Yup, you're on the cred. A lot of elements in that first year (hell, in those first months) get either shaved off or recontextualized to build what we now recognize as MC-1 proper.

Judges go from elected officials who help local police departments to being the only police force in the city, and then from being the rules of the city. The mayor becomes an empty figurehead, a democratic sham of a role that even an orangutan could play (and famously, does!). And while robots take cits' jobs, that is very quickly presented as the problem it is, as it creates an entire low class of jobless citizens with too much time on their hands, cramped up in spaces too small of their numbers, and subjected to imaginable levels of stress that makes them go crazy so regularly that there's a term coined for it and all: Future Shock.

Some of those details were later, much later expanded upon. There's a series running in the Judge Dredd Megazine right now that's all about the early days of the justice system, when judges "worked" side by side with regular cops. But don't sweat that too much. For now, know that yes, you're absolutely right. A lot of the darker elements of Dredd's dystopia aren't quite there from the start, but begin to seep in rather quickly once they appear.

Yes, mostly. They're fun heavy metal big stompin' romps that are also a decent introduction to Dredd as a character (and in most of them have godtier art) but the plots themselves are wafer thin. It's still very much worth reading them tho', as Wagner and Grant have both characters' voices down pat. Plus there's a murderer's row of artists across all of them.

That first one with Bisley on art hits like a live grenade.

If you're just, juuuust getting started, the Complete Case Files collect all of Dredd in chronological order, so you can just start from Vol 1. However, early Dredd is not everyone's cup of tea, so if you find it a bit too cheesy, you can skip ahead to volumes 3-4-5, which are pretty much peak Dredd. 5 in particular is very good to understand Dredd.

For more specific character-related suggestions, The Midnight Surfer/Oz, Necropolis (and its prologue, The Dead Man) and America are all great tales that put Dredd's character front and centre, examining different aspects of him. America in particular is essential stuff.

And once you have a pretty good idea of Dredd as a character, I can't recommend Origins enough. Origins not only gives you the full backstory of Dredd, the judges and how they all came to be, but also sets up a years-long arc of brilliant character development that continues into the Tour of Duty storyline and, in many ways, is still ongoing right now. The Case Files are perfect to see classic Dredd, but modern, current Dredd starts at Origins for me.

Ahh, ol' buddy, ol' pal. Where would my year be without this list? Thanks for the excuse to go over the last year. Now let's see...

For the prog, I really enjoyed Brink, Intestinauts, Rogue Trooper: Souther Belle, Silver: Unearthed (my favorite all-new series of the year), All Aboard the Nova Express, The Out, Azimuth and two of the big Judge Dredd stories (A Better World and Machine Rule). The one-offs were good too, but I think I'm really aching for a big ol' Dredd epic right now.

Other that that, there wasn't anything terribly bad. I can't really get into Full Tilt Boogie, and the urban fantasy horror stuff like Herne and Shuck or Nightmare New York (RIP John Burns) just leaves me kinda cold. Deadworld is still drawn godlike but feels like its spinning wheels. The one kinda disappointment of the year was Rogue Trooper: When a GI Dies. A bit too much dialogue getting in the way of some real emotion.

Oh, and I fucking loved the Nordland Rising crossover thing, even though they killed Hershey again and made me watch it drawn by like three different artists. Which should go to show how much I enjoyed its manic, throw everything at the wall approach.

As for the Meg, started out a bit slow this year but really picked up when Dreadnoughts started. I fucking love how bleak that thing is. Also, Judge Dredd: Body Shots was hilarious, the 2099 flashbacks are a nice exercise, and I have a soft spot for Department K, even if they made a kind of robot Hershey who was evil and then died. Big fan of Pandora Perfect too, that one's just a good time.

In the meh stuff, I'm not crazy about Fargo & McBane other than the art but I appreciate the variety, I really don't care about Devlin Waugh and I haven't cared for a couple of years now and Harrower Squad is kind of a wash that could really use more exciting art.

I am excited for the new year tho'. Lawless, Death Cap and Rok of the Reds, which I haven't had a chance to read yet. That's gonna be the good stuff.

However, all that in mind, I do want to take a moment to mention maybe my favorite surprise bit of the year, which is the Durham Red pages in that Ennis/Flint Strontium Dog story in the Xmas prog. Because man... man.

I can't exactly put my finger on it, but those two pages were the single hottest, sexiest, most alluring thing in comics in the entire year for me. Just the absolute pitch-perfect picture of a random encounter in the dingy bathroom of a shitty nightclub with a 15/10 baddie who has something fucked up about her and you never see her again but you think about her for the rest of your life.

That one's gonna stay with me for a while, squaxx.

So How About That Batgirl #3

I didn't transplant my review of #2 here because there wasn't that much more to say, especially in regards to Lady Shiva (which is always the most important part of any comic with her in it for me) but #3, hooo boy, there's a lot to talk about for this one.

It introduces, or maybe just expands, a concept that kinda had me feeling a bit nervous but eventually won me over, and still has room for some fun narrative trickery. So I'm gonna go ahead and post my full review of the issue down here:

Dynamic motherfucking entry, from BATGIRL #2 by Tate Brombal, Tak Miyazawa and Mike Spicer.

Bonus: call-and-answer.