Comicon Advent Calendar 2024 Day 5: Seasons Greetings From Judge Dredd
by Richard Bruton
Welcome again to the annual comics extravaganza that is the Comicon Advent Calendar. 24 days of the sorts of goodies you used to get as a kid, just with a festive treat of a comic a day…
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Today, we’re off to Mega-City One for a Christmas tale. And what could be more festive than an execution? Ho, ho, ho?
Yep, it’s a typically seasonal Dredd full of murder, gang revenge, last-minute stays of execution, and Dredd managing to always be the bastard, even at this time of year… it’s Judge Dredd: Death Row by John Wagner and Paul Marshall, a story that originally ran in Judge Dredd Megazine 253 (December 2007).
It’s Christmas Eve in Mega-City One. All the cits and the perps are getting ready for the big day tomorrow. Although, for Mental Gomez, leader of the Barracuda street gang, tomorrow’s going to be very short. He’s been convicted of the Halloween massacre, a revenge killing they say, where Mental went after the gang that killed his brother, Psycho (actually Horace, but hey, not the coolest gang name.) And when Christmas Eve turns to Christmas Day, he’s going to be executed. (Yes, Christmas Day. You think Mega-City One stops its executions for Christmas? What are you, some kind of liberal?)
Here’s poor Mental…
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But Mental’s talking of a reprieve… and who do you think’s going to be getting him that reprieve? Oh, yes… and he’s so happy about it…
Turns out that Mental’s got a guilt complex so deep-rooted that every lie detector automatically registers him as lying, no matter what. And the combination of that and his DNA found at the scene was enough to convince the Judges and send him to the iso-blocks waiting for the needle.
Well, enough to convince most Judges. But Dredd ain’t most Judges. Mental’s convinced him that he might just be innocent of this one, despite being a grade A dirtbag for so much else. And Dredd being Dredd, even murderers get a fair crack at his law. And that’s why Dredd’s hitting the streets on Christmas Eve… but although he knows it’s right, he doesn’t have to be in any way happy about it…
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After this, what we get is a classic Dredd Christmas story, with John Wagner putting together a really solid procedural against a backdrop of the festive season. Of course he does, it’s John Wagner. And Paul Marshall on art does a damn fine job as well here.
We follow Dredd’s investigation, watch Mental get increasingly frantic as the clock ticks towards Christmas Day, see Dredd work the facts, pull the original investigation apart, gather more suspects… just all the great things you always get in a Wagner Dredd procedural, just with a bit more snow and ho-ho-hos than normal…
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With Dredd on the case, there really wasn’t any doubt surely, with the clock ticking down to Mental’s death, Dredd pulls all the suspects in and finds out the truth…
Then there’s just the small matter of getting across to the iso-block before they have chance to administer the needle…
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Phew. Close one, eh?
But we’re not done with Mental quite yet. Because this isn’t one of those sickly sweet and sentimental Christmas tales. Hell no, this is a Dredd Christmas tale. You really expected a creep like Mental to get a break, even at this time of year? You’ve obviously been reading the wrong comics.
So, cue the final page and Dredd managing to be the absolute bastard that Wagner always knew he was. A classic ending to a classic Dredd Christmas…
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Yep, Merry Christmas Dredd, Ho Drokking Ho.
You can find all the previous years’ entries in the Comicon Advent Calendar right here. And keep up with all the 2024 Comicon Advent Calendar entries here.
