I'm kind of interested to see if there's any epic that'd rank below Crusade.
At least six of the others on this list for me. Oh, but I'm too late. Sorry, will try harder next time.
01.
City of the Damned. Weak Wagner & Grant is still better than anything else on the list. It's the only one that's a "real" epic and it gave us a handful of unforgettable moments. I should've had it done years ago.
02.
Crusade. I know it's like the World's tallest dwarf, but this is by far the best of Morrison Millar long form stories. Partly because there's a bit more Grant than Mark about the McGuffin and the finale but mostly down to Mick Austin. A very underrated artist whose Dredd goes back to the tough, wiry prototype.
03.
Luna City, I guess. Already stretching the definition of an epic but some early world-building, vintage art and fond memories of the Eagle comics reprints find a place here.
The rest:
Chief Judges' Man. Disqualified for not being an epic. I get that the original redefinition was a bit of fun to bring in more stories. However, the natural state of Dredd is an ongoing fight against all sorts of crime with occasional villains, plot threads and themes recurring over time as they would in life. Epics are the punctuation marks along the way which threaten to upset or at least resolve elements of this equilibrium. The CJM strand is very clearly in the former camp and it's a perfectly fine but unspectacular example. The background stuff about how it plays into the Edgar plot is more interesting than the individual stories.
Raptaur/
Dead Ringer. Have read both but neither left much of an impression.
Purgatory/
Inferno. I'm sure somebody's already made this joke but was Paradise when this rubbish finally ended?
Blood of Satanus III. I'm sure I'm not alone in being a bit ashamed of my comments on this story's original run in the Meg before I knew some of the reasons for it. What's left after that's acknowledged is a fairly incoherent story with occasional spectacular images. A good thing for Pat to have done perhaps, but not something I'm likely to revisit.
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