Judge Dredd: False Witness

Judge Dredd (IDW) #16

by Brandon Easton, Kei Zama (Illustrator), Silvia Califano (Illustrator)

Justice Academy drop-out Mathias Lincoln always survived by sub-legal means, but after uncovering a vast conspiracy, he finds himself pursued by legendary lawman Judge Dredd!

Get ready for a street level look at justice in Mega-City One as one person fights to expose the darkest secrets of the rich and powerful in a thrilling mystery set against a backdrop of media manipulation and social unrest.

While on a job for a rich client, Justice Academy drop-out and professional fixer Mathias Lincoln makes a horrific discovery -- children are disappearing, and the conspiracy stretches from the wastes of the Cursed Earth all the way to the halls of power in Mega-City One.

Things get even worse for Mathias when he's framed for the brutal murder of a controversial media personality whose bombastic rhetoric had made him one of the most powerful--and feared--voices in the city. Now the most wanted man in the Big Meg, Mathias has to fight to clear his name and expose those responsible for taking the Cursed Earth children before he gets a death sentence from Mega-City One's zero-tolerance lawman -- JUDGE DREDD.

Written by Eisner-nominated, Glyph Award-winning writer of comics and TV Brandon Easton (Star Trek: Year Five, Transformers, Agent Carter) with superstar artist Kei Zama (Death's Head, Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye) making her Judge Dredd debut!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Action

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2021

About the author

Brandon Easton is a writer for the new Warner Bros. Animation series THUNDERCATS and a writer for the TRANSFORMERS: RESCUE BOTS for The Hub Network.

In January 2012, Brandon's first graphic novel SHADOWLAW was released to a nationwide sell-out and widespread acclaim with positive reviews from USA Today, Forbes, Wired, Ain't It Cool News and other major publications. Brandon continues to produce his "Writing for Rookies" advice podcast for aspiring comic book and sci-fi writers.

Brandon recently signed a 6-book deal with LION FORGE ENTERTAINMENT, a new transmedia company based out of St. Louis, MO. He splits his time between Los Angeles, New York City and Baltimore, Md.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easton tries to create a modern parable story paralleling Fox News and refugees trying to enter the U.S. I've read similar stories at least 20 times during the Trump presidency. The last thing I want to be constantly reminded me of in my comics is the awfulness going on in the real world. This story was overly complex and convoluted.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate that Judge Dredd has always had a big layer of political satire going on - but where it used to exaggerate modern-day conditions to a level of parody and then make dark humor about them, nowadays the comedy is all but forgotten and the lessons are delivered straight. This story has a lot of that. And also a great many other elementary mistakes, suggesting that the author doesn't actually know the setting nearly as well as he'd like us to believe.

Still, the art is pretty good, and the action has its high points. But the story as a whole would not be too interesting or well-written even without the tracts.

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½⭐

[Zare · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Goodreads Android application deleted my review and I need to start again.

This one is social justice Judge Dredd novel. Something I thought not possible but these days everything goes I guess.

Previously I placed spoiler tags but wont now, will keep it shorter. Art is good but story is like it was written by someone who truly did not know how to write about this universe.

What starts as a quest for better life and corrupted big city ends as a story turned on its head. To the point I am not sure that author knows what message he wants to send. It is written in condescending tone that culminates with monologue on how Cursed Earth's refugees are invigoration of city populace that is degenerate and can only continue degenerating. Thats slightly offensive and insulting especially coming from refugee who became judge and started exterminating its own kind for profit and power.

Current politics notwithstanding you need to choose what you want to comment on otherwise overall effect is meh (followed by gazillion question marks).

Proper example of social issues in this dystopian world in my opinion is Rebellion or Lawless.

So if you are not a person that needs to have every issue and story about Dredd (and here Dredd is not even part of the story, he is in deep background) Lawless and Rebellion are much better reads.

[Alex Sarll]

I tended to forget this existed whenever I wasn't reading it, so possibly the final installment wasn't pulling both plot developments and themes (right down to the explanation of the title) out of its arse with quite such abandon as it seemed. But I can definitely say that it doesn't get either Dredd or his city, and that its rehearsal of topical themes, specifically anti-immigrant hysteria, manages to be both on-the-nose and totally disconnected from reality: even five years ago, surely we were already past the point where you could credibly do a story in which exposing the truth would do anything whatsoever to change the mind of a mob drunk on propaganda and hate? On the upside, at least the Meg is now ceasing its reprints of the IDW comics which, with hindsight (and always excepting the hilarious Mars Attacks crossover) consistently failed to catch the proper 2000AD tone.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm used to Judge Dredd being preachy in its satire, but it's typically subtle. This, at times, felt on the edge of flicking your nose with its social commentary plus some irreligious monologuing towards the end. I can't say it's the best, but it was still a good conspiracy thriller with beautiful artwork. 3.5/5

[Dan Blackley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judge Dredd is one of my favorite characters. He is brutal. He is strong. He is the Law!! This collection of the comic series is good. It is an interesting tale and has all of what you want from a Judge Dredd story.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better IDW Dredd books but only because of Zama.