Insurrection. By Dan Abnett.

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**Matt Swain**

I just read a Dan Abnett comic set in the judge dredd helliverse, it was called "Insurrection".

Mostly of us know some of the roots of the 40k universe come from the dredd helliverse, and now Abnett basically goes full on and pretty much sets a 40k story in it. And yes, it's basically a full on 40k story using judges as spess muhreens.

As you've surmised from the title, there is an insurrection against the fascist rule of the megagakky one judges and they respond pretty much like the imperium would.

Spoliers for Dan Abnett's insurrection:

Spoiler:

A mining colony world supporting MD1 is attacked, and abandoned by the judges, but defends itself with the help of uplifted apes and intelligent robots. The apes and robots are granted full freedom for their paert. The judges goosestep in and say "Well, nice job defending yourselves while we were busy, we're taking control again, and you will rescind the freedom granted to the apes and bots."

The people including a senior judge on the world, refuse and are threatened with being crushed, so they pull an insurrection against it. Rather than letting them go the judges mount a full scale interstellar war to crush the revolt because every fascist state fears the one successful revolt that starts a chain reaction. The judges of the SJS, the super Ahole giganazi judges, openly attack and massacre unarmed civilians to make the rebels surrender, and are shocked, SHOCKED, I SAY!

, when the resistance increases.

The head of the SHS attackers even admits to being surprised that a 'horrible liberal" like the judge leading the revolt didn't beg to surrender as soon as innocent blood began spilling.

And of course in the grimdark meme, the evil SJS, and yes, they are clearly portrayed as evil, and this is a story with a clear good and bad side, win and the good guys are murdered. The main difference between this and 40k is that in this the SFS judges are honest, they're fascists, all they care about is their own power, they don't care about the people at all and in fact are contemptuous of them. The SJS in this story follows the big brother state ideology from 1984.

"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me."

Now while some characters in the dredd setting may oppose this and believe they are trying to keep the city and the people alive, like Anderson, hershey and even Dredd himself, this is how the SJS, which oversees the judges, feels.

Also, the story has a tiny gleam of hope taken from V at the very, very end, the notion that people can be murdered but ideas cannot.

BTW, i like a lot of Abnett's work, but just curious: Is he capable of writing a story that isn't totally grimdark and has a hopeless 'darkness triumphs" ending?

So yeah, it's basically 40k with a one headed eagle instead of a two headed one. If you like grimdark 40k stories, this comic is for you. The artstyle is pretty 40k comic style, with the evil SJS judges proportioned not at all coincidentally liek spess muhreens.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

If memory serves, it’s the same artist as Bloodquest, too.

It’s a cracking Dreddiverse story, and has a few follow ups, including Lawless.

Definitely worth a read, even if you’re not terribly familiar with Dredd’s world.

**Matt Swain**

YMBR, doc. If you're not referring to the artist from bloodquest first book. I recall the second and later books looking like the art in insurrection.

And honestly, you don't need to be familiar with the dredd setting as long as you're up on 40k, it is basically a 40k story. just substitute mutants for the uplifted apes and being given rights in exchange for fighting and the imperium coming bac k and nixing it.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

I’ve got the Mega Collection copy of it on my shelves. I’m fairly sure the background info confirms Dan Abnett wrote it as a 40K type story.

As for the art?

Definite 40K feel to it.

**Matt Swain**

I find it kind of insteresting that even before abnett got involved the 40k universe lifted things form JD, and now abnett brings the 40k universe into JDs helliverse.

Also the main characters, dredd, anderson, Hershey, were kept out of the novel as even a fascist robot like dredd would have revolted against the SJS deliberately murdering unarmed civilians to break the defenders.

(That's the kind of filthy drokk the sovs pulled in the apocalypse war and on chaos day, creeps! I didn't fight to keep them from taking over megacity 1 just to see scum like you pulling the same kind of evil they did!)[b]"