Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60612 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Synopsis
History is written in this land-mark Dredd story. The severed hand of Chief Judge Fargo, the very first chief judge, is delivered to the Grand Hall of Justice with a ransom note. Dredd and his team must travel into the Cursed Earth to try and recover the body of the Judge Father. But this is more than just a journey across America, this is a journey into the past and into the history of the Judges and Mega-City One itself!

Customer Reviews

History...
The reviewer "Dreddhead" below has it completely wrong, if he really understood Dredd and his world he would know nothing ever turns out to be black & white, it's just part of the stoicism that Joe Dredd projects. The dichotomy at Dredd's core is the real story. I'm not going to bother wasting my time pointing out the obvious flaws in all his points. Go read Origins. it's great.

Wow!
If you thought the body of Fargo, the first Chief Judge, was lying in a vault in the Grand Hall Of Justice, then you fell for a cover-up cooked up by a handful of senior Judges. Which is why when a gang of mutants sneak in from the Cursed Earth to deliver tissue belonging to Fargo & a ransom note for one billion creds, Dredd is less surprised than most.

Sent to retrieve the body with a hand-picked team & a transporter full of money, Dredd fills his comrades in on how Justice Dept. was REALLY created and how Fargo, the man he was cloned from, REALLY compared to the legend.

There isn't much more I can say without revealing too much of the plot, since there are more twists in this tale than at a Chubby Checker concert. There are plenty of surprises in store for long-term Dredd fans in a story which touches on earlier Dredd epics, including 'Oz' & 'The Cursed Earth'. However, 'Origins' stands on its own without the reader having to be clued up on earlier stories - in fact, I feel that the way it fleshes out the birth of Dredd's world makes it a good starting-point for new fans.

Kev Walker pens the introductory storyline, while Ezquerra draws the rest. Because there is a natural break in the story where one artist takes over from the other, it doesn't distract in the same way it does with other epic storylines where the artists seem to be chopped & changed at random. And it seems most fitting that Ezquerra is given the reigns for most of it - the classic Dredd artist for a classic Dredd epic, tucked inside a classic Bolland cover. Perfect.

Full of plot holes/character inconsistencies
After three decades of waiting, Origins finally reveals how Dredd's world came into existence. First published in British sci-fi comic 2000 AD in 2006/07, Origins and its prologue 'The Connection' are now available in this graphic novel format.

Definitive Judge Dredd writer and creator John Wagner uses a classic 'journey' plot device - the search for Eustace Fargo, the very first Chief Judge - to explain Dredd's origins, but it's with regret that I say it's a flawed enterprise. To put it bluntly: it's contrived and illogical.

For a start, the story contradicts what's happened in the past. In an earlier Dredd tale by Wagner called The Cal Files, Dredd is faced with the possibility Eustace Fargo is corrupt by having an affair with a woman called Arden Polders. Dredd would not tolerate such a possibility believing the whole system would be a sham if Fargo were corrupt. Dredd thinks:

"and Fargo's incorruptibility - the rock our whole justice system is built on - is nothing but a hollow sham."

In Origins, Wagner tells us Dredd *did* know Fargo had an affair with a woman but Dredd doesn't care. He says, "Fargo was only human. Human beings are fallible. Doesn't mean the system is wrong."

By Wagner showing a contradiction between the Dredd of The Cal Files and the Dredd of Origins it undermines the character. Dredd would not tolerate the idea of Fargo being corrupt and yet in Origins he readily tolerates the fact Fargo was corrupt. This is never explained.

Other major inconsistencies include:

A) Dredd being easily beaten up by Fargoville's cops and Booth's mutant army. Never before has Dredd been so easily beaten. He doesn't even put up much or any fight! It's totally out of character and only serves to move the story on rather than being true to the character.

B) Last President of the USA, Robert Booth, leading mutants. This is nonsensical because Booth created the mutants. He caused the Atomic War which led to the creation of the Cursed Earth. Millions of people were turned into mutants and yet we have to swallow the notion mutants are following Booth. Totally preposterous. Mutants would hate Booth, not follow him.

A key moment in the flashback is horribly rushed. Instead of Wagner showing us how Justice Department captured Booth, we see Dredd telling us. Comics are a visual medium and it is imperative to see the flashback concluded in an exciting way, but all we get are two panels. Two panels! This ruined the build-up of tension.

To conclude, Origins is a very disappointing Dredd 'Origins'. Contrived, illogical with little respect for past continuity. I'm not saying it's not an enjoyable read; parts of it are entertaining. The flashback is fascinating and we do get to see Dredd and Rico as young cadets, but overall Origins is too flawed to live up to expectation. It's just too contrived and too inconsistent with earlier Dredd continuity. Origins fails to do Dredd's history justice. 1 out of 5.