Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth, Final Chapter – Death Crawl!

NAME
Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth, Final Chapter – Death Crawl!

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 85

DATELINE
7 Oct 78

This Prog contained Ant Wars, Dan Dare, Walter The Wobot and a pair of Tharg's Future Shocks strips and a Judge Dredd cover by Mike McMahon.

PAGE COUNT
7

REPRINTS
Judge Dredd Epics: The Cursed Earth 2, Judge Dredd Epics: The Collected Cursed Earth, Judge Dredd Epics: The Cursed Earth, The Complete Judge Dredd 8, Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 02 and possibly Judge Dredd 9

SYNOPSIS
Dredd crawls to Mega-City Two.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First time that a story has reached twenty-five parts (and therefore the first twenty-five part story).

INFORMATION
The neon lights of Mega-City Two had gone out, the vaccine is delivered and the city is saved. The city boasts the Los Angeles spaceport and a new Pleasure Emporium.

JUDGE DREDD
The walk through the Mojave desert with the vaccine on his back leaves him hallucinating. A buried robot injures his leg leaving him crawling and requiring surgery. Dredd delivers the vaccine to Mega-City Two, is rushed to surgery and almost loses his leg. After weeks of recuperation, he sees that Tweak is returned to his home planet. Dredd returns to Mega-City One on a Strat-Bat.

OTHER CHARACTERS
TWEAK
He delivers his crate of vaccine to Mega-City Two. He plays dumb to preserve the illusion that his species are unintelligent. He asks Dredd to have him returned to his home planet which the Judge duly does.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
None that we see, but those suffering from the plague are being "eliminated".

BEST LINES
Dredd: "Tweak, I want the whole world to know how you risked your life to save Mega-City Two! I want them to realise how brave and intelligent you are!"

WORST LINES
Dredd: "Out...way...come...this far...I'll...make...rest...alone!"

CATCHPHRASES
None.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
Dredd hallucinates characters from the earlier chapters of The Cursed Earth. Another appearance of the trademark helmet-shaped bandaged first seen in 'The Judge's Graveyard'.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Unknown.

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
As the first epic, this is the benchmark by which all future epics will be judged.

NOTES
None.

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

REVIEW
The big finale revisits its predecessors in style and pushes Dredd further than we've ever seen before. The hallucinations, the return of Dredd's bandage, Tweak pretending to be mute and the misplaced optimism of the last panel are great, but based upon the examples seen here Mega-City Two probably wasn't worth saving.

But The Judge Is Wrong! It's Worse!! As You'll Discover In The First Great Issue Of "2000 A.D. and Starlord"!