Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 9 of 38  2000AD The best example of such a crossover story was the lead strip, the extraordinary 'Judge Dredd'. This was a character who struck a chord with a wide readership, and who was introduced in the comic thus: 'Life is harsh in twenty-second-century Mega City One. Atomic wars have devastated the planet, and left it a mean and lawless place. Out of this chaos a radical new system of justice has arisen. Here law and order is upheld by a new force: the Judges. They are judge, jury and executioner, and Judge Dredd is the toughest of them all. Judge Dredd is the Law!' Yes, Dredd was hard but fair - but mostly hard - and there was much to enjoy in his (ironic) near-fascist behaviour. The kids loved the excessive violence, and the ruthless way he dealt with street scum ('Ten years, creep!'), while adults could chuckle at the nicely observed satire. There were witty plotlines about the democracy movement in Mega City, with apartment blocks named after politicians and pop stars, while there was much black humour in Dredd's over-the-top methods - his punishments typically far outweighing the crime. The strip's roots were certainly in the superhero genre, but Dredd was a more complex character than many of his American counterparts: there was a political ambiguity about him that made him fascinating. As one critical source has noted: 'Dredd is only Dredd because he is the opposite of the punks on the street - in whom we half-recognise ourselves ... The comic transposes us to "America" to play out the futuristic drama of the complete realisation of Thatcherite law and order politics. Dredd must be both hero and villain |