Since John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra created Judge Dredd, the 2000 AD, he has always straddled the line between searing satire and sincere pulp. Mega-City One is a brutal allegory for the United States and an awesome place to stage scenes of futuristic violence all at once. At their best, Dredd comics function as pure butt-kicking entertainment and social criticism without ever drawing a distinct line between the two.

Judge Dredd: False Witness by Brandon Easton with art by Kei Zama and Silvia Califano follows in this tradition of action-packed satire. The recently released collection of the four-issue IDW collects a four-issue miniseries. The story revolves around Mathias Lincoln, a Justice School dropout who works as a courier of contraband for the rich and powerful.  When Mathias takes the wrong job, he finds himself mixed up in the twisted world of far-right journalism and human trafficking. And, to top it all off, now he's being pursued by the one and only Judge Dredd.

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Set against the backdrop of a dangerous illness known only as "the chaos bug" and an alarmingly polarized populace, this is a Dredd tailor-made for the 2020s. Easton's two antagonists are Mr. Filth and Shannon McShannon, two xenophobic news pundits who frequently discuss their dislike of immigrants and their concerns that Mega-City One is in danger of becoming a "planetary welfare state." Throughout the book, their followers become increasingly fanatical. Hate crimes and riots are on the rise. At one point Dredd and another judge debate the legality of Filth and McShannon's programs. On one level, they seem to incite violence, but on the other, it is protected as free speech.

By using notoriously militant police to discuss the dangers of xenophobia and the lack of protections in place for the socioeconomically disenfranchised,  Easton brilliantly encapsulates and condemns much of the modern American zeitgeist while projecting it into the future. Easton's talent for social criticism is rivaled only by his knack for storytelling. Judge Dredd: False Witness is sure to keep readers on their toes as each twist is stranger than the last.

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Zama and Califano's artwork is frenetic and envigorating. They are capable of the same degree of nuance and bombast that Easton's writing possesses. Their sprawling futuristic cityscapes would feel right at home in the pages of 2000 AD or Heavy Metal. Zama and Califano even go so far as to pay homage to Moebius, one of the fathers of the genre. The first time readers see Mathias, he is falling headfirst into a sprawling metropolis just like John Difool does on the first page of Jodorowsky and Moebius's The Incal. These two artists clearly have a love for the genre and its history, but that isn't to say that their work feels stale or dated. Their combination of sometimes loose, inky shadows and precise linework feels as urgently contemporary as the story they're drawing. Colorist Eva de la Cruz, who recently provided some of the colors in Dark Knights: Death Metal- The Last 52, does an incredible job of making the world feel lived-in without detracting from the stylized nature of the book.

Judge Dredd: False Witness is not a particularly subtle book. It wears its politics and its influences proudly on its sleeve and is all the better for it. This is the brash, fearless science fiction that has made its titular character an entertaining part of popular culture for decades updated for a new generation of readers. The creative team has crafted a wonderful new book that proves Judge Dredd is as relevant now as he's ever been.

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