WAGNER, JOHN & MACNEIL, COLIN - JUDGE DREDD – THE FADING OF THE LIGHT In THE COMPLETE AMERICA 2003 Titan Books. 2000 AD
Sequel to America,. With his lover
dead after he informed on her democratic-terror cell, Beanie has had a full sex
change to take on her identity, to
remind himself of her for the rest of his days. Though he has been able to have
a child, who he raises in the name of America, his sex change has gone wrong.
He is dying. He is however due to receive an Arnie Award (A pun on the name of
Arnold Schwartzeneggar) and at this point he is approached by a surviving
member of the old terrorist cell who wants Beanie to blow himself up at the
award ceremony, seeing as he is dying anyway. After initially agreeing to the
deal, Beanie is raped by a gang, and rescued belatedly by a Judge, who’s slow
response gets him sacked and arrested by Judge Dredd, who now takes a very
personal interest in beanie’s case. Beanie now refuses to co-operate in the
Arnie Award killings, so the organizers of the murders kidnap his daughter,
America to force him to do it, but Beanie puts his faith in Judge Dredd and
tell him what is going on. Dredd rescues the daughter, but he is unable to
prevent a general massacre of the World’s leading film stars by the terrorist
cell. Beanie is allowed to go for
giving evidence, and he goes to receive a very touching voluntary euthanasia
release from his despair. The story now switches to the child America, who is
enrolled into the Judge’s Academy. Beanie has decided that the only way to
bring good into the police force is not by undermining its authority from
without, but by injecting good people into its ranks from an early age. A
thoughtful, if slower sequel to the powerful America story, showing how great a
Judge Dredd story can be in the hands of genuinely talented authors like Wagner
& Macneil. http://web.archive.org/web/20070213191034/http://www.2000adonline.com/
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
LINK
TO THIS PAGE http://arthurchappell.me.uk/book.review-judge.dredd-fading.of.the.light.htm
LINKS TO OTHER PEOPLES PAGES E-mail arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
UPDATES MYSPACE - http://www.myspace.com/arthurchappell
FACEBOOK - http://profile.to/arthurchappell/
FACEBOOK BLOG http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blogpage.php?blogid=85623
MY BOOKS - http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=952521
MY
TWITTER PAGE - http://twitter.com/arthurchappell