Villordsutch reviews Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection – Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood…

When Vatican precognitive telepaths predict a horrific presence at the underwater prison of Aquatraz, Devlin Waugh is sent in to investigate and uncovers an uncompromising evil which will cause him to cancel elevenses and abandon the Queensbury rules in order to survive..

For those unversed in Devlin Waugh perhaps the best description given was from the artist – and co-creator – Sean Phillips, is that he is a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger (physique) and Terry-Thomas (head), if you get that image in your head you’ve also got this Vatican hired, extremely witty, camp, homosexual, medal winning (Olympic High Diving and Flower arranging), European Pornography loving, fine art collecting, part vampire, arse-kicking English Gentleman.

In this issue we are given four tales revolving around Devlin’s travels, two linked but separated by years and the other two tied into Dredd and Mega-City One.

Swimming in Blood – written by John Smith and the rather fantastic artwork through this tale provided by the talents of Sean Phillips, Colin MacNeil and John Burns. Our first chapter to the Mega-Collection is a rather brilliant introduction to Devlin’s occult world as we step into the isolated underwater High-Security prison called Aquatraz, which has recently taken on board a high ranking Vampire that has broken free and is making an army of the inmates and slaughtering the staff. Devlin was initially sent to investigate – via the Vatican – the Cult of the Purple Fists actions in the Prison, and he is soon leading a rescue mission with the remaining few survivors. An excellent gruesome opener to this book, bringing the main protagonist to the front and showing exactly who he is, what he does and how he does it.

Brief Encounter – written by John Smith and the art once again by Sean Phillips. All be it this tale visually looks good this is more of a humour story, highlighting the more lighter side to Devlin’s life as he attempts to enter Mega-City One and bring his Cat in to help kick start the cities failing cat population, with his high quality sperm. Other than irritating Dredd with his copious amount of Euro Gay porn there is nothing really to this story.

Red Tide – written by John Smith and with some excellent artwork given to us from Colin MacNeil. Red Tide follows on from Swimming in Blood, however where as we’ve had to flick through about ten or so pages for this conclusion the normal reader had to wait near enough eleven years! A lot has happened in those years, the remaining vampires under the sea have begun to rapidly evolve to their new environment as well as that their numbers have increased greatly, not only this rather unbelievably the public have set up a holiday complex on the coast and regularly go out “Vampire Fishing” for fun. However it’s come to light that a new form of Vampire has emerged and Devlin and Prof. Helsing must get this daywalker away from the nightwalkers before they can drink her blood and rule the world. Again as with Swimming in Blood this chapter is another brutal episode and pulls no punches as the vampires dispatch their human prey, nor when Devlin himself removes the Vampires from existence.

Bite Fight! The final chapter in this collection written by John Smith and with the art given to us by John Burns. In this fairly nasty illegal pit fighting arena competitors are only allowed to bite their opponents, doesn’t sound overly bad, but when their teeth are being filed to fangs and they are going for the throat it’s brutal. In this tale an undercover Judge’s cover is blown and his final fight is against a kidnapped Devlin Waugh who has been deprived of blood for over three days. Again this isn’t an overly strong tale for Devlin and it only adds mystery around the necklace he’s been wearing – for the previous chapters – near the end, however as this is the last chapter we’ll never actually know where this breadcrumb trail will be going.

Overall Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood was an enjoyable read the strongest two tales were clearly Swimming in Blood and Red Tide, both brutal in story and showed Devlin’s character off well. The two fillers – albeit okay – didn’t make an overall impact on his evolution.

In two weeks’ time we have Shimura arriving in the Mega-Collection so look out for the review here at Flickering Myth.

Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection – Devlin Waugh is available to buy now priced £9.99 or online here.

Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.