Cassandra Syndrome

[Link Prime]

Maybe something discussed before, but recent comments had me mulling it over again; is it time to "retire" Judge Anderson?

The character and strip had such impact in her heyday - I remember being more excited about the prospect of a new Anderson PSI Division strip than a new Dredd or many other fan favorites in the 80's - 90's.

But something changed along the way, and for me personally, the strip lost it's lustre shortly after Postcards from the Edge, with Satan probably being the last story I genuinely enjoyed.
Following on from there, unfortunately, IMO the last time the character made any impact was when she hit the ground in My Name is Death.

The strip went from being an MVP traded between 2000AD and The Meg to something that became increasingly a background Thrill.
As the years went on, I began to enjoy Alan Grant's take on the character to a lesser degree, and even less so the subsequent writers.

Whats the general consensus? Plough on as is, or let Alan Grant (and it kinda has to be Alan Grant) write one last epic-ish tale and retire the character once and for all?

As an aside - I'm not really that bothered by recent 'youthful' depictions of Cass, it's all artistic license, and if Joe can regularly look 45 she can get away with 30.

[Dark Jimbo]

...unfortunately, IMO the last time the character made any impact was when she hit the ground in My Name is Death.

Yup - she might as well as have died around that time (or not come out of the Half-Life coma) for all the impact she's had on the Dreddworld since then.

For me that's the problem - her stories just don't, in any way, seem to matter. They occur now in some bubble-MC1 whose events never penetrate outside the bubble, or vice versa. When she teamed up with Joe in Dark Justice it didn't feel like a triumphant return to the main strip at last, but a 'Huh. Anderson's back. Well, I suppose she is still technically part of the same universe.'

[Leigh S]

Possibly this is a problem all Dredd World characters face, even Dredd himself.

I see the Williams and Carroll Dredd as bubble universes and as for poor De Marco....

Even when Grant was writing Anderson, it still felt disconnected from the main events in Dredd - possibly this is just the inevitable effect of the gravity well that is Wagner, even with him mostly retired.

[sheridan]

Possibly this is a problem all Dredd World characters face, even Dredd himself.

I see the Williams and Carroll Dredd as bubble universes and as for poor De Marco....

Even when Grant was writing Anderson, it still felt disconnected from the main events in Dredd - possibly this is just the inevitable effect of the gravity well that is Wagner, even with him mostly retired.

Yep.  How many times have city-wide disasters occurred in one story, causing mass destruction, that hasn't affected the city as shown in other stories, be it Dredd, Demarco, Anderson or any other Dreddworld story?  I know some people will whine that it stifles creativity, but 2000AD and the Meg could do with a story co-ordinator to help with scheduling and continuity.

[ZenArcade]

The Anderson stand alone strip has certainly become meaningless, gone are the heady days of the Grant/Ranson peak (and I agree at that stage, it was as good as; if not better than Dredd). 
In my opinion the best thing would to have Anderson subsumed back into the Dredd strip and get back some parallel continuity between the characters in a regular meaningful sense, not just as one off's. 
This leads on to D Jimbo and Leigh S's observations on the difficulties in the internal continuity of the Dredd strip itself at present.  This requires the stamp of the editor.  The stories must be pulled together into a linear, understandable format.  Set parameters and allow the regular writers to work within a cohesive world and contiguous characters within this world. 
It'd be much more interesting, readable and would in my opinion allow for better characterisation and development of the world and the personalities set within it, Z

[Frank]

Whats the general consensus? Plough on as is, or let Alan Grant (and it kinda has to be Alan Grant) write one last epic-ish tale and retire the character once and for all?

Grant kind of did that then had to pull back at the last minute with the final story he and the great Mike Dowling did. Similar to what Wagner did with Dredd in Dead Man/Necropolis - sure, have your character back, but good luck following that.

The character's done.

Not for the usual reasons of continuity - MC1's a big enough place one character's romps don't have to impact on another's - but because all her adventures are just the supernatural kind of Dredd stories, and once you've done vampires, werewolves, Satan and other dimensions, there's nowhere else to go except repeating yourself and boring the reader.

Which is why nobody does those kinds of Dredd stories anymore.

[Richard]

The Half Life story was perfectly good. I went off the series when Boo Cook was on it (not all because of the art) , but the one with Mike Dowling was good.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the character or the series, I just think the stories can be hit or miss.

[Dandontdare]

I have to say, I've not enjoyed the last couple of Anderson outings. It seems like it wants to be a Vertigo story rather than a 2000ad story.

The thing that defines Anderson from all the other 'woohoo demons/psychics/anguished souls' stories out there (a LOT), is that they're proper, bona-fide judges. I think the spacespinner lads nailed it talking about the first appearances of PsiDiv and Anderson's first solo strip; the coolest thing about it, is that when a street judge encounters a ghost or demonic possession, they don't freak out or refuse to believe it, they just log it and call in the specialists, and the fact that Justice Dept even has psychics, precogs and exorcists on call. I'm not feeling that now, and the Karyn storyline left me cold - the final conversation with Shenker made no sense at all. I've forgotten what rastajudge's schtick was already.

I want to see psi judges working as part of the justice department machinery, getting under the mental skin of an insane city, unraveling traumatic echoes of Chaos Day, and (as Dredd does at it's best) letting the city and the citizens drive the story - maybe a Pit-style story where Anderson is tasked to rebuild psi-div from the ground up, shaping it's role, fighting internal politics, recruiting mutie psychics from the Cursed Earth (Deputy Chief Novar perhaps?) - there are still many possibilities for a middle-aged Cass- anything rather than more endless angsty 'good vs evil', 'can I trust my friend?' debates.

[norton canes]

^ I'd go with that.

I don't think there's ever a reason to cancel a character outright. Someone will always have the ideas and imagination to take them a step further.

[Proudhuff]

In my world she's still trapped in the Bong with Judge D'Eath in her head... 

but she could escape if she's allowed rebuild Psi Div from the bottom up, perhaps answerable to Maitland (if she survives) and also finally has her menopause  , is that too much to ask of a writer

[Jim_Campbell]

In my world she's still trapped in the Bong with Judge D'Eath in her head... 

That would have been a very different strip…

[Proudhuff]

In my world she's still trapped in the Bog with Judge D'Eath in her head... 

That would have been a very different strip…

 

[Proudhuff]

I really don't believe this!

[Melanie_MK]

They occur now in some bubble-MC1 whose events never penetrate outside the bubble, or vice versa. When she teamed up with Joe in Dark Justice it didn't feel like a triumphant return to the main strip at last, krogerfeedback but a 'Huh. Anderson's back. Well, I suppose she is still technically part of the same universe.'

[Link Prime]

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