Judge Dredd vs. Aliens: Incubus #1

History

The story was first serialized weekly in Rebellion's 2000 AD across Prog 2003 and Progs #1322–1335, running from December 2002 through April 2003, before being repackaged by Dark Horse as a four-issue monthly American miniseries beginning in March 2003. The project was a co-production between Rebellion (2000 AD's publisher) and Dark Horse, following the template established by the 1997 Predator crossover — each of these Judge Dredd/Dark Horse pairings required a different co-publisher due to the historically complex rights situation surrounding the Dredd character. Writer Andy Diggle, who at the time had served as editor of 2000 AD itself, co-wrote with Wagner in what was noted as a rare collaborative scripting exercise for Wagner, who had worked largely solo for roughly fifteen years prior. A deluxe Rebellion hardcover followed in November 2003, featuring a foreword by British actor Simon Pegg, and a standard Dark Horse trade paperback collected the series in January 2004; the story was collected again in October 2014 alongside Predator versus Judge Dredd in the omnibus Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens: Incubus and Other Stories.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Publisher and format: Four-issue monthly miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics, March–June 2003, 32 pages per issue, full color; reprinting and reformatting the story originally serialized weekly in 2000 AD (Prog 2003 and Progs #1322–1335, December 2002–April 2003).
• Creative team: Written by John Wagner (Judge Dredd co-creator) and Andy Diggle (former 2000 AD editor); art by Henry Flint; colors by Chris Blythe; letters by Tom Frame; edited by Philip R. Simon and Matt Smith.
• Cover art: Issue #1's cover was painted by Greg Staples (a cover originally prepared for 2000 AD #1324 and swapped to this slot for the Dark Horse release); the four issues collectively featured cover art by Greg Staples, Kev Walker, Frazer Irving, and Jock.
• Sequel status: Incubus is a direct sequel to the 1997 Dark Horse miniseries Predator versus Judge Dredd — the first comic to place Dredd in the Aliens/Predator shared universe — and was itself followed by the 2016 three-way crossover Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens.
• In-universe continuity: Unlike many crossover comics, Incubus is treated as canonical within the Judge Dredd continuity, set in-universe in the year 2125; the story resolves threads from the earlier Wagner story 'Out of the Undercity' and features the Mechanismo robo-judges in one of their last canonical appearances.
• Character introductions: The miniseries introduces the rookie Judge Sanchez, who later reappears in John Wagner's landmark storyline 'Origins'; the villain Mr. Bones (Dan Dan 'Bones' Riboshevsky), an anti-judicial terrorist who cultivated a Xenomorph hive beneath the Grand Hall of Justice, also debuts here; the Verminators, a specialist pest-extermination unit, debut in the story as well.
• Villain name change: The Mr. Bones character was referred to as 'Mutant Jack' in early Dark Horse solicitation materials; the name was changed to Mr. Bones before publication.
• Collected editions: A Rebellion deluxe hardcover (November 2003) featured a Simon Pegg foreword and a new Greg Staples cover; a Dark Horse trade paperback followed in January 2004; the TPB was re-released in April 2007; all three Dredd/Aliens/Predator crossover stories were collected together in the October 2014 omnibus Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens: Incubus and Other Stories, which was also one of only a handful of Aliens/Predator crossover comics released in digital format.

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