, trying to get more information from her fellow undercover Judges.
Her investigation leads her to Ragnarok, a hardcore punk bar where blood sports are staged for the entertainment of the crowd, with punters betting on the outcome. Things quickly go wrong, and Nixon finds herself in serious trouble. She's framed for the murder of a local crime boss, and to make matters worse, somebody has deposited money into her account. Someone is setting her up, but who?
The story really starts to ramp up from here. Mob bosses across Low Life are turning up dead, and Nixon's fellow Wally Squad members also appear to be getting hunted down. It all builds towards a dramatic conclusion that I'm not going to spoil. You'll just have to go and read it!
Highlight: Dirty Frank: Twenty-plus years in the Wally Division have clearly taken their toll on this particular Judge. Dirty Frank refers to himself in the third person, has an eye patch and dreadlocks, and is generally regarded as someone who has gone a little too far into his undercover role. He's an absolute character, and one of those miniatures I immediately remember painting and enjoying so much.
Heavy Duty
Nixon is back, and once again Wally Squad members are being targeted and killed. This time, Nixon has to undergo body-changing technology to become a Fattie and infiltrate the fitness regimes of Low-Cal Towers. What I particularly enjoyed about this story is that, beneath all the bizarre Mega-City One humour, there's a rather sad commentary on how people treat one another. There's no great criminal conspiracy here in the traditional sense. Just a rather depressing state of affairs and the consequences of treating people like crap.
It's another great example of how 2000 AD can mix outrageous ideas with some surprisingly human storytelling.
Rock and a Hard Place
Rectal Prolapse, a Nouveau Punk band, has somehow managed to blow up an entire nightclub and most of a sector block. Naturally, it's Dirty Frank who gets the job of figuring out what's going on. But before he can get to the bottom of the mystery, he has to become the manager of Kill Kill Kill, a rather hopeless punk band operating in Low Life. This is exactly the sort of ridiculous adventure that makes Dirty Frank such an entertaining character.
Highlight: Dirty Frank! After being forced to front the band during a concert, Dirty Frank proceeds to urinate for 21 minutes! Yes, you read that correctly. I don't really know what else to say about that. It's just so wonderfully weird. And hits my humor buttons spot on.
He's Making a List
The Robert Helpmann Block is home to the Low Life Orphans, with somewhere in the region of 5,000 children living there. Every year, around Christmas time, children start going missing. According to the kids, it's all down to Mr. Claws. Now it's up to Dirty Frank and Nixon to go undercover and investigate. Their disguises? Santa Claus and an elf! I love the idea behind this story, but there's also a more serious side to it. Nixon's past comes back into focus as she starts bonding with the children. These are some of the pages I particularly enjoy in Dredd-related comics. They remind us that, underneath the uniform and the Justice Department conditioning, the Judges are still human.
Of course, that humanity is often the very thing that leads a Judge towards going rogue, which makes these stories all the more interesting.
Con Artist
Aimee Nixon is back undercover, this time at Hit-Con, an annual gathering of the elite Button Men from around the world. Think Comic-Con, but instead of collecting merchandise and meeting artists, the attendees are highly dangerous criminals discussing the art of murder! It's a brilliant setting, and another opportunity to explore Nixon's increasingly complicated relationship with the Justice Department. As she continues her work, she's questioning more and more about her own life and where she belongs.
I really enjoy Nixon as a character. There's a lot going on beneath the surface, and her stories give us a fascinating look at the psychological cost of spending years undercover.
Baby Talk
We finish the collection with a rather unusual story. A new medical clinic is offering parents the opportunity to increase their children's mental abilities. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Well, not quite. A group of babies suddenly go rogue and rob an art gallery, leaving Dirty Frank and Mortal to investigate what's going on.
Highlight: Ninja Babies! Yes, you read that correctly. Ninja Babies! I'm not even going to try and explain that one. You'll just have to read it for yourself.
Final Thoughts
And with Baby Talk, we have reached the end of the collection. I have to say, this has been one of the best Dredd-related graphic novels I've read in awhile. I absolutely love the characters. Lenny Zero is a fantastic introduction to the world of undercover Judges, Nixon is a brilliant character with plenty of depth, and Dirty Frank is just something else entirely.
The writing is excellent, the artwork is stunning, and the imagination on display is next level. Every story seems to introduce another bizarre character, strange location or completely unexpected idea. It's exactly what I want from 2000 AD. What I particularly enjoy is that these stories show us a different side of Mega-City One. We aren't just following Judges dealing with criminals from the outside. We're seeing what happens when the Judges become part of that world, and the consequences of living a lie for too long.
And, of course, there's plenty here to inspire my own little corner of the Big Meg. I can't wait to get stuck into Volume 02. If it's anything like this collection, I'm in for a treat! Cheers for reading, and I'll see you on the next adventure!
