On the planet Deadworld, the insane Judge Death and his lieutenants Fear, Fire and Mortis have deemed that as only the living could break the law, life itself should be a crime, and living person is due their judgement. As the Dark Judges set out to bring extinction to their world, a small group of rebels led by Judge Fairfax launch a desperate effort to halt their city’s conversion into a Necropolis.
In the midst of all this chaos, the neighbouring Soviet forces launch an attack on their American enemies in a bid to stop the devastation.
You don’t need to know anything about Judge Dredd or the Dark Judges to pick up and read The Fall of Deadworld (but it helps give a deeper appreciation of the story). Being a near lifelong 2000AD reader I have read much of the backstory already, Judge Dredd stories that feature megadeath are pretty much par for the course in a post nuclear war world; who does not love reading about a fascist lawman defending his city and citizens from ever worse threats from beyond the city walls?
If you want to read the first stories of how Dredd and Judges Fear, Fire, Mortis and Death first met go to your local library and learn how inter-library loan works (if you have not already discovered it), you will decades of works to read through. Or you could buy them from the 2000AD shop or even your local comic store!
Enjoying this story is another issue, it is not a fun comic, this story is so bleak, but remains eminently readable and utterly compelling! I have read most of it already in weekly instalments but having the story so far it in one collection it hits harder with no waiting to give you a break from the bleakness and blooms of hope that the characters still have. I found myself poring over the pages, soaking in the art of Dave Kendall and the storytelling skills of Kek-W! These two are perfectly matched for this world! I read it, knowing what the destination is going to be, but knowing where does not tell us how, and in The Fall of Deadworld we are starting to get the answers that have been brewing for years!
For decades now, John Wagner has been my favourite Dredd writer, but lately his place at the top has been threatened by Rob Williams(seriously his run on Judge Dredd has been out of this world!), and more recently by Kek-W mostly thanks to this stunning story.
The Fall of Deadworld is a worthy addition to the Dark Judges mythos, and one that I hope presages stories (and maybe even another Mega-epic) yet to come of their attempts to fulfil the punishment of a world that has been found guilty of the crime of life!
Buy it or borrow it but read it you must! You won’t regret it – trust me, I am a Librarian!
