It's a question that's been buzzing round in my head for a while now, but I've noticed he's usually the first to be bumped off in a lot of Dark Judge stories and I don't know whether it's for this reason, but he seems to be the least popular out of the four among readers...
Does he look naff? Are his powers lesser than those of the others?
I wouldn't go so far as to say he was 'unpopular', but I always thought Judge Fire was considered the Ringo Starr of the fearsome foursome?
Not so I'd noticed... what makes you consider Judge Fire that way?
For me, it just seems like he's not even so popular with the writers, often being the first to be dispatched, but I'm sure I've seen feedback from some readers who seem to consider Fear to be the weakest of the four...
I've just always thought Judge Fire was given the least attention. He has neither the instantly arresting look of Mortis, nor the chilling potential of Fear (who I thought was pretty well served in 'Fall of Deadworld' last year). Indeed, I seem to recall that praise was levied upon the 'Dreams of Deadworld' strips for having shone a light on the previously underutilised Fire.
It seems to boil down to the kind of story being told. A lot of Dark Judges stories have them as basically just running around killing as many people as possible (which, to be fair, is pretty much their whole entire point), and in that kind of scenario Fire has the edge thanks to being a walking flamethrower.
Mortis is the clear number two in that kind of story, what with looking creepy and occasionally making a pedway decay to drop hundreds of people to their deaths; Fear really only ever gets to kill people one on one and if you're not Dredd and can't just punch him out you can always sneak up behind him and put him in a headlock.
I've often thought Judge Death to be the weakest in terms of supernatural power. Sure, I understand that's not his point as his deal is that he is the brains and originator of their outfit*. His sole supernatural power seems to be phasing his hand into people's chest, and even then it's debatable how supernatural that actually is, the later stories show him litterally poking his hand into chests which shere force leaving a hole, I.e. no phasing required. Ouch.
Then I saw he seemed to have a necromancy thing going on in recent stories too (I.e bringing back victims as zombie slaves), which is a pretty big power. But maybe anyone using dead fluids can do that, or it's the sisters doing it remotely from the Death dimension. He seemed to have some direct agency however.
Fear is interesting as his power could create the least victims,literally face to face,but imagine the massive casualties should he broadcast via a TV (or equivalent) station.
He's probably the coolest looking of the Dark Judges' too.
*Although it could be argued that the sisters had a role in that, but I think they're primarily facilitators. I might be wrong there as i haven't read the whole of Young Death,and it was years since I read the little that I did.
Quote from: Taryn Tailz on 07 January, 2018, 10:47:49 PM
I wouldn't go so far as to say he was 'unpopular', but I always thought Judge Fire was considered the Ringo Starr of the fearsome foursome?
No, Mortis is Ringo.
You can't kill what can't sing.
Surely they're all Paul?
Mortissss is my persssonal favourite, a great design and his own Necropolis mini-arc remains (geddit) my favourite DJ adventure. I think Kendall's positioning of Fear as [spoiler]a psy-ops specialist[/spoiler] is a great idea, and it adds to the idea of the four lads as a kind of world-ending package, their combined presence creating an overall shitstorm of decay, terror, fire and death (one boosted and extended by the Sisters and their manipulation of passing psis).
Quote from: Mardroid on 08 January, 2018, 04:52:28 AM
Fear is interesting as his power could create the least victims,literally face to face,but imagine the massive casualties should he broadcast via a TV (or equivalent) station.
See McAuliffe & Boyle's second
Dark Judgement special for Futurequake/Zarjaz for an example of this. I thought Rich had stuck these up as PDFs somewhere once the print editions had sold out, but my google-fu is weak and turns up nothing...
Wasn't Charles Manson the first to claim the Beatles were the Four Dark Judges, or am I misremembering?
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 08 January, 2018, 11:06:59 AM
Quote from: Mardroid on 08 January, 2018, 04:52:28 AM
Fear is interesting as his power could create the least victims,literally face to face,but imagine the massive casualties should he broadcast via a TV (or equivalent) station.
See McAuliffe & Boyle's second Dark Judgement special for Futurequake/Zarjaz for an example of this. I thought Rich had stuck these up as PDFs somewhere once the print editions had sold out, but my google-fu is weak and turns up nothing...
Found 'em- They are over on Rich's 2000 AD & Beyond Site.
2000 AD & Beyond page (https://2000adandbeyondsite.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/want-a-free-dark-judges-comic-of-course-you-do/)
Fear is the weakest because us Brits are so used to fear that it's a constant in our lives. For example, "we've run out of cake, I'm afraid."
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 08 January, 2018, 12:23:20 PM
Found 'em- They are over on Rich's 2000 AD & Beyond Site.
2000 AD & Beyond page (https://2000adandbeyondsite.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/want-a-free-dark-judges-comic-of-course-you-do/)
Bolt to the rescue. Again. :-)
Quote from: Andy Lambert on 07 January, 2018, 10:53:21 PM
Not so I'd noticed... what makes you consider Judge Fire that way?
For me, it just seems like he's not even so popular with the writers, often being the first to be dispatched, but I'm sure I've seen feedback from some readers who seem to consider Fear to be the weakest of the four...
He certainly does seem unpopular with the writers, for the reason you've cited, but I've always thought he was pretty popular with the readers, for the page or two he appears before the writers put him to one side...
I imagined it's because he got punched out twice by Dredd, so he's always seen as the weakest.
I thought it would have been interesting to see Mortis poison the water supply, or Fire boil rain to scald people along with Fear using Fear-o-vision.
Just be glad Fear didn't chance upon that moon advertising laser...
Don't know about Fear being the patsy but from a conceptual point of view, Fire is clearly the weak link. I always thought he might have been a left-over from an early idea that the Dark Judges would represent the four elements. And he's just a skellington! They could at least have given him a freaky head or something.
Quote from: TordelBack on 08 January, 2018, 11:05:31 AM
Mortissss is my persssonal favourite, a great design and his own Necropolis mini-arc remains (geddit) my favourite DJ adventure.
Me an' all - that bit where he's chasing the cadets through the Undercity is literally very similar to my worst nightmares (well, some of them - having to sit school exams again with no study done wouldn't make a great SF / horror strip). The sense of relentless dread is up there with the best the screen has to offer - see also No Country for Old Men, that Black Mirror episode with the robodog, and the first Terminator. I wish they would keep Mortis' speech to a minimum though, he's better when he's monosyllabic and menacing.
Quote from: sheridan on 08 January, 2018, 12:57:17 PM
Quote from: Andy Lambert on 07 January, 2018, 10:53:21 PM
Not so I'd noticed... what makes you consider Judge Fire that way?
For me, it just seems like he's not even so popular with the writers, often being the first to be dispatched, but I'm sure I've seen feedback from some readers who seem to consider Fear to be the weakest of the four...
He certainly does seem unpopular with the writers, for the reason you've cited
That is, the reason he appears unpopular with the writers is that he's always the first one to be offed. I have no idea what the actual reason they keep doing that is though...
Because nobody likes goths.
Not even other goths