Armitage. Why?

[Rio De Fideldo]

With the news that one of my least favourite series ever to run in the Meg is due to return I've got a couple of questions.

a) Why? It was the most boring po-faced story in the whole of the loosely banded together 'Dredd World' stories of the nineties Meg. Lets just bring back Harmony,Cal-Hab Justice and Brit Cit Brute and have done with it. And the Virgin Novels

b) Who is involved in this project? If its Dave Stone and the villain is that bloke in a wheel chair (Draco?)I'm not happy.

I'm not happy anyway.

Rubbish!

[Leigh S]

I have to agree - Armitage did nothing for me - it didnt do anything more than clumsily mould Morse and Dredd into a cliched, poorly thought through Brit-Cit full of stereotypes.

Of all the old Dredd world stories, I cant think of one I disliked more, mainly for squandering such opportunity on silly horror stories with nasty monsters (very Mark Millar in its repetitive obsession with gruesomeness and violence for the sake of itself/shock value - rather than being integral to the plot, the gore often WAS the plot)

[Leigh S]

mould?  By the way, it is Dave Stone, with John Ridgeway on art

[Rio De Fideldo]

Ridgeway is wasted on this and I haven't even seen it yet.

I knew there was something about it that I didn't like but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.You're right. It was the gruesomeness.

It was stories like this which I felt diluted the classic feel of Dredd.

Oh god this has got me thinking about the nineties meg. I've just remembered about that 'hilarious' Sumo storyline which appeared in the Dredd Special where you had to vote which characters got a recurring story line.  

They were bad

[Richmond Clements]

I always found that, with Armitage, I could never remember what was happening from one week to the next.
Then he would do something like hit the woman, which I suppose was meant to be shocking.
Was she a lesbian or something, I can't remember?

[opaque]

I liked Armitage and the novels but when it got into the City of the Dead it really sucked. Wrong sort of story and waste of the artist as well.
Much better when it was sticking to investigating the Brit society and it's past. I'd certainly like to see more of Brit-Cit that was shown in the novel.

[longmanshort]

I actually liked the early Armitage. It got ridiculous towards the end and the art sucked big time, but when it started the scripts and art really had, for me, that element of griminess that has always characterised British society along with the notion of a dark underbelly to Armitage's world that the judges don't normally touch. Also, I really liked the idea of the Brit-Cit police force having a plain clothes detective section - something about that which made me happy, can't put my finger on it though.

It did tend to borrow a little too much from Morse et al but on the whole I thought it had real potential, which was sadly wasted (like so much of the Dredd's world stuff). Looking forward to Mr Ridgeway's interpretation though and hopefully it can pull itself out of the mire after the break...

[davidbishop]

To create Armitage I took a few elements from Inspector Morse (grumpy old git investigates murders without a gun) and set them in a future Britain. I also gave Armitage a young black female partner, originally called Shanks. (Never name your characters after a toilet bowl manufacturer, otherwise they will haunt you in pub toilets everywhere.)

I then gave these very basic concepts and gave them to Dave Stone who developed everything else, creating his own vision of Brit-Cit, with its unique society, dark underbelly, class structure, etc. Sean Phillips created the look of the series, before handing it on to Charlie Adlard.

I thought the first two series of Armitage were an enjoyable change of pace from the usual style of Dredd story. But involving Armitage with Judgement Day was probably a mistake. The character was at his best solving homicides and aggravating authority figures.

davidbishop

[Woolly]

I realy liked Armitage, although i agree that he was never used to his full potential.
Glad theyve decided to give him another chance.

And John Ridgeway on art.....
Which is nice!

I know the later stories in the Meg were a pants, but lets give the old bugger another go.

Hes certainly better than Harmony, Brit-Cit Brute and Cal-Hab...

[Slippery PD]

I have to say I didnt mind armitage that much, first series for me showed its potential.  Then it kinda went down hill from there.  

Persoanlly we need a more introspective, self depracating and cynical counterpoint to Dredd.  I hoped that Armitage was it, it didnt reallwork to well....  Lets see what the next series is like!

Yer Slips

[Queen Firey-Bou]

I'm in agreement that the early armitage & the ideas there were good & had real potential, it then jumped around into all sorts of wierd places, that obviously didnt captivate me enough to even remember what the heck was going on or why it was annoying. Stories that escalate into shock horror blimey areas always get DULL dull dull for me. never a fan of the massed zombies & armagedons, tho the current Devlin is working well even tho is essentially a gore fest, i suppose cos theres a simple plot throughout & some interesting characters.

I'm happy to give armatige another go tho.
harmony was good til she turned into the blitz krieg what was that about? what a waste of a character.

[Woolly]

Latest Devlin tale is dull, dull, dull!

Its been going on for ages now and hardly much has happened at all!

Kinda annoying that Devlin keeps making crap comebacks, when Armitage is so long overdue a return.

This new series had better be good....!

[Rio De Fideldo]

Does anyone know how long the new Armitage series (choke) is due to last?

[Trout]

I liked the early Armitage too, and agree it went rapidly downhill during the Judgement Day stuff.

Can you imagine John Thaw wandering around stripped to the waist, pulling hidden laser guns out of his arm? Gobshite!

Anyway, I'm quite happy with a return. I'll judge it when I see it.

Hey, why's David Page not sticking up for his favourite strip? David?

- Trout

[The Monarch]

Just seen this thread...

Yeah definatly sticking up for this strip. fair enough the judgement day stuff was indeed a mistake but i personally love the series and waiting with baited breath for this...now all we need is canon fodder and i'll die happy