Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 2

[Colin YNWA]

Sorry folks not sure why this didn't appear earlier - I thought I'd posted but must have done something wrong??? ANYWAY...

Look at the list of 8 Dredd stories below and tell me your top three:

1 (your favourite of the 8) will get 3 points
2 (your 2nd fav) will get 2 points
3 (your 3rd fav) will get 1 point

Advanced from the previous rounds:

The Chief Judge's Man - Progs 1244-1247, 1263-1266, 1342-1349

Raptaur - Megs 11-17

City of the Damned - Progs 393-406

Luna-City - Progs 42-59

Next four from Dredd Epics Ranked:

The Robot War - Progs Progs 9-17

The Mega Rackets - Progs 209-223

Doomsday - Progs 1141-1164; Megs 3.52-3.59

The Hunting Party - Progs 1033-1049

Voting will close on the morning of Saturday 27th February and the 4 Epics with the most votes will progress to the next round.

All links go through to AlexF's simply brilliant Dredd Epics Ranked blog. You may need to scroll to find his write up of a particular story - but I'd suggest just reading the whole thing anyway - it's fantastic stuff.

Baffled by what's going on here - well we have a a thread for that - though that might leave you more confused than anything.

Rules for what they are worth.

Not sure about anything just ask and I'll blag it.

[abelardsnazz]

Ah I see what you're doing now Colin, I thought this was going to be a new list of 8. Anyway...

1. City of the Damned. Nostalgic soft spot still elevating this to the top.
2. Doomsday. A bit unwieldy at times but it all comes together in the end.
3. Robot Wars. Testing the waters for a multi-part continuous story, it set the scene for much of what was to come.

[Bolt-01]

The Hunting Party.
The Chief Judges Man
City of the Damned.

[Magnetica]

Hmmmm.... there is really only one story here that I would consider to be an epic and so

1st place goes to Doomsday. Thing is it's distinctly "c" list; indeed I prefer some of the build up stories like The Scorpion Dance. The split narrative across the Prog and the Mega and the attempt to make you feel like you could follow the story in one without having to read both by showing key scenes twice was an interesting approach but was ultimately a bit unsatisfactory.

2nd Place goes to The Mega Rackets. It's undoubtedly one of my all time favourite Dredd series, but I have never considered it to be an epic. I guess by the definition being used in the tourney it qualifies as much as Luna City does. I always felt that Assault on I Block 4 which appeared three weeks after it (with Diary of a Mad Citizen in between) should have been considered part of the Mega Rackets.

I'm going to reverse my vote from the last round and give 3rd place to Luna City as although I never considered it to be an epic, as I have already said it's more of an epic than the others.

The Chief Judge's Man is definitely the 2nd best story here but I'm not voting for it based on weighting of its non-epic qualities.

[broodblik]

1. The Hunting Party
2. The Chiefs Judge's Man
3. The Mega Rackets

[AlexF]

I find it hard to judge this motley collection of epics without thinking of all their flaws first. They all have cheap or rushed endings, and some of them feel like a waste of a good idea. Going purely on which ones I'd most want to re-read, knowing that I'll be disappointed one more time...

1. Robot War - not just the first Dredd epic, but Wagner's first (published) Dredd! If only he'd written it a year later it could've been Verdus levels of awesome.
2. City of the Damned
3. Doomsday - which has to get some credit for being truly exciting week to week at the time, I remember getting some minor Necropolis vibes when Dredd assembles his team to take the fight back to Narcos. But the art for a lot of it is well rough.

[Dark Jimbo]

Chief Judge's Man - Still the most well-crafted tale here, even if it's one of the least innovative. Just a stylish Wagner thriller, and sometimes that's all you need.

The Hunting Party - It's a bit too picaresque and episodic, and the ending's a bit flat; but the fact is, most of the episodes are just so much damn fun. Great art, too.

Doomsday never quite comes to life in the way it should, but I love all the build-up, and it puts a lovely cap on the post-Pit years that rescued the Dredd strip. Some terrible art mish-mashes, but hey, that doesn't seem to have hurt City of the Damned so far!

[IndigoPrime]

1. Doomsday: I get the point elsewhere about the lack of build, but as a set-piece and finite epic, with a sort of movie-style progression, it's one of the better examples during Dredd's history. It also shows up the mess of Morrison/Millar epics for the trash they were.

Then the top ones from my previous vote:

2. Chief Judge's Man
3. City of the Damned

HM to Mega Rackets, which I think are superb, but stretch the notion of what an epic is far too much for my liking! Sorry!

[Barrington Boots]

This is starting to get interesting already. Some cool, if slightly flawed stories on the list.

1. Doomsday: Not my favourite epic, but it's a definite epic when some of the others are not. It's a bit clunky but it's still an exciting high stakes story that builds to a definite conclusion with a lot of callbacks to other stuff. I agree that the art doesn't elevate it as a whole.
2. Robot Wars: It's not as polished as stuff that came later but it's great.
3. Hunting Party: Mixed feelings on this as all the Dune Sharks, time travel and so on is bobbins, but the interplay between Dredd and his team is excellent.

HM to Mega Rackets: exactly as IP posted below me, I love these but I don't think they count as an epic. Also Chief Judge's Man which I still rate, but doesn't pip the above.

[Tomwe]

1) The Chief Judge's Man

2) The Robot War

3) City of the Damned

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

1. City of the Damned
2. Chief Judge's Man
3. The Hunting Party

SBT

[Rogue Judge]

1. City of the Damned (Had a real epic feel first time I read it, I had no idea about Dredd's eyes...I didn't see that coming!)
2. The Hunting Party (Really enjoy this series, and early Trevor Hairsine art is fantastic, really wish he had done more)
3. Chief Judge's Man (Great story and art...just feels less like an epic)

I liked much of Doomsday, but didn't like the Nero Narcos character at all (and that really uncomfortable diving board scene, just bad).

[BPP]

1st - City of the dammed
2nd - Chief judges man
3rd - doomsday

Doomsday is the only one of the new 4 I consider an epic. It's very flawed but at least it was an attempt.

[Funt Solo]

1st: City of the Damned - that Dillon art, Dredd getting his eyes poked out, that bit where he uses his commanding presence to disperse the vampire Judges. Old school vibe still kicks bottom.

2nd: Doomsday - great idea, even if it seems a bit by the numbers - lose the city, retake the city.

3rd: The Mega-Rackets - there's so much good stuff in this sequence - top art, great supporting covers - the synthetti men are out to get you!

[WhizzBang]

1) Chief Judge's Man
2) City Of The Damned
3) Luna City