Prog 1960 The Good, The Bad, The Psychotic!

[TordelBack]

That was possibly the worst Wagner Dredd ever.

I'll raise you one The Ecstasian.  I thought The Beating was perfectly serviceable, but it was definitely nothing new plot'n'scriptwise.  Would have been improved by some peripheral Bender connection, perhaps. Gorgeous work from Goddard, as everyone says.

Bad Company's 'secret' was disappointingly obvious fom the start, but there's definitely a twist yet to come. Happily the boisterous art lifts this episode to greater heights.

The Bailie Terror Tale was atmospheric, but I thought it slipped into too-familiar territory at the very end.

Defoe was a good helping, a solid resolution, and left a nice setup for the future - although I wonder will the strip ever reach such a level without Leigh Gallagher at the sharp end. His body of work on this series has been stupendous.

Certainly a lot going on for a last-of-the-year Prog, but almost everything seemed to be hitting me over the head with messages, which was a bit much all at once.

[Woolly]

That was possibly the worst Wagner Dredd ever.

I'll raise you one The Ecstasian.  I thought The Beating was perfectly serviceable, but it was definitely nothing new plot'n'scriptwise.  Would have been improved by some peripheral Bender connection, perhaps. Gorgeous work from Goddard, as everyone says.

To me, The beating read like it was setting something up.
Dredd working with the Wally Squad (and dialogue that suggests he's keeping it secret from Hershey*), and a mention of something going on in sector 307.
Reckon this is a lead in to something else, and we haven't seen the last of Hooker.


*Admittedly, the dialogue is pretty vague in this respect!

[Hawkmumbler]

Hang on, what sector was Bender operating out of?

[JayzusB.Christ]

That was possibly the worst Wagner Dredd ever

WELCOME, NEW READER!






The Beating was fine, but it was a one-and-done idea. RIP Leigh Gallagher - he draws heroes; hasn't drawn any yet.

Christ, Flinty's come a long way since his frog-mouth Dress days, hasn't he?

[Woolly]

On second thoughts, Hershey casually covering up Dredd killing a cit doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, so I'm clearly talking out of my [spoiler]arse[/spoiler] there.

[Ghost MacRoth]

I did think that Wooly....just too polite to say.

[Dark Jimbo]

Dredd would have arrested himself and demanded to be sent to Titan!

[TordelBack]

Christ, Flinty's come a long way since his frog-mouth Dress days, hasn't he?

No argument that his work these days has developed spectacularly and is hugely accomplished in so many ways, but I really like that raw Dune Sharks/Spider Tribe period too. So much experimentation with page layout and intense movement.

But what is it with Wagner and spider women? Spiders in general is one thing...

[Minkyboy]

Dredd would have arrested himself and demanded to be sent to Titan!

And all the Cits know it. He is a living legend. From Cal onwards he has stood for the Law at the expense of all else. If you need to choose one Judge in the Dept to pretend to go off the rails in order to smoke out the blackmailers, surely he is the last choice?
That's what confused the hell out of me. And I thought it read like Hershey thought he did it and was going to cover it up, but that makes no sense.

[Ghost MacRoth]

I think it was just a disguise to the intent.  The exchange between Dredd and Hershey definately let you think that, but once you finished the tale, and read it again, it was clear (IMO) that the 'error of judgement' was in the method of extracting the undercover geezer, rather than any sort of infringement of law.

[TordelBack]

...the 'error of judgement' was in the method of extracting the undercover geezer...

Especially as just the previous week he'd been dealing with a vigilant citizen witnessing a Wally Squad op and reporting it...

[Colin YNWA]

I think it was just a disguise to the intent.  The exchange between Dredd and Hershey definately let you think that, but once you finished the tale, and read it again, it was clear (IMO) that the 'error of judgement' was in the method of extracting the undercover geezer, rather than any sort of infringement of law.

Yeah I think when you get to it its clear (to my reading) that's the case. No one was expecting it to get out as the bad eggs in OCD needed to keep it quiet for it to be an effective tool and it got out the back door, but they'd left themselves open to that possibility. The whole thing was scripted to sucker punch dosey folk like me who'd known what was going on all along but left dangling at that last page turn. For me its an example of a master of his craft knowing he'll pull you along for three progs (hence length) smugly feeling like we know whats what and then confident he could still throw us in a loop at the death. Worked on me... but then I'm a mug!

As for the choice of Dredd on the surface, as we know him, its a bad choice but its been made clear on a number of occasions that how we percieve him and how many others do, the public, most of justice department is quite different. In this case OCD needed to have a fish big enough to be worth frying to make it worth their time not to just toss it back straight away. Hence someone like Dredd, whose been showing signs of the 'stress' of DoC  and therefore may be going through a period of change and has long been seen as coming to the end of his time seems like a very decent option.

[TordelBack]

From the citizens' point of view Dredd's only good point is that he has saved (most of) the city time and again.  The last two times (Day of Chaos, Enceladus), and arguably with the Mutant Reforms, he didn't even manage that. His popularity/credibility has to be at an all time low. Why put up with Dredd the Bastard if he can't even cut it as Dredd the Hero.

[Colin YNWA]

Precisely so if currently Dredd the basted us winning in the public perception stakes, then they'd be more than willing to buy into him being just that. So OCD would see it as a perfect time to use it. In the department they've seen Dredd struggle with DoC and so may have happily believed he'd snapped.

[Ghost MacRoth]

Worked on me... but then I'm a mug!

Me too man, me too.