Are the Dredd crossover events (Batman, Aliens) a part of Dredd's Continuity?

[Dreddzilla]

I've been rereading the crossover events with the Aliens one being absolutely superb & was wondering if these stories exist in there own pocket ''universe'' or if they are a part of Dredd's overall continuity?

[Dreddzilla]

Oh, and please don't spoil the ending to Dredd vs Aliens for me as I haven't read the final issue yet.
Thanks!

[CrazyFoxMachine]

I should think so, the amount of mad shit that regularly takes place in Dredd's universe - Satan, Harry Potter dimension jumps, that whole Helter Skelter thing - the Batman, Aliens, Predator scenarios are actually fairly sound canonically.


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[Trout]

If it's not, it won't be mentioned again.

If it is, it will be.

I hope that clears it up for you.

[Cthulouis]

The first Batman one wrapped up loose Necropolis threads, didn't it? pretty good credentials for "canon".

[IndigoPrime]

With Batman/Aliens/Predator, the crossovers were also written by Wagner, which rather cements them in 'canon'. Whether they're ever mentioned/'canon' in the other series is debatable though (and in the case of Batman, somewhat unlikely).

[Dandontdare]

I'm of the opinion that unless it's unauthorised fan-fiction, if it was published, it happened, so I'd say yes.

The only examples of alternate canons would be the DC Dredds and the movie (with associated Lawman of the Future comic), both of which made significant changes to the background continuity of mega city one and the judges.

Some people would like to write off whole chunks of the 90s as non-canon (Purgatory/Inferno etc), because Wagner didn't write them, but I think they're kidding themselves!

[Greg M.]

I believe the crossovers are definitely canon - as Cthulois mentions, 'Judgement On Gotham' directly connects to 'Necropolis' and the Aliens one is directly connected to the story where Dredd meets Judge Prager again and discovers he's a werewolf (Mr. Bones from the Alien story is raising an army in the Prager story, if I remember right.)

[Jared Katooie]

I believe the crossovers are definitely canon - as Cthulois mentions, 'Judgement On Gotham' directly connects to 'Necropolis' and the Aliens one is directly connected to the story where Dredd meets Judge Prager again and discovers he's a werewolf (Mr. Bones from the Alien story is raising an army in the Prager story, if I remember right.)

Also in My Name is Death Dredd refers to the last time the Dark Judges escaped, thanks to "that Gotham clown".

I'm also pretty sure that the character of Sanchez from Dredd/Aliens has appeared since (in that story about the cure for the common cold?).

So: Dredd/Batman is in continuity.

Dredd/Aliens is in continuity.

Dredd/Predator is unknown, though there's no reason to suspect it isn't. Intriguingly, this story also makes The film Predator (and probably Predator 2) part of Dredd's continuity.

Dredd/Lobo is unkown, though again I'd say it is part of continuity.

My golden rule is: if Wagner didn't write it, it didn't happen.

So, as far as I'm concerned, [spoiler]Vienna never chose a career in soft porn to make ends meet, never acted like a petulant child because Dredd didn't pay attention to her, never had casual sex with a man she barely knew, never got pregnant with an unwanted child, and never had said child surgically removed from her womb and given up for adoption.  [/spoiler]

Uh, sorry, I kind of went off-topic there.

[Professor Bear]

Didn't Batman's cowl appear in that story about zombie Dredd on the moon?  Anderson's walkabout led directly to her seeing that bat/eagle vision thing that in turn led her back to the Meg for Judgement on Gotham.  It's canon in the same way (Friday) Rogue Trooper/Dredd is canon - never mentioned because it doesn't need to be given the nature and scope of the Dredd strip.

Dredd/Aliens was in the weekly, so I'd say it's canon unless specifically stated otherwise with a Johnny Alpha-style retcon, which seems unlikely.

I'm 80 percent sure Dredd/Predator got a mention in a later story - the Predator was simply mentioned as an alien of some description and not actually seen, though.

[Emperor]

If it's not, it won't be mentioned again.

If it is, it will be.

I hope that clears it up for you.

Spot on. Fans worry too much about canon and continuity but if there is no clear statements from the creators either way it is more a fan sport than anything the people writing and drawing the story care that much about. They'll use it if it helps the story and ignore it if it doesn't.

So stop worrying and enjoy the comics

[Professor Bear]

So that bit with the Statue of Judgement falling onto the West Wall is okay?

[W. R. Logan]

When were doing the research for Origins working out what was 'canon' was easy.
If it was written by John then it went down in black ink.
Anything else was red and then John chose whether to include it.
Crossovers and others writers work on the whole whilst not automatically discounted generally isn't counted.
John sometimes has trouble remembering every detail of what he's written over 30 years and generally hasn't read most others work and probably never will 8-)

[IndigoPrime]

So that bit with the Statue of Judgement falling onto the West Wall is okay?

Maybe it was on a tour... and a really really big trolley.

[Dandontdare]

So that bit with the Statue of Judgement falling onto the West Wall is okay?

I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. As a wiser man than me said:

stop worrying and enjoy the comics

If an inconsistency or continuity cock up means it's 'non-canon', most of Casefiles vol:1 would need to be discarded.