Tour of Duty (Judge Dredd story)
| "Tour of Duty" | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Rebellion Developments |
| Publication date | 26 August 2009 – 14 July 2010 |
| Genre | |
| Title(s) | 2000 AD #1650–1693 |
| Main character(s) |
Judge Dredd Judge Sinfield PJ Maybe |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) |
John Wagner Al Ewing Gordon Rennie Robbie Morrison |
| Artist(s) |
Colin MacNeil P. J. Holden Mike Collins Paul Marshall Cliff Robinson Jon Haward John Higgins Carlos Ezquerra |
| Letterer(s) | Annie Parkhouse |
| Colourist(s) | Chris Blythe Gary Caldwell Sally Hurst Hector Ezquerra |
| Editor(s) | Tharg (Matt Smith) |
| Backlash | ISBN |
| Mega-City Justice | ISBN |
| "The Talented Mayor Ambrose" | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Rebellion Developments |
| Publication date | 3 March – 26 May 2010 |
| Title(s) | 2000 AD #1674–1686 |
| Main character(s) |
Judge Dredd PJ Maybe Chief Judge Sinfield |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | John Wagner |
| Artist(s) |
John Higgins Colin MacNeil Mike Collins |
| Colourist(s) | Chris Blythe Sally Hurst |
| "Mega-City Justice" | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Rebellion Developments |
| Publication date | 2 June 2010 – 14 July 2010 |
| Title(s) | 2000 AD #1687–1693 |
| Main character(s) |
Judge Dredd Chief Judge Sinfield |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | John Wagner |
| Artist(s) | Carlos Ezquerra |
| Colourist(s) | Hector Ezquerra |
"Tour of Duty" is a Judge Dredd story published in British comic 2000 AD (2009–2010). It lasted for 46 episodes, 39 of which were written by John Wagner. It has the second greatest number of episodes and pages (285) of any Judge Dredd story. It is part of a longer storyline about mutants.
The prologue "Under New Management," in 2000 AD #1649, sets the scene for "Tour of Duty," which began in the next issue. It is the first day in the term of office of new Chief Judge Dan Francisco, who in an earlier story has won an election for chief judge after campaigning on an anti-mutant platform. He exiles his predecessor as chief judge, Judge Hershey, and Judge Dredd from the city, due to their strong support for mutant rights. Francisco stops mutant immigration into Mega-City One and begins a policy of encouraging mutants to leave the city and live in four townships being built in the Cursed Earth, the inhospitable, radioactive desert outside the city. Dredd is put in charge of overseeing the construction and development of the townships, ostensibly because he is the best man for the job, but really in order to keep him out of the way. As a further punishment, Dredd's protégé Judge Beeny is sent with him as his deputy.
In Mega-City One, Chief Judge Francisco decides that the mutant townships are not good enough, and insists on spending more money on them to ensure that the mutants enjoy adequate standards of living. Deputy Chief Judge Sinfield objects, regarding the expense as an unnecessary burden on the city's budget, but Francisco overrules him, reasoning that the mutant expulsions should at least be done with some humanity. Francisco's relative leniency towards the mutants—in spite of the fact that he supports forcing them to choose between mandatory sterilisation or exile—begins to cost him the support of the hardliners, such as Sinfield, who put him in office in the first place.
Meanwhile in the Cursed Earth, Dredd is assigned four judges, one for each township. Not only is four judges not enough, but each of them is inadequate to the task before them, due to some deficiency – Cunningham never completed his Cursed Earth survival training, Munn is insubordinate, Heck is incompetent and Ramone is addicted to medication. Dredd takes this as a sign of the low priority accorded to his mission. Dredd insists that one judge per township is not sufficient to maintain order, and urges Sinfield to send greater numbers, but Sinfield refuses. Instead, Dredd is forced to create an amateur police force by deputising some of the mutants.
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Wikipedia