Case File
Dredd finally confronts C.W. Moonie in his ranch, and learns the history behind this lunar tycoon.
Ol’ Stoney Face
Dredd has decided that three assassination attempts is enough, and decides to arrest Moonie at his Ranch. We don’t really get much of an explanation for why he is choosing now, or if he really has enough specific evidence.
Dredd is far nicer to Walter here, and displays genuine concern when the robot explodes at the end.
Friends of Dredd
Dredd brings Walter along on this arrest. He’s once again pretty useful, busting himself and his master out of Moonie’s last trap – a sealed glass cylinder with the air sucked out – by emitting high-frequency sonic waves. This burns out his circuits, and he’ll need a big repair job after this issue.
Walter can detach his ankle joints.
The Big Meg (and Beyond)
Moonie Ranch has cowboys riding 6-legged metal horses to round up what appear to be standard Earth cows.
Creeps
As we learned a few issues back LINK, C.W. Moonie has been a recluse for more than 40 years and here we learn why. After making their way through “lunar projections”, mercury rivers and dust jets that make up Moonie’s “Museum of the Moon”, Dredd and Walter learn that the tycoon first arrived on the Moon in 2014. He was determine to win a prize (10 million credits) for the first person to find life on the Moon. He did it – but the life he found was a virus that swelled his head and disfigured him.
Moonie hid himself away and used the start-up 10 million credits to eventually own the Moon as recompense for what happened to him. He tries once more to kill Dredd, but fails.
If his story is true, he’s at least 200 years old and we don’t get an explanation for how.
Rap Sheet
C.W. Moonie’s lunar empire ends in a Luna-City prison.
Verdict
This is classic 70s sci-fi shenanigans, and it’s hard not to like it for that. I would have actually liked the Mr Moonie mystery to continue on a bit, but this is a fairly interesting end to that storyline and Dredd and Walter actually work well as a little team here.
The “over the Moon” pun was inevitable wasn’t it?
Daily Dredd 