Writer: John Layman
Artist: Chris Mooneyham
Colorist: Michael Ayiyeh
Cover Artist: Glenn Fabry
$3.99
Company – Dark Horse
On sale July 27^th 2016

Issue 1 of 4

On separate occasions, we have seen what happens when Judge Dredd has faced off separately against xenomorphs and then predators. This book isn’t it. This book is what happens when you bring all three together and add a pinch of Dr. Moreau into the mix. The basic summary is Judge Dredd and Anderson are busy with tracking down some criminals in search of an Archbishop Emoji, unaware that there is a bigger threat in the wasteland. Enter Dr. Reinstot, who somehow got his hands on a predator warrior as well as some of trophies, and is doing some experimentation with it and xenomorph DNA which of course is a recipe for disaster.

This book is a good introduction for what we expect to see when melding these 3 franchises together. John Layman (who most notably has done excellent work on Chew) presents a book that merely will not have the 3 franchises just randomly meeting on a planet and being fighting. There is a bit more at stake here as you have Reinstot, who is in some ways unwittingly instigating these 3 entities to come together. Layman’s writing nicely gives us a bit of 30s pulp with dystopian sensibilities. Many of us are familiar with Judge Dredd, so I was good with his dialogue, but I really enjoyed Dr. Reinstott’s dialogue and how it hearkened back to the mad scientists of old.

Speaking of which, to give this book an even pulpier feel, Chris Mooneyham (Five Ghosts) was brought in to bring Layman’s work to life. Mooneyham’s work, as well as Michael Ayiyeh’s colors, does it justice as we get the grit and the grime of the wasteland and as we see the dark and gloom of the mad doctor’s labs. Of course, there is a question of whether or not he gets Dredd right and I was pretty pleased with Dredd’s proportions. Dredd doesn’t need to be overly musclebound nor should he look emasculated. Mooneyham hits Dredd’s…”dread” spot-on, especially in one panel as he enters a saloon looking for his fugitives. I honestly can’t wait to see what happens when he goes up against the Predators to see what size proportions we get on those pages.

So far this is a great start to this story as this may be the AvP story we probably should have gotten in the movies. I can only imagine what craziness awaits readers in the next issue with another version of Alien/Predator DNA running amok. Also just in case you wanted to know, I had Karl Urban’s voice in my head every time I read Dredd’s dialogue. Be sure to check this book out along with an interview we got from John Layman regarding what we can expect from this story.

4 Lawgivers out of 5