Even today, the Judge Dredd universe doesn't feel boxed-in or hard to make sense of like with Marvel or DC's superhero comics. One thing I like about the long story arcs here is that they give the writers an opportunity to constantly throw in new and wacky ideas but still make them fit perfectly into the overall look and feel of the universe which remains consistent. Him and the biker Spikes Harvey Rotten both work perfectly as comic foils to the totally serious Dredd. We also get some more insight into how the futuristic totalitarian state of Mega-City One actually functions in organisational structure, and another humourous but just as hard-as-nails sidekick for Dredd in a homeless lowlife miscreant named Fergee. The other long epic storyline here, 'The Day the Law Died' is also quite good: A futuristic retelling of the corrupt Roman emperor Caligula's reign, right down to the tyrannical judge Cal appointing his goldfish deputy judge in reference to Caligula making his horse senator - one of my all time favourite laugh-out-loud funny moments in 'Judge Dredd'. didn't sue Michael Crichton or James Cameron, but I wager that if they did so then Roger Zelazny would sue them.

And just as Zelazny's 'Damnation Alley' inspired everything from 'Judge Dredd' to 'Escape From New York' and 'Mad Max', there are subplots in 'The Cursed Earth' that must have inspired other works of science-fiction: 'Jurassic Park' with cloned dinosaurs taking over a tourist attraction though here it's a rodeo rather than a zoo, robotic supersoldiers like James Cameron's Terminator, even a cute intelligent alien whose story plays like a cross between 'E. 'The Cursed Earth' has to be my favourite, it's clearly inspired by Roger Zelazny's classic novel 'Damnation Alley' right down to having a pardoned outlaw biker follow the Judges on their trek across the radioactive wasteland to deliver vital medical equipment to the other end of the country. You know, what I loved so much about the 2012 'Dredd' film except perhaps a level sillier. The bulk of it being long and ambitious story arcs that perfectly balance between suspenseful action-adventure, political drama and goofy British humour. This is where the 'Judge Dredd' series really starts hitting its stride and becomes what it's revered for today.

Judge dredd the complete case files 02