11: Twilight's Last Gleaming

I don't know enough about the background of Judge Dredd in 2000AD at the time this story was first published, but it's hard not feel a sense of loss that John Wagner couldn't complete his story. It seems particularly jarring to move from "The Devil You Know" to "Twilight's Last Gleaming" with a change in writer, as they are really one long story.

Having said that, Garth Ennis manages a reasonable job here in a difficult situation. Wrapping this big moment up was always going to be tricky, and he sensibly plays right in to the cynical beginnings that Wagner had set up. The idea that the majority of citizens didn't even vote, and that a huge number invalidated their own votes, is a blackly humorous take on politics and civil society that could probably make up a an entire thesis.

Ennis does get a bit carried away. We get a whole bunch of continuity references to previous stories, even going so far as directly repeating a quote from Prog 60. There's some forced and over-egged language ("A silence so kissed with destiny"), and also some evidence of hero-worship of Dredd. The idea that Blondel Dupre decides that Dredd is right and should be in charge feels like it's unearned, and it's unsettling to watch her declare "you are the law".

But overall it wraps up this phase of the democracy storyline well, with drama and humour.