Preview: ‘Essential Judge Anderson: Satan’ – More Classic Alan Grant And Arthur Ranson

Second in the absolutely living up to the name Essential Judge Anderson volumes – Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson team up once more for Satan – yes, SATAN.

We’ve already had the absolute highpoint of Judge Anderson for so many readers as the first volume of Essential Judge Anderson brought us the brilliance of ‘Shamballa’ – something I covered in depth here in the review.

Well, now we have volume 2, with Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson reunited to bring us another incredible piece – ‘Satan’.

Containing four tales and culminating with the really rather brilliant Satan, it’s more of what you’ve come to expect from Essential Anderson as written by Alan Grant, exploring Anderson’s psyche, her commitment to the concept of the Justice Department, her doubts about just what her purpose is, and wrapping it up in plenty of fascinating concepts of religion and faith, all building up to the conclusion of Satan, where Anderson and Dredd are going up against something completely biblical in nature – perhaps. And of course, you surely don’t need me to tell you that the art on this volume is just perfection – Arthur Ranson’s name and the art you’ll see here should be all you need to convince you of that.

In the four tales here, we have Anderson grappling with issues of freedom and faith, and questioning where she stands and what damage her role and that of the Justice Department has done, all concluding with Anderson coming face-to-face with the devil – a perfect backdrop for all those questions of faith and freedom to be explored.

It’s a stunning volume and one that rightly gets the essential treatment here, a perfect second part to give you, with ‘Shamballa’ and ‘Satan’, something of an all you need to know of MC-1’s most complicated, most humanist, most conflicted, and most fascinating of Judges.

More on this as I get to writing the review that sprung from my re-reads of this in doing this preview, but here’s the 2000 AD press release for this one, followed by plentiful bits of preview…

“Judge Cassandra Anderson of Psi Division is one of the greatest minds on the Judges’ roster. As a precognitive telepath and empath, her quirks, such as her sense of humour, are tolerated by the otherwise oppressively strict Justice Department.

In Mega-City One, citizens live in fear under the iron fist of the Judges’ unyielding rule, but PSI Judge Cassandra Anderson knows it’s a flawed system. In the second volume of her Essential line, Anderson grapples with matters of faith and damnation, as a chance at eternal life comes at the cost of losing her mind forever, while her pursuit of a just system leads her to investigate a religious cult, and ultimately to engage in a battle of the minds with the most formidable of foes: Satan himself!

As Anderson faces up to the living embodiment of evil – a man of wealth and taste indeed – she’ll be pushed to the very limit of her abilities!”

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ESSENTIAL JUDGE ANDERSON – VOLUME 2 – SATAN

By Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson, letter by Annie Parkhouse and Steve Potter

Published by 2000 AD on Tuesday 7th May 2024

Originally serialised in Judge Dredd Megazine 3.14 (The Protest), 2000 AD Progs 1263-1273 (R*Evolution), Judge Dredd Megazine 2.22-2.24 (Jesus Syndrome), Judge Dredd Megazine 3.01-3.07 (Satan)

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