Well its been a while since we had a Mega City centric vote so lets get back to The Big Neg, or the Dark Dimension or some outer world colony... who do you want to avoid the bongo? A very simple and in one case predictable - I reckon - question which of Dredd darkest enemies do you prefer? For whom is the crime of voting the ssssentence isss Round 2 (no, no that doesn't make any scene at all does it!)
Pop the names of the two characters you'd like to progress into Round 2 in a reply to this thread and I'll count up early Sunday 2nd August.
Judge Death (Judge Dredd) - https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Death (https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Death)
Judge Fear (Judge Dredd) - https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Fear (https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Fear)
Judge Fire (Judge Dredd) - https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Fire (https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Fire)
Judge Mortis (Judge Dredd) - https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Mortis (https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Mortis)
What is all this nonsense? Well the 'rules' (ahem) for Round 1 are here:
https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=46676.0 (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=46676.0)
And there's more about the structure of the tournament here:
https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=46631.0 (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=46631.0)
Fire and Mortis
Death and Mortis.
Death and Fire
(this sounds similar to some metal albums I like!)
If it's metal albums you want, how about some by the greatest metal band of them all:
Dance of Death
Fear of the Dark.
Have to go with "classic" Dark Judges, as I confess to not having read much of the more recent Fall of Deadworld stuff barring a skimming. Just not for me.
So, Sid De'Ath and Mortis it is.
SBT
That Mortisss is the coolest of all the Dark Judges - best design, most horrible superpower, star of the creepiest and most memorable episode of Necropolis - is surely a given, and anyone who doesn't vote for him is demonstrably wrong, even if they do mitigate that somewhat by being metallers.
Discounting Death, that leaves Fear - amazing visual design, completely useless at his job - and Fire - least interesting visually / didn't get a 3A toy, but by far and away the most effective DJ with the highest body count.
Practicality for once trumps ornamentation: Fire's flame burns brightest.
I can't argue with Mortis as the coolest look, but I can't vote for him because you've got two others who are the total package:
Death and Fear
-I guess I like teeth and eyes more than skulls.
Also, hurling man-traps at people is so hilariously impractical I'm giving it extra points.
Fear has lots of cool, crazy accoutrements - I'd have given him the nod if he wasn't invariably the wimpiest and most swiftly-defeated of the gang. You blast Judge Mortis's head off and he sticks it back on and keeps coming. You punch Fear on the nose (all right, through the nose) and he's out for the count.
Fear Mortis
Mortis and Death.
Death and Fear.
Mortis and Death.
Death and Fear.
The 4 Dark Judges are all great though. It occurs to me that they are the best 'team' in 2000AD history - they have each others backs, they have never betrayed each other, they are all committed to the same common goal with no infividual rivalries or power struggles.
Nah, Fire wants the top billing, but lacks the management skills to really see the big picture.
Good discussion in here, these are the opinions I like to read. Can't talk Dark Judges with just anybody. :D
Yes, I know he's always the first one to be knocked out, but he's also always the first in line to be knocked out. If one of the others was put on guard duty then they'd have been the first one to be dispatched each time as well.
So my first vote goes to Fear (as anybody familiar with the DJs would have guessed by now).
Second place...
Fire's just a flaming skeleton (best said in an Australian accent, à la Jug McKenzie) so I can't vote for him.
Hrmmm, Sidney's got the back story, but I'll have to go for Mortis - perhaps because the comedy elements of De'ath's backstory diminish the character somewhat (though also makes it more rounded).
Short version: Fear and Mortis.
Judge Death & Judge Fear
The dimension traps are open for two of these dark Judges, but who will be sucked into the void? Well you have today to add your voice as I'll close this one first thing in the morning.
Fear! Largely due to the Deadworld re-imagining of this character. There's a panel in a previous series of DW with Fear standing on his own and when asked what he is he says - "I'm an idea.". To me this adds an actual Psychological element to the character rather than the 'Gaze into the face of Fear' which just made him seem a bit one-note and ineffectual.
Mortis because he's an excellent character in both versions of the Dark Judges.
Cheers
Mortis and Death
(although I do love what Kek-W has been doing with Fear)
Mortis and Fire, for reasons given by Greg M.
My phone tried to autocorrect that to "Morris," and so now I'm picturing Judge Mortis wearing a flat cap and walking a whippet.
VOTING CLOSED - but lets keep the dark thoughts coming.
Well this vote has been fascinating. I assumed - once again quite wrongly - that this would turn into Death plus one. Far from it, far far from it. It transpires that his gang have come into their own and almost taken over the master. Even more interesting is this was almost the greatest comeback story since... well you can Bolland well answer that one yourself. However Fear, so long dragging his heals almost, almost, punched above his weight, but in the end along with Fire he stirred into the fist of defeat.
BUT at the top, again with the very last vote, its turned out having a horse head skull counts for much as Mortis tied YES TIED with Death. You could have knocked me over that I was going to have to call this one, but there we are. Have to be honest this is awkward as until recent times I'd have had these characters left at Necropolis and never got out the box but there we are.
In the end Death has been turned into the pantomine villain, that for so longed made me dislike these characters so much and as Greg M said
Mortis
was the villain in one of the single greatest episodes of any thrill of all time, so he gets top spot. I do worry that I'm only doing this to mix things up but there we have it it
Death
is only runner up in his own race!
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 02 August, 2020, 07:02:07 AM
...having a horse head skull counts for much...
Sheep. Not you, Colin, him! Come on, we all know this story almost verbatim: "Whilst out walking in the Lake District, Brian Bolland found a sheep's skull and used that as basis for Mortis."
That's a BIG sheep isn't it?!? I always wanted it to be goat anyway...
Mortis is probably a Suffolk - a really big sheep. He does not fear the Beast of Craggy Island. Speaking as an Aberdonian, it's gratifying to see at least one sheep make it to the next round - Inspector Raam's chances were never great.