It's a pretty unique story where that quote is said by the notional "hero", and not by the moustache-twirling villain. That it isn't out of character and makes complete sense really speaks to how well John Wagner has crafted Dredd and given him stories that challenge some of our most foundational ideas about society.
Revolution is a fast-paced three-parter that shows how methodically and quickly Dredd and the Judges will move to maintain their grip on power - for the citizens' own good, of course. There's a great scene between Dredd and Chief Judge Silver where Silver says that any and all means are acceptable to stop the Democratic March, including "writing the law". Given that we've seen Dredd be such a stickler for following the law in the past, it says something that even just the idea of democracy is enough to rattle them.
There's a grim sense of futility behind all this. I criticised Snowstorm for being too straightforward: find the crime, shoot people, stop the crime. Revolution is really the same: find out about the march, sabotage the march, stop the march. But three episodes give this process time to sink in, and it's actually very unsettling watching the Justice Department systematically undermine, cheat and destroy this protest. In particular, Dredd threatening Gort Hyman with enrolling his sons in the Academy of Law is one of the nastiest and most manipulative things we've seen the lawman do.
There's a lot of set-up here for future stories in this Volume, but even on its own it's a very effective story that highlights all the tools a totalitarian state uses to hold on to power.
No comments:
Post a Comment