Dredd Suggestions

[Peter Wolf]

I forgot to say that when i was referring to the US that the US will include Canada and Mexico as all 3 will be one and the same and not seperate nations by that point.America and Europe becomes one homogenized land mass but with 2000 miles of water inbetween.Perhaps by 2104 they will be connected physically.

[Steamrunner]

There's lots of ways to get out of the Dredd aging thing, and I'm sure Wagner has thought of this and has a few (well, a few more, as we've already had a few) ways up his sleeve. Maybe he's already worked it out and decided how it will end.

In general of course, there's only two ways Dredd would go - dying on the streets or the Long Walk (I can't see him teaching at the academy!).  My only problem with the Long Walk is that, a bit like with soap operas, I'd always want to know what happened next. What's more, with him being alive, there's always the chance of a comeback or recovery ("back from the dead") for the character once again, which of course isn't then a definative end.

Dredd kicking the bucket and his name living on by bloodline (whoever) appeals to a degree, especially as (as has been noted) the 'new' Dredd, being younger, would have a different and/or 'earlier' outlook on life and the city. That could be quite interesting.  However, it's still a bit of a "reset" - all that history that Dredd knows still happens, but the character doesn't really know it. I think I can cope with that, but I'm not really sure. OK, the stories would still be "Dredd" but, well, it wouldn't be, would it?  (I reserve my judgement until I see how it would play out... :-).

So maybe a "regenerated" Dredd, once settled in a younger body, might end up taking a slightly more "youthful" approach to things, no longer burdened with an old body?

As for brain transplant into Rico/Dolman/Other clone.  Nope.  My vote goes with one word deep from Dredd's past (and purloined for another very popular Tooth character) :  Biochips.  They already do cloning, but why waste time training up new clones? Surely Justice Department have had the foresight to backup Dredd's mind (and experience) just in case the worst happens... !?  

S.

[PsychoGoatee]

This is interesting, and it does get me thinking.

A definitive end for Dredd could be memorable and amazing, especially in an industry where comic heroes live on forever. On one hand, I'd rather see Dredd end in top form then lost his edge. On the other hand, we need Dredd, he's the best comic icon around today.

I'm a big fan of the Metal Gear Solid series of games, and there's one series that has the balls to age our hero and end the story. If Dredd had a ending similar to that, I couldn't complain. [spoiler]In other words, completing one last spectacular epic mission, pushing your aging body to the limit. The ending hints that he may only have months to a year to live, but he finally lives those final undetermined amount of day in peace.[/spoiler] Bittersweet, touching, epic ending, I loved that.

In other words, an appropriate ending for Dredd would be he's alive at the end, but we don't know for how long, something like that. An ending that lets you know nobody will make a sequel, but the hero gets to go out on his own terms, and we don't have to see him die.

Personally, I think Dredd could go on for another 10 to 20 years before something like this needs to be considered. I'd love it if Dredd continues through 2027, his 50th Anniversary.

[opaque]

Personally, I think Dredd could go on for another 10 to 20 years before something like this needs to be considered. I'd love it if Dredd continues through 2027, his 50th Anniversary.

I agree with this. There's a long way to go yet before you have to actually think about these changes.

[Dark Jimbo]

Dredd kicking the bucket and his name living on by bloodline (whoever) appeals to a degree, especially as (as has been noted) the 'new' Dredd, being younger, would have a different and/or 'earlier' outlook on life and the city. That could be quite interesting.  However, it's still a bit of a "reset" - all that history that Dredd knows still happens, but the character doesn't really know it. I think I can cope with that, but I'm not really sure. OK, the stories would still be "Dredd" but, well, it wouldn't be, would it?  (I reserve my judgement until I see how it would play out...

I have no worries at all on that score - after the sublime Sector House, which was, in effect, The Rico Show, I'm entirely confident that the strip can still feel every bit like 'Dredd' without the titular character being involved. Another, more recent example, is The Monsterous Machinations of PJ Maybe (hope I've namechecked the right one there) which was virtually all PJ, Beeny and another judge, but again couldn't have felt more 'Dredd.'
This does all depend on Wagner being involved, of course - he was the one that brought the consistent Mega-City One voice to those tales, and if we're honest the only reason this issue is ever really going to come up is if Wagner himself ever takes the Long Walk, one way or another (God forbid) - so it's all rendered a bit redundant anyway.

One thing that Rico's taking over might do is put an end to the excesses of the fill-in script-droids. Because Rico seems to be generally a more thoughtful, taciturn judge than Joe, we might see an end to those awful stories that have Dredd running around snarling and shouting and generally playing up to his own legend too much.

[The Legendary Shark]

My two penn'orth:

A normal day in the Big Meg. Weather Control is on the fritz again and ice is in the air.

Wilbur Footle, ordinary cit, puts on his winter woolies and leaves his apartment at the Mark Chapman Block, intending to visit his favourite bar.

Passing a darkened alleyway, Wilbur hears the sounds of a struggle from the darkness. A gun skitters out of the shadows and lands at his feet. Shocked, he picks it up just as a battered, scary perp erupts from the shadows. Panicked, Wilbur empties the gun into the dark, killing the perp. He drops the gun and flees.

Judges arrive.

In the alleyway, five perps and a judge lie dead or terminal.

The judge is turned onto his back, it's Dredd. Not quite dead.

Med Div. Dredd's spine is shattered and his body is unsalvageable. He never regains consciousness, so they put him on ice until medical science advances to the stage where he can be repaired.

What does Hershey do? Announce Dredd's death or quietly replace him? Fabricate a cover story for his absence? How does the city react? Does the Justice Department make a big thing of honouring Dredd, or treat him as just another Judge fallen in the line of duty? Big "funeral" or terse announcement on a news channel?

Rico becomes the focus of the story, struggling with the responsibility of being Dredd's replacement. But there must be other good judges who now want the top spot. Street Division may start to lose its way. Has the heart gone out of the Justice Department?

If the experiment replacing Dredd with Rico doesn't work, Dredd could be thawed out and fixed - his very presence being required to stabilise both the Meg and the Justice Dept (and Twothy/Meg sales). And while Dredd's on ice, maybe Rico can ask his advice via Anderson, Tek Div can experiment with his dna and brain patterns, maybe even toying with the idea of a Dredd Biochipped clone/mandroid/mechanismo hybrid. Lotsa' possibilities. If the scenario works, Dredd can just be left on ice indefinitely, maybe to be revived at some far future time when Rico is old... but will all those years in cryo lead to the thawed Dredd becoming unstable or, Grud forbid, just like his brother? Anyhoo, it might be an idea to kill Dredd off for at least a year, just to see what might happen. (And Wilbur Footle, the man who killed Judge Dredd? Will he ever be found out? What will become of the slob who killed a legend?)

Ahem. Pointless waffle over

[Mardroid]

How effective is the re-juve treatment that Judges undergo?   What does it actually do? I.e. does it simply have a regenerative effect giving judges the vitality of people younger, or does it physically actually slow or even reverse the aging process (to a degree.) I.e. Making a 60 year old the physical age of a 40 year old for example.

Depending on the answers to those questions, the old boy could have plenty of life in him yet. (Although I don't think we have much doubt of that.)

That being said, if Dredd took more of a supervisory role as he gets older, allowing younger judges (clones and otherwise) to do the legwork, I think that's quite a logical way to go. (Although I doubt he'd be able to prevent himself getting out there and getting his hand bloody from time to time.)

[Spartan375]

Solon The Athenian has said thousands of years before a phrase, that in English has a meaning like "Don't ever say that a man has a good life before you see his and".

And i have to say that he was right. Even the toughest Hero can break and corrupt, even the best King can be bad and hard with his people, even the most loyal warrior can be traitor. But one is dead, he has to acts left and we can say if was good or not.

For me is acceptable to see Dredd having a heroes ending.
But, i believe it will not be too good for the comic. Also the generations who will come will not have Dredd's stories as we heaved, and i cant see a way that Judge Dredd Magazine can continue with Dredd dead.
Its like Superman Comic without superman. By the way Superman has died once, but they have to bring him back to life.
"The people dosen't like to see their Gods and Heroes dead". I believe that something like that will happen with Dredd.

There is always the option to stop the time in Comic like American do, so time is mo matter anymore. But it will not be to nice. Dredd is grow with the people. And this is good.

So soon or later Death will come for Dredd.
But why it must the death of a hero to be the and and no a new beginning ?
I have think of it, and i believe that is possible for Dredd to die but the same time continue too.

But i will not say more. I respect the really Greatest Comic, and Dredd's creators and i will not post anything without a permission.

[Kerrin]

Post whatever you like Spartan, that's the beauty of it. Everyone has a valid opinion. Express yours.

[Dandontdare]

By the way Superman has died once, but they have to bring him back to life.

I hope they never even consider this!

The fact that Dredd's world progresses in real-time is it's greatest strength and should not be abandoned, which means Dredd can't go on forever. i don't like the idea of a body transplant or any other kind of miraculous rejuvenation. He should take the long walk with at least a 5 or 10 year moratorium on ANY stories showing where he ends up - just leave it that he's gone, and never heard of again.

So, Dredd's world would continue with Rico & Dolman as the main focus, but this would leave the world jonesing for, and lots of writers wanting to write about, that old-school Judge Dredd action. So howzabout "Dredd: Year One"? Remember Dredd had been on the streets over 20 years when the progs started, so if we started where Origins left off - Dredd and Rico finish off their interrupted training, graduate and hit the streets, there's loads of material. We'd see his rookieship under Morph, the fall of Rico and witness the growing development of Justice Department in rebuilding a shattered city. The options for mega-epics and character development may be limited because we know where Dredd and the city end up by 2099, so writers would be shackled somewhat, but if the real-time chronology continues, that's 20 years of perp-pounding action right there!

Along with these two main story threads, there's lots of scope for unusual one-offs - untold stories based on previous epics (along the lines of 'Tales of Necropolis'); and I like that idea of more 'elseworlds' type alternate Dredds, more of the "whatever happened to..." stories that we saw not so long ago, and 'What If' type stories (such as "What if Dredd had brought the Judge Child back?"). If you add in stories about Hershey, Anderson, Giant etc, there's more than enough potential to keep the prog and Meg going for decades.

Finally I'd give John Wagner some kind of lifetime editorship over the character so that quality control is maintained and to ensure everyone is writing 'proper' Dredd!

[Dog Deever]

Its also interesting how China has adopted Capitalism to survive in the 21st century so what you have there is Capitalism and Communism both at the same time :Communo-Capitalism.

That would be 'State-Capitalist' or 'Social- Imperialist'

The EU is Socialist and i will tell you now that plans are afoot to merge the US with the EU in the long term [2014 -15] if they get their way.

I don't think I would describe the EU as Socialist. Certainly, parts of the rest of Europe are less right wing than Britain (that's not hard though)- but there are some right wing hot spots in the EU too (notably Spain, who are only a couple of years off condemning the atrocities of Franco's rule.)

[Spartan375]

He should take the long walk with at least a 5 or 10 year moratorium on ANY stories showing where he ends up - just leave it that he's gone, and never heard of again.

This will be a nice ending. Not very heroic but good.
And i agree in this point that he takes the long walk and no one hear of him again. This will give the liberty to every fun to make his own ending.

And also Dredd Year will be very nice. I want to see every step of Dredd's life after the Origins Storyline and i believe many others will.

But i like much the stories of Fargo, the man who made the Judge System come to life, from a idea on his mind.
I want to see more of Fargo's life and how he created the new justice system fighting against politicians, criminals and other creeps of his time. Fargo's stories  will be nice because is closer to our age and the conditions are similar.

So 20 years of untold Dredd's stories plus another 20 for Fargo's are 40 years more. (In this time i will have the same age as the now Dredd...)  

I have to admit that this solves many Problems that may created with the departure of Dredd.
I have no problem with this ending. If they choose it, it will be nice.

But, if they are going to show the Dredd's years after the Origins, why not to show a new world, and offer the same time a  heroes ending to Dredd? I think he deserved it.

P.s.
Anything we say here is really has only a tiny possibility of being real. The makers of Dredd will find a "solution" and we must respect it because if they haven't create Dredd, it will not be Dredd.

So i hope to exchange opinions friendly.

I will write all this details of the ending i thing and i will post it.
I think i will need a brain implant soon...

[Spartan375]

I was thinking alternatives last night about Dredd.

1) Takes the long walk.
2) Killed in action.
3) Saves the world and is killed.
4) Dredd's mind is transplanted to another body.
5) Scientists find a way to produce in lab legal Stookie pills.
6) A miracle rejuvenation therapy makes Dredd young again.
7) The aging stops, and the storyline continues without time and aging.  
8) Dredd left the street and he becomes an academy Tutor.
9) The storyline stops without anyone dying and continues with untold stories about Fargo, Goodman and Dredd before 2099.

I am sure that every one can make at least one alternative.

But who the 2000 AD Comic and Judge Dredd Magazine will continue without Dredd?
Other Judges like Rico have the same DNA, but hey are not Dredd.
I wounder what solution they find to keep the readers pleased and no harm the Comic and Magazine...

[TordelBack]

Good list, Spartan, even if I like none of the options.  I imagine it pinned over John's writing desk, oppressing him daily.  But Logan will be along in a minute to tell is that Wagner has the whole thing worked out and never let it stress him in the first place.

[Spartan375]

Thanks TordelBack.
Those are only some alternatives i thought last night.

I want tell to any one who has a idea to post it.
Lets gather any possible option here.
At least we can help giving a tiny idea or inspiration.

But i give to anyone one suggestion, take drawing block, and some 2000AD or Judge Dredd Magazine comics, learn how to drawn and make the basic model sheets. Then make your own story if you don't like the ending.
At least this is what i will do...