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The Strontium Dog is Judge Dredd's future topic

Started by PsychoGoatee, 13 February, 2022, 02:02:46 AM

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PsychoGoatee

What do you think of the continuity of Strontium Dog's setting being the canon future of Judge Dredd? Do you consider that to be something Wagner intended, or is it just a loose connection? And 2150, the year of the Great Nuclear War, is coming up not too long from now in Judge Dredd.

Has John Wagner said anything about this connection, and what do you think about it?

For me, I kind of like the idea of being able to imagine the Judge Dredd timeline's future, and it being different from Strontium Dog, but I guess it's all similar yet loose enough to fit different ideas in there. And they are set in different locales.

Funt Solo

Top Dogs (JD Annual 1991) certainly has it as the future of Dredd's world - and not another dimension. Johnny and Wulf get out of trouble by [SPOILERS AHOY!] leaving a note in the past that gets people in the future to rescue them.

Whether Brit-Cit gets nuked (or re-nuked - I was never clear on whether Dredd's world has already nuked it once during the war that created The Cursed Earth and other global radiation deserts) in our 2028, I don't know. Judge Dredd will be 89 years old by that time, which is (of course) stretching credulity - but it is a comic, so...
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

PsychoGoatee

#2
Top Dogs is a fav for sure! And there have been other references to Kreelman and stuff like that in more recent Judge Dredd comics. I take some comic continuity, especially crossovers, to be a bit loose though. And I don't know if John Wagner has ever talked about a plan for these books in the future tying together more. Though Judge Dredd has lasted longer than they may have ever imagined.

Only 6 years away, would be a bit of a wild move if we did have that big war in Judge Dredd. Dredd had that re-juve a couple years ago, plus I think they've slowed on that portrayal of aging a bit anyway, since the world needs Judge Dredd comics.

My thought is, unless there's an interview I'm missing, the connection seems like a "for the fans" fun detail, and I'm not sure if they'll stick to it. But I guess speculating for six years from now might be a bit early. Though they could always plant seeds hinting to that if they go that route. Though I guess that might be more of something the editor of 2000AD would decide, rather than say John Wagner. In general I'm always curious what the future may be for Dreddworld.

The Legendary Shark


Shameless Self-Promotion Dept Blast from the Past #457
Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 27 February, 2015, 02:56:47 PM

Old Dreads, New Hopes

Johnny ran, tears stinging his eyes, welts across his back hot and sore.

'Come back here, you snecking little mutie freak!' The voice came from behind, the speaker hidden by trees. Johnny knew there were six of them, older boys. Normal boys. With sticks and knives.

Tears in Johnny's weird white eyes made the forest shimmer and blur. He wiped a sleeve across his face, kept running; ignoring the slashes and snags of brambles and branches.

'Johnny Weird Eyes! Gonna cut those eyes right outta your head!' The voice was still behind Johnny but further away and to his left. He followed his instinct and turned right.

'Here! He's over here!'

Johnny glanced back and his stomach lurched. One of the teenagers, armed with a scatterpult, crashed out of the undergrowth. The calls of the other boys echoed out of the forest - from his left and his right. Small steel ball-bearings from the scatterpult slapped into his back like supersonic wasp stings. Johnny yelped and ran faster until, suddenly, he was out of the woods and into a clearing. In the middle stood a log cabin with a wisp of smoke trickling from its chimney. Johnny ran towards the cabin, shouting for help.

The teenagers, all six of them, achieved the clearing before Johnny got to the door. Ball-bearings slapped into his back and buttocks and rattled against the cabin.

'Got you now, freakshow!'

The door flew open even as Johnny got close.

'Incendiary,' a grizzled voice said. A gunshot smashed through Johnny's ears and a section of the forest erupted in flames. The teenagers ran, uninjured but terrified, back into the trees.

Johnny saw little of the old man in the gloomy doorway. He was tall, wore a very old, patched sleather one-piece and a wild, grey beard. The rest of his face was in shadow but his eyes flickered in the darkness. The telltale sign, Johnny knew, of a failing bionics system.

'Th... thank you, sir.'

'Welcome. Now git gone, kid. Ain't safe around me. Never was, never will be.'

Johnny paused, pains in his back stinging hotter. 'Sir, will you teach me to shoot like that?'

'How old are you, kid?'

'I'm five.'

'Hmph. Well, you're the right age but no, I ain't got time.' The old man pushed the door.

'Please, sir! There's six of them!'

The old man grunted. 'So?'

Johnny dropped his eyes, trying not to cry. 'I'm afraid, sir. They want to kill me.'

'Hmph.' The old man paused. 'You want teachin'? Okay, here's all I got, kid. Six of 'em come after you; go back at 'em like there's seven of you. Never give up, never give in, never back down an' never - ever - take no for an answer. Now get lost, kid, I ain't got all day.'

The door slammed shut. Johnny stood watching the fire burn out, pondering the old man's words. He rubbed his palms into his eyes, sniffed deeply and spat.

Ignoring his pain, the young mutant straightened up, set his jaw and marched back into the forest.

***

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Jim_Campbell

Quote from: PsychoGoatee on 13 February, 2022, 02:02:46 AM
What do you think of the continuity of Strontium Dog's setting being the canon future of Judge Dredd? Do you consider that to be something Wagner intended, or is it just a loose connection? And 2150, the year of the Great Nuclear War, is coming up not too long from now in Judge Dredd.

Has John Wagner said anything about this connection, and what do you think about it?

John has literally said "it's just a story" and has paid this no more mind!

FWIW, as I've mentioned before, the way time travel has been shown to work in the Dredd universe means that's entirely possible for the Dredd timeline to be in the past of the Strontium Dog timeline, without the SD timeline being the future of the Dredd timeline. All that means is that the timelines diverged at some point after 'Top Dog' and 'Judgement Day'.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Richard

Yes, Sabbat going back in time from Alpha's time to Dredd's and starting a world war which killed billions is likely to have altered the course of history a bit!

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Richard on 13 February, 2022, 11:12:31 AM
Yes, Sabbat going back in time from Alpha's time to Dredd's and starting a world war which killed billions is likely to have altered the course of history a bit!

As soon as Sabbat did that, it had already happened - so wouldn't Johnny's mission have been more along the lines of 'You know that weird lodestone in Asia - the one with a human head on it - that supplies an awful lot of our energy? We need you to just make sure that Sabbat ends up turning into it, or we'll have an unprecedented energy crisis on our hands.'

That would have been a much more satisfying sting in the tale - that Johnny had never come back to 'stop' Sabbat (any more than he tried to 'stop' Hitler in the 1940s) just ensure he ended up in the right place to save the future.
@jamesfeistdraws

Art

Is the Trans-Time Corporation from Flesh in Strontium Dogs future or it's past?

PsychoGoatee

Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 13 February, 2022, 07:28:39 AM

Shameless Self-Promotion Dept Blast from the Past #457

Right on, I dig it! Very Leone Western.

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 13 February, 2022, 09:31:39 AM

John has literally said "it's just a story" and has paid this no more mind!

FWIW, as I've mentioned before, the way time travel has been shown to work in the Dredd universe means that's entirely possible for the Dredd timeline to be in the past of the Strontium Dog timeline, without the SD timeline being the future of the Dredd timeline. All that means is that the timelines diverged at some point after 'Top Dog' and 'Judgement Day'.

That's cool to know, I was wondering if he had said something like that.

Richard

From memory, I believe Trans-Time Corporation was in the 23rd century. Alphas was born in 2150 or the year after.

Funt Solo

Quote from: Richard on 14 February, 2022, 12:25:52 AM
From memory, I believe Trans-Time Corporation was in the 23rd century. Alphas was born in 2150 or the year after.

Flesh: Texas (prog 1724) narrows this down to 2214.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

The Legendary Shark


All timelines branched in 1978 when the aliens from M.A.C.H. 1 used stolen Indigo Prime technology, procured by The Stainless Steel Rat, to execute a plan made by Abelard Snazz to defeat Doomlord. An alien from the Betelguese Star System came to Earth in 1977 to stop it but decided to make comics about the divergent timelines instead.

Simples.


(Thanks, PsychoGoatee (-: )
[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Richard

Thanks Funty. Judge Dredd: The Contract gave the date in Alpha's timeline as 2220, so Alpha could conceivably meet them.

sheridan

Here's a few dates from around the 2000AD timelines (which have been crossed-over at some point or other):


       
  • 1999 - Volgan invasion of Europe
  • 2079 - Ro-Busters formed
  • 2080 - Ma-Ma takes over Peach Trees (the events of the 2012 Dredd film)
  • 2099 - Robot Wars (and Judge Dredd tales as shown in 2000AD)
  • 2143 - Dredds from other dimensions circa 2080 and 2205 co-exist in another dimension with 2000AD Dredd
  • 2144 - the current year in most Dreddverse stories in 2000AD and the Megazine
  • 2201 - Kenton Sternhammer forms a partnership with Johnny Alpha (from the last Ezquerra Stront story, The Son)
  • 2205 - Judge Joseph Dredd framed for murder (the events of the 1995 Judge Dredd film)
  • 2214 - General Smedley Butler III elected President of the USA (Flesh, Badlanders)
  • some undisclosed time in the future - Termight, and the events of Nemesis the Warlock, ABC Warriors, Deadlock, et al.
The entries for 2080 and 2205 are in bold because they explicitly take place in other dimensions (from which travel to mutual dimensions with main continuity Dredd is possible).

IndigoPrime