Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 9

Rogue Judge · 22 March, 2021, 02:06:58 PM

1. Necropolis For me, Necropolis is possibly the best drawn epic of all. You just can't beat painted Ezquerra art from this era. Necropolis is dark and exciting, definitely one of my favorite epics.
2. Oz I enjoy the Chopper arc more than the Judda story, but the whole thing is great. Chopper for Oz!
3. The Pit The Pit meandered on a little long for me, but it was full of great characters that stuck around for a long while.

Funt Solo · 22 March, 2021, 02:11:18 PM

Fare thee well, City of the Damned! You fought bravely, and long, but now we witness the time of giants!

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1st - Oz
Weird zealot judges torch Brufen! Chopper's epic quest! The bats flying out of Uluru! Supersurf! The love lavished on this from editorial!

2nd - Necropolis
We'd seen the dark judges take over a city block, here we see the results when they take the city. Spinning out from the Judda through-line and The Dead Man blind-sider, narratively this shook the foundations of Dredd's world. Beside the twisted sisters, a bearded long-walk McGruder seemed normal. And young Giant has a significant role as well. Not the final answer to the bloodline question, but an exclamation mark.

3rd - Tour of Duty
I'll admit I've been swayed strongly by Cosh's previous-round explanation of why Tour of Duty hits the right notes of epicness. Or epicuity. Spinning all the threads together and sidelining Dredd (albeit temporarily), but still tying into the long-running muties arc while making strong use of arch-nemesis Maybe - it really is a master work. (Not first place, only because my nostalgia glows more strongly for those I have better memories of.)

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The Pit - the epic that took us out of the mid-90s doldrums and made us care about Dredd again. Hill Street Blues in Mega-City One. The major flaw here, and you can see it on the covers of the time, is the treatment of the character DeMarco as mostly a weak-willed sex fiend. I mean - why is she in love with Dredd?

The Small House - I gave a fair but rather scathing review of this flawed gem.

The Mind of Wolfie Smith · 22 March, 2021, 03:36:02 PM

1. city of the damned
2. city of the damned
3. city of the damned

Funt Solo · 22 March, 2021, 04:05:09 PM

Wolfie Smith using his mind powers to hypnotize the judges!

Colin YNWA · 22 March, 2021, 04:07:31 PM

Quote from: Funt Solo on 22 March, 2021, 04:05:09 PM
Wolfie Smith using his mind powers to hypnotize the judges!

Yeah why's he voted for 'Tour of Duty' three times???

WhizzBang · 22 March, 2021, 04:12:20 PM

1. Tour Of Duty
2. Necropolis
3. The Pit

Tomwe · 22 March, 2021, 04:13:24 PM

Here come the big boys!

1) Necropolis

2) Oz

3) Mechanismo

BPP · 22 March, 2021, 06:23:28 PM

Genius

Leigh S · 22 March, 2021, 06:24:08 PM

Yup - Necropolis is top (Where was Smiley while the Dark Judges were rampaging? Busy not existing, I'd assume)

followed by:

Oz

Followed by:

Mechanismo

Southstreeter · 22 March, 2021, 06:43:33 PM

1. Necropolis
2. The Pit
3. Oz

The Mind of Wolfie Smith · 22 March, 2021, 07:22:22 PM

"Yeah why's he voted for 'Tour of Duty' three times???"

y'know, the best thing about these polls is going back, all nostalgia-fuelled, to things you haven't read in an age, and realising how much more you like something than you thought you did (the reverse is also true).

reading it now, cotd seems to be a flawed narrative around the most quintessential dreddness we've ever had - in terms of tying up the plots of years, instating new ideas that still matter decades later, and in giving joe the kind of believable psychology that we never really had before - and that fleshed out character is still with us today. so what i once thought was just superior hokum, well, i've revised my opinion in the last few days - and now i think it's just superior.

Colin YNWA · 22 March, 2021, 08:07:27 PM

Sorry I was just playing with the fact that I refused to see three votes for CotD and all I could see was three votes for my favourite Tour of Duty.... It is three votes for Tour of Duty here isn't it... Tour of Duty... right...

Funt Solo · 22 March, 2021, 08:15:31 PM

That birdman is an homage to The Treasure of the Serra Madre.

Huey2 · 22 March, 2021, 08:39:22 PM

1. Oz!
" But Oz is killer - shame it only became real using a bajillion mis-matched artists"
At the time, IIRC, Burton and MacKenzie said in Speakeasy that they wanted Oz to be a real artistic showcase and had really put a lot of thought into which artists got which bits.
Perhaps, the interview coloured my thoughts because that's how I saw it at the time. Some fantastic stuff there from McCarthy whilst Dillon, Baikie and Kitson are doing their very best work on the strip.
And it's a great tale too!
2). The Pit
3). Necropolis

BPP · 22 March, 2021, 09:22:05 PM

Jus saying