Preview: Dredd Comes Up Against ‘A Penitent Man’ — But Can The Big Meg Forgive?

by Richard Bruton

The new collection of Ken Niemand and Tom Foster‘s brilliant Judge Dredd trilogy explores what it means to look for a second chance in Mega-City One — is there any hope for ‘A Penitent Man’?

(Tom Foster’s cover to Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man)

When it comes to the Law in Mega-City One, there’s little room for forgiveness and that’s something ex-Judge Kyle Asher’s about to find out in this latest collection of Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man.

Asher’s just back from a 20-year stint on the Titan penal colony after being found guilty of brutality. But he’s back in Mega-City One claiming to be a changed man, a man who’s done his time and is now just looking to rebuild whatever life he can.

But this is MC-1 and once you’ve ended up on the wrong side of the Law once, is there really any coming back from that? Can even this penitent man find a new start?

Well, suffice it to say that he’s going to find it damn hard. But in following him through the three Niemand and Foster story arcs, ‘A Penitent Man’, ‘An Honest Man’, and ‘A Fallen Man’, we get to see the mechanics of the Law in action and, just as with all the best Dredds – and this is indeed a fine, fine Dredd – it’s all about questioning the system in place, taking a hard look at what the Law in MC-1 really means and finding it a terrible, brutal regime with little chance of that second chance.

Niemand’s really established himself in just a few years as one of the top Dredd writers of the modern age, with this trilogy some of his finest work on the character, all dark, noir stuff, exploring the world of Dredd in a trilogy that’s actually very short on Dredd and, instead, finds things way more interesting in focusing on the regular folks having to suffer life here in the big Meg.

Likewise, it’s only been a decade-ish since Tom Foster won the 2000 AD Thought Bubble talent search contest. But since then he’s established himself as a first-class artist and one of the great modern Dredd artists, with a style that’s got bits of Bolland’s classical line and Chaykin’s noir dynamism running through it. This is absolute classic-looking Dredd for the modern era.

Frankly, ‘A Penitent Man‘ is something of bit of noir brilliance. Like I say, it’s very Dredd lite but that’s to its strength, instead taking Asher’s view of things and letting Niemand really get into the fundamental unfairness of life in MC-1. It’s got a real slow-burn inevitability to it all that means the slow descent of Asher’s forlorn quest for a second chance just works beautifully. Add to that all of Foster’s gorgeous artwork and you get something really great.