2000 AD Online Forum

For a long time I've been unhappy with the mutant situation and the way that they are dealt with within the Dredd universe.  The story in this weeks prog was another example of just how unfairly they are treated and the lack of consequences the judges put on their own actions particularly when it comes to this 'lower class'.

What exactly classifies a mutant as a mutant?  I have a skin fold near my one ear (it's not as bad as it sounds), so would I be one?  Webbed feet?  Second toe longer than the big toe?

Why are they discriminated against?  What brings this fear that the judges have?  Is it an effort to keep the city bloodline pure, or is it now so historically institutionalised that it is there because it is there?  

What would happen if the law changed and integration took place?  What the judges reaction be?  Would we see some Judges, or even Dredd himself, guilty of racist behaviour?

Whatever would happen, something needs to happen soon.  For too long this has been going on with the occasional outburst of activity, but never with any real or long lasting depth.

So what do you think?  Time for a shake up in the system?

WoD

a PC twist in Dredd.
interesting idea.could really parody the whole PC situation YOU are having subscribe to in the west.
Happily/sadly delete as you see fit.
 they tend to ignore it out here.

good idea,but would take a certain edge of everything we know about the complicated world of dredd.
got some serious depth potential though. its the very core of the system that much of dredds world bases itself on.
though i dont want dredds world to go that way. it could make a decent stroy arc.

Did you see the "Monkey on me Back" story in the Meg a few months back? Admittably, it's Garth Ennis so a pinch of salt should be taken, but it had the CJ trying to relax mutant-banning laws & the chaos caused by it - and that was set 20 years ago - I can only imagine that mutants would be even more pissed off with MC1 & that citizens would be even more distrustful of mutants.

It would be a very difficult thing to integrate the two classes.
One way would be to not ban new-born mutant babies from the city, while still not letting Cursed Earthers (mutant or otherwise) into the city.

Not a perfect solution, but then it's not my problem to solve!

I think that the idea is that 'mutants' are only mutants caused by radiation in the cursed earth. The idea being probably that they're more criminally inclined, having no society, and often being spectacularly mentally unbalanced. Whether this is true or not I couldn't say, though we've had plenty of villains come from the cursed earth. It's never really bothered me - I quite like it!! It's another example of behaviour that wouldn't be tolerated on such a wide scale in this country these days, and so as such is quite refreshing. I could understand the mutants getting irritated with it though.... Imagine if they got themselves organisation... HUGE attack on MC-1. Could be interesting, especially as it isn't always immediately clear who're mutants and who are citizens. No? Oh well...

I was gonna pull DD on the PC thing but I wont bother....

However, this is a problem with Dredds world in that he sees everything outside the city as lawless and in the last 20  years or so the enviroment has changed comewhat for the better.  Instead of accepting Mutants into the city, Id like to see the meg starting to have treaties with mutant sentlements and m,aybe (further down the line) having these as protectorates with their own police force (judges).  Mutant Judges anyone????

That way you can still have a mutie threat but that not all mutes are evil.....

Yer Slips
 

Liberal Stalin says:
"HA HA HA, DO MY BIDDING FOOLS!"

, Id like to see the meg starting to have treaties with mutant sentlements and maybe (further down the line) having these as protectorates with their own police force (judges). Mutant Judges anyone????

yea sounds like a good idea, small steps, slow march to acceptance sounds good to me...

then when mutant vs mega city 1 war breaks out we can bomb em !

i like slips idea .see an emerging acceptance of such things.its all very B&W for Dredd isnt it.
the more you consider it the more depth it offers.

Isn't the point with mutants that if they are allowed into MC-1 they will breed with human and eventually weaken the inhabitants' gene-pool so much that they'll all become sterile?

Banishing the mutants to outside the city walls was simply the only way to ensure the survival of the species (well, they could have just shot them all but that wouldn't go down well with the populace and sets a dangerous precedent for mass killings of other groups).  That's why many of them are evil - they were born in the city and naturally feel that being thrown into a radioactive wasteland was not a good start to their lives.  It's not that they're all naturally evil, apart from that Bones guy.

So the Judges have to be very careful when it comes to interactions with mutant settlements: too much contact and the risks are just as great as leaving them in the city.

Monkey on My Back doesn't really count because its set in the past (when we know things won't change) and the story boils down to an evil monkey controlling the Chief Judge so it's just another threat of the week.

What I'd like to see with the mutants is something on the scale of the Democracy storyline developing over several years and having a real impact on Dredd's world. Hershey's one of the more liberal CJs but how far can her reforms go? Something like that.

The question of whatabout people with extra folds of skin on their earlobes and the presence in Megacity one of aliens and GMO apes do put a strain on the continuity. Not that the series can`t stand the strain - a nice thing about 2000 Ad is the way it can be cavalier about loose ends and such like (like that extra megacity the Honda cit people started to build) but it would be a good opportunity for some stories. I like the idea of mutant judges and the acceptance of muties born in the city (which would be a nice parallel with the US law about the President having to be born there).
  Yes, there are a few good stories in there. Since MC1 isn`t completely cut off from the Cursed Earth, sharing the same air etc, there must be quite a few mutations.  Is the rate increasing? Is there a movement of people who had to give up mutant children? Perhaps there are some mutations which Justice Department would want to encourage and/or use.
   yours hmmmmingly,

yours hmmmmmmingly,

Mega city mutant laws have been relaxed in the past, like the story in on of the annuals where the law banning dwarves was repealed.
But then, I seem to recall in the story 'Atlantis', the child had been born in a mega city (Brit Cit, I think) and was deemed to be illegal... yeah, allowing mutants born within the system to remain would be a good way to start the 'reveloution'.

Vaguely remember "I'm Manny, Me Fly" (groan) from Prog 660 defining what passes for illegal mutation in MC1.

Surely half the fun of Dredd is he's half superhero, half facist bully.  If anything, I'd like to see MC1 come down harder on its citizens and have less freedom and civil rights.

Chris
www.superherostore.co.uk

To a certain extent we know what happens.

yeah wake,
i have always been of the opinion that all the stories are pretty much set in the same universe and that strontium dog is dredds eventual future world, with the abc warriors/nemesis being th very end and rogue trooper somewhere inbetween

as long as we never have a crisis (DC), then im quite happy with that and the JD/SD/RT crossovers only strengthen it - along with harlem heroes, hammerstein, satanus etc

the writers are quite good as well, i mean necropolis was foretold in city of the damned but the time travel allowed dredd to change the future, i completely forgot about it but was blown away by necropolis some years later - it is a brilliant story and i love the dark judges

"Isn't the point with mutants that if they are allowed into MC-1 they will breed with human and eventually weaken the inhabitants' gene-pool so much that they'll all become sterile? "

in reality, most mutants die out as nobody will mate with them, the risk to their own genetic material is too great

also in reality most mutants have trouble surviving birth, early years

like any variation to the norm, mutants just have to struggle along..most mutations are detrimental but some are not, i am surprised their are not mutant tribes in the wastelands fighting each other over what scarce resources exist

Keep the mutants outside the city. The reason that Dredd works on so many levels is that whilst you cheer him on to beat the baddie or want him to save the city whatever danger it gets into, you also despise him because of the system that he?s part of repressing a whole population simply because of genetic mutations.
The paradox of Dredd is although we want him to win, at times we cheer for the people that the Judges oppress.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

strontium dog is dredds eventual future world

I always thought it was the other way round.  The Strontium Dog world looks to me like the aftermath of nuclear war which eventually comes together as the Mega Cities with vast wastelands of the Cursed Earth.

Did Johnny say he was travelling back in time in Judgement Day?

The first Strontium Dog story (Starlord #1) is set in 2180 - current Dredd timeline is Christmas 2125 - a good 55 years to go before Dredd's world catches up with Alpha's.

I agree with superstore and WR Logan that half the fun of Dredd is the fascist bully-boy nature of the Justice Dept.  I still think the issue could be used in the story at some time.
  mutatedly yours

as oddboy states below - strontium dog is set after dredd and nemesis is est at the end of the world, i always just looked at the timelines and sort of assumed wow - u know

strontium dog contains time travel a lot really and nemesis makes a reference to it with the boom tubes and black holes, so there has always been the possibility of crossovers

Some stuff does clash, though - the second Harlem Heroes clashes directly with Dredd, while Red Razors clashes with Strontium Dog. However, if we're only counting decent stories, the following are linked, roughly in this order:

Skizz
Disaster 1990
Invasion
ABC Warriors
Harlem Heroes (originals)
Judge Dredd + related series (Armitage, etc)
Strontium Dog
Flesh
Rogue Trooper
Nemesis/ABC Warriors (again)
Durham Red

And perhaps others.

I'mprobably alone here, but I LIKE the way Dredd and everyone in MC-1 are so openly prejudiced when it comes to mutants. It wouldn't happen in our society on that sort of scale, with that strength of feeling, so it serves to distance it and make it even more sci-fi ish and otherworldish. As for mutant judges, doubt that's gonna happen - it's basically already happened hasn't it? The Marshals anyone? And Strontium Dogs is set after Dredd. Just read the datelines at the start of stories! Or read something like Top Dogs - Johnny Alpha escapes by leaving a note in a safe with a lawyer with delivery instructions for in a certain number of year's time. It tells them where he is and where to beam him out from now the mission has gone wrong.