Comics of Infinite Earths: Gaze into The Face of Dredd!

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss the latest article by @Charles EP M. here.

 

[Thande]

This is really interesting! It's always fascinating to see what apparently iconic aspects of a character or story happened by chance.

 

[Alex Richards]

This is really interesting! It's always fascinating to see what apparently iconic aspects of a character or story happened by chance.

Or indeed because an apparently inconsequential thing gets picked up upon and run with.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Researching this dug up even weirder stuff, like how Dredd's debut strip was almost "Dredd executes various criminals in court and beats up a loudmouth for cheering too loudly, that's the whole story" because he was originally meant to be an even bigger bastard from the jump - and before that, he had a story where he sets communists on fire???

 

[Death's Companion]

I think we really dodged a bullet there. Yes its all accidents of history but decades on its impossible to imagine Dredd any other way. Though his toddler niece sticking around a while might have been fun. Some of Dredds best stuff is him imperfectly humanning or bouncing off Anderson or Giant or various people who could not be more different but just "get" that somewhere under all that Dread is someone who they can count on.

We see him play the father to two different versions of Rico as well.

Vienna with this totalitarian and often emotionally withdrawn father figure who refuses even around her to let his guard down for a second would probably have a hell of a lot of issues. You could write a lot of stories about her turning to crime or becoming a judge or whatever and whatever happens with her might be an earlier window into a more human Dredd.

It might also be an avenue for the America storyline, what if his niece is one of the protesters or one of the ones whose skull he smashes looks like her? Guilty Dredd is rare but golden.

 

[Charles EP M.]

It might also be an avenue for the America storyline, what if his niece is one of the protesters or one of the ones whose skull he smashes looks like her?

Oh snap, that probably would happen if Vienna had been around longer in 'real time' instead of dropping out to come back.