Re: Rico

[Matt]

I was reading back through the Rico storyline this weekend & one thread occured to me that I haven't noticed before. Rico is just Dredd without the character development. He hasn't undergone the influences of Necropolis, Democracy, Dead Man or the Error/Question of Judgement trilogy. So we can use Rico to measure the extent of Dredds development, to see the more human & mature side of Dredds character. And what if that's all Wagner intends him to be - a story telling device? What if Rico just remains a supporting character by which we can gauge Dredd? The more I think about it, the less likely it seems that Rico will ever replace Dredd. Even if we hadn't already had that story with Kraken, I still don't think Wagner would do it. It's a comic book standard now to replace the lead character for a while, only to re-introduce them 12 months later. It's become a cliche. What does everyone else think?

[Fortysixter]

I don't think they'd swap Dredd for Rico and then change Ricos name to dredd ( like they did with Kraken), if they feel dredd needs a hiatus they'll just put him thru another major life change ( deadman ) or a huge adventure, which we must be due for. As for your statement about a cliche' that maybe the case, but if the story rocks, who cares? I've read a lot of USA comics, and with the exception of a few
( hellblazer,spawn,swamp thing,Sandman), they are all re-writes and cliches of each other, inevitably turn out dull and can't touch the 2000ad universe ( I.E. British writers).  If you want cliches read the superhero press of DC/Marvel. Originality ? 2000ad is thy name. Ok lost the thread of what I was saying now......

[Thread Zero]

MAtt,

How are you?
Long time no speak with ya.

I think it boils down to this. A or B.

A)

Dredd and Rico both co-exist at the same time, killing perps and rescuing Mrs Gunderson's cat named Pardon?

Mrs Gunderson:
Pardon? Here Pardon? Come here.

Cat:
Meewaaao.

Mrs Gunderson:
Pardon, what was that you said?

(Oh the comedy potential of that!)

B)

Rico goes bad. Unoriginal I know but 99% probable. Look at the evidence. In Sector House, Rico is shown to have a bad side during the fight with the other judge.

It's so obvious Rico is inherently bad. He just needs to settle down, get bored of the nine to five routine of judging and voila...Rico starts a bit of blackmail here, torture there, listening to old Spice Girls record etc...

scojo bored of repeating this Rico will go bad idea

[Thread Zero]

Oh yeah,

What could make a "Rico going bad" story really cool, is that this time, Dredd may have met his match.

Rico is, like Kraken before him and the original Rico, the perfect judge. Even Dredd wasn't perfect.

So Joe could be in trouble when confronting the dark side of his soul, as manifested in Rico mark 2.

That sounded deep, didn't it?

Haven't got a clue what it meant...

scojo

[Thread Zero]

Obviously Rico wasn't perfect because he broke the law.

I meant he was better than Dredd at the Academy of Law.
Kracken too was better than Dredd during training.

So anyway...back to pardon?

Pardon?...here kitty kitty...

scojo saying eh? to dogs

[Matt]

Hi Scojo. My interest in the board has waned over the past couple of months as it seems to go around in circles. I usually just lurk behind the scenes and wait for the good stuff to come along. The Watcher usually posts messages of interest. Any idea who he is? I'm looking forward to Sin City. The Helter Skelter incident left my faith in multiparters a bit shaken. Hopefully Wagner is going to give us what should have been last summers epic. At the moment I'm working on a new online game based on Nemesis "Terror Tube". It's basically R-Type with the Blitzspear. I'm still trying to find someone to do the artwork whilst I finish programming the game. Would be cool to get it up & running. Hope you & Shoosi are doing well,

MATT

[paulvonscott]

I really don't know why people are so hung up on epics.  Unless they have a point there literally isn't much point in doing them.

Arguably Oz, Judgement Day, Helter Skelter and quite a few others didn't really need to have been written.  Oz could have been split into a great story about the Judda and a great story about Chopper and would have been better for it.

The Cursed Earth was really an exploration of Dredd's world, The Apocalypse war was designed to mould Mega City one.  They all had visible results on Mega City and Dredd as well as being damn good reads.  If there isn't anything that needs to be done, you don't need an epic in the traditional mould.

Apart from in specials or maybe the Megazine I don't care if I ever see a Dredd one-off again.  Then again I don't want to see lots of contrived epics that basically just bugger about with things for no good reason.  Just give me a roughly ongoing storyline with departures and self contained stories and I'll be fine.

I think this point has been realised by mightier brains than me.  Both the Pit and the new sin city have adopted the tactic of just having a continuing storyline.

As for Rico, I'm not sure I could second guess Wagners intent, he may not even know himself.  I've enjoyed every Rico storyline so far tremendously.  And I'll take what I'm given and be grateful.

[2000AD Online]

How may epics have there been in total? The following all had had more than twelve episodes:

'Luna 1'
'The Cursed Earth'
'The Day the Law Died'
'The Judge Child Quest'
'The Apocalypse War'
'Oz'
'Necropolis'

As they say in 'A Question of Sport': 'what happened next?'.

[Wood]

um...

"Judgement Day" (20 eps)
"Inferno" (13 eps)
"Wilderlands"
"The Pit"
"The Doomsday Scenario"
"Helter Skelter"

Any more with more than 12 episodes?

[2000AD Online]

I'd have to agree with PVS that only 'The Cursed Earth' and 'The Apocalypse War' deserved their page counts, enjoyable as the others might have been.

[nathan]

I really enjoyed the rambling nature of  the Judge Child Quest. If it had been shorter they might not have fitted so many brilliant weird characters in, the Angels, Sagbelly, Grunwalder, the disappearing jigsaw bloke etc....

N

[paulvonscott]

I enjoyed the Judge Child Quest tremendously.  I think it worked for the very reason it was devised.  To put Dredd in space.

Unlike most epics it didn't have a lasting effect.  Unless you count the headache that became of feyy's prediction.

It was fun and as you say, very episodic, which allowed a whole load of larger than life characters to be used.

I loved the sagbelly episode.

At the end of the day the whole relationship with otherworlds is left as it was when the quest began.  Nebulous, vague and confusing.  Sometimes that can be a good thing.

[W. R. Logan]

>Kracken too was better than Dredd during training.

What the new Rico has over Kraken is that from birth to graduating he was raised and trained in Texa City's academy. It probably isn't as rigid as MC-1 but it was an academy of Law, whereas Kraken was raised by the Judda. His traing may have been as Rigid if not more so than MC-1 but the difference is in the brainwashing. Kraken by the Judda, Rico by Texas City.

Just my two cred's worth.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan

[W. R. Logan]

>'Luna 1'

More of a setting than a real epic.

Robots Prog 9 & Robot Wars Prog 10 - 17 to me was the first epic.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[2000AD Online]

I agree, it was pushing it rather. I did consider including 'The Robot Wars' but it only lasted eight episodes, nine if one includes the 'Robots' prologue.