Not sure if it's me or the prog...

[Steve Green]

I liked Carousel, it felt very Dredd in a City of The Damned crawling through fire/Dead Man blasted by fire and acid way.

[TordelBack]

I liked Carousel, it felt very Dredd in a City of The Damned crawling through fire/Dead Man blasted by fire and acid way.

Or indeed the exact opposite of that, wherein we learn that fire, acid and mortality itself have no consequences for Young Stony Face, as long as he keeps his doctors' appointments.

I've accepted Carousel in a 'rip off the band-aid' way, and in an internally-logical way, but I don't think I'll ever like it or how it changes the character.  I'd almost have preferred an accidental use of Carroll's Snapshot gadget as a quick fix.

[Steve Green]

Well, we'd already had that in various forms.

Magicked back from the dead by Murd
Bionic Eyes after City of the Damned
Rico's CF lungs
Restored from being deep fried Dredd after Necroplis
Restored back from being a werewolf and a zombie.

Seems a bit churlish to be griping about Dr Mike's solution with those lot as a precedent.

My point about it being Dredd-like is the man 'walking off' being without his skin.

[Tjm86]

It is also worth remembering that every single cell in our body is continuously replaced over the course of our lives.  We are literally not the same person we were a few years ago.  Why should Dredd be any different?

[Richard]

It's also worth remembering that not so long ago there was a thread on this very forum calling for the issue of Dredd's ageing to be resolved somehow. MC was only giving us what we'd been clamouring for for a while.

[matty_ae]

I've found this thread really interesting.

I was very defensive in my early post proclaiming 'if you dont support the prog, dont moan when it stops etc.'

But having read quite a few intelligent comments about the splintering of Dredd plot lines/authors and the issues with some of the other stories, I do think you guys have nailed some of the issues.

[Arkwright99]

It is also worth remembering that every single cell in our body is continuously replaced over the course of our lives.  We are literally not the same person we were a few years ago.  Why should Dredd be any different?

Because... "It takes fifteen years to train a judge, fifteen years in the toughest school on earth - fifteen years of iron discipline, rigid self-control, concentrated aggression! By the time a judge hits the streets, he is no longer a man - he is a machine!"

Or, to put it more succinctly... "But Dredd is a judge - and judges are not ordinary men!". 

[SIP]

It's also worth remembering that not so long ago there was a thread on this very forum calling for the issue of Dredd's ageing to be resolved somehow. MC was only giving us what we'd been clamouring for for a while.

Whereas I really didn't want the aging problem sorted at all, in fact that was one of the Dredd strips most interesting attributes. I understand why they felt the need to do it, but it was to the detriment of that great building aspect of the strip since question of judgement.

[TordelBack]

Well, we'd already had that in various forms.

Magicked back from the dead by Murd
Bionic Eyes after City of the Damned
Rico's CF lungs
Restored from being deep fried Dredd after Necroplis
Restored back from being a werewolf and a zombie.

Seems a bit churlish to be griping about Dr Mike's solution with those lot as a precedent.

It's also worth remembering that not so long ago there was a thread on this very forum calling for the issue of Dredd's ageing to be resolved somehow. MC was only giving us what we'd been clamouring for for a while.

No arguments there, I don't see it as unprecedented or inconsistent, and I accept it was a quick'n'easy way to address an issue that at some point had to be addressed.  I also have nothing but respect for Mike's writing on Dredd, and most of my reservations are more properly directed at Tharg.

I just personally don't care for the glibness of method: since it essentially turns Dredd into Death with Carousel instead of Dead Fluidssss, clinging to life until his judgin' is done, it should have had some consequences attached. Some form of internal moral debate about a process that the ordinary citizens don't have access to, some way of framing it as a terrible sacrifice rather than a standard medical procedure, some concern about creating an immortal dictator standing in the way of the young minds like Beeny etc, some consideration for the weight that eliminating all those scars and twinges should carry.

[Richard]

I agree that Dredd's ageing should have been a bigger deal, with more consequences, rather than a quick fix. But I don't think that's entirely MC's fault. It's not as if Tharg or Wagner would have let him kill Dredd off.

[Steve Green]

I guess there could have been more made out of it, something like Dredd being rejuved without his knowledge during 10 in the sleep machine.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I thought it just gave him new skin. He's had that before. Unless I'm remembering wrongly, all his internal organs are as old and battle-scarred as ever.

[radiator]

I'm very much in the same boat as the OP - my interest has certainly dropped off a lot since the high watermark of 2012, with the Dredd movie coming out, Dante and Day of Chaos ending and Wagner subsequently stopping writing much Dredd. Tbh those were the major things that anchored me to the prog. I tend to just pick up individual issues or graphic novels digitally that pique my interest nowadays.

I also, frankly, just don't read many comics at all nowadays. Since I moved to the US 3+ years ago my lifestyle has changed so much, and my interests and hobbies with it.

Having said all of that, I'll always love 2000ad, and my interest in it has always peaked and waned over the last 22 years, so I'm sure that one day I'll be fully back on board.

[Smith]

It's also worth remembering that not so long ago there was a thread on this very forum calling for the issue of Dredd's ageing to be resolved somehow. MC was only giving us what we'd been clamouring for for a while.

I think I saw one or three of those threads.

[Grant Goggans]

Also, where is John Smith? He kept me reading almost single-handedly (no sick joke intended) through the murky days of the 90s.

I just noticed in the October 2017 solicits (progs 2051-54) that the new Indigo Prime is credited to Smith, Kek-W, and Lee Carter.

Smith's never had a co-writer before, has he?  Between this and passing the reins of Devlin Waugh, I hope everything's okay with him.