Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot bad - It lays the groundwork for Part 2
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2013
Fourth Faction
I am a long time reader of Judge Dredd who prefers to catch up on the latest stories through the Collated Graphic Novels (like this one), rather than getting the weekly comics. I was very keen to read the new "mega epic" of Day of Chaos and recently bought the two parts. I have just finished reading Part 1 "The Fourth Faction". This didn't feel like a mega epic to me, at least not in the old sense of the word when you had a 20+ week by week story on the same topic. This story takes the format of a thread of the larger, looming story, occurring within the daily activities of Judge Dredd. As a result of this we get several 2000AD and Megazine stories that are of good quality, but they still only hint at the larger threat to come (ie the actual Day of Chaos).
That said, I found the artwork to be excellent and storylines to be gritty and funny. I felt that there was a similarity to "Tour of Duty" and recent JD storylines, which were more mature. It often reminded me of the old acclaimed TV show called Hill Street Blues, in that it followed a number of perspectives from the Police (Judges) to the Criminals (PJ Maybe) as well as the background politics and machinations (The Council of Five and the Judges Academy).
Overall, I would give this a 3 to 3.5 stars out of 5 - a good warm up to the 2nd (and final) part of the story, without it hitting top gear yet.
I look forward to reading Day of Chaos - Endgame next.