Should Dredd ever be killed off?

[TordelBack]

Personally I think that is going to be the ultimate solution for Rebellion, and it could even potentially work well with the character (an unending life of endless toil; Dredd opposing the plan but acceeding for the greater good), and as a source of plotlines (immortal judges, corruption, citizen's resentment etc). No need to make Dredd young again, just keep him shy of senescence and on the streets for as long as the property has value.

[Leigh S]

Dredd lives in a comic world so why not cure old age. Come up with a story that see Dredd not able to do his duty on the street. Where the crime win so a solution has to be found or Dredd retires or he has to get this new fountain of youth treatment that has just become law for aging population of Mega City One. Society can not cope with old age citizens in it system. So a Fountain of youth treatment is found so they are not a burden on the City and can work and be produced. Dredd is treated and get a new lease of life younger fitter and more brutal in this punishment of the law.

We already have Stookie, and rejuve and that Daily Star Dredd story where they work out how to get the same effect as Stookie from the Rad Cockroach! 

It is accepted canon that if you want, you can get young and stay young, and it is only the Judges who deem this to be unlawful. 

Given the sorry state of the Judges, it is more ludicrous that they DON'T rejuve all active serving Judges!

As TB says it would be an interesting source of conflict for both teh Judges and the citizens to have a shift in the legality of rejuve tech

[Frank]

No need to make Dredd young again, just keep him shy of senescence and on the streets for as long as the property has value.

We already have Stookie, and rejuve and that Daily Star Dredd story where they work out how to get the same effect as Stookie from the Rad Cockroach!

While the stookie/rejuve route is consistent with established MC1 tech, it isn't consistent with Dredd's established character. Even under duress, a direct order, or in response to a grave emergency, it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing he would do.

Whatever Mike Carroll has injected Dredd with will probably provide the kind of solution Tordelback describes.  The stuff flowing through Dredd's distended veins will restore his vigour without giving him back his baby face, and it happened against his will.

[TordelBack]

I was only agreeing with Brendan's suggestion there.

I honestly can't see a better way to keep Dredd in the Prog for another 20 or 40 years (that should see most of us lot out anyway) than just keep patching him up so he can keep on judgin'.  Alternatives are:
- Ignore ageing
- Suspend real time
- Clone body/biochip/magic/full rejuve
- retirement/death and replacement by clone/protege
- reboot / Young Dredd
- end of strip

We've discussed all these at length before, and I've reached the personal conclusion that they are all shite outcomes: even the dramatic/ignoble death scene leaves us and Rebellion without the main man, and would inevitably lead to a reboot after a spell.

"Dredd forced by circumstances into limited anagathics every now and again" is the least bad solution. Mind you, I'm not a hugely creative writer, of which 2000AD has an abundance.

All are

[Frank]

We've discussed all these at length before, and I've reached the personal conclusion that they are all shite outcomes

PREACHER MAN! I agree - every solution we've come up with (including noble death scenes and turning Dredd into a team strip) is a wretched compromise. And totally shite.

Unlike our erstwhile friend, JOE SOAP, I don't think even Wagner has a solution up his sleeve that doesn't involve one of the credibility-stretching, half arsed proposals we've had fun with here.

[Hawkmumbler]

We've discussed all these at length before, and I've reached the personal conclusion that they are all shite outcomes

PREACHER MAN! I agree - every solution we've come up with (including noble death scenes and turning Dredd into a team strip) is a wretched compromise. And totally shite.

Unlike our erstwhile friend, JOE SOAP, I don't think even Wagner has a solution up his sleeve that doesn't involve one of the credibility-stretching, half arsed proposals we've had fun with here.

Agreed. We've had Dredd strips without stoney face before, but never for prolonged periods of time and for good reasons.

[13school]

No need to make Dredd young again, just keep him shy of senescence and on the streets for as long as the property has value.

We already have Stookie, and rejuve and that Daily Star Dredd story where they work out how to get the same effect as Stookie from the Rad Cockroach!

While the stookie/rejuve route is consistent with established MC1 tech, it isn't consistent with Dredd's established character. Even under duress, a direct order, or in response to a grave emergency, it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing he would do.

Whatever Mike Carroll has injected Dredd with will probably provide the kind of solution Tordelback describes.  The stuff flowing through Dredd's distended veins will restore his vigour without giving him back his baby face, and it happened against his will.

I always thought this was pretty much what happened to Dredd post-Necropolis - he was so ravaged by the Sisters of Death that the "cure" was basically a rejuve job. Guess it didn't take.

[Magnetica]

I think it is interesting to compare Dredd to other strips. Obviously Dredd is the only one that appears every week and so the real time element impacts him far more.

But let's consider the ABC Warriors. They have "lived" through possibly thousands of years when you take into account the time they were hanging around before turning up in Nemesis' time.

But hey they are robots so have a longer shelf life than a human. But they are not everlasting. They have under gone various refits and repairs at certain points.

So instead of a complete re-juve job for Dredd,how about piecemeal replacements in individual stories? He has already got bionic eyes, so why not a new heart at one point, other new organs, skin grafts etc. Ok it is still a technobabble answer, but isn't that much of a stretch beyond existing technology.

I think the arguments above that there is no ideal solution and that some form of re-juve is the "least worst" option are correct. Given that it is just a matter of working out the most credible way of doing that.

And hey I'm sure Mr Wagner or Mr Carroll can come up with something better than me.

[sheridan]

He already has paper lungs, doesn't he?

Anyway - in the few US comics where the kill characters and they stay dead, they don't seem to have any problems with the comic-buying public with having other characters take the same (invariable) superhero mantle - with name and costume intact.

I'd be in favour of a Taggart - main character/actor dies and we follow the exploits of the supporting cast - in this case MC1 as much as any person.

[sheridan]

I knew there was something else I wanted to write.  We've got 29 years of largely un-chronicled time on the streets for young Joe - if he did die in 122 years time we could start on the Year One / Year Two instead - introduce enough new judges and villains and (other than the main character) we wouldn't even know which ones will survive through to 2099.

[Jim_Campbell]

We've got 29 years of largely un-chronicled time on the streets for young Joe

What? After the way everyone pissed and moaned about the pre-Final Solution 'flashback' Strontium Dog stories 'lacking real danger', to the extent that in the end Wagner just bit the bullet and resurrected him?

I suspect it'll probably just end up being the same with Dredd. As TB notes, all easily envisaged solutions seem sub-optimal, but they'll just do something, and we'll moan about it, then we'll get over it.

Cheers

Jim

[glassstanley]

We already have Stookie, and rejuve and that Daily Star Dredd story where they work out how to get the same effect as Stookie from the Rad Cockroach! 

I understand why it would never happen, but I would *love* to see the Dredd-aging matter solved with a reference to a tiny piece of continuity from decades ago!

[SuperSurfer]

They can kill off Dredd, as the star is the city and not the man. Look at the bright side. We would get mountains of 'Tales from the Mega City' comic strips to reprint in floppies to bag with the non-Dredd Megazine.

Er. Not much of all this is making sense to me.

Remember readers, a fangasm doesn't last forever.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Remember readers, a fangasm doesn't last forever.

Are you suggesting that Rebellion transplant Dredd's personality into a woman?

[COMMANDO FORCES]

No!

They could just do what Marvel and DC do and reboot it all and start afresh