Judge Dredd: Mega-City Zero, Volume 1

Judge Dredd (IDW) #9

by Ulises Fariñas

Iniciando uma admirável nova era, o Juiz Dredd acorda um dia e descobre que Mega­City Um foi enviada de volta à Idade da Pedra, com partes da cidade cobertas de vegetação e nenhum cidadão à vista. Testemunhe a luta de Dredd para resolver esse mistério enquanto tenta se acostumar a ser apenas um cidadão comum. Roteiro de Ulises Farinas e Erick Freitas, com arte de Dan McDaid.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2016

Reviews

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Judge Dredd: Mega-City Zero, Volume 1' starts with Judge Dredd outside in a green field and just gets stranger from there.

Mega-City One is gone in some distant future and Judge Dredd finds himself outside of it with limited ammo and a need to find out what happened to his city. He helps three young kids who and they become kind of like his tribe. Not that Dredd requires a tribe, but these feral kids kind of get to him. When he finds the answers to his mystery, it's stranger than he thinks. He also ends up having to save his new "friends" from a kidnapper in this new twisted reality.

It's not really a well hidden mystery to us, except why things are this way, which is never explained. We also don't know how Dredd ended up wherever it is that he's at and how he gets back to where he's needed. Maybe that's not the point, but it felt a bit off to me. Dredd, but not Dredd, but I still liked it and the art by Dan McDaid.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, IDW Publishing, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Tarn Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm ... sorry, not my cup of tea. Had the feel of 'Judge Dredd: The Pantomime', with rather juvenile jokes about kicking dogs, mishearing Dredd's name and madcap violence. A nice concept, Dredd returning to consciousness and finding Mega City gone, but the writers clearly decided to go for irreverence rather than relevance.

Picked up towards the end, when the schlock humour was ditched in favour of Dredd being the Stony Face we know and love.

Artwork reminiscent of Frank Millar's work on Dark Knight Returns.

[Sumit Singla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, so Judge Dredd wakes up in a world overrun by greenery, and apparently descended into anarchy. Can't raise anyone on the radio, and the world simply seems to have gone to shit.

He meets three teenage girls, and ends up forming some kind of a bond with them, despite being Dredd. There are lots of oddballs on the way, and Dredd dispenses justice in the only way he knows - through his limited ammo reserves.

The art is mostly good, and that's what kept me going. The story is quite average and I'll be reading the next volume only because I want to get to the root of the mystery.

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The cover art was really good but the art inside just soso. After LOVING the previous JD series this was a letdown.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve read some pretty bad Judge Dredd storylines throughout my time but Megacity Zero takes the cake on the worst one yet.

I really don’t get what this series is attempting. A social commentary on law and order? (Well, that’s always a given in Dredd storylines) A humorous look at internet trolls? A future wasteland of lawlessness? I don’t know. This volume is such a mess of disproportionate storylines and jumps that it’s a confusing mess of an idea that never once goes anywhere or even tells a decent story. It was so bad that I don’t even care about the cliffhanger ending: I won’t be reading part 2.

To further compound this collection’s awfulness, the artwork is flat out abysmal. I know the early issues of Dredd weren’t exactly the pinnacle of great art, but in this day and age, there is no excuse for lazy ass illustrations like we see here.

Skip this one and you won’t be missing a damn thing.

[Kid Disaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happened... where in time is Judge Dredd?

This is a great start to an intriguing plot. Judge Dredd wakes up with no idea where he is. But he knows he's got to keep enforcing the law!

Mega City has disappeared, and in its place is the Grass. Full of outcasts of society, people who's Socap isn't high enough to score them a place in Ang Avi (which looks a heck of a lot like a Mega Block to Dredd.) Once Dredd, and his new crew of 3 adolescent girls busts their way inside we get to the weird wormy meat of the story. We meet Trogs (don't argue with them, it only makes them more powerful), and even get to see the mighty BAN HAMMER come down.

This was a weird, warped, internet-community-discussion-board-made-real comic, and I loved every minute of it.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Phil Dicemechanic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but story feels fragmented with some clumsy joins between the chapters. The trouble is, Mega City One is as much a character in most classic Dredd stories as the eponymous lawman himself. Removing that entirely does give the benefit of the "fish out of water" feel, but leaves a gap that the writers can never quite fill.

The sidekick characters are overly grotesque even for Dredd's world (a pre-teen girl who pulls out people's eyeballs?). The social commentary is in keeping with Dredd's history, but is played a bit heavy, lacking the subtlety of good satire. If I was kind, the art would be reminiscent of Frank Miller's Dark Knight (to be unkind, derivative).

It's ok. If you're a Dredd fan, give it a read. If you're new to Dredd, there are many other places to look ahead of this.

[Thomas Mulrooney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m giving this two stars because I thought the art was ok, but it’s nowhere near the best in the Dredd world. But the dialogue was terrible and it was a slog to get through. I’m glad that this is one of the IDW publications and not the gold that Rebellion puts out in 2000AD.

If this was your first taste of Dredd then I wouldn’t be surprised if you never read any other Dredd comics again. But do yourself a favour and check out the 2000AD stuff as it’s a million times better.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing Dredd story highly recommend you read the 2000AD Dredd if this is your only taste of Judge Dredd

[Juho Salo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has nothing to do with anything I associate Judge Dredd with. It's also badly written. The art is decent.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first chapter was pretty enjoyable; I was excited. But then I felt it fell apart immediately afterwards. 2/5.

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind)]

Freed wakes up in a field of Green and his futuristic world no longer exists. As he pieces together clues to what happened his fate becomes tied to 3 children

[Dan Blackley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that great.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think I'd like this book at first. JD wakes up in a green paradise, and finds three kids (apparently girls, but the artwork is so poor it's impossible to know) kicking some puppies. He can't successfully arrest them, however, for the entire establishment he knows has been demolished – the nearest block is completely run-down and grown-over. The society there is one that's hard to handle, as it has gatekeepers that seem to be robotic Judges, but inside seems to exist on the principal of the survival of the fittest meme – people put things out as ideas, concepts and ways of being/looking, and live of the ensuing social currency, and the least successful may die off. All to the tune of pertinent quotes from contemporary British politics, and satirical looks back at what made JD a Judge in the first place. It's THAT that swung me over – while a lot was still hard to get a handle on, and the artwork remained very poor indeed, the book knew its place in the pantheon even when it was so different to the norm, and the sense of humour proved the writers knew what they were doing.

Mind, the Netgalley file was only four out of five chapters, so I can't swear by it not changing greatly at the finish.

[Paul Franco · Rating 2 out of 5]

The seeming precursor to Robocop—both in looks and sense of righteousness; with his black and white approach to justice, he should be thinking more about survival—wakes up to find his city has been transported into either the past or an apocalyptic future or alternative universe or something; never got it.
Having his AI remind him of his last assignment is an excellent way of data dumping, but even with that the story is never above confusing. There are some great moments, like a hilarious and totally sad sendup of internet fads. But after that it disintegrated into unfocused speeches about the nature of freedom. Dredd growls about everyone being on a soapbox; I hope he included the writers. Said writers deserve to be smacked for having puppy-kicking as a thing. And the kid who likes eyes. . .
Brighter colors than I would have expected, but it’s not necessarily sharp, almost watercolor-like.

[Anja · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.8

I wish I had words to describe the awfulness of this graphic novel.
It could have been really great with Dredd waking up in an alien world where he finds a city with no judges and strange laws. So many possibilities, so many questions. Unfortunately, the plot went from promising to useless and stupid pretty fast. Lightning speed fast. Including puppy kicking, dumb speeches, and even dumber characters. To me the story made no sense at all.
And the artwork. Holy crap, the artwork. It really hurt my eyes, made them almost bleed. It was just, yeah, awful.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this book.

[tyto · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first Judge Dredd comic that I read, and it was decent. The art style was different, but still interesting. The story was interesting, but at some points it was not compelling and it could be difficult to understand at times.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just meandered. Judge Dread and part of Mega City are transported somewhere. It looks prehistoric maybe. Here he finds a city with no judges, no law. Then the book just devolves into a bunch of nonsense. I read it and couldn't tell you what happened with the rest of the book.

Received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judge Dredd comes to on a grass plain with now idea where he is or what has happened. But he is definitely not in Kansas anymore! Dredd teams up with three locals, breaks into the very strange Mega-City for clues, but just finds more questions. All sorts of action plus a nice cliff-hanger makes this a decent read.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Judge Dredd comic to read. While I didn't love it, this was okay. Solid Sci-fi / Distopian like story.

I received an advanced copy of this from NetGalley.com and the publisher