35: Judge Death Lives

Brian Bolland's artwork was so iconic in Judge Death that he was faced with a seemingly impossible task here. Not only did he have to try and beat his previous work, he also had to introduce three of Death's "cousins". Bolland somehow not only tops his artwork for the previous story, he also builds on Death's instantly iconic design by doing it again three times! Fear, Fire and Mortis are each distinctive, over-the-top and brilliant.

It isn't just in the Dark Judges that Bolland excels. His taken on Anderson is still one of my favourites, and he does some magnificent "hero-shots" with her - the full-page of Anderson and Dredd bursting through the Dark Judges' shield is a particular favourite of mine.

In fact, this story surprised me in how much it sidelines Dredd and makes this about a rematch not between Dredd and Death, but between Anderson and Death. There's a great confidence there in allowing Dredd to take a back seat, and really highlighting how Anderson was too great a character to be left encased in Boing. The Dark Judges very much see Anderson as the enemy they have to face, and Anderson does all the heavy lifting in breaking through the shield and then finally defeating the superfriends on their home soil.

Speaking of Deadworld, the only major problem with this story is how it's structured. It really needed to be more than five parts, or for the action to be redistributed. The Dark Judges taking down the citizens of a single Block is great, but it means that the action on Deadworld is limited to basically three pages. Bolland does incredible work here, but it's over way too quickly. I know we'll be seeing a lot more of Deadworld before too long, but it's such an evocative landscape and story that it really either needed to have more time here, or for it to not appear at all.