New Dredd film franchise

[2000AD Online]

Morris Ruskin, co-partner at Shoreline Entertainment, considers Dredd a superhero. Discuss.

[paulvonscott]

Well I... no go on Scojo, you first.

PVS

[Thread Zero]

A hero but not super.

The term "Superhero" generally means a hero with superhuman powers.

So this ain't Dredd.

According to the dictionary definition, an anti hero is one who does not display traditional heroic traits.

So Dredd is a true anti hero.

scojo

[Thread Zero]

James Bond is a hero. Although he is the archetypal male chauvinist and works for a government who grant him a licence to kill.

Superman is a superhero.

Batman is a hero. Although you can interpret his actions as criminal if you want. See The Dark Knight Returns for more.

Robin Hood is a pure hero. His ideology is to help the poor.

Dredd's morality is governed by his belief in the law. To Dredd, the law is 99% black and white. You break the law you do time. So he doesn't care if you mug someone because you are poor.  Or you rob to feed your starving child. You do your time.

However he does have a clear understanding of good and evil. He knew that Cal, War Marshal Kazan, Orlok etc were evil and had to be stopped. So here we see his heroic virtues coming to the fore.

Once the great evil has been destroyed, his more ambivalent heroism returns. Heroism based on his subjective interpretation of fascist ideology.

scojo


 

[Wood]

Not sure about Kazan and Orlok. Orlok was -at first- just another breaker of the law; Kazan, although mad and evil, was part of the enemy, and Dredd's methods of defeating him were easily as bad as Kazan't own.