Terror / Total War vs Judge Child - Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! H2H Rd 6

[Swerty]

I shouldn't get drawn into these debates but it's The Judge Child by a country mile for me.

[DrJomster]

This is looking quite close.... but it's Judge Child for me!

[Bolt-01]

The Judge Child. My first epic and I can still clearly recall so much of it from the first time I read it.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Only one has Jigsaw Disease and the Angel Gang.

JUDGE CHILD

[Mikey]

Argh! Each one of these choices is more difficult than the last!

I'm going for grit I think, so Terror/Total War, probably because it's been so long since I read The Judge Child, which maybe indicates I'm not that fussed on it. Except when I am.

[maryanddavid]

Judge Child.

[sintec]

Terror / Total War. One of the stories that really got me hooked into Dredd.

[Southstreeter]

Terror/ Total War.

A superb mix of suspense thriller and police procedural, with outstanding nuclear explosions from Flint. The Judge Child is fine, but in many ways it's a poor relation to The Cursed Earth.

[Rogue Judge]

The Judge Child.

I'm actually re-reading though it right now in Case Files 4, and am having a blast. It's episodic nature with crazy plots and characters is just so much fun. And the Angel Gang is great, with Mean Machine as one of my favorite reoccurring Dredd villains. Also, amazing art throughout!

[Funt Solo]

Votin'? Who sez ya kin vote? I'm gunna give you a face full a' four!

The Judge Child

[GoGilesGo]

Tough choice but Judge Child clinches it

[Dr Feeley Good]

The Judge Child...

[Huey2]

The Judge Child.

This really is an embarrassment of riches: The Judge Child, The Brotherhood of Garbage, The Angel Gang, Bio-chips!, Murd the Oppressor, Jig-saw Disease, The Thing from the Pit, Buggo the Om...

As others have mentioned, you've also got three of the best Dredd artists really playing to the strengths. McMahon and Smith, in particular, have never been better. McMahon's Sagbelly chapters are weird, inventive and incredibly atmospheric. And Smith shows that he can shift the tone effortlessly from the comedic to the dramatic in the same chapter - often in the same page. Look at how we're laughing at the foolish Filmore Faro as he goes to his death and then BANG! we're mourning the death of the Judge Child. Even better - the last moments of Junior Angel. One moment, there's a great image as he's clutching his guts, looking stupid and pathetic - the next moment Dredd is pitching him into a river of lava.


On top of that, this is one of those tales where you don't know how it's going to end. When Dredd goes up against Dark Judges or Sovs or crime bosses, you know the story ends when he's kicked their butts. With this, the reveal of what would happen when he met the Judge Child gave this story real momentum. In the hands of a lesser writer, the story would end with the Judge Child killed just before Dredd can save him and thus no significant change to the status quo needs to happen.

And finally, this is so brutal, dark and mature for what was a kid's comic. As a kid I'd seen millions of people zapped and exterminated in the likes of Star Wars or Doctor Who but those deaths never meant anything. It was just another way of pepping up the story or tidying up loose ends. This was the first story I saw or read where it seemed that death meant something. I can still remember forty years later that moment, reading in disbelief as the Judge Child took his parents' death in his stride and then a page later as Dredd walks off leaving the slaver to a painful death. Then you've got that fella in Mutieville knowing he's got only moments to live. And Dredd, ordering Lopez to sacrifice himself. This was stunning stuff.

The Judge Child Quest wasn't the first epic but it was the first one written in a more modern, less compressed style with a more mature take on Dredd - he might be fighting the good fight but he's not the angel that he was in the Cursed Earth or DTLD. It's also the epic that really makes the most of being told as a comic book. There's so much here that wouldn't work in any other medium.

I liked it.

[Dark Jimbo]

I hate Dredd-in-space, and I'm not keen on picaresque stories. So you can guess how I feel about Judge Child! Love the Angel Gang (of course) but Krysler and his abilities are really ill-defined, as is the Grunwalder and his robot-planet(?), as are the magic abilities of the Oracle Spice. And there isn't really an ending to speak of, after all that faffing about.

Terror/Total War for me, a first class Mega-City thriller that led to six whole months of superb aftermath stories.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

'faffing about' is good. but it really is the best cosmic faffing about ever, and drawn immaculately.