Warning! Spoilers ahead for Judge Dredd: A Better World!

The legendary comic book hero Dredd franchise's ability to be socially relevant, perhaps more than ever, while also delivering an emotionally gripping and action-packed tale.

Judge Dredd: A Better World, written by Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt, with art by Henry Flint, delivers a thoroughly satisfying installment in Dredd lore, one that is made even more compelling by the way it engages with urgent contemporary concerns.

The Dredd franchise, which is approaching its fiftieth anniversary, was a product of late 1970s apocalyptic fears, and its embodiment of the worst dystopian outcomes for society arguably serves as a more pivotal warning than ever before in the series’ decades-long history.

A New Judge Dredd Story Brings The Classic Hero Up To Date With Modern Discourse

Judge Dredd: A Better World; Written By Rob Williams And Arthur Wyatt; Art And Color By Henry Flint; Lettering By Annie Parkhouse

A Better World, released earlier this year, takes its title from the progressive slogan "a better world is possible, if you want it," and among the notable things the story's authors manage to achieve is taking this idea and effectively using it to undergird the plot. In the story, Judge Maitland, a familiar character in Dredd canon, comes to a "shocking" realization: that funding diverted from law enforcement, i.e the Judges, toward education, housing, and other social infrastructure would be the more successful method of fighting crime.

With its parallels to other stories that use their platform to tackle big questions like these, particularly HBO series The Wire, A Better World seems consciously crafted to demonstrate the contemporary value of Judge Dredd.

Unfortunately, because Judge Dredd is fundamentally a story of systemic failure and systemic corruption, Maitland pays for her discovery with her life, but not before demonstrating the effectiveness of her ideas in a contained part of the Mega-City. With its parallels to other stories that use their platform to tackle big questions like these, particularly HBO series The Wire, A Better World seems consciously crafted to demonstrate the contemporary value of Judge Dredd, and as such, it seems like a natural fit for a modern live-action take on the character and his fictional future world.

The Parallels Between "A Better World" And "The Wire" Reveal The Story's True Potential

The Judge Dredd Arc Seems Like A Deliberate Nod To The HBO Series

The plot of Judge Dredd: A Better World is reminiscent, in certain key ways, of the third season arc of HBO's The Wire, in which a police major takes it upon himself to "legalize" drugs in contained areas of the city, concentrated criminal activity there, and drawing it away from other areas. In A Better World, Maitland is more generally trying to rehabilitate a section of the city through alternative means, though what is striking is the way the comic expounds upon The Wire's overall message, that law enforcement and waging "war" on crime are neither short, nor long-term solutions.

Widely considered among the greatest TV shows of all time, The Wire is equally defined by its ambitions and its activist perspective, both things that an adaptation of A Better World could try to emulate on screen, just as it does on the page, especially if given the chance to sprawl across a season, or more, of television. In general, this raises the core question of what a Judge Dredd adaptation can do, and should try to do, in order to be a worthwhile take on the source material.

To Be Successful, A Future Judge Dredd Adaptation Needs To Go Beyond Just An Action Story

Dredd Is A Pretext For Tackling Vital Topics

Sylvester Stallone's 1995 Judge Dredd film is a fan-favorite, and it is rightly lauded for the way it recreates the iconography of the franchise, and for its interpretation of the franchise's tone. If there is one main reason that the 2012 remake felt derivative, it is because it did the former, while losing sight of the latter. To an extent, both Dredd films hold a lesson for future filmmakers, or showrunners: Dredd is much more than an action franchise, and reducing it to one is going to limit the success of the project.

As Judge Dredd: A Better World demonstrates, the series is designed to allow writers to confront urgent societal issues, from the rise of authoritarianism, to the perils of climate change, and everything in between; in the late '70s, the original creators of Dredd recognized these as vital concerns, and the need to deal with them has only compounded in the half-century since. In A Better World, Maitland becomes a tragic figure by advocating for education, and is eventually silenced for it, her project left in tatters, in what feels like a loud-and-clear message that will resonate with many readers.

Notably, the eponymous Judge himself, Dredd, ultimately returns to the status quo in the wake of Maitland's death. Some readers have criticized Dredd's inaction in the story, but in a way, that seems designed to speak volumes in itself; Dredd has always been his own kind of tragic figure, trapped in the totalitarian mindset of his era, and so his failure to protect Maitland, or to carry on her cause after her death, seems thematically poignant in its own right.

The Next Judge Dredd Movie/Show Should Be The Best Yet; "A Better World" Makes That Possible

A Future Dredd Adaptation Needs To Go Beyond The Look Of The Series

In the context of Judge Dredd lore overall, Dredd's somewhat limited role in A Better World is a reminder that the franchise has a huge amount of potential beyond its long-time central character, which in itself should be on the minds of the creators behind the next Dredd adaptation. It is a matter of when, not if, the series returns to the screen, and there has never been a better time for it to do so, but the franchise's stewards must do so with great care, or risk setting it back another decade or more.

Judge Dredd’s next adaptation is certain to be the best-looking, and the most gritty-feeling, and the best embodiment of the aesthetic and feel of the franchise; a story like A Better World would be a huge step toward capturing the spirit.

Both the ‘95 Judge Dredd movie, and to its credit, the 2012 Dredd, made the most of what the filmmakers had in of budget and technology, but even as recently as twelve years ago seems primitive in of what large, tentpole franchise IP is able to accomplish on screen now. Judge Dredd’s next adaptation is certain to be the best-looking, and the most gritty-feeling, and the best embodiment of the aesthetic and feel of the franchise; a story like A Better World would be a huge step toward capturing the spirit as well.

A Better World has its action, of course, its moments where it gets readers’ adrenaline pumping, and even more of those can be added in adapting the arc from page to screen, but the essential thing it brings to the screen is its urgently relevant story, which can be a centerpiece for discourse among the audience of a Judge Dredd film or TV adaptation just as it has been for comic book readers since its release at the start of this year.

Judge Dredd: A Better World is available now from Rebellion Comics.