Judge Dredd vs. the Opium of the Masses

[skjam]

Judge Dredd has fought many strange foes over the years. Today's post is actually one of the less weird ones, more along the lines of a Batman villain.



3 1/3 pages of ten from Judge Dredd Megazine #303.





Some of you may already be interested in converting to Spugallism, as long as it requires no action more strenuous than clicking "yes."

The holy hoverpod lands in Ted Crilly Plaza (someone please explain the injoke here) and Pope Indolent XVII, a grotesquely obese man, is carried out by robotic palaquin bearers, sound asleep.

The nearly as large Mega City One residents who came out to greet Indolent on their own robotic couches react by continuing to relax. Even the Grudspiel on-the-spot reporter, Smurk Smedley, chooses to read a spaceport novel while picking his nose rather than go to the trouble of actually reporting. Lance decides that he too has embraced Spugallism, and ends the program by taking a nap.

Desk Judge Wattle is impressed that a thousand citizens are gathered in a public place and there's not so much as a raised voice.

Judge Dredd's reaction? "Prepare the riot foam."

Wattle notes that crime is down eleven percent since Spugallism became popular. After all, a citizen that does nothing is one who by definition isn't committing violent crime. And with a little creative marketing, perhaps the "Grud" part can be eliminated. Grud's always been more trouble than He's worth. Dredd prefers the devil he knows.



I will let someone who's actually studied Marxist philosophy explain what that out of context quote is meant to be about.



And there's the other shoe. Dredd contacts perimeter guards Reed and Dawson to ask why they didn't stop a bunch of people waving about swords, to which the other Judges reply that they're on a break. Then Control refuses to use the riot foam because it's such a bother to clean up. Wattle wonders what's going on...it's as though the Judges themselves have gotten religion. Even Dredd himself starts thinking he'd like to take a nice long hot bath right about now.

Dredd manages to fight through the idleness long enough to shoot one of the overachievers, but not before he's given the pontiff a really nasty belly wound...that isn't bleeding. It turns out "Indolent" is actually a robotic shell, hiding a much smaller man.



Dredd, now so enervated he can't even lift his gun, realizes that the Demotivator device works via hypersonics, and has his motorcycle pump white noise into his helmet . This blocks the effect long enough for Dredd to shoot the offending gadget.

Once the Demotivator is smashed, the MegaCity One residents default to their other moodstate, irrational aggression. This ends in a bloodbath. Doctor Demotivator's body is never found, though being trampled by dozens of robotic couches might simply have made him unidentifiable. Riot foam is finally deployed.

Judge Wattle is disappointed that the Demotivator was destroyed, as it would have been really useful for crowd control. At least there's still tranq gas. Reed and Dawson have finished rounding up the Overachievers, and are critiquing the club's singing performance. Dredd tells them to report for suspension until they've had a psychological evaluation--Judges should be dedicated to the Law above all, and obviously something else was more important to them that the Demotivator tapped into.



Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!

Comments

[proteus_lives]

I hope the new Dredd movie will be good.

[cainofdreaming]

I'm kind of hesitant to invest myself emotionally. Dredd movie without the dystopian future setting of Mega-City One just seems kind of partial miss. Not saying that it couldn't be a good movie, but will it also be a good Dredd movie?

[icon_uk]

What? They're trying to set Dredd in the present?

The Stallone Dredd movie may have sucked steaming donkey bollocks in terms of little things like character, plot and anything like adherence to the entire concept of Dredd, but at least it had the LOOK of Mega-City One down pat (and Stallone looked great as Dredd until he opened his mouth... Serisouly, his first line of "Eeeeyyyyyyaammmmdehlaaaaaa" and I knew the movie was borked beyond any chance of redemption)

What on Earth is the point of not setting it in the future?

[cainofdreaming]

I think it's more like near future, but the production shots I've seen look like regular modern city setting. The judges use cars that are in production today, etc.

And, yes, I said cars. Not Lawmasters.

So, like I said, I'm kind of hesitant about the movie.

[feyandstrange]

More things should be combined with performances of Gilbert and Sullivan.

[icon_uk]

It's up to each and every one of us in our everyday lives to make sure more are!

[feyandstrange]

Thank you for reminding me that a) I am still mad that my copy of the complete text of all the plays mysteriously disappeared, no thanks roomies, but b) I have the power to buy another one and stop sulking.

[bewareofgeek]

Ted Crilly = Lead character on the Britcom "Father Ted"

[skjam]

Thanks! Have never watched that show.

[insectposse]

I highly recommend doing so. Very funny stuff.

[digitalraven]

Ted Crilly Plaza is a reference to the title character of Father Ted.

[skjam]

Also thanks!

[whitesycamore]

I had nearly managed to get through the whole post without chuckling out loud until I reached the "meh" from the judge.

It's weird; the entire time I was reading this I had this strange feeling of... unambiguous enjoyment. Is that normal for comics?

[skjam]

It's rare, but not unthinkable.

[q99]

Normal for Dredd :)

[misterbug]

As I recall, Marx's naming of religion as 'opiate of the masses' came at a time when opium was more a neccessary medicinal anaesthetic than an addictive drug.

[skjam]

Ayup. It's actually a call for health care reform, because poor people couldn't afford decent painkillers and had to resort to prayer (which since Marx was an atheist, he obviously didn't consider very effective) to deal with pain.

[glimmung]

Thanks!

That bit of context is very interesting.

Odd turns of phrase

[blue_bolt]

"completely out of his tree"?

"of the first water"?

I thought this was dystopia, not an alternate reality.

Re: Odd turns of phrase

[skjam]

Britishisms, I think. Makes for some dissonance for readers who are aware that some of the unfamiliar words in Dredd's dialogue are not in fact future slang, but British slang of the Seventies.

Re: Odd turns of phrase

[kamino_neko]

I can see 'of the first water' being unfamiliar, but 'out of his tree'? Wow...I thought that one was damn common, and not just in the Commonwealth.