The Monthly Megazine #466: A Rumble With The Ravorax For Dredd

by Richard Bruton

Welcome once more to the Monthly Megazine – doing just what it says, taking you through the latest goings-on in the sister monthly to 2000 AD.

Okay then, into March’s Judge Dredd Megazine and the usual five strips, three reprints, and plenty of text pieces and interviews to go around. Sadly, this month there’s also two obituary pieces — for Paul Neary and Enrique Badia Romero.

(Patrick Goddard there with a dynamic as hell cover)

We get three continuing strips — more sleuthing in the big city for DeMarco P.I., hunting a serial killer who’s stalking gay nightclubbers in Devlin Waugh, and more trouble up North in Calhab with Harrower Squad. There’s also the finale to the three-part creature hunt for Dredd in ‘Ravenous’ and a new one-off Tales from the Black Museum by Liam Johnson and Cam Smith.

With the reprints, we have more IDW Judge Dredd, more Titan Comics Hook Jaw, and the Treasury of British Comics reprint is the quite brilliant Hellman Of Hammer Force.

So, just a bit of reading for you – go look for the Megazine on the shelves already in the UK (it was out Wednesday 20th March) or whenever it manages to get over in the Americas, definitely an idea to get your local comic shop to special order it for you.

Before we begin, a mention for Stewart K Moore‘s centrespread… now that’s something very special indeed…

JUDGE DREDD: RAVENOUS – PART 3 – FINAL PART – by Mike Carroll and Anthony Williams, letters by Annie Parkhouse.

Dredd’s plunging to certain death in the Black Atlantic at the opening of this third and final part. But I figure we all know where that one’s going, don’t we?

Perhaps what we didn’t expect is quite who would come up with the save…

Yes, Paradox Vega, who appears to have a bit of an out-of-time moment here, premembering things in the wrong order, popping up to rescue Dredd. Why? Well, why not? Timey-wimey stuff, as someone once said.

So, Paradox Vega turns up with the rescue plan, although she seems just as likely to find out the plan afterwards. So yes, time stuff, mystery character stuff, Carroll playing around a lot on the third and final episode of what’s been a huge bughunt bit of action – all lots of fun.

And of course, not only do we get a promise of more Paradox Vega but also, with a final panel that practically had to happen because of the way these sort of monster tales are meant to play out, another chance to meet the beastie sometime in the future as well.

DEMARCO, P.I. – NO SMOKE – PART 2 – by Laura Bailey and Rob Richardson, letters by Simon Bowland

More of Bailey and Richardson playing with a noir detective story that just happens to be in the sci-fi setting of Mega-City One. She’s on another case, hired by Seymour Denley of Suvabees to investigate rival auctioneers, Lil Christies. It’s possible that the owner of Lil Christies, Kris Christie, has stolen one of Suvabeesvery valuable archival books.

Which meant DeMarco’s down in the dregs of MC-1 once more, the auction district and finds the Rauch Book, of uncertain history and uncertain use – could be a formula for a synth-opioid smoke or maybe a first edition poetry folio by mutie Rauch Vaughn.

But things aren’t going well for DeMarco – when have they ever gone well? – and in the chaos of the auction going wrong, she’s headed out the back with a name, K R Babel. Trouble is, she’s been caught on camera doing something else.

Yep, DeMarco’s being set up again, the bio-met droids have pinned the theft of the Rauch Book on her. Which is why this second episode begins with DeMarco stabbing a hired goon of Christie’s through the foot. Oh, the joys of being a gumshoe, eh Galen?

The fix, it would appear, is in. There’s a bounty on DeMarco from Christie, the Suvabees guy who hired her turns out to be a ghost, and all DeMarco’s left with is the name – K R Babel.

Off we go for another episode of perfect twisting and turning from Bailey and Richardson, doing absolutely perfect things here. Loving Richardson’s art on this one, all thick of line and full of great colours that manage to be both bright and noir dark at the same time. meanwhile, Bailey has pulled another switch in this one, hopefully in a storyline that will play out way longer than the three episodes we had from DeMarco, Bailey, and Richardson for the last tale.

TALES FROM THE BLACK MUSEUM: AESTHETE – by Liam Johnson and Cam Smith, letters by Jim Campbell

Time for another rather good Black Museum one-off now, where writers and artists seem to have a lot of fun with the concept every time. It’s time to join our guide, Henry Dubble, for Mega-City One’s museum of the weird and nasty, from serial killer trophies to the weapons of the Dark Judges, all many of the bizarre and dangerous is here.

We’re in the realms of art and the aesthete now, that real appreciation of the beauty to be found in art. Specifically, Henry’s telling the tale of Cornelius Klein, artistic prodigy robbed of his sight too young, and his sister, Joanne, who convinced him to continue to paint what he saw inside. Unfortunately for all concerned, what he saw stopped being beauty and started to come from anger and bitterness, which became a real problem once they installed the experimental artificial eyes.

It’s a great little Black Museum tale, full of the bizarre and the horror, tongue in cheek as well, complete with a great final twist.

DEVLIN WAUGH: NIGHTCLUBBING – PART 2 – by Ales Kot and Steven Austin, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Simon Bowland

Think of this one as a bit of a detective tale, with a leathered-up Devlin investigating a possible serial killer stalking the gay nightclubs of Brit-Cit as Holmes and Titivilus as Watson, providing his own glorious narration to start the episode.

I was thrilled. I found myself considering the possibility of starting a little bespoke detective agency. The club was pounding. Bodies were sweating. We discovered our suspect without having to do any real heavy detective work.

And then we get into the interrogation…

Oh yes, Matte Soffe’s colouring over Steven Austin’s great artwork looking perfectly neon pink there, and we have Ales Kot going so far over the top all the way through.

This really is something of a palate cleanser after all the very complex and introspective things Devlin, and the reader, have gone through recently. It’s pure out-and-out Devlin dialled up to whatever number you can think of – quips, violence, blood, and a damn fine dance to finish.

HARROWER SQUAD: CALHAB COUNTRY – PART 3 – by David Baillie and Steve Yeowell, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

More of the all-out action to finish now, as the Calhab Harrower Squad find themselves making allegiances with the enemy in the face of all the ‘crazy magic muties’ outside.

The enemy in question are the members of some Glascal Mafia, using the rad-wastes as perfect cover for whatever bit of illicit naughtiness they’ve been up to. However, when those same crazy magic muties got way out of hand, they headed for sanctuary – the same sanctuary that the trio of remaining Harrower Squad Judges have just walked into.

The truce? Well that doesn’t last too long once the Squad figure out what’s really happening. Okay, by figure out, I really mean beat it out of one of the crooks – leading to a little bit of a response from Forvus…

And a bit of a twist when it comes to Brontide, who’s embedded in this Harrower Squad to find out just why they seem so keen on cleansing the Radlands of muties…

So, it’s a trio of Harrower Squad left, including the psychopath with heavy weaponry, a mystery unfolding over who sent Brontide in, and a hell of a lot of muties between them and getting back to safety.

All told, pretty damn great. What might have started as a mutie hunt in a closed environment sort of action thing has developed nicely with Baillie throwing in a few twists and turns. Yeowell, meanwhile, is doing some absolutely incredible work, best I’ve seen of his for a long time, full of a lot more detail than you may expect but looking every bit classic Yeowell.

So that’s the new strips done with, now it’s time for the reprint material…

We start off with the latest Treasury of British Comics reprint volume to get promo coverage here – the absolutely brilliant second (and final) Hellman Of Hammer Force collection, which includes a hefty turn into darkness with the never before reprinted 1945 adventure taking Hellman back to Berlin. It’s a magnificent reprint that I’ll be telling you a lot more about soon.

Then we have the third parts of two enjoyable tales – the rather underrated 2017 Titan Books Hookjaw series by Si Spurrier and drawn by Conor Boyle and the continuation of the IDW Judge Dredd series from 2018, ‘Under Siege’.

HELLMAN OF HAMMER FORCE: DOWNFALL – by Gerry Finley-Day, Mike Dorey, Patrick Wright, and Jim Watson