PROG 1599 - Blind Rage

[Robin Low]

Dredd-  Good if predictable ending. And predictable isn't always bad as it can be satisfying. I kinda thought [spoiler]beating the guy to death[/spoiler] was a bit much too though. Mind you I saw him shoot an unarmed man in the back a while ago (at least he didn't have any weapon visible) and that was a Wagner Dredd! I can't remember the name of the story, but the guy swiped a woman's bag. Dredd told him to stop, and he kept on running, and Dredd blew him away with his bike cannons. Like a tap on the noggin with his daystick wouldn't have worked (I've also read about a stun setting on the lawgiver, although I haven't seen it in action myself.)

It wasn't one of Bisley's Heavy Metal Dredd's was it? There was bad phase in the early 90s where Lawgiver shots to the leg tended to send limbs and blood flying in all directions.

I haven't seen this episode of Dredd yet, but I don't like what I'm reading here at all.  It sounds like a serious editorial cock-up of what could have been a half-decent story.

Regards

Robin

[Dandontdare]

the guy swiped a woman's bag. Dredd told him to stop, and he kept on running, and Dredd blew him away with his bike cannons

Ah c'mon Dredd's shot thousands of perps in the back! He's also stabbed and beat a few to an early grave too. If the perp was running away, he's fair game. Remember when Dredd was discussing his doubts with Morphy? He said he could have disarmed some everyday perp 'cos he's that good, but he killed him; to which Morph replied to the effect that the kill-shot is standard so what's the problem?
The only thing that jars about this latest perpicide, is [spoiler]the comment "there was nothing resembling training or technique, just blind rage" - now Dredd wrote the textbook on Applied Violence, so I'm sure he'd have been quite capable of beating a judge killer to death with relish and satisfaction, but totally losing it? Nah![/spoiler]

[Mardroid]

It wasn't one of Bisley's Heavy Metal Dredd's was it? There was bad phase in the early 90s where Lawgiver shots to the leg tended to send limbs and blood flying in all directions.

Where he shot the guy in the back? No, I think it was only this year, (or late last.) I forget the story but I think it was during the mutant vote story (but I might be wrong. It's worrying how blurred one's memory get, I must be getting old.) I wondered at the time if Wagner himself wrote it that way or if it was a bit of artistic license.

[Vulf]

Another blinder.  Congrats to all concerned – fresh as a daisy still on a stamen!

All I am saying is you know who is you know what to kill!

Twisetd tales – great concept, had to go over a few times, but that made all the more worthwhile – any more like it in the pipeline, I hope so – reminded me of the tuff little dinosaur 'Gong'.

Is he isn't he you know what I am talking about – I don't think he is.

Keep it up bogey boy.

John B

[WoD]

I think that Dredd did what he needed to do especially in the circumstances; the guy was going to kill him, he'd already killed before, Dredd wasn't going to let him escape and had to subdue him - which he did.

And cheers Bolt.  You got a memory.

[Roger Godpleton]

Does a Cadet Judge count as Crying Children?

[Matt Timson]

Cover looks like a Photoshop doodle that got ideas above its station.  I really like it.

Dredd: Crying-children-tastic.  I didn't have a problem with Dredd beating that guy to death- he was blind and defenceless- so better safe than sorry!  It's the loss of control that didn't work for me.

Twisted Tales: Sorry, Bob- this one went completely over my head.  Can somebody explain it to me, please?

Sindex:  Alright, I suppose.  It's dragging on a bit though.  On the plus side, at least I'm interested in it.

Terror Tales: Didn't do it for me at all, I'm afraid.  Art's first Duffer, IMO.  That said, I really liked [spoiler]the bit about looking into the corner of the room, concentrating on the angles and pushing[/spoiler].  Nice to see some Cliff Robinson artwork as well.  I don't remember the last time I saw him draw a full strip (well, actually, I do- it was a Dredd from about 20 years ago- but I'm sure I must have seen another since then).

Dante:  Prog highlight for me.  My only gripe is that [spoiler]Dante only stabbed the Tsar, when he'd surely have been far better off cutting his head off instead.[/spoiler]

Not the best prog- but Dante does a good job of redeeming the weak bits for me.

[Toni Scandella]

My main issue with the Dredd story was - [spoiler]the fit of rage, loss of temper angle of it - Trask definitely had it coming, but it just didn't strike me as very Dredd-like to completely lose control.  If he'd have sentenced Trask to death first, then administered the fatal beating, then I could believe that, or if the reason for the beating was described as Dredd ensuring, due to his blindness, that Trask could not escape Justice, then fine - but blind rage and loss of control does not fit in with the Dredd character at all.[/spoiler].

[Jim_Campbell]

My main issue with the Dredd story was ...

Agree completely. As it's written, it's totally out of character and just NOT Dredd, which puts this story in the same pile of all of Morrison's other Dredd stories.

[spoiler]As has been mentioned upthread, it's the loss of control (over the death of the crack baby, no, sorry, wrong Morrison  Dredd) that strikes the bum note. Dredd is disabled here and Trask cannot be allowed to escape. Right there is all the justification necessary within the 'reality' of the story for Dredd to kill the perp on the spot. Morrison insists on making this sort of stuff an emotional reaction when, with Dredd, it works much better as a logical one.[/spoiler]

Mark this one down as a "FAIL" for me.

As Herr Bolt mentions, though, in the same (largely lacklustre) prog, Morrison also writes Dante, which pulls from its hat a jaw-dropping moment every bit the equal of Dante stabbing Konstantin, or the Emperor's annihilation of the Romanov family at the Winter Palace.

Cheers!

Jim

[Oddboy]

It's all about emotion...  Dredd's not emotional, whereas Dante is - at least that's possibly why Judge Dredd this week was kinda lame, while Nikolai Dante was at the top of it's game.

I too loved the corner of the room angles moment in the Terror Tale. Very nice trick.

Fairly glad that Defoe seems to have stopped, as I lost track of what was going on there... how could such a blood thirsty gorefest zombie story be sooo dull?

This week's Twisted Tale was brought to you by the letters "W", "T" and "F".

[[Carl]]

Dante this week was one of the greatest episodes I have read. Mind blowing.

[Proudhuff]

Where to start? there's a lot of  'All respect to its creators but'... ( ARTIC-B)

Dredd: ARTIC-B... lots of bits didn't work for me here, The Cadet joining in the beating then openly handing JD a knife... why not shot the other two/three while they are beating up Dredd ? Thereby cutting the odds, creating confusion and saving a damaged Dredd a pasting? The loss of control just wasn't Dredd, if it is part of his questioning his ability to Judge or led to it or if he had sentenced the perp to death and broke his neck that would have been in keeping, but a prolonged beat in a blind rage? it's just not him.
The postscipt seemed a bit rushed too, the round up of exec-suits could have been clearer and the photo frames seemed a bit, well silly, given how many Judges cop it. A wall of names a la Washington's Arlington(?) memorial would have been more fitting... possibly less visual impact admittedly.

Twisted Tales, ARTIC-B... I never got it first time, after reading a thread here, went back and saw the bits I'd missed. I think most of the problems came from the art: The main 'characters' in the scene setting panel were unclear as they were when it was re-shown,  as was the fact there was a river, it could have been a trench, the swimming lizards also didn't appear clearly and this along with no sense of scale between frames met that it was difficult for me to grasp the progression of the tale. Perhaps if Mr Byrne had written a script for someone else to draw these things would have been addressed?

Sindex: ARTIC-B...  I've tried I really have, but it never appeals to me, its me not them, sorry.

Terror Tales: very enjoyable, just thought the last panel should have more clearly promised him a hell of a future as their plaything. The artwork was enjoyable too.

Dante: Fabby ending, but, ARTIC-B, are we going to see Tsar re-juv ditto Dante? kind of makes almost killing them off pointless does it not? Has there ever been a main 2k character killed off and they have stayed dead?

Sorry to be so, hopefully constructively, critical but its when things just miss that I get perplexed

Artic-u-Huff

[Tiplodocus]

Disappointing prog for me.

Disappointed in Dredd because of the out of character actions, the livid colours in the art and the over-wordy final page.  Surely Dredd walking down the Memorial Wall with no captions etc. apart from a final "Not Today!" would have worked better?

Disappointed in Twisted Tales because I just couldn't figure all of it out despite repeated re-readings.  I don't think the art is clear enough, I think a lot of the creature design is unclear and I think, without reference to the biology of these creatures, it's hard to figure out exactly what is going on (how do we know that this proboscis allows them to control that etc?).  I've enjoyed maybe half of these tales; the rest I've need explained to me and I suspect that like jokes, if you have to explain them to your audience, then they aren't working (or you have teh wrong audience).

Disappointed in Terror Tale; despite some grand art and some neat idea, it just didn't seem clear why the strange scissors from the future would be a bad thing.  And some of the basil (by way on police interview) would have been better shown (rather than told).  Understand we only have 5 pages for these things but just thought this squeezed the wrong bits in.

Disappointed in SIN/DEX; I've actually grown tolerant of them over the years - probably due to DABNETT's inspired punning but I don' think it's the right kind of story to carry off long interwoven epic style storylines with threads from two years ago resurfacing. Light and fluffy prima killarinas is what I want from this.  But maybe that joke isn't funny any more.  I think ANTWILLS art is a great match for this strip though.

NOT Disappointed in DANTE.  It all made sense as an end to the story, had some great character moments [spoiler](a dying Tsar still feeling the need to bark his authority at Jenna) and a brilliant crispy Dante.  Howver, given that we've seen him regenerate from being in two buckets already in this story, I can't see it being THE END.[/spoiler]

I think I'm most disappointed in that every story in the prog had the opportunity to be absolutely TOP NOTCH but, for my mind, picked the wrong decision in nearly every case and thus I found them wanting.

Creaky, creaky, creaky, craaaaaackkk!

[Dark Jimbo]

Surprised no-one's mentioned the Thrills of the Future teaser, which looks really intriguing. Sort of like 'Bix Barton done right and with a decent artist'. Although my heart sinks at the Lovecraftian tentacles. Can horror writers not come up with their own ideas any more? Does it always have to be the Cthullhu mythos behind everything?

All my other thoughts on the prog have pretty much already been covered here though, so I won't bore you with them.

[Mardroid]

I mentioned it briefly.