The Monthly Megazine Issue #447: Abnett And Winslade’s ‘Lawless’ Concludes ‘Ballots Over Badrock’ With Triple-Length Finale And More

by Richard Bruton

The Monthly Megazine – doing just what it says, taking you through the latest goings-on in the sister monthly to 2000 AD, 30+ years and still going strong!

Inside the August Megazine there’s just three strips to fill the pages – but one of those strips is a triple-length finale episode of the brilliant Lawless in ‘Ballots Over Badrock‘, so we’re all good with that. Before that triple delight, there’s a done in one Judge Dredd, Little Shop of Terrors, and the third and final part of the Anderson, Psi-Division tale Dissolution.

Half of Phil Winslade’s epic wraparound cover- well, who else for the cover of the Meg with the Lawless finale?

Judge Dredd: The Megazine #447 is out wherever great comics are sold on Wednesday 17th August.

Also in this issue, a three-page tribute to one of 2000 AD’s greats, Alan Grant, who sadly passed away on 21st July, introduced by this wonderfully touching piece of art by Rufus Dayglo.

JUDGE DREDD: LITTLE SHOP OF TERRORS – Ken Niemand and Neil Googe, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Annie Parkhouse

A death cult in Mega-City One, a collectibles dealer trafficking in all things dark and gloomy, competition run amok, and of course… Dredd’s on the case… but not before Ken Niemand has a little fun with a Mechanismo and Dredd…

Neil Googe’s art is perfect for this sort of lighter, done in one, sillier sort of Dredd. But Niemand’s also pretty damn good at doing them as well.

The very same week as this death cults are the dumbest things episode here we have the sausage-fest naked episode of Dredd in 2000 AD – both are ridiculous and funny and both have exactly the same sort of daftness that’s always run through Dredd over the decades.

Plus there’s a rather wonderful little Survival Geeks nod in here from Googe as well, not to mention a very hopeful dealer in all things collectible – not the best thing to wave in front of Mr Big Boots Lawman.

All in all, loads of fun, totally silly (well, nearly), and surprisingly something that Niemand might actually come back to at some point. Who knows?

ANDERSON, PSI-DIVISION: DISSOLUTION – PART 3 – FINAL PART – Maura McHugh, Lee Carter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

So, after last month’s press copy of the Meg missing the Anderson strip and me just plain forgetting (I’m old, it happens, leave me alone dammit) to pick up the fulll digital copy, I’m going to just go with it anyway… however, it does mean I’ve now missed the middle part of a three-parter, so forgive me for being just that little bit at sea with it.

So, where we were at… Anderson in trouble, a flashback to current Psi-Div Chief Shenker and how he got the call to the top job, something that meant we were going to see the mysterious workings of Justice Department Psi-Div.

Well, that sort of must have happened last episode, but it sure appears to still be going on as we open in the Court of the Green Judge back in the now, with this third and final episode dropping us into the psi-fight to see who’s in the running for the Chief Psi-Judge’s job with Judges Shakta and Ikeda in the running.

Another one of those that felt that little bit rushed in the end, I just have that feeling that there was enough material, enough ideas, to see this extended out to more of a longer run, because it definitely seems as though McHugh is putting herself forward as the writer to oversee Anderson for the next few years with her work recently – and in an art mimicking life moment…

As for Carter, well there’s a hell of a lot of work going on in here and a hell of a lot of skill to make all of it look so seamless – with Carter dipping deep into his box of digital tricks for the psi-fight sequences and doing something that deliberately looks ethereal and different and does it remarkably well.

LAWLESS: BALLOTS OVER BADROCK – PART 9 – FINAL PART – Dan Abnett, Phil Winslade, letters by Jim Campbell

Sure, it’s the final part, but this one is triple-length… meaning more chance to see what Messrs Abnett and Winslade have up their sleeves and more opportunities to oooh and aaahhh over Winslade’s artwork.

Since it’s the final Lawless in this volume, no spoilers here, because that’s no fun for you when you read it (and then get the collection and read it again and again and again – because it’s that good).

Suffice it to say that we open with Jaroo and SJS Judge Drury (the good one) facing down the Radtus toxin mutation thingy and then move on to seeing SJS Judge McClure (the bad one) steamrollering Drury and ending up with a mission to bring Lawson in…

As for Lawson herself, she’s back with little Archie, little Archie who’s more than he seems (we know it but not Lawson, not yet). And then it’s time to run, a trio of SJS Judges on her trail, a frenetic, brilliantly paced, incredibly drawn pursuit across Badrock ending up with McClure and Lawson going at it, no holds barred, a fight for Lawson’s life.

And then… as to the ending. Well, I ain’t spoilering that at all. But it’s setting up the next book a treat – and it’s going to be a very, very different Lawless that returns in 2023.

Quite frankly, Lawless is, was, and will be quite stunning. Everything I’ve said about Dan Abnett’s other series, The Out and Brink applies here – it makes three of my favourite 2000 AD and Megazine series written by Abnett and ably assisted by the artistic geniuses of Culbard, Harrison, and of course the incredibly busy, meticulously constructed, absolutely beautifully worked pages of Phil Winslade here in Lawless.

(Hopefully, after the unbelievable amount of work put in here for this triple-sized finale, Winslade’s having himself a much-needed holiday right now.)