Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth, Chapter 16 – Black Sabbath!

NAME
Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth, Chapter 16 – Black Sabbath!

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 76

DATELINE
5 Aug 78

This prog also featured Ant Wars, Dan Dare, Tharg's Future Shocks and Robo-Hunter strips, the second part of the Cursed Earth board game and a Robo-Hunter cover by Ian Gibson.

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
The Complete Judge Dredd 7, Judge Dredd Epics: The Cursed Earth, Judge Dredd Epics: The Cursed Earth 2, Judge Dredd Epics: The Collected Cursed Earth, Judge Dredd 7 and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 02.

SYNOPSIS
Dredd razes Repentance to the ground and Satanus is defeated.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First time that a story has reached sixteen parts.

INFORMATION
The town of Repentance is burned to the ground.

JUDGE DREDD
He saves Judge Jack from Satanus. Repentance is razed to the ground on his orders.

OTHER CHARACTERS
SPIKES
He helps to destroy Repentance. Spikes drives the Kill-Dozer into Repentance's church, whilst Satanus rides atop it.

JUDGE JACK
Dredd shoots through his chains and saves him from Satanus.

SATANUS
He jumps onto the Kill-Dozer and is smashed into the church when it crashes. He is burned by the flamethrower armed robots and believed dead, instead he fell into the vault below the church and survived.

BULL CANNON
He is killed by a Tyrannosaur tooth through the skull, but not before he orders his pet dinosaurs, Little Hades, to kill Dredd.

TWEAK
He kills Little Hades when it attacks Dredd.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
At least five. Satanus eats two more sacrifices, while his pack eat at least two Repentance residents. Tweak kills Little Hades with his claws.

BEST LINES
Bull Cannon: "You...turned the forces of darkness against Repentance...I tried to tell them I was on their side - but...wouldn't listen...turned on me..."

WORST LINES
Spikes: "It's on the roof! Can't get the guns to traverse!"

CATCHPHRASES
Tweak says "Twaark", a resident of Repentance shouts an "Aieeeee!" and Dredd makes a speech which culminates in "I am the law!"

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Black Sabbath shares its name with a 1963 horror film and Ozzy Osbourne's band. Pterodactyls are a genus of Pterosaur that lived about 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic Period throughout what is now Europe and Africa. Dredd paraphrases "bats in the belfry", a phrase meaning crazy apparently dating from the early 1900's.

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
Satanus would indeed be back.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: Pat Mills
Artist: Mike McMahon
Letters: Tom Frame

REVIEW
'The Bit With The Dinosaurs' culminates with a brilliant action-packed finale with set pieces that many a movie would envy.

Next Prog: Loser's Leap!