New to Judge Dredd (Where to Start)

[Odesio]

@Slade

I’m evidently in a minority here, but I actually prefer John Wagner’s later work on the strip. Mega City One ceases to be the one-note joke it was in earlier years and becomes more believable as a real future city. Dredd himself shows greater depth too, as he starts to doubt the way things have always been run there and finds himself dragged into city politics.

I have noticed that some of the more fantastic elements of Mega City-1 have disappeared over the years. I think volume 14 ends around 1987 or 88. Dredd’s trust robot Walter hasn’t made an appearance in a while, and, actually, it looks as though most of the robots that were doing all the work have also mysteriously disappeared from the world.

[Bakhesh]

If you are a comics fan, and want to ease yourself into the character a bit, there were some decent Batman vs Judge Dredd’s done in the 90’s.

“Judgement on Gotham” is worth checking out for Simon Bisley’s artwork alone

[Penfeather]

@Odesio

I have noticed that some of the more fantastic elements of Mega City-1 have disappeared over the years. I think volume 14 ends around 1987 or 88. Dredd’s trust robot Walter hasn’t made an appearance in a while, and, actually, it looks as though most of the robots that were doing all the work have also mysteriously disappeared from the world.

They used the Apocalypse War as an excuse to clear up a lot of the weird early stuff like the talking ape mobsters. Actually I liked the talking ape mobsters.

[Odesio]

@Bakhesh

If you are a comics fan, and want to ease yourself into the character a bit, there were some decent Batman vs Judge Dredd’s done in the 90’s.

“Judgement on Gotham” is worth checking out for Simon Bisley’s artwork alone

I’ve got a few of the Dredd/Batman team ups and I found them to be uniformly terrible. They were good Batman stories nor were they good Dredd stories. The art was pretty good though.

[Love_Rhombus]

A tiny hijack-esque question-how much of the flavor of the comic did the Karl Urban Dredd movie capture? I really enjoyed it, but I’ve never read any of the comic except for a Dredd/Batman issue that was indeed horrible.

[Penfeather]

@Love_Rhombus

A tiny hijack-esque question-how much of the flavor of the comic did the Karl Urban Dredd movie capture? I really enjoyed it, but I’ve never read any of the comic except for a Dredd/Batman issue that was indeed horrible.

It was light on the humour but otherwise extremely faithful to the tone of the original, and the casting and performances were first-rate.

[Odesio]

@Love_Rhombus

A tiny hijack-esque question-how much of the flavor of the comic did the Karl Urban Dredd movie capture? I really enjoyed it, but I’ve never read any of the comic except for a Dredd/Batman issue that was indeed horrible.

It got aspects of the comic book fairly well but I’m only caught up until 1990-91 so I am not sure if some things have changed. Dredd’s relentless devotion to bringing criminals to justice and enforcing the law was certainly present and Urban certainly got Dredd’s scowl right. It did get two things wrong about Dredd.

#1. Dredd doesn’t torture people. At least not physically. Movie Dredd beats the tar out of a handcuffed suspect to extract information out of him. Comic book Dredd arrested another judge for beating a confession out of a suspect.

#2. Movie Dredd executes criminals left and right. While comic book Dredd kills people on occasion, okay, quite often, he rarely executes anyone even if they’re murderers. Outside of a war situation the only person I can recall him executing is a guy who put poison in the air and killed over 700 citizens.

[Quartz]

@Love_Rhombus

A tiny hijack-esque question-how much of the flavor of the comic did the Karl Urban Dredd movie capture?

I didn’t spot any of the British satire that I recall reading Dredd 30-odd years ago.