Judge Dredd And A Post That Goes Nowhere

Been a while! 

I'm glad to hear that This infamous Cursed Earth storyline will finally be published!

I'm a huge fan of Judge Dredd. From his very first adventures 'til now, 2000AD's Judge Dredd stories have proven time and time again that Brits are the Kings and Queens of satire. I won't go into the story of Dredd too much since I'll be here all day, but it's short-story formula allows for some amazingly varied satirical material to be made. 

Dredd himself never changes as a character. He is the same stone-jawed, ruthless, black-and-white fascist Today as he was in his '77 debut. The badge he represents is the dystopian symbol of authoritarianism and logic that Batman tries to avoid becoming in The Dark Knight. So how can a character that hasn't changed much in the last 40 years be interesting in the slightest?

The interesting aspect of Dredd strips is the level of detail given to Mega City One. The stories that take place within it's walls are everything from sci-fi to action, detective to horror, comedy to tragedy: MCO is essentially a character in itself. The anarchic city evolves around Dredd, who is restricted by the Law. We get to know Dredd by the descisions he makes within the city, which sometimes involves Dredd being pushed to side character. This works in the character's favour a lot, as Dredd is generally an unpleasant character, a villain even. 

This is even the approach taken in 2012's DREDD. I wrote my dissertation on this, so I've got plenty to say! Dredd is not the character who develops in that film, it's Anderson who has the interesting arch. As a failed novice given a second chance, she learns to deal with the harshness of the Law using her ability to empathise with victims - even though this is achieved through a breach of privacy thus rendering it immoral. Her ability that allows her to be a better tool for justice than Dredd, also lends itself as a better tool of torture and interrogation than Dredd. Ironic, really - considering Dredd is the uncompromising bully of the film, who proves himself as much of a threat to the public as Ma-Ma during the intercom scenes in Peachtree.

Clumsily coming back around to the point of this post, DREDD is a satire, using a short closed story to reflect on the post-9/11, ends-justify-the-means attitudes towards police brutality, the war on drugs and the NSA. Dredd makes for good satire because the world he lives in can be anything it needs to be. I've been lucky enough to have seen a bit of this storyline in the British Library, and I can't think of any other comic series that could possibly have been so malleable with it's subject material short of South Park. It can tackle any topic with any tone, and it will always fit into the overall adventures of Dredd, Mega City One, and the Curse Earth.