There are two stories in this volume based on the Dredd movie universe. Furies follows the fate of Ma-Ma’s Techie, and The Dead World follows the final act of movieverse Dredd and the introduction of the Dark Judges.

Furies follows Huxley as he tries to find a “normal” life after Ma-Ma and the Peach Trees incident from the first film. The dynamic artwork captures the quirkiness of the Mega City, and the story is an enjoyable but standard ‘I thought I’d got out, but they pulled me back in’ plot. The art is good, if a little bright; there was a washed-out darkness to the movies that helped set the bleak atmosphere, but this departs from that. A well-written and illustrated adventure reminiscent of the one-shot stories that would grace the pages of 2000AD in the 90’s, it’s good to find out if Anderson’s decision in letting him go was justified or not.

However, it’s the second story, The Dead World, that dominates the book. With an arsonist at large, schoolgirl suicides and an incident at a research facility that ties it all together, Dredd has his work cut out for him when dimensions are opened and monstrous creatures begin to emerge.

The black-bordered pages and the bleak colouring of Henry Flint’s art works much better. The cinematic world of Dredd is represented well, and from the outset it feels more suited to the movieverse. Henry Flint is old school 2000AD and his artwork has a sharp feel to it that leaps off the pages. The story itself is absorbing, but although the look and feel of the world is there, the action is rather lacklustre, relying more on the horror of the emergence of Judge Death and the Dark Judges rather than the action. There’s plenty of promise in the build-up to the finale without ever truly paying off. The Dark Judges are given forms that suit the gritty movieverse, but that strips away much of their character, especially Death, which doesn’t work in the more grounded world created by the 2012 movie. Dredd’s no-nonsense attitude and his stoic response to the situations happening around him are what primarily drives the story.

A great book for both comic and movieverse Dredd fans, giving an insight into what might have been in store for us.

DREDD: FINAL JUDGEMENT / AUTHOR: ARTHUR WYATT, ALEX DE CAMPI / PUBLISHER: 2000AD / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW