There's not much love out there for Calhab Justice. Current 2000 AD editor Matt Smith offers an introduction to this volume that can be described equivocal at best, and even writer Jim Alexander in an interview at the back of the book can only say he has "made his peace" with it.

All that said, though, it's not as bad as you might fear. The loch-broad Scottish stereotypes are used in good humour and pretty much in line with what you'd expect from the Judge Dredd universe – it's not as if Mega-City One was a sensitive analysis of modern East Coast America.

In fact the first couple of strips in this collection are actually pretty passable. There are some decent gags and a nice satirical line on 90s Scottish politics that informs the story without overwhelming it.

As Alexander admits at the end of the volume, it's in the later strips that Calhab Justice loses its way. The structure's a mess and, in trying to be obscure, the plot becomes impenetrable – something that's not helped by Lol's oh-so dark, oh-so crowded artwork. The ideas are good (particularly the little speech about believing in God "in lateral terms") but they're poorly executed. ( )