Why is Dredd the only comic series which can keep up its quality for almost half a century now?

i can actually see the Dredd from Cursed Earth hating, or at least not liking, the Dredd from America, that's how different the characters feel

Egh! Stupid Sexy Dredd.

I would say its less he changed and more the city and circumstances changed. The city has been through so much shit that he simply has to prioritize higher crimes and the civs as a whole don't give a fuck about being arrested for lesser things simply because for many it'd be a step up from their current situation. Even justice department is feeling the burn as they've become lax in their enforcement in rules by letting everyone and their mom run around without helms on (although I think that is more for meta reasons).

That said I think America and the story line involving the surfer are the furthest it went to show JD being a true asshole as he wasn't really the protagonist in them.

This. Wagner, and Alan Grant, defined the character and setting so well that it's hard to get it wrong. And far from stopping there, he also made sure to develop Dredd over the years, so it hasn't stagnated. It's a very good writer creating a solid vision for the character that remains to this day and is not swayed by editorial or marketing needs (mostly).

Yeah, it depends a lot on the writer. Mills originally wanted him to be a "Tough but Fair" hero cop guy, while Wagner pushed for him to be an inhuman bastard.
What's funny is that later on Alan Grant joined Wagner and he wanted Dredd to be even MORE of an inhuman bastard, and over time Wagner changed his opinion and started to push for Dredd to be more human, which led to them splitting up. Ever since, Wagner has been continually writing Dredd as someone who knows the system has flaws and is trying his best to correct them, while still firmly believing that system is the only thing keeping humanity alive.

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A combination of editorial oversight but not necessarily control and the sheer volume of production meaning that bad stories will ultimately be outnumbered by stories that range from passable to excellent.

Yup that’s the thing about Dredd, he can be either written to be an asshole, or someone who’s more compassionate and human. I remember someone saying the same thing about Conan, in that he was an asshole in the early stories, but over time became a more compassionate and honorable character around the time he became king.

>the story line involving the surfer
The funny thing about that one is that the ending was the last straw for the Wagner/Grant writing duo. Grant wanted Dredd to shoot Chopper in the back after he walked away from him, and Wagner wanted him to let him go. It perfectly highlighted the difference in approach they both had to Dredd, and they ended up parting amicably.

That said, if you want to see Dredd at the height of his asshole-ness, read "Revolution".

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Jimping is serious cube-time, creep!

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dredd's been shit for about five years

Let me guess: they made fun of the Orange Man, right?

I think it happened in the IDW imprint of Dredd.

Funny thing is Dredd always made fun of American culture but far more tactful than even Americans. However the president that fucked over everything (Booth) in Dredd's world

1. Was introduced decades before Trump's 2016 bid.
2. Trump nails Booth's character on every level.

I wonder, has there been any american produced Dredd that isn't complete trash? (not that I mind if they shit on trump, but I bet it was in the most simplistic, low-effort way possible)

fuck off you silly cunt I guarantee i've read more Dredd than you

Dredd's been shit because its a shit ton of writers trying to steer the strip and leave their imprint on the world and failing every time

I hate this shit, you fuckers even read America, Booth was bitter and bad but he wasnt always that way. Before he gained total control he had his reservations and worries

There's been a couple of great miniseries from IDW like Anderson, Mars Attacks and Year One, but they've all been written by 2000AD people so...

That said, I'm really enjoying the current False Witness story written by Brandon Easton.

There was a rough patch a bit after Trifecta where we got a bunch of long stories that started great and ended with a fart, but we've gotten past that and there's a bunch of new writers like Kenneth Niemand and Rory McConville who're doing an amazing job of writing just solid-ass Dredds. Plus, Wagner's new Mechanismo was a really cool change to the setting. So it's a pretty good time overall.

And at any rate, even that rough patch was better than the 90s.

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>America
Booth isn't in America. You're thinking of Origins. And Booth stole the election in that one and was presented from the start as a war-mongering bastard. It was based more on Bush Jr. than anyone else.

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Are they still dealing with Chaos-day fallout or did the status quo move on?

Moved on. Right before her stepping down and dying, Hershey confirmed that population numbers were close to pre-Chaos years, and while there's still pockets of ruined city here and there, by and large she's back on her feet. Unlike Hershey.

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Wait, how bad were the 90s for Dredd and 2000AD as a whole?

The thing about 2000AD, and to an extent Dredd, is that once their political commentary gets specific the quality of said commentary drops precipitously. Doesn't matter who the target is or what their position in the political spectrum, once they start commenting on specific people or organizations it goes straight to low-effort, juvenile shit talking.

Goddamn those Mechanismos look so happy to be enforcing the law.

RIP in [spoiler)what do you think of her last stand in Ciudad Barranquilla?[/spoiler]

Pretty bad, mostly propped up by great art and one very awesome new series near the end (Nikolai Dante).

Dredd in particular had a rough patch in the early 90s. Wagner left the comic after Necropolis and picked Garth Ennis as his replacement, who proceeded to write a bunch of very fanboyish throwback stories that were pretty mediocre. Then Mark Millar and Grant Morrison came on board and it became a mindless hardcore tough guy strip for a couple more years until Wagner came back. Neither of the three did anything massively canon-breaking that needed repairing, but it was a very marked step down quality-wise from Wagner.

I kinda wish they'd done it before she died in bed because I deeply enjoyed that ending for her, but so far it's been pretty OK (extreme pain aside). Plus, I appreciate that Williams has more or less admitted that they've been short-changing her for years.

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Wait, it wasn't that long ago and MC1 was so affected that most of the city suffered at least some damage, there were enough casualties that they had to resort to mass graves because they couldn't Resyk fast enough, and were considering corralling the survivors because they were having trouble with low population densities in parts of the city.