Graphic Novel Reviews
Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man
Kenneth Niemand and Tom Foster (2024) 2000AD - Rebellion, £16.99/ Can$33 / US$24, pbk, 128pp, ISBN 978-1-837-86097-5
I had feared that we would see a down-turn in standalone, Judge Dredd graphic novels with the recent passing of Alan Grant and hence no chance of a resurrection of the John Wagner-Grant writing partnership. Fortunately, Kenneth Niemand has dispelled my concerns with A Penitent Man.
This graphic novel brings together three Judge Dredd adventures – originally published in 2000AD in 2021, 2022 and 2023 – as a triptych. The protagonist of all the three, linked stories is Kyle Asher, a former judge who has served twenty years on Titan for gross-misconduct as a Judge. Punishment for criminal Judges is harsh. It involves extensive surgery to the body and face so as to survive the conditions on Titan where they serve hard labour. Returning a former Judge convict's face to complete normality involves expensive surgery, which is unaffordable to most, so criminal former Judges are very noticeable, hence prey to Judge haters and even those Judges who loathe rotten apples even if the criminal Judges have served their time on Titan and have legally returned to Mega-City One.
The first story of the three is the titular title of this graphic novel: 'A Penitent Man' and we meet Kyle Asher who gets a dirty, hard-labour job as a toxic sludge worker: something his Titan modifications make him suitably qualified. And as a human he has certain advantages over his robotic colleagues (no normal citizen wants to work with toxic sludge).
It is following a shift that Kyle innocently encounters Dredd and tells him that he works in order to fulfil his oath as a former Judge to serve his city. Dredd is not convinced that Kyle really is a 'penitent man'.
Later Kyle is set upon by thugs but being a former Judge manages to defend himself. Kyle believes that the thugs were actually working for some bigoted Judges who hate fallen Judges that have been to Titan and who are trying to drive him out of the city. Later still, when his bedsit has been ransacked and Dredd is put on the case, Kyle confides his suspicions to Dredd. Dredd is unsure, but the Judicial system is not what it was following the events of Chaos Day and so he makes some discreet enquiries.
It transpire that some of the Judges Internal Affairs Division – the SJS who are the Judges who judge the Judges – are prejudiced against fallen Judges and who want them exiled from the city…
The next two stories – 'An Honest Man' and 'A Fallen Man' sees Kyle stumble upon a criminal syndicate and an opportunity to serve his city by fighting the syndicate from within…
Other than a passing reference to the Chaos Day, this is very much a standalone graphic novel that does not require a detailed knowledge of the various principal, longstanding story arcs. As such, this is perfect for those just wishing to occasionally dip into Dredd-verse. What it does do is build on the tension of the Judges on one hand being tough law enforcers and needing to be seen as cleaner than clean, and the bigotry that some have just a little beneath the surface.
The graphic novel's art, to my taste, is excellent with superb pencils by Tom Foster who apparently spent two and a half to three days on a single page; time well spent. His pencil work was then coloured to great effect by Chris Blythe. Annie Parkhouse did the speech balloon lettering: she has the past couple of decades done an excellent job taking over from the late Tom Frame.
With A Penitent Man, it is good to see Dredd continuing so well post Alan Grant and John Wagner. Having said that, what Rebellion's graphic novel editor really needs to do is to provide us with The Complete P.J. Maybe: Vol. 2 – The Mayoral Years. This Grant-Wagner story arc really needs another compendium; after all, the original has had at least three reprints and, while the subsequent P. J. Maybe stories are spread across a number of graphic collections, they have never had their own dedicated volume. This is a major oversight!
Jonathan Cowie
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