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scans_dailyPart two of my series of posts on Judge Dredd and his clones. (Part one is here.) These scans are all from the Brothers of the Blood TPB collection, a series of stories that follow the formation of Dredd's unlikely little family unit.
About 18 pages of scans beneath the cut.
Brothers of the Blood
Ten years after Kraken's death in "Necropolis", the story "Blood Cadets" (progs 1186-88) sees Dredd assigned another very familiar-looking rookie. This one gives him quite a start at first:
It turns out that Dredd's new rookie is the little baby clone we last saw gestating in a tank back in prog 377.
Given Dredd's history with previous clone-brothers, his new rookie is understandably a little nervous. Dredd figures that while the reason for Kraken's fall from grace is obvious, what happened to Rico must be preying on his clone's mind. He tells the clone his version of the story, revealing that Rico's behaviour started to change after an accident when they were both cadets.
Dredd seems to believe that Rico turning on him was an attempt at provoking a "suicide by cop" scenario.
It's left ambiguous whether Dredd's correct in his reading of events or just making justifications for his brother. (And in fact he doesn't seem too sure himself.) Regardless, the new rookie passes his assessment, and chooses his new name:
We catch up with Rico again in the "Sector House" storyline, running from progs 1215-22. Being a chip off the old block, he immediately ruffles feathers by uncovering corruption at the sector house where he's assigned as his first posting. Meanwhile, their encounter has prompted Dredd to wonder just how many clones he has out there.
(We get to meet two more of those clones in later stories: so far the others still remain a mystery.)
Dredd acts as a bit of a mentor to Rico, and even tries his hand at a bit of paternal advice. Rico, however, is every bit as stubborn and rigidly adherent to the rules as Dredd used to be back in the day, and not about to listen to any suggestion that he do things differently.
A year or two later in "Blood and Duty" (progs 1300-01) we see the return of another face from the past: Dredd's niece Vienna. Now all grown up and working as an actress, she's briefly in town for a performance. She meets up with Dredd, and we finally learn the circumstances of her birth; her mother was a reporter who visited Titan and went on to publish a lurid 'I HAD TITAN JUDGE'S LOVE CHILD' story.
Dredd does make an effort to make it to Vienna's show, but naturally the job gets in the way and he's too late.
Dredd turns down the opportunity to try and catch up with his niece, preferring to let her forget about him and go on with her life - but circumstances soon make that impossible. In "The Satanist", progs 1350-56, Dredd learns that Vienna has gone missing, and he travels to Brit-Cit to find her.
It turns out Vienna was kidnapped by a cult who wanted to lure Dredd in and use him as a sacrifice. (Dredd is pretty incredulous at being regarded as a global symbol of righteousness.) He rescues his niece, but the cult's brainwashing has taken its toll, and he decides to take her back to Mega-City One where he can keep a closer watch on her recovery.
In the last and probably best story in the collection, we get to see all these strands come together and Dredd's unlikely family beginning to take shape.
"Brothers of the Blood" (progs 1378-81) is the story of another of Dredd's clones, Dolman. He's fifteen years old, and not a happy lad. The story opens with him hiding under the bedcovers, reluctant to get up and face his fellow cadets.
It seems that Rico discovered the presence of his baby brother by chance, when he was asked to demonstrate skills to a group of younger cadets. Since then, he's done what he can to look out for the little guy.
But Rico's been pretty busy, what with graduating and all, and in the meantime Dolman's been doing some thinking about his future.
The principal asks Rico to take Dolman out on the streets to give him a taste of the job that he'd be giving up. Along the way, they stop in for a visit to Vienna, and we learn that Dredd has apparently been encouraging a bit of family bonding.
Dolman gets a taste of the action when he and Rico are called out to assist Dredd at a crime scene, and the trio of clones end up fighting side by side.
Naturally, Dolman takes to it like a Dredd to Judging and loves every minute of it. But that doesn't mean he's changed his mind...
So, young Dolman is given a face change operation, released from the Judges, and sent off to school at a space corps colony. But he's not completely alone in the world; Vienna shows up to see him off:
And so Dolman becomes a part of the extended family.
In part three: another clone, ups and downs in Dredd's relationship with his niece, and some gloriously awkward family Christmases.
About 18 pages of scans beneath the cut.
Brothers of the Blood
Ten years after Kraken's death in "Necropolis", the story "Blood Cadets" (progs 1186-88) sees Dredd assigned another very familiar-looking rookie. This one gives him quite a start at first:
It turns out that Dredd's new rookie is the little baby clone we last saw gestating in a tank back in prog 377.
Given Dredd's history with previous clone-brothers, his new rookie is understandably a little nervous. Dredd figures that while the reason for Kraken's fall from grace is obvious, what happened to Rico must be preying on his clone's mind. He tells the clone his version of the story, revealing that Rico's behaviour started to change after an accident when they were both cadets.
Dredd seems to believe that Rico turning on him was an attempt at provoking a "suicide by cop" scenario.
It's left ambiguous whether Dredd's correct in his reading of events or just making justifications for his brother. (And in fact he doesn't seem too sure himself.) Regardless, the new rookie passes his assessment, and chooses his new name:
We catch up with Rico again in the "Sector House" storyline, running from progs 1215-22. Being a chip off the old block, he immediately ruffles feathers by uncovering corruption at the sector house where he's assigned as his first posting. Meanwhile, their encounter has prompted Dredd to wonder just how many clones he has out there.
(We get to meet two more of those clones in later stories: so far the others still remain a mystery.)
Dredd acts as a bit of a mentor to Rico, and even tries his hand at a bit of paternal advice. Rico, however, is every bit as stubborn and rigidly adherent to the rules as Dredd used to be back in the day, and not about to listen to any suggestion that he do things differently.
A year or two later in "Blood and Duty" (progs 1300-01) we see the return of another face from the past: Dredd's niece Vienna. Now all grown up and working as an actress, she's briefly in town for a performance. She meets up with Dredd, and we finally learn the circumstances of her birth; her mother was a reporter who visited Titan and went on to publish a lurid 'I HAD TITAN JUDGE'S LOVE CHILD' story.
Dredd does make an effort to make it to Vienna's show, but naturally the job gets in the way and he's too late.
Dredd turns down the opportunity to try and catch up with his niece, preferring to let her forget about him and go on with her life - but circumstances soon make that impossible. In "The Satanist", progs 1350-56, Dredd learns that Vienna has gone missing, and he travels to Brit-Cit to find her.
It turns out Vienna was kidnapped by a cult who wanted to lure Dredd in and use him as a sacrifice. (Dredd is pretty incredulous at being regarded as a global symbol of righteousness.) He rescues his niece, but the cult's brainwashing has taken its toll, and he decides to take her back to Mega-City One where he can keep a closer watch on her recovery.
In the last and probably best story in the collection, we get to see all these strands come together and Dredd's unlikely family beginning to take shape.
"Brothers of the Blood" (progs 1378-81) is the story of another of Dredd's clones, Dolman. He's fifteen years old, and not a happy lad. The story opens with him hiding under the bedcovers, reluctant to get up and face his fellow cadets.
It seems that Rico discovered the presence of his baby brother by chance, when he was asked to demonstrate skills to a group of younger cadets. Since then, he's done what he can to look out for the little guy.
But Rico's been pretty busy, what with graduating and all, and in the meantime Dolman's been doing some thinking about his future.
The principal asks Rico to take Dolman out on the streets to give him a taste of the job that he'd be giving up. Along the way, they stop in for a visit to Vienna, and we learn that Dredd has apparently been encouraging a bit of family bonding.
Dolman gets a taste of the action when he and Rico are called out to assist Dredd at a crime scene, and the trio of clones end up fighting side by side.
Naturally, Dolman takes to it like a Dredd to Judging and loves every minute of it. But that doesn't mean he's changed his mind...
So, young Dolman is given a face change operation, released from the Judges, and sent off to school at a space corps colony. But he's not completely alone in the world; Vienna shows up to see him off:
And so Dolman becomes a part of the extended family.
In part three: another clone, ups and downs in Dredd's relationship with his niece, and some gloriously awkward family Christmases.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-06 11:52 pm (UTC)I like Vienna, I'm pleased she didn't become a stereotyped "You killed my parents DIE DREDD", and that she recovered from the brainwashing. I hope she more or less continues in that role.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-07 12:58 am (UTC)There's a great line that I didn't get a chance to post where Rico says something about Judging being "the best job in the world" and Dolman says "How would you know?" I really love how every single one of the Dredd clones that has appeared so far has a distinctly different personality from the others; they might all have the same general traits, but they're still unique individuals. That page of the three of them storming the building together is great - you can see their different attitudes coming through even without any dialogue.
I like Vienna, I'm pleased she didn't become a stereotyped "You killed my parents DIE DREDD", and that she recovered from the brainwashing. I hope she more or less continues in that role.
Vienna's a great character, and I always love seeing her interact with Dredd. It's not just that she brings out his more caring side, but the way she treats him and the others too, like they're all just ordinary people who happen to be Judges as their day job. She did go through a bit of an, "I don't ever want to see you again!" phase after the events of Total War, but she and Dredd seem to be relatively comfortable in each other's company these days. She's gradually getting him trained up in the art of social skills, and last week he was even making jokes about tea and biscuits. He and Rico have got kind of snarky and jokey with each other over time as well. I love all of these "Dredd family" stories.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-07 08:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-07 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-07 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-07 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-07 09:22 am (UTC)