4: Judgement Call

This one-shot was originally published in Issue 300 of the Judge Dredd Megazine, so I assume that it brings back now-Judge America Beeny as a way of linking back to the very first issue of the Megazine that included the beginning of "America". What I most love about this is that artist Colin MacNeil has now drawn that incredible finale - America Jara gunned down in front of the Statues of Liberty and Judgement - four times. He could probably do it by heart now.

This story felt like a "check-in" with Beeny, now graduated from the Academy of Law and on the streets as a full Judge. She's still roughly the same as we saw her in "Cadet", a little older and wiser but still full of the same confidence and strength. She still has Dredd's respect and even admiration, as evidenced by the fantastic final page where Dredd seems to take some amount of joy at Beeny's removal of a sentence that some Judges didn't think was harsh enough.

"Judgement Call" isn't as strong as the previous three stories I've covered, but it seems unfair to directly compare them. This is a much smaller-scale story that shows us that Beeny is still trying to do what her father wanted and change the Justice Department from the inside. The fact that she does it by being "lenient" on the survivor from a family caught up in terrorism means that she's accused of allowing her own past to cloud her judgement. But the fact she's still wearing the uniform and cubing criminals means that she's still committed to changing the system from within.

I really like how Dredd is portrayed here. His own experiences with doubting the system have clearly given him a window into Beeny's approach, but while he still advocates for a black and white approach to the law he's willing to let Beeny go about her job in her own way. When you consider that, from the perspective of this collection Volume of the Mega-Collection at least, three stories ago he was a nightmarish vision of unstoppable power, it's a testament to John Wagner's ability to write with shades of grey that he is still the same character here.

Although I would have liked to have seen more forward momentum in Beeny's personal story, as what we get here doesn't put her a huge way head of where she was in "Cadet", this is still a good look at one of the great characters in Dredd history.