Judge Dredd: Dark Justice Hardcover – July 14, 2015

Yeah enjoyed this comic and the art is really good including the story which kept me interested in reading more.

Must have for any Judge Death fan. The story was not bad, Dark Judges pay a visit to a deep space colony transport and wreak havoc on stranded passengers. I am a fan of any any well made Hardcover Dredd book and thought it was a welcome addition to my collection. Great quality. Buy it!

Excellant! John Wagner certainly had a lot more to offer, of the Dark Judges, which was presented extremely well in the Artwork by Greg Staples. With full credit to the Annie Parkhouse who lettered. Certainly another 'GREAT' Dredd Classic. Certainly value for money, for the Read, the Artwork, the Book Quality & the Amazon Service. Now a prize piece, in my current Hardcover Graphic Novels Collection.HewieDarwinAustralia

John Wagner serves up another solid chapter in the legendary Dredd vs Death arch-rivalry. However, it's the jaw-dropping painted work of Greg Staples that makes this book a total home run. Each panel is filled with such exquisite detail, lighting and action you'd think you were watching a high budget action film instead of reading a comic book. A must-have not just for Dredd readers, but for fans of the genre.

Love the new story on a classic Dredd VS Death legendary match-up. The art work by Greg Staples is amazing! I am glad Greg was persistent with John Wagner to get another Dredd VS Death story going! Thanks a bunch guys!

The story is basic, serviceable enough. The real takeaway here is Staples' impressive Struzan-esque interiors.

This is the most beautiful book i have seen since Bisley's Judge dredd/Batman crossover and Arkham Asylum! Amazing work and clearly a long, hard labor of love!

Great art and a good read. Thanks!

To frame my review, I'm proceeding on the assumption that this is The Dark Judges last appearance. And if that is true, then it's an average send-off and truth be told, an average story that has more in common that a Batman/Dredd one-shot that a true Dredd mega-epic.However the artwork by Greg Staples elevates it to something that at the very least, you simply sit back and marvel at. No wonder it took so long - the guy is a modern day Brian Bolland, both in his depiction of Death and his goons and the sheer detail he crams into every single panel. No Bisley-clone artwork here.As the previous review alludes to, the story doesn't round off or add to any previous Dredd plots which whilst great for the casual reader is unsatisfactory for the long-time fan - which is surprising given this is written by the only guy that can write Dredd, John Wagner. And maybe he had written everything he wanted to in Necropolis.I'm hoping that there will be one more Judge Death story, maybe concluding Dredd's adventures (he's not getting any younger) and given how unlikely it would be to get Bolland to draw that story, Staples would arguably be a better choice...If you want to read an OK Dredd story and enjoy beautiful artwork in a gorgeous volume, this is it.

Rating is an average of two different strands (Story: *** Art: *****)Let's start by accentuating the positive - Greg Staples' lush, painted artwork. This is a stunning and beautiful book, which does a fantastic job of invoking place and mood with just the right pallete of colours for each situation. The book is well worth the cover price for the art alone (so go ahead and buy).And yet ...[MINOR PLOT SPOILERS]The story itself is something of a let-down. An interesting start - a spooky house and psi-shennanigans in the Big Meg, a stellar Ark with it's own society & hierarchy etc. - doesn't take long to morph into a fairly basic chase through a space ship. The Dark Judges' plan to 'get Dredd once and for all' is pretty dumb and riddled with holes and there isn't really a ton of characterisation and development. That's not always a bad thing for a JD story, but the overall feeling here is that all you're left with is, oh - hang on - some FREAKIN' AWESOME ART!Do buy it - but don't expect Origins or Day of Chaos or the Judge Child Saga or anything like that. Even the original, brisk tales of the Dark Judges feel like there's more meat on the bones than this. All in all a fairly slight tale in the mythos of the Lawman of the Future.

Having only started reading Judge Dredd a year ago with the Mega Collection, my knowledge of the world is still growing, and I've only read few of the earlier tales involving the Dark Judges, including the mega-epic Necropolis which saw the Dark Judges bring ruin upon Mega City One. In the 26 years since Necropolis, they have only appeared sporadically, with Fear, Fire and Mortis appearing in the Day of Chaos and being captured in that epic by PJ Maybe. Death meanwhile went through a number of changes becoming somewhat of a comic relief in a number of tales before returning to the sinister foe which originally made him so popular, and becoming almost a half-life inhabiting the body of others in order to escape Dredd. That's the situation when Dark Justice picks up, with Death planning to free his brothers and take out Dredd and Anderson once and for all, before turning his attention to the rest of the world.Despite being written by John Wagner, probably the most qualified person to write a Dark Judge book, the story appears kind of flat. It starts strongly enough, with Death rescuing his brothers and sneaking aboard a starship filled with some of the richest citizens of the Mega City, while the Sisters of Death manipulate matters to get Dredd and Anderson on the ship to stop their foes. From there though it becomes a purely mediocre tale of running around a space ship trying to rescue those who have survived the original onslaught while re-capturing the antagonistic Judges. The "trapped on a spaceship, fighting for survival" story has been done many times before and has been done better.The book itself features a conversation between John Wagner and Greg Staples which ultimately lead to the story, with Wagner himself saying he felt he'd done all he could with the Dark Judges before being convinced to write one more story, especially after seeing the artwork Staples provided as a demonstration of his talents. It's this artwork that bumps the book up in terms of quality. Every panel is so rich in detail and quality,both in terms of the characters and the backgrounds. The back of the book is a collection of other artwork - posters teasing the event, covers of the original progs, storyboards, original pencils, reference photos.While the story is flawed at times, the artwork alone makes this one collection to pick up, and made it worth the read.

Absolutely incredible artwork by Greg Staples. The story by John Wagner needed greater clarification at the beginning and one needs to read the sequel 'Dominion' to see how the latest tale of the Dark Judges concludes. However, yet another story featuring the Fearsome Foursome who believe all life should die to prevent it commiting evil and who cannot die themselves is rescued by astonishing painted artwork. I believe only Mazeworld in recent years has matched the quality of the art in this graphic novel.

What a disapointment! I'm always sceptical about dark judge stories, which are very one note (as Wagner himself admits) but I was looking forward to this as an epic send-off for some iconic characters. However it's short, uneventful, and it doesn't really feel like the end of the dark judges anyway. All the cliches are present (you cannot kill what does not live etc...) and it amounts to less than the sum of its parts. The only thing preventing the rating being way lower is the artwork, which is absolutely stunning. This is clearly a labour of love for Staples, and he produces some of the best looking comic book art that I have ever seen. What a shame that's it's at the service of such a one dimensional tale. The dark judges really need to stay in their box unless the writers can think of something for them to actually do, aside from showing up and killing a bunch of people just for the sake of it. John Wagner is a legend but his heart didn't really seem in this, and his initial instinct to leave judge death alone was the right one - after the excellent trifecta this is a big, beautiful and slightly boring let down