Here's the next 8 Epics (well there's a whole thread about that with some fascinating thoughts there) to be slotted into their final positions. Let's see how things land and while I appreciate votes have been made many times for some of the thrills here, just one more time gives us our precise (well as much as this format will allow) positions. One more time my friends.
Look at the list of 8 Dredd stories below and tell me your top three:
1 (your favourite of the 8) will get 3 points
2 (your 2nd fav) will get 2 points
3 (your 3rd fav) will get 1 point
34 Blood Trails (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - Progs 1440-1449
35 The Ecstasy (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - Progs 1617-1626
36 Judgement Day (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - Progs 786-799; Megs 2.04-2.08
37 Cold War [The Adventures of Judge Dredd in the Land of the Soviets] (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - Progs 2055-2069
38 Darkside (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - Progs 1017-1028
39 Mandroid 2 - Instrument of War (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - Progs 1555-1566
41 The Hunting Party (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html) - Progs 1033-1049
42 Doomsday (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html) - Progs 1141-1164; Megs 3.52-3.59
Voting will close on the morning of Friday 12th March and we'll have our next 8 positions sorted
All links go through to AlexF's simply brilliant Dredd Epics Ranked (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/) blog. You may need to scroll to find his write up of a particular story - but I'd suggest just reading the whole thing anyway - it's fantastic stuff.
Baffled by what's going on here - well we have a a thread for that (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.0) - though that might leave you more confused than anything.
Rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.msg1053448#msg1053448) for what they are worth.
Not sure about anything just ask and I'll blag it.
1. Hunting Party
2. Judgement Day
3. Doomsday
HM. Cold War - This didn't read like an epic, but I enjoyed these stories in recent progs. I fish a lot so especially enjoyed the story of using humans as bait for ice fishing monsters (If I'm recalling that right)
1. Darkside
2. Doomsday
3. Judgement Day
1. Mandroid 2 - Instrument of War
2. Blood Trails
3. Cold War
Blood Trails top for me here as it offers something a bit different - a personal-stakes thriller for Dredd and his loved ones, and it's amazing we haven't seen more of this type of story. Loved it at the time; the art leaves something to be desired though, and in retrospect it'd have been better, and maybe loomed larger in the memory, f Guthrie had died (given turning him into Robo-Guthrie was just a different, more ignoble kind of end for the character).
Hunting Party is certainly a bit flawed - it doesn't quite all work, and it's a classic Wagner rushed ending - but I love the bits that do work. The art's great, the dune sharks are immense, and some of the characters introduced here were with us for ages. Great fun.
Switched out Doomsday, which I'd been consistently voting for up til now, for Darkside, which I hadn't - on the basis that I'd much rather sit down and actually read Darkside. Doesn't set the world on fire, but is a classy continuity-heavy Dredd thriller - and in space, no less!
1 Doomsday
2 Blood Trails
3 Cold War
1. The Hunting Party
2. Mandroid 2
3. Judgement Day
SBT
I've enjoyed reading people's thoughts on Judgement Day and been wondering if I'd vote for it here. It's got some cool stuff - Carlos's lovely art, that final panel (all the stuff with Alpha really) but I also think it reads like Dredd fanfic - a lot of it doesn't make sense, the nuking of the cities is rubbish (I get MC1 being overrun by zombies after Necropolis, but why is everyone else swamped with them?) and the killing off of Dekker, Sadu etc is a misstep. And the Dennis the Menace stuff... :(
So I'm voting:
1 Doomsday - messy old epic but it's certainly epic.
2 Hunting Party - it's a mixed bag but Dredd's interactions with the supporting cast make it for me.
3 Mandroid 2 - I just really like this story.
1 - mandroid 2
2 - doomsday
3 - the hunting party
1. Doomsday
[big gap]
2. Judgement Day
3. Cold War
1) Judgement Day
2) Doomsday
3) Cold War
1. Doomsday.
2. The Hunting Party.
3. Judgement Day.
I've stated my case for Doomsday in earlier rounds, and while I'm not fussed by the trial sequence (a rare misfire for SBD), and I don't think it quite pays off on its wonderful setup, there's just so much there to enjoy, and the Prog/Meg split actually works for the first time, that it deserves best-of-the-rest status.
Hunting Party is good fun, and a fine example of the NYPD Blue period of Dredd (The Pit to Doomsday) where a recurring supporting cast of non-family is being gently developed. It doesn't really hang together, and some chapters (Camp Demento) just don't bring much, but elsewhere it's chock full of early Flinty goodness and I'm a complete sucker for a Hotdog Run (and Dune Sharks).
Judgement Day should rate higher, it's epic with a capital E, it's got guest stars galore, a Hotdog Run (see above), Ezquerra magic, great setpieces and images but it's just so wasteful and nonsensical, and flipping between entirely different species of (great) art in the Meg and Prog murders any hint of cohesion or momentum.
1. Darkside
2. Doomsday
3. Judgement Day
1. Judgement Day
2. Doomsday
3. Mandroid 2
I'm doing a lot of my voting based on the art here - not a big fan of Paul Marshall or Andrew Currie on Dredd.
Confession time - at one point I had Judgement Day quite a bit higher up in the blog but knocked it down after it got a thorough kicking from the boys on the Drokk! podcast. Objectively, I can understand the many complaints. Subjectively, the fun lingers in the mind more than the bad plotting and weird art mismatches.
- Doomsday
- Madroid 2
- Judgement Day
I've not read Blood Trails... given the comments here I'm gonna add that one to my list of Dredd tales I need to track down at some point.
1. Judgement Day
2. Doomsday
3. Blood Trails
1st: Judgement Day
2nd: Doomsday
3rd: Darkside
1. Judgement Day
2. Doomsday
3. The Hunting Party
01. Doomsday
02. Mandroid II: Instrument of War
03. The Hunting Party
Never read Blood Trails so my vote can't be 100% accurate. However...
Doomsday - I Love DD for Dredd; less fond of DD for Mega City. Nero Narcos was a good villain when kept at a distance, but up close he was revealed as rather boring. An overall great exploration of the Judges' strategic alliances and tactical planning. Always good to see the Sovs take another beating.
The Hunting Party - lot of fun throughout, timeslip back to Booth's America handled nicely, fab art.
Judgement Day - Obviously flawed but many deaths (RIP Judge Dekker) were well played out and very close to the bone.
1. Judgement Day
2.Doomsday
3. Hunting Party
Only a day to go on this one so if you want you views to be counted in the final position of these thrill vote today before I count up in the morning and announce the final positions 44 - 37.
VOTING CLOSED
Hold on could do with the laptop for this...
VOTING STILL CLOSED
Okay so its clear the worst thing you can be when ranking Epics is forgetable, a little weak. Dead Ringers at the bottom and then The Ecstasy crashing here. A perfectly fine Dredd story, all be it a weak Wagner one, just not that memorable. And while many may not like Epics like Judgement Day and have significent problems with them they at least had bite and can be remembered!
The other thing we get here is a set of thrills that have plummetted down the rankings, later positions will reveal the Epics that have taken those places I believe... or I've messed up somewhere!
Any enough already - the countdown.
44[/b:] 35 The Ecstasy (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - 0 points = Down 9 places
43: 37 Cold War [The Adventures of Judge Dredd in the Land of the Soviets] (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - 4 points = down 6 places.
42: 38 Darkside (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - 8 points = Down 4 places
41: 34 Blood Trails (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - 8 points (and my vote) = Down 7 places
40: 39 Mandroid 2 - Instrument of War (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - 14 points = Down 1 place
39: 41 The Hunting Party (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html) - 18 points = Up 2 places
38: 36 Judgement Day (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - 28 points = Down 2 places
37: 42 Doomsday (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html) - 40 points = Up 5 places
So there we have it the two big 'Mega Epics' at the top of this vote and getting the best placing they could in this vote. So it seems size is important! Thoughts, what's been done wrong? Which of these would struggle against the top Epics in positions 52 -45. Let's see what folks thinks about our rankings to date.
Oh and join us next week as we find out positions 36 to 29 and that one will have some big hitters.
Whoops - I left a Bold tag off there and then I've shouted most of that SORRY!!!