Prog 2371 - Smash the State

[Vector14]

I hope she's not dead and I don't think that would be any more of a cop out than everything going back to the status quo at the end of the story.

Dredd himself has cheated death plenty of times.

I just think the idea of Dredd taking on Hernandez to avenge her death isn't as interesting as Maitland taking him on herself.

I also found the guy breaking out of the cubes confusing. Didnt realise it was major Domo until reading this thread.
And Maitland running out into a fullscale riot shouting "Hey guys, please stop" seemed out of character for her or any judge really.

[Funt Solo]

The end is played quite well - my first assumption was that Dredd's not getting help from Control because there's effectively a coup happening, and they're deliberately leaving him to die in the riot.

When I played it over, it could just be confusion from Control, and the big knock to his helmet may be the thing that's cut off his comms.

On balance, I think it's supposed to be the first thing.

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I'm pretty much in IP's mind (sorry, IP) regarding everything else.

I've not been a fan of the the entire Reine Rouge arc, mind you - so I'm kind of coming into this bitter. There's just too many toy-shop, Millar-esque things going on for me to be able to willingly suspend my disbelief. Regicide played Maitland as gung-ho, enormous-gun-toting action hero (when before she'd been considered, and more of a planner), Dredd got teleported across the world but nobody cared, Atlantis was a magic space in which you could both see everywhere but also be in cramped tunnels at the same time, Orlok got turned into a clone-joke and every single minor villain who hadn't died (even brainless beasts from a zoo) all got tooled up and joined the same (stupid, doomed) gang in Hagger They Fall - which featured an anthropomorphic gumshoe cat, ffs. Why would the Wally Squad infiltrate something so hard that everyone in the room was Wally Squad? But then this is like asking Mark Millar why lava doesn't hurt much.

I think I'm just pissed off that the survivors are a Trumpian Kingpin knock-off and a man-in-a-coat-who-lost-his-coat, but the interesting character got offed to make Dredd mad. Salty.

[Richard]

Anyway, as has been mentioned upthread, a cranial exit wound in Dreddworld doesn't necessarily mean death.

Not in 1978, sure. But today, that would be pretty silly.

[M.I.K.]

All a matter of perspective, int'it?

[Colin YNWA]

The end is played quite well - my first assumption was that Dredd's not getting help from Control because there's effectively a coup happening, and they're deliberately leaving him to die in the riot.

When I played it over, it could just be confusion from Control, and the big knock to his helmet may be the thing that's cut off his comms.

On balance, I think it's supposed to be the first thing.

I tussled with this and pretty much came to the same conclusion. After the way the Judges discussed how the handle the riot in an earlier part its not unreasonable to believe this might be deliberate BUT we'll find out next Prog I guess.

As for Maitland the impact of this was pretty devestating and so I'd be pretty disappointed if she wasn't dead, but that said i got over Hershey easy enough. As it was the story seemed to be building to this so in one way it wasn't too much of a surprise. Except the execution was sublime and the page turn made it so powerful.

I'm not sure how else this story could go and to leave Maitland on the board would put the status quo at too much risk and this is a very good way to drive the story on. Still we'll see if there's more twists to come.

[Barrington Boots]

Maitland wasn't stupid, so I'm hoping she'll have some post-death contingency plan to torpedo Hernandez etc rather than this be an excuse for Dredd to rage up and go on the rampage.

The bigger tragedy seems to be her plan, which was working and making things better, is going to die with her. It's bleak stuff, and although this outcome seemed predictable when it started, it was a hard read when it happened.

Can't disagree with all the comments about Major Domo and his arc being a bit pants and he needs to go. His absolute blandness of appearance is surely the point though as he needs to be unremarkable to do what he does.
On the Domo topic, it certainly looks like Hernandez let him out which seems ludicrously stupid. Surely this will just get traced back to him straight away? Could he not have hired a different assassin?

[IndigoPrime]

One thing that's worth bearing in mind: you can have things happen through inaction. So we may see Dredd furious with himself (and taking it out on others) that he didn't do more to help Maitland when he knew full well she was a target. And we may also see the current CJ shown up to have just allowed 304 to be ruined, because it threatened his rule. (Vs Hernandez, who has been more directly involved in making it fail.)

As for what's next, I do like Boots's angle: Maitland assisting Dredd from beyond the grave would certainly be a lot better than Dredd whacking people with his daystick in a fury about something he himself could have potentially stopped from happening.

It's a pity though. Had Maitland and her scheme survived, it could have created some really interesting ongoing tension in the strip. But it's probably too big and disruptive and idea to survive, and a status quo of some kind always bubbles back up in Dredd, no matter what's happened previously.

[Vector14]

I thought it was a bit odd how much power Glenn has.I feel like in Dredd strips of old a TV presenter would be instantly shut down and thrown in the cubes for inciting a riot.
I've been away from the prog for a long time though and just started reading at part three of this story so maybe I'm missing something.

[Colin YNWA]

I wonder if the Domo thing is misdirection in both story terms and for readers as well. We'll see next week but I'm no convinced Domo actually has anything to do with the bullet shot... we'll see.

Next weeks story has a lot of ground to cover... or not and we'll be left with questions as we move onto what's next.

[Jim_Campbell]

I thought it was a bit odd how much power Glenn has.I feel like in Dredd strips of old a TV presenter would be instantly shut down and thrown in the cubes for inciting a riot.

He's pro-Justice Dept and anti-reform, isn't he? The judges will leave him alone for precisely as long as he's useful to them.

[broodblik]

I also think that Hernandez let Domo out and left him the sniper rifle to do what he was hired for in the first place to get rid of Maitland. I think next week episode might be more straight forward and Dredd over time take down the Hernandez faction.

[pauljholden]

That double page spread is of course presented on two separate pages in the digital prog (at least, that's how my CBR file reader's done it). Upon seeing just the left half, my immediate thought was that Maitland, after approaching him on the previous page, had been shot by Dredd.

Anyway. Running out into a full-scale firefight, screaming for the participants to stop? Not sure about that.

If you're using the app and rotate the ipad it'll show the full spread. (but smaller, thereby reducing the impact, but that's just a limitation of physics than anything intrinsically wrong in the prog. I checked out the spread in tescos, since I'm a digital reader and man it's a cracker)

[norton canes]

Yeah, I need to see it in print!

[Funt Solo]

I have a big screen attached to my PC - so the electric (sic) version looked great on my PDF viewer. (It's got a button for displaying the front cover on its own so that the double-page spreads are displayed correctly.)

Shout out to the sign: "WE WANT LIES". Very now.


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What about Indigo Prime, though? I'm not sure what to think of the metatextual call back to the entire Tyranny Rex storyline. It's worth bearing in mind that the framing for Soft Bodies (one of the more extreme depictions of the character) suggested that the entire story was a pumped-up fictional version of events. Trying to pin down Tyranny on that basis would be like hunting for the stash from Fargo.

[Woolly]

Maitland means much more to this Squaxx than Cal ever did 

As for Dredd not supporting her as much as we'd have liked, he considered her 'a good Judge' and would probably be happy to leave her to deal with stuff. Even with a price on her head, I doubt he'd worry too much. Occupational hazard for a Judge.

I Reckon Hernandez has covered his back pretty well too. The mech-box-thing coming to life and causing chaos will probably be blamed for Domo getting free. And as for who pulled the trigger... I've a feeling Domo will be blamed and placed at the scene, but it wasn't him.


It has depressed me though, and not just because we've lost Maitland, but because it's so very on the nose for the state of the current world.
I remember being optimistic for the future back in the 90's. There's none of that now.
It's becoming very clear that things will probably never get better, and Mega-City One is clearly no different.


(Shark) Bah.