Dredd epics ranked

[Colin YNWA]

Oh now we are in the sticky mire of placings to debate. Which is always fun.

I was wondering whether you'd roll the Mandroid's together, but as you rightly point out since its clearly marked as Mandroid 2 and as such should stand in its own. I love both the Mandroid stories so I'm a little surprised to see this one down here, but haven't really got a list in my head as to what's to come. I'll sure I'll petulantly rant about this later though...

Dredd in Sovland needs to be read again as I'll hold off commenting here, except to say is this the one with sliding lava dog - that seems to get some folks excited! I'm looking forward to eventually reading this with a fresh perspective.

BUT IN WHAT WORLD OF CRAZY are Judgement Day AND Darkside ranking higher than both Mechanismo AND Doomsday... why I...

... I'm tracking you down AlexF. I'm tracking you down and... and ... debating strenuously and as maturely as two adults debating the relative qualities of Dredd epics can this placement. Oh get ready to get your ass debated...

...I mean I know Judgement Days has its fans. Pete 'Lovely' Wells even has some fevered delusions where he rates it better than 'Cursed Earth', but its full of all sorts of nonsense. Why nuke Mega City 2 which is hundreds of miles away 'cos if they don't the world will be over run by zombies from there... a world that has 2 days left as I recall, giving the slow moving rambling zombies two days to get across the Cursed Earth to be of any significence... oh what the heck let's nuke 'um anyway...

and relax Taylor... relax...

... better than, Mechanismo, grumble mumble, doesn't even hold a candle to Doomsday, gripe moan...

... oh but you do get bonus points for being the first person ever to write up Judgement Day without mentioning that page!

[Andy B]

While we're nitpicking, "Dredd in Sovland" has been collected, in the very skippable 'Cold Wars' GN.

You're generous to this one...

[Rogue Judge]

Very interesting to see how these are evaluated. I enjoy a lot of City of the Damned, and Judgement Day is one of my guilty pleasures - I love it! I can't disagree with a lot of the problems with it, but I always have a blast re-reading it. Zombies! Ezquerra! Alpha & Dredd side by side!

[Richard]

City of the Damned is a great story. It isn't even spoiled by having so many different artists on it, because I like all of them (but Steve Dillon especially). I love the revelation of who the bad guy is, and how far the city has fallen, and vampire judges, and undead Dredd, and blind Dredd refusing to give up. Everything about it is brilliant.

[Swerty]

Judgement Day was superb.I literally couldn't wait for days to count down until the next issue.I think it's the last Dredd epic that really grabbed me in such a way.8

[Rogue Judge]

If anything, reading Dredd Epics Ranked reminds me how much I enjoy reading Dredd and inspires me to pull out the case files...suddenly The Chief Judge's Man and The Hunting Party will be part of my holiday reading.

[AlexF]

Well getting people to re-read Dredd is the main point, of course!

For what it's worth, I marked down Doomsday and especially Mechanismo down quite a lot for the art. I think Manuel Benet might be my least favourite work on a major Dredd story - he's not a bad artist but it didn't fit here for me. And Doomsday has the disadvantage of a) young Googe and young Simon Davis not being ready for the big time yet, and old master Cam Kennedy just NOT being able to draw Cass Anderson. There I said it.

Thanks for pointing out the Cold Wars collection, Andy B - I'll update that entry. It's making me feel better about including that story here - having the side definition of 'has this story been reprinted in a collection' is quite a useful one for deciding whether a storyline counts as 'epic'.

[AlexF]

More rankings up this morning, and more choices to argue about!

https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html

[Barrington Boots]

I hadn't realised Die Laughing counted here, but ranking above anything (apart from maybe Crusade) seems pretty scandalous as it is absolutely abysmal, lacking any of the good bits from Judgement on Gotham and amplifying the bad.

This continues to an interesting read. I haven't read a couple of these: I enjoyed Sin City, although in retrospect it is a bit crowded, I think this kind of adds to the story rather than detracts from it.

[broodblik]

Sin City is one of my top 10 Dredd epics

[TordelBack]

I'm just struggling with the idea that The Ecstacy ranks higher than City of the Damned and Doomsday. It's in contention for Wagner's most boring Dredd.

You're a fiend for those controversy clicks,  Alex! 

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah Ecstacy is the least epic of epics I have to say. Thouhg re-reading it recently was entirely enjoyable and its interesting to learn why its quite so needlessly long.  But there's no point me thrashing around screaming x should be higher than y is there... I mean I've done that already... so... I won't... yet...

I really enjoyed Blood Trails when I re-read it recently(ish). Shame some of the plot threads where never picked up. Sin City seems an all together more popular beast. I think its placed about right here (with no idea whats to come) a kinda mid range long form Dredd. With great art.

To my enternal shame I've never read 'Die Laughing' and there's nowt said here that especially makes me want to either!

[AlexF]

I'm definitely guilty of judging some of these things on what they could have been, versus what they actually are. City of the Damned and Sin City both strike me on re-reads as missed opportunities - I mean, you've got Dredd in Hell and Dredd in the city of vice and all he does in one is go back to a time machine then nuke a robot from orbit, and in the other instead of having fun with hookers and fatties and gladiators he uncovers a sov plot (again)...

But clearly the controversy is not going to stop; gotta get those clicks!

[TordelBack]

I'm definitely guilty of judging some of these things on what they could have been...

In The Ecstasy's case, that's "3 parts".

I don't rate Sin City as much more than 'competent and stylish' myself - although that being said, I don't think I've re-read it since it originally ran.  The shift from Danser to Orlok as antagonist just seemed like a pointless throwaway, coming after his appearances in Childhood's End and Doomsday. I did however enjoy the perfunctory execution epilogue, that's proper 'uniquely Wagner', that is.

[Southstreeter]

I remember when reading The Ecstasy thinking firstly, this is very poor for Wagner, and secondly, this is interminable, when is it ever going to end?
Blood Trails I really liked, particularly for how the supporting cast got pulverised. There was an amazing cliff hanger when it looked like Giant (I think) had got his head blown off.