As cool a title as that is, two things should be kept in
mind: one, it’s actually two different stories in one volume, with each story featuring
Judge Dredd dealing with each of the two monster icons separately, and two, one
story is clearly better than the other.
First things first. I liked Predator Versus Judge Dredd, but
there were a few key things that could’ve been improved that could’ve turned it
from an interesting crossover into a great one.
First, the world of Dredd could’ve
been introduced better, as an introduction to the world of the Judges feels a
little clumsy within the narrative. Obviously, there’s always going to be
readers brand new to the world of Dredd, and certainly, you should find ways
within the narrative to do that, as long as you can make it feel natural.
Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham was a perfect introduction to the world
of Judge Dredd because we were seeing it through the eyes of Batman, and as such,
bits and pieces of the insanity of this world are slowly explained to him, and
therefore a new audience as a result.
For Predator Versus Judge Dredd, the introduction of the
world is one I’m kind of against: the narrator directly telling and explaining to the audience
everything about the lead character and his world rather than letting us discover it ourselves piece by piece.
And that’s kind of a shame, because the writer is none other than John Wagner,
not just the creator of Judge Dredd but a writer of so many brilliantly told stories
within that universe at least. Which is probably part of the problem – he’s
aware that there’s likely to be a brand new audience, no matter how small, reading
this comic and checking out the universe of Judge Dredd for the first time, but
he’s been such an expert at developing Dredd and his world for so long that
trying to see from a fresh viewpoint might be difficult. That’s the only
explanation I can see for why the introduction for that fresh audience isn’t
handled well. It also doesn’t help that the only point of view from outside
Dredd’s world is the Predator, and let’s face it, he’s not a character who’s
likely to be put off from the insanity of Mega-City 1 – on the contrary, it’s
partly that insanity that’s why he’s drawn to it.
Another problem I have with this story is that not a lot of
characters feel like they have a great deal of depth. There’s not many characters
we get to know very well outside of Dredd, Psi-Judge Schaefer (great-great-granddaughter
of Dutch Schaefer from the original Predator movie) and, oddly enough, the
Predator itself, so the violence doesn’t quite sting as much as it should. This
is something I’ll cover more when I get to the Aliens part of the collection,
but for the moment, while the violence is still cool, the overall story and
world lacks the certain depth that so many of the great comic stories gives us
for Dredd’s world.
One final, but much smaller criticism I have is the artwork.
While it’s ok, I don’t think it suits the multi-coloured insanity of Judge
Dredd, or 2000AD in general. In fact, the first thing I think of when I see it
is more 90s DC. Perhaps not surprising really, considering that one aim for the
crossover was undoubtedly to try and sell Judge Dredd to an American audience,
but still, I think the artwork just lacks a certain charm that some of the more
regular artwork of Judge Dredd has, even in the 90s.
Now that the key criticisms I have for the Predator story
are out of the way, overall, it’s really not that bad a Judge Dredd story or a
Predator story. For Dredd’s part of the story, it’s the classic Judge Dredd
case: a perfect alien hunter arrives in Mega-City 1 and starts killing the
Judges for sport – it’s up to Dredd to track him down and stop him. For the
Predator, it’s a story set in Earth’s future and more than a hundred years
after earlier visitors hunted in the jungles of Earth, both tropical and urban.
Now another has come to Earth to try and find a new type of prey, especially
one as highly armed and trained as the Judges. And that’s one key thing that
makes the crossover worth reading: Dredd and the Predator are really suited to
each other. Not quite as perfectly as the Predator and Aliens, but still a
worthy fit. They’re both universes that are full of action and are violent as
fuck, both protagonists (whether hero or villain) are very smart and very
efficient at what they do, especially when killing their targets, and both are
perfectly matched. It’s just a shame that it’s only a good story overall, when
with just a few key improvements, it could’ve been a great one.
This is where Judge Dredd Versus Aliens: Incubus comes in. Not only
do I think that this succeeds so much where the previous story failed, I think,
reading Aliens immediately after Predator, it probably highlights everything
the previous story did wrong in the first place.
First, there’re the characters, and I think it’s this key
strength that simultaneously make it a great Judge Dredd story and a great Aliens story. In both
universes, a big reason that made us fans fall in love with the universes as
much as we did wasn’t just the violence – it was how much it stung. And why it stung was for a very
simple reason: how much we found ourselves already starting to care about the
characters. How much they felt like they had lives outside of their jobs (not
something that was easy to do perhaps in the Predator story when the victims
were always the Judges, people whose jobs really didn’t allow them to have any
kind of life outside of the job); how much they felt like three-dimensional
human beings, even after knowing them for such a short time, and how shocking
it always felt when an alien burst out of their chests or acid blood was
suddenly sprayed all over them. This is what makes Wagner such a perfect fit
for the Alien universe: he has always been absolutely brilliant at making us
care about characters who get such
nasty deaths in so little time, and it’s nice that, along with co-writer Andy
Diggle, both are at their A-game.
What also helps is that the story has a lot more depth than
Predator Versus Judge Dredd. Whereas the first story was very straightforward,
with Dredd and the Predator effectively hunting each other, here, there’re a lot
more sides to it. First, we’re given the mystery of how the aliens arrived in Mega-City
1, which also introduces us to the human criminals involved, all of whose motives
are for a variety of reasons: some political, some pure greed, and some just
for the evulz.
Surprisingly, the story actually adds a lot of decent
mythology to the Dredd universe, including the return of a few significant
characters and even the introduction of a new Judge: Sanchez, brand new to the
job and full of nerves, to say the least. So much so in fact that you’re forced
to wonder if she’s really cut out for it. Interestingly, her perspective is
probably the closest thing to being the ‘new reader introduction’ we get, and
honestly, that’s not much of one, as the story really does throw readers new to
the world of Dredd in the deep end. Now, I’m a huge fan of everything Judge Dredd (bar the Stallone movie, of
course), and as a result, it’s harder for me to assess how easy a story like
this would be for new readers to jump on board with. In the long term, it’s an
approach I prefer to the more heavy-handed introduction the Predator story gave
us, and the story itself is simple enough to follow. Plus, if readers did need
more of an introduction, at least the Predator story is included in this
collection.
We also get to see more than just the Judges perspective, as
a pest control team is sent in to initially deal with one single chestburster.
Yeah, you can guess how well that goes, but, as an Aliens fan, the pest control
team is a fantastic addition to the story – all of the characters feel like
real people with lives and jobs back home who feel like they know completely
what they’re doing when it comes to tracking one little pest. Again, very predictable,
but in this case, it’s in a good way. While lacking any direct continuity to
the Aliens series beyond the Xenomorphs themselves – no mention of Ripley or
any of her direct descendents, no mention of the company etc – it’s the
characters and their story that gives it a truly authentic Aliens feel.
Of course, what else gives it an authentic Aliens feel of
course is violence, and lots of it!
People get burned in acid, chests are burst, shot to shit, ripped to
shreds...in short, the kind of violence that feels right at home in a Judge
Dredd comic. With the added bonus of giving us characters to actually give a
shit about, the extra sting makes that violence work even better.
I mentioned how well the universes of Predator and Dredd
suit each other, and naturally, the same goes for Dredd and Aliens. The
difference being in this crossover is that the best of both worlds are used to
their full advantage. The Aliens are such a great fit for Dredd’s world,
(especially considering all the crazy aliens he’s dealt with over the years,)
and the story really gives us both fleshed out characters and a world with
depth. It avoids being a random encounter for both universes and instead feels
like something big for one in the case of Dredd, another great selling point.
Add to that the artwork of Henry Flint, a veteran artist of the comics that
gives us that mixture of gritty style with the mixture of bright and dark
colours of Mega-City 1, and you have a great story that’s well presented. As
far as Judge Dredd crossovers are concerned, outside those exclusive to the
2000AD universe, this is one of the very best, up there with Judgement on
Gotham, the story that made me a fan of the character in the first place.
One final point: the book itself. Going for the price of £25
in the UK, this is a very pricey book. Is it completely worth that price? Maybe
not quite. The quality of the hardback itself is very nice, with a dust-cover
over a completely black cover with just the title in red letters, so it
really does make quite the impression on the book shelf. But there’re no extras
at the back or front, no interviews with the writers or artists on how a
crossover like this happened, nothing revealed about any unused story ideas or
what might’ve been. Covers for individual issues at least are shown at the
start of each relevant ‘chapter’, including some alternative ones, which are welcome,
but besides that, there’s not much new. So I’d say that if you’ve read these
two stories before and in previous separately released trade paperbacks, I’m gonna be
honest and say there’s really nothing new for you here. If, however, you’re like
me and you’ve never read these two stories before, it’s definitely worth a
look, especially if you’re a fan of any of the three major icons. Judge Dredd
Versus Aliens: Incubus really is not just a fantastic crossover story, but a
brilliant comic book story period, and even Predator Versus Judge Dredd, while
not being quite as good, is still worth a look if you're a fan of both characters.
Predator Versus Judge Dredd: 6/10
Judge Dredd Versus Aliens: 9/10
Overall collection: 8/10
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