Prog 1869 - Psyche Out!

[Molch-R]

Titan leaves me with the question of what has happened to Dredd to make him act like this and why does Gerhard need to tell him what he should be thinking?

Because he's just had the shit beaten out of him over and over and over again, and had his mind near disintegrated in a blatant attempt to strip him of his humanity?

[Alien Goodness]

The cover was brilliant this week, I have to say!

One thing we'd all agree on I'm sure. Amazing cover.

Agreed!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[8-Ball]

Titan leaves me with the question of what has happened to Dredd to make him act like this and why does Gerhard need to tell him what he should be thinking?

Because he's just had the shit beaten out of him over and over and over again, and had his mind near disintegrated in a blatant attempt to strip him of his humanity?

Well, now you're just being reasonable.

[TordelBack]

I have a theory.

I think Titan started out as an idea for a Low Life strip, and then Rob hit upon the idea of using Dredd instead of Dirty Frank to go after Nixon, with the increased sense of seriousness and scale and the Trifecta-ish echoes the crossover reveal entailed.  This might explain why Dredd's presence seems totally superfluous to the plot, why Nixon seems so invested in breaking him, and the relationship between Gerhart and Dredd replaces what would have been the central relationship between Frank and Nixon. 

Just an idea, not presuming to suggest that this is what actually happened.  Be interested to hear Rob's thoughts all the same.

[JOE SOAP]

Titan leaves me with the question of what has happened to Dredd to make him act like this and why does Gerhard need to tell him what he should be thinking?

Because he's just had the shit beaten out of him over and over and over again, and had his mind near disintegrated in a blatant attempt to strip him of his humanity?

But why bring him to Titan just to do that?

[Frank]

(Dredd's) just had the shit beaten out of him over and over and over again, and had his mind near disintegrated in a blatant attempt to strip him of his humanity

I thought the way the final pages of Titan managed to convey the purpose of Nixon's beat down with such narrative economy, and without either Dredd or Gerhart explicitly stating that point in an exchange of florid, declamatory monologues about them both having been made something less than human, was one of its major strengths.

Leaving the resolution of what means Gerhart is still running around like the Energiser bunny to the penultimate page, and even then only inferring that Gerhart is now mains rechargeable by the word he singularly fails to use (human) when explaining which parts of him the surgeon's knife can't excise, and which cannot be found in the mechanic's toolbox, is great writing.

It's interesting that what Gerhart clings to and appeals to in Dredd isn't the humanity which has been largely burned out of them both, but their status as judges. In the end, Titan turned out to be a story about what being a judge means leaving to one side, what replaces that part of you, and what happens when even that is taken away. When this story started I was expecting Alistair MacLean's Where Eagles Dare, but it turned out to be Primo Levi's If This Is A Man.

[Molch-R]

But why bring him to Titan just to do that?

Because that's where Aimee is?

[JOE SOAP]

But why bring him to Titan just to do that?

Because that's where Aimee is?

Rather than it being a literal question of the geography of the plot, I meant it more as a question of the plot in general and what was Dredd's function in it apart from him being the titular Judge. This is not a complaint but it's something that stuck out.

[Spaceghost]

But why bring him to Titan just to do that?

Because that's where Aimee is?

it's even more arbitrary when you consider that Nixon states that she wasn't particularly expecting Dredd to be the one sent to investigate. Her plan, and indeed the entire story, would have played out exactly the same if Dredd hadn't been there.

If there'd been a few extra episodes and maybe a subplot involving Sinfield wanting to defy Aimee and get revenge on Dredd, I would have found Titan far more engaging. It's not a bad story, I just think it was in some respects a missed opportunity.

[Steve Green]

Back to Stront...

I'm a little surprised that Precious Matson hasn't appeared in the Mutant Spring arc, since she was hanging around Alpha in Blood Moon, and instigated his resurrection in the first place.

[Goaty]

Titan - it open and end with simple moment, snowflake on Dredd/Nixon's hand... Any explain theory on that?

[Frank]

Titan - it open and end with simple moment, snowflake on Dredd/Nixon's hand... Any explain theory on that?

It's a recurring visual motif throughout the story. Dredd interprets the white spots in his vision as he almost blacks out from the strain of the yomp to the prison complex as snowflakes, and the opening page of the final episode represents the orbiting bodies of the Titan staff as falling flakes too. The level of thought which has gone into the visual storytelling of this strip and the extent to which images, actions, speech and character motivations have been allowed to remain ambiguous rather than over-determined are its greatest strengths, for me:

[TordelBack]

I'm a little surprised that Precious Matson hasn't appeared in the Mutant Spring arc, since she was hanging around Alpha in Blood Moon, and instigated his resurrection in the first place.

She spent ages, and a small fortune finding and rehabilitating Johnny, but she's a writer based on Freedonia.  Johnny stumbles into the sterilisation plot by accident, and hasn't left New Britain since it began - indeed the only off-world contact he's had was via Middenface's call to the Doghouse.  There hasn't been any reason, or time, to involve her. 

Although I suspect we'll see her before the end.

[Steve Green]

Yes, but I'd argue that as soon as the Doghouse knew, Middenface would have ensured that word would have gotten to her since she had invested so much and it was such a major story - maybe she had off-page, or it's just her relegated to narration panels.

It's possible I will enjoy it more as a collected read, but I much prefer the Project to the current arc.

[Richard]

Middenface has had more improtant things to do.