JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:
FATHER EARTH (progs 122-125)

 

Judge Dredd gets back into high gear with its Father Earth miniseries – the first of our recurring incursions into Mega-City One from the Cursed Earth, that post-apocalyptic mutated wasteland that was the United States – and illustrated by two of my favorite 2000 AD Judge Dredd artists, Brian Bolland and Ron Smith.

Yes, yes – there was a previous minor incursion in the nature of a raid by the mutant Brotherhood of Darkness back in the first episodes of Volume 1 (the same Brotherhood that was dispatched in Dredd’s own incursion into the Cursed Earth in the epic of that name), but this is the first incursion on a major scale – particularly as earlier mutant raiders preceded the city wall built by Chief Judge Cal, probably the only beneficial thing he did during his tyranny (although it wasn’t so beneficial at the time).

This particular incursion is led by the messianic mutant Father Earth, apocalyptic eco-terrorist and walking embodiment of flower power (as plants literally bloom from him). Father Earth is accompanied by his groupies, who seem surprisingly attractive for inhabitants of the Cursed Earth (much like Immortan Joe’s supermodel “wives” in Mad Max: Fury Road).

More ominously, he has his mutant army 10,000 strong or so, with his revolutionary vanguard of the Doomsday Dogs – and doomsday is what Father Earth preaches for Mega-City One. Father Earth has a dream – and that dream is the total destruction of Mega-City One, returning it to nature (such as it is in the Cursed Earth).

 

 

JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:
FATHER EARTH 1 (progs 122)

 

“Behold the Doomsday Dogs!”

It doesn’t get much better than a mutant militia calling itself the Doomsday Dogs drawn by Brian Bolland.

We first encounter the Doomsday Dogs, as well as Father Earth and the rest of his army, as they ransack a Mega-City One Cursed Earth trading post. Not exactly sure what there is to trade in the Cursed Earth (or with whom to trade) – but the Doomsday Dogs destroy all the technology nevertheless, particularly the poor robots, although they keep the weapons. Obviously they don’t have problem with THAT technology, as they’ll need the weapons for Mega-City One itself.

As for the poor Mega-City One couple in the trading post, Father Earth kills them – strangling them with creepers from his own body, as the vegetation growing on him is obviously under his control – and effectively composts them to grow “new life” in the Cursed Earth. O well – compost to compost, seed to seed.

Of course, Mega-City One can’t help but notice the large group of mutants approaching the city, but despite Dredd’s misgivings about it, Justice Department has more pressing concerns – the election for Mega-City One’s major (with Jim Grubb – the mayor from The Day the Law Died – running as incumbent), with all the crazies campaigning or coming out to vote and all the criminals preying on them. Deputy Chief Judge Pepper dismisses that Father Earth’s following will be able to make it through the city wall into the city.

Enter the apocalyptic fire and brimstone preached by Father Earth – as we are introduced to Mega-City One’s Power Tower, a geothermal energy source powered by lava from drilling 100 miles into the earth, but with the potential to become a volcano within Mega-City One. And that is exactly Father Earth’s plan, as his Doomsday Dogs infiltrate the Tower and attack its robot crew.

It’s a Chekhov’s volcano – you just know that thing’s going to blow…

 

 

JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:
FATHER EARTH 2 (progs 123)

 

Take that, hippy!

Ha – I couldn’t resist this image, showcasing Judge Dredd’s diplomacy at its finest. It also showcases Father Earth himself, as well his groupies (who are, as noted before, surprisingly attractive for Cursed Earth inhabitants).

Anyway, having thwarted an apparent terrorist bomb attack by the Doomsday Dogs, Dredd personally attends upon Father Earth and his Cursed Earth mutant army to “negotiate” with his characteristic diplomacy – telling Father Earth to sod off, with actual sods thrown in for good measure. (“A little dirt in the face never hurts in delicate negotiations like this”).

Ultimately, Dredd’s suspicions are confirmed when it was revealed that the bomb was a decoy – with the real target the auxiliary lava pipe that is activated for the power surge involved in voting in the election. (Obviously Father Earth or his Doomsday Dogs have some pretty impressive sources of intelligence on Mega-City One).

And a volcano erupts in Mega-City One (with uncharacteristic references to God rather than Grudd).

 

 

 

JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:

FATHER EARTH 3 (prog 124)

 

Joe Versus The Volcano!

By Joe, I mean Joe Dredd – and by the Volcano, I mean the Power Tower now erupting in Mega-City One.

Also there’s an esoteric joke for anyone who gets it – the handful of you. Joe Versus The Volcano was a middling 1990 romantic comedy. I’ve never seen it and thought it was cashing in on the success of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle but it actually preceded that film. I just liked the title ever since I heard it.

Anyway, there’s the small matter of a volcano erupting in Mega-City One, from the geothermal “power tower” sabotaged by Father Earth’s Doomsday Dogs, the vanguard of Father Earth’s mutant army outside the city walls. As a result of the volcano and earthquakes within Mega-City One, the city walls crumble, allowing Father Earth’s army into the city – “Forward, my fanatics! Destroy the cursed city! Burn it to the ground!”

Of course, the volcano and its earthquakes are already doing that quite nicely – one wonders why Father Earth doesn’t just wait outside the city for the volcano to do his work for him, rather than leading his army into its ground zero. Judge Dredd, as usual, is in the thick of it, trying to save citizens from the volcanic effects (not so successfully) and fighting off Father Earth’s mutant invaders (a little more successfully).

Having barely escaped a stream of lava on his Lawmaster bike and H-wagon evac, Dredd realizes that it’s hopeless, unless they plug the volcano…

 

 

JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:

FATHER EARTH 4 (prog 125)

 

Enter (and exit) the Holocaust Squad, perhaps the bravest unit in Mega-City, where emergency services, including firefighting, seems to have been subsumed within the Justice Department. The Squad has special fire-suits that can endure the heat of the volcano…for about three minutes. They all die of course, but not before one member manages to shut off the sabotaged valve and turn off the lava flow.

Since we never see them again outside this episode, I had to commemorate this brave unit with their own feature image.

 

 

Out of the frying pan – and fire – into the…alien carnivorous plants?

Without the volcano, the judges easily defeat Father Earth’s ragtag mutant mob. Enter the alien carnivorous plants, which have been unleashed from their enclosures within the city’s Botanic Garden, although one wonders how Justice Department ever approved the safety of their exhibit in the first place. Worst of them is the Bloodplant,which lures victim to it with its hypnotic cry, now free of its soundproof tank.

With his army (or mob) defeated, Father Earth looks for a sign – and sure enough, he and the last remnants of his mob hear the wailing cry of the Bloodplant. “More than a sign, fools! Can you not recognize it? It’s the voice of God!”. He leads them to the Botanic Gardens – “Behold the God-plant!”

However, Dredd is hot on their trail – and follows them into the Botanic Garden, with Justice Department pumping music into his helmet to counteract the Bloodplant’s cry. And give Dredd some sick beats.

Needless to say, Father Earth’s followers have not fared too well inside the Garden, having been devoured by plants – indeed, leaving only Father Earth and his favorite groupie in the presence of the Bloodplant itself. Father Earth ecstatically cries to the distinctly anxious groupie “The God Plant! Only you and I survive, my dear! Only we have been considered pure enough to gaze upon its majesty” – just before, in one of my favorite comic turns from Judge Dredd, she is enveloped by the maw of a plant. “I spoke too soon!”

 

 

JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:

FATHER EARTH 4 (prog 125)

 

And the Father Earth story arc concludes as Judge Dredd bursts in just as Father Earth is being enveloped by tendrils of the Bloodplant – which Father Earth interprets as his impending victory. “You are too late, judge – I have won! See, even now, the God Plant wraps his protecting fronds around me! The God Plant is all powerful. With his help, I will destroy the cursed city and win back the land for mother Earth!”

Predictably, the Bloodplant slurps down Father Earth into its maw, a fitting end for any hippy – leaving Judge Dredd to exclaim “You can’t be more at one with nature than that!”

Father Earth is equally fanatic – or delusional – about the Bloodplant’s approaching maw. “He honors me with a kiss! I am truly blessed! I am at one with nature!”

 

 

JUDGE DREDD EAGLE COMICS REPRINT:

FATHER EARTH – COVER (issue 4)

Well I can’t feature the Father Earth story arc without Brian Bolland’s standout cover for the Eagle Comics reprint – Bolland’s covers were consistently my favorite art for epics, arcs, or episodes from the first six Case Files.