It’s a clash of the titans this week!

Predator Versus Judge Dredd #1 - “Round One”

Original Release Date: October 1997
Writer: John Wagner
Interior Art: Enrique Alcatena
Cover Art: Brian Bolland
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Perry McNamee, John Hanan III, Jimmy Johns, Dave Stewart
Editor: Philip Amara

Cursed Earth, the radioactive wasteland that exists outside of the Mega-City One, is a place to see all manner of things. On a clear night you can even see a shooting star.

Gomer and his robot friend, Ben, are stranded in Cursed Earth outside of Mega-City One this evening. Well, they’re stranded until Ben fixes the axle on their all-terrain vehicle. While waiting, Gomer does indeed see a shooting star. His excitement gets the best of him as he races off to see where it’s landed. Ben, the faithful sidekick, runs after, all the while cautioning Gomer to the facts that they should probably leave it alone.

Once over a hill of debris, they see the item in question: it’s a ship of some sort! Gomer turns to Ben to ask if he might think there would be a reward for bringing something like this back to the Judges in the city. Before Ben can answer, his head is blown clear from his body!

A massive creature emerges from the darkness and stands silent before the frightened Gomer. The old man can utter no words as three red dots find their way onto his chest. It is a matter of seconds before Gomer is no more.

Mega-City One:

There’s a riot, as usual; it’s just that time of night in the big city. 400 million people in one place, so the law of averages states that some of them have gotta be bad.

Fortunately, the Judges exist; they’re judge, jury, and, if need be, executioner all rolled into one. It’s their job to keep things under control. The fiercest of these is a man named Judge Dredd.

It takes him a very short while to dispatch and sentence the rioters before he’s called out to another area: Judges are being attacked by an invisible foe! Dredd and his unit of Judges arrive on the scene quickly with their “lawmaster” motorbikes.

Dredd follows the line of the plasma blast that nearly tears him in half. With a sure voice he commands his gun, the “lawgiver”, to switch its ammo rounds to hi-explosive. A quick pull of the trigger silences the plasma blast and reveals the foe as it falls from its platform into a nearby building’s skylight.

Dredd tells his fellow Judges to tend to the wounded as he zooms by on his lawmaster bike. His colleagues know exactly where he’s going: inside! Dredd takes violations of the law, especially attacks on Judges, very seriously; it’s his life; he is the law.

Once inside, Dredd finds a puddle of green, glowing ooze just below the broken skylight; whatever it is, it can be hurt. The green blood, Dredd notices, forms a trail through the abandoned building; it’s the perfect way to track the criminal. Unfortunately for Dredd, it’s also the perfect way to lure him into a trap.

The monstrous creature fires its harpoon-like projectile at Dredd as he rounds a corner. The harpoon lodges into his shoulder armor and he realizes the trouble he’s in once the monster starts to reel him in via the wire attached to the harpoon. Dredd instantly grabs for his boot knife and attempts to cut the wire, but the thing is just too strong to be severed. So, he attempts something more direct: once he’s within kicking range of the beast, he fires a foot right into the head of the thing, knocking its helmet off.

Dredd pulls the harpoon out of the shoulder armor and out of his pierced shoulder with just enough time left to grab a nearby metal pole, which he thrusts up to block a potentially crushing blow from his seriously ugly, yet powerful, opponent. More blows are thrown and Dredd himself gets in a few licks, but it’s just not enough; the monster sends the Judge off a high ledge in the warehouse to the floor below.

Just as Dredd hits the solid floor, fellow Judges rush into the warehouse to his aid. The creature is nowhere to be found… or, at least, seen.

The next morning at Mega-City One’s Grand Hall of Justice, the headquarters for the Judges, Dredd awakens in a medical pod. A fellow Judge, Sola, is also in the same room with him. Dredd asks her if they caught the thing and Sola admits they haven’t; the thing has been on the loose and there have been at least two more attacks since Dredd went down. Both of those attacks were on Judges.

On the other side of town, a slender young blonde is awakened in her apartment by the beeping sounds of her vid-phone. The machine clicks to life, displaying an elder Judge. The man tells her that he’s got a case for her; it’s something she might be interested in.

A short time later, in a briefing room at the Grand Hall of Justice, the young woman enters just in time to hear the gathered Judges describe exactly what has come to their city. One Judge explains that the beast is part of a race of hunters; it’s a Predator. A Judge, looking over a document, reads aloud that this is not the first time the creatures have visited Earth; there was another time during the 20th century in the Old New York District.

The young, blonde woman approaches Dredd, explaining that she is looking for Judge Morse. Dredd asks who she is and she introduces herself as Schaeffer from the Psi-Division Auxiliary.

A Judge tells Schaeffer that Judge Morse, who is not in attendance, thought she, a telepath, might be able to get a fix on the thing and track it. Dredd asks if the fact that a Predator is in town means anything to her. Schaeffer explains that she is the great great grand-daughter of Dutch Schaeffer, the only survivor of the first human encounter with the creatures.

Schaeffer explains that the creatures a fascinating; the Predators select only the strongest and most difficult creatures to hunt. Then, after killing their prey, the monsters take trophies. The Predators, though extremely violent and aggressive, have been known to leave unarmed, perhaps unworthy creatures alone. Only the best will do for this race of hunters.

Apparently, in Mega-City One, the Judges fit this category.

*****

I’m not really a big fan of crossovers. Generally, when two comic book companies come together for a story, it is one of the most lackluster tales ever conceived. Most of it generally revolves around hero meeting hero, then fighting, then realizing that, oh yeah, they should work together to bring down the villain (in which case most cross-company crossovers contain one villain from each company’s universe that pertains to the particular hero being presented). It also usually has one character acting way different than normal or being represented as so “in character” that they’re a joke in themselves (see either Spawn/Batman or Batman/Spawn for a really good example of this).

There are exceptions to this formula; there are exceptions to the pure suckage that is crossovers. I consider this particular book to be one of those. You get a veteran writer, John Wagner, the creator of Judge Dredd, that not only has an obviously full understanding of his character, but also a full grasp on the Predator itself and past stories (the references to Dutch and even to the 20th century Predator visit to New York are perfect).

Coming along for the ride, though only for the cover, is long-time Dredd artist Brian Bolland, who you may also remember did the art of Batman: The Killing Joke. Interior art is provided by Enrique Alcatena, a regular artist for Predator books.

The story is nothing deep; it’s a versus book, so you pretty much know what to expect, but getting to the big battle is the fun part. If you’re looking for a fun crossover versus book and you like both of these characters or, hell, if you only like one, then you’ll be glad to know that they represented well. You won’t be disappointed.