Writer: Ulises Farinas & Eric Freitas

Artist: Dan McDaid

Color Artist: Ryan Hill

Judge Dredd has been one of my favorite comic book characters and I didn’t even know that he was getting a relaunch by IDW with this new issue. I loved the last run written by Duane Swierczynski and drawn by Nelson Daniel, so I couldn’t wait to see how the new team will treat Judge Dredd. The legendary street Judge, has found himself in an unfamiliar land with no recollection of how he arrived there. With his trusty Lawgiver in hand, will the lawman be able to get back to Mega-City One or will he forever be trapped in this strange land?

I enjoy what the team of Farinas and Freitas have done with the story. Even though Judge Dredd is stranded in a foreign land, he still does his civic duty of enforcing the law. After awhile you can get the gist of where everything is going, but there is some mystery regarding what caused Dredd to appear where he is now. The use of flashbacks helps fill in the gaps of what happened prior to the story but doesn’t give away too many spoilers. The dialog was good and the introduction of characters add some comic relief. The first issue does have a nice wrap up to it though, which I was quite surprised about.

The art by Dan McDaid, didn’t impress me at all. The art looked rushed in some areas and characters looked awkward. At least Judge Dredd had a consistent amount of detail to his look. The action scenes were just okay but did convey how dangerous this new place is. The colors help with the look of the art and flows well with the panels. Some of the colors don’t seem as fully colored in on some characters, but it’s only in some areas.

Overall this was a decent first issue of the relaunch of Judge Dredd. The story is interesting and colors were good but the art needs some improvements. I  hope the title improves in the second issue, but I can’t really give this new number one a high score.

3 Ang Avis out of 5