Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Dredd v Batman: Cam Kennedy's punches always hurt


The second Judge Dredd/Batman comic is widely seen as the least of the crossovers between the dark knight and Mega-City One's top lawman -  it doesn't have the over-the-top painted absurdity of the other books, has no impact on the wider continuity of Dredd or Batman, doesn't have the grown-up painted art of the others, and is just a fairly basic story with a small time-traveling twist. 

But while the majority of pages are devoted to Judge Dredd and Batman beating the snot out of each other, it's fighting that is drawn by Cam Kennedy, and his action art if full of his usual weight and gristle.

Kennedy is one of the great action artists in modern comics, highly stylized, but dynamic as fuck.  Dredd's jaw juts out even further to match Gotham's finest, but that just gives Batman a bigger target to punch. They fling themselves across the city, blowing shit up and falling off elevated trains. No details are washed away in a smear of paint like the other Dredd crossovers, every cut and bruise and piece of dirt is right there on the page.

Sometimes you don't need to be big or clever. Sometimes you just need Cam Kennedy drawing pictures of super tough dudes kicking each other's teeth in. 




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