Judge Dredd #16

Released by: IDW Publishing
Released on: February 26, 2014

12 Judges are now on slabs in the city morgue while weasel-ly Judge Cal continues his obsessed drive to punish Dredd. Meanwhile, corrupt former-Judge Tarjay delivers Anderson's corpse to drive his total to 13…

Dredd suspects the worst has happened to his partner Anderson but can't overcome Cal's obstinence so he does what only Dredd can do - he perjures himself, “confesses” to his alignment with Tarjay, stating that Anderson found them out and went after Tarjay first. Cal's not buying much of it, though, choosing instead to paint her as in on the conspiracy. He gets Dredd convicted quickly and ready to be sent off-world. But then Tarjay murders another Judge - one of Cal's own team - so he wants to keep Dredd alive, choosing to torture him further and more brutally to get at “the truth.”

Simultaneously, after Anderson's body is delivered to the morgue, the entire PSI Division receive a brief telepathic message from her, a message somehow being delayed but making them all suspicioius of Cal's assertions of her guilt. They believe Dredd can unlock the message - “Death!” - for them but Cal's having none of it. But he's being awful suspicious around them, too, and eventually relents. This allows Dredd to be back in uniform and, as the PSI Division uses the populace of Mega-City One to finally locate Tarjay, to finally corner the murderous ex-Judge.

The Judges take Tarjay down and, to Cal, that's the end of things. Dredd's put into cryo-stasis and that's that. Except that a mysterious dark fluid transfer finds Tarjay's corpse in the morgue, rejuvenating him as a new version of Dredd's worst enemy, the one name Anderson tried to warn them all with…

This story is part 3 of 3 and not only wraps up the Judge-killing story nicely but pushes it all forward in a way that's to be very much anticipated for long-time fans of Dredd. Duane Swierczynski's script howls along this time with nothing feeling rushed and excellently setting up the next series in this line. Nelson Daniel's artwork keeps up nicely, too, especially toward the end of the issue on the big reveal. It's a great conclusion and setup for
the next run here.