Running the Day of Chaos Storyline

Over the past few weeks, 2000ADonline have teased us with three minimalist logos and the warning that "They Are Coming," 2012 05 02.

Well, as part of the Day of Chaos storyline - indeed, to mark the actual Day of Chaos itself - the heaviest agents of Chaos have just been unleashed.

The three minimalist logos represented Dark Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis. Uncaged and unleashed on a town that already fears the Judges, half of which is on fire, and is aboil with the Chaos Plague.

Everything that has happened in the Day of Chaos storyline - the Hennessy Psi sisters, the capture of Elmore Yurges, the elections, the Chaos Plague, the attacks on the PSU and the Grand Hall, the nerve gas attacks, the People's Election nonsense (now all but forgotten), Vass' miscalculation, all of that - has just been a prelude.

Dear Grud. They are here.

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And now, John Wagner spoke out loud about the possibility of the three of them ganging up and bringing back front man Judge Death ... with Greg Staples at the art helm.

Catch up as far as Prog 1781 (2012 05 02) here.
 
Well, if you've come as far as Prog 1787 - 1789, you'll have now seen the Day of Chaos itself; and with Prog 1789 we're five days on from the worst disaster to hit MC-1.

About 350 million dead. The city outside the safe blocks, destroyed. The PSU and Academy of Law, gone. The Statue of Judgment, brought down. Walkways and elevated roads collapsing. Buildings on fire as far as the eye can see.

And between the buildings are seas, oceans, of bodies piled high. No slab visible between the bodies, as we could see in Prog 1788; just heaps and mounds of the dead.

I daresay that Judge Dredd stories set after the Day of Chaos won't look anything like the ones from before. I imagine that the calendar can be redefined as Before Chaos / After Chaos, as we have our CE / BCE divide.

This isn't like the usual plotlines, where after the disaster Dredd just shrugs and takes to the streets as before. From this day, there's no going back.

The Judge Dredd continuity just came, more or less, to an end, just like Traveller's Third Imperium with its Virus storyline.

I don't think I'd like to try and run a story set in these times.
 
Not sure what I think of this yet. On the one hand I like serious stories that show some meaty plots - so was really enjoying the start of this one, especially the East-Meg-One link as I was reading 2000AD way back when The Block Wars happened. On the other hand, I enjoyed the Dredd universe's humerous take on the bored and crazy citizens every now and then - I can't see this happening for a long while in a city devestated like this!

I do hope that (a) it wasn't all a dream or gets changed by time-travel; (b) it isn't the end of Dredd, with his motive in life now destroyed; (c) they don't simply repopulate the city quickly with aliens, mutants or people from a parallel dimension (clones may be okay?); (d) this isn'tan excuse to 're-boot the story from the start but now looking like the film.

Ironically,a much reduced city may look a little more like the one in the forthcoming movie, but the trailer clearly says it has 800m inhabitants...
 
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