Origins/Backlash/Mega City Justice

spireite68 · 18 July, 2011, 08:41:04 PM

Well I have just read these three in the above order over the last week. They really go together as one mega graphic novel. They are all equally good as individual graphic novels but reading them one after the other really brings home the central mutant issue. The writing for me is top notch and I have to say that the three stories have become my fav ever Dredd storyline. It has everything for me. The way Wagner has developed the Beeney/Dredd relationship is genius(you get the feeling that one day Wagner will add a massive dose of irony by installing Beeney as Chief Judge). The banter between Dredd and PJ is brilliant especially the ending ("the vote was 4 for and 2 against I was one of the 2") which was pure Dredd. The characterisation of Seinfield is fantastic, a meglomaniac that equals Cal but without the madness.
Overall I would definitely recommend reading these three together.

Colin YNWA · 18 July, 2011, 08:55:00 PM

Its an idea I've been toying with for a wee while. Getting all the Wagner Dredd's since The Pit out and reading them in 'one' go. I'm thinking I'll add that to the list. It'll be a while coming but since I've got Dante, Sinister Dexter and Red Seas on the to read list I think its time this was added. I've be back to add my thoughts in a couple of years then!

Colin Zeal · 19 July, 2011, 10:49:54 AM

All of them are great stories. The scene with Buell, Garcia, Niles and other senior judges heading to arrest Sinfield was incredibly powerful and well done.

I, Cosh · 19 July, 2011, 01:17:15 PM

You really need to make sure you include all the relevant PJ Maybe stories from the Meg (going back to Six at least) and that one with the awful Ridgway art that introduces the New Mutant Army or whatever they were called.

And surely Colin can't start his lunatic project with The Pit either? For the sake of a dozen Progs, it would surely be madness not to start with Bad Frendz.

Colin YNWA · 19 July, 2011, 05:45:45 PM

Heck I've got time to sort out the detail but thats a very good point...

Jimmy Baker's Assistant · 24 July, 2011, 11:17:46 AM

Origins is a great self-contained story, but the Tour of Duty trades are imho somewhat incomplete. I was really looking forward to Mega-City Justice and, although it's fine, I do feel that a lot of the "peripheral" stories excised from the volume were in fact essential to give the story the epic scope it must have had in the orginal progs.

TordelBack · 24 July, 2011, 04:35:56 PM

That was my feeling flicking through the trades in the shop - the non-Wagner Tour of Duty stories really made it clear that Dredd's exile was a reality, that this was his new beat, now and forever, unless something drastic changed back in the Meg. Helped that most of those stories were superb in terms of both art and story.

radiator · 24 July, 2011, 04:44:24 PM

I would have been happy either way - in a way it's nice to just have the essential meat of the story, much as I enjoyed all the other spin-off tales from around that time. Dropping everything but the Wagner stories (save Mutopia) gives the books real focus, when they could have been a bit sprawling and uneven. The real shame is that they omitted both The Gingerbread Man and the PJ Maybe Megazine Christmas story - the PJ Maybe/Byron Ambrose thing must be pretty baffling to casual readers who only buy the trades.

Jimmy Baker's Assistant · 24 July, 2011, 05:14:32 PM

PJ has got Byron Ambrose's identity by the end of "The Complete PJ Maybe" and The Gingerbread Man is in "The Henry Flint Collection". I've got both so Tour of Duty just about makes sense!

Jared Katooie · 24 July, 2011, 07:10:09 PM

Quote from: Colin Zeal on 19 July, 2011, 10:49:54 AM
All of them are great stories. The scene with Buell, Garcia, Niles and other senior judges heading to arrest Sinfield was incredibly powerful and well done.

That's my favourite image from the story. Great moment.

Kudos · 02 August, 2011, 11:50:18 AM

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 19 July, 2011, 05:45:45 PM
Heck I've got time to sort out the detail but thats a very good point...

I had similar problems a while back... I wrote this somewhere else...

QuoteI was thinking today. Concerning Tour of Duty, the current Dredd epic. As is clear from my posts in this very thread I've been really enjoying the story so far. So many twists and turns, so many great characters. And very major changes to Dredd's world.

I was thinking about doing a re-read, but I got really confused as to where to start; With this particular story I suppose Mutants in Mega City One would be a good start. But then I thought I should start with Origins because the whole Mutant Issues thing has it's roots there. But then what about P.J. Maybe, a pivotal character in this epic; then I should re-read all the P.J.Maybe stories too, and what about Judge Beeny, sure, she's featured heavily in all the mutant stories since Mutants in Mega City One, and both she and P.J. were involved in the story featuring the second vote on the Mutant Issue. But her story starts way back with Bennet Beeny and America, so that would be me re-reading the three stories of the America saga too. (And I better not get distracted by Total War here, that's a whole other plot strand to consider) And after that I may need some backstory on Rico, Dredd's clone brother. He's out there working the Townships along side Dredd, so that's the Brothers of the blood GN to read too.
Can you see why I got so confused??

So, after al this thinking I decided on starting with the America GN and then the P.J. Maybe GN (with a quick pop into the Henry Flint Collection for the story of how P.J. actually became mayor), I own both so that's easy, and after them I'll move on to Origins and then on to Mutants in Mega City One starting in Prog 1542 and then pick out the relevant Mutant themed stories as I go. Mutants in Mega-City One then The Facility, then The Secret of Mutant Camp 5 followed by The Spirit of Christmas and Emphatically Evil: The Life and Crimes of PJ Maybe then ...Regrets and then Mutie Block, then Backlash and finally Under New Management which kicks off Tour of Duty.

I suppose what all this long winded rambling post is about is this. Just look at the backstory to this current epic. Tour of Duty may have started in Prog 1650 but it has characters and plot strands going back years, decades even. And I think that is bloody brilliant.
John Wagner has done an amazing job here, it just shows how well he know the universe of Dredd and how he can weave all these strands and all these characters to create this story; a new beast in the world of Judge Dredd epics, a story of change, of characters and what they stand for, a story of real depth and scope.
And I can't wait to start re-reading it all

This was before the two Tour of Duty GNs had been released, they sure make the re-read easier...
Good luck with your own chosen reading list