Saturday, December 1, 2018

Anderson Psi Division by Matt Smith, Carl Critchlow


Rating: WARTY!

I picked this up at the library and I'm glad I did that rather than pay for it, because it would not have been worth the money. The art by Critchlow wasn't bad at all actually, and it was mercifully restrained in terms of sexualizing the character, but the story was just boring. I'm assuming the writer was not the Matt Smith who played Doctor Who in the years between Peter Capaldi's captaincy and David Tennant's tenancy, because I think it would have been more entertaining if it had been!

The story is about the Psi Division of the Judge Dredd world. I've never been a fan of this world; nothing is more ridiculous than the absurdly ornate uniforms these people wear, which must weigh a ton, and which provide no practical benefit. Just the opposite in fact. No wonder they need such sturdy bikes to ride around on!

Anyway, this story is about a psychic officer whose name, in retrospect, isn't important, and who gets a sharp premonition that something bad will happen at the museum, but no one seems to believe her. Why would they not believe an officer of the law who is known for her psychic abilities? Well, maybe because she's a woman? But in the context of the story's world it made little sense, and frankly I am so tired of these psychic stories where the psychic clues are so very irritatingly vague.

Subsequently there came a romp which made even less sense and in which she ended up, for reasons I couldn't figure out - maybe I missed something? - in a jungle where she happened to make a highly conveniently, coincidentally, fortuitous discovery. By this time I was very much done with this, but I read on to the end and the story neither improved nor was resolved, so it was a prologue. I don't do prologs and I refuse to commend this. There was nothing to it to commend.