It’s worth noting that in American comics, there is a reason for why it’s not unusual to have corrupt cops, lazy police chiefs, mayors on the take, evil presidents, or cities where the heroes do the job of the police—sans the pay. Then again, if they were paid they would be government superheroes and that’s always proven to be a problem.

No, the reason for this lies in the Comics Code. The short of it was that in the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S was in the throes of one its many moral panics/witch hunts. Some stuffy lobbyists, busy-bodies, and politicians came to the conclusion that comics were part of thing ruining the youth—along with devil’s music, devil’s lettuce, and whatever other “subversive elements.”

The Comics Code Wasn’t Having It

Actually, this was just part of a larger witch hunt but that gets into politics and history. One of the terms of the Comics Code involved how law enforcement and government officials are depicted. This particular rule from the 1954 code:

Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.

This meant for years, police weren’t to be depicted as corrupt or patsies—even if Batman is doing all their heavy lifting or they’re in a standoff with a bank robber and need Superman to walk them down. You would see both situations in those early comics—before the writing got better—and it’s just vigilantes helping the cops.

Actually, the cops were more accepting of adults in underwear solving their problems back them. The pre-hatred of paperwork days.

That rule was also tied into other rules that made it hard for layered, poignant stories to be written without taking some risk as was the case with EC Comics and the stories they often published. Hell, an iconic franchise like The X-Men had to work around these restrictions. At the time, Marvel Comics set out to produce a superhero group that reflected times while also tackling issues of the times while going on adventures and facing down threats.

Mutants were considered different from humans but you had these other Marvel titles where superhumans were lauded for saving the world or stopping the criminals. The X-Men would do the same but faced prejudice. It’s not like the difference between mutants/mutates/gods/disguised aliens were known to 1960s 616 dwellers.

However, that rule meant that the U.S government couldn’t be depicted as a force of oppression. Another rule tied to this meant that Magneto couldn’t be sympathized with nor could Senator Kelly be punished for targeting mutants:

Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.

Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.

In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.

If you present bigotry and racism as an evil, Kelly should be punished but you can’t depict the government unfavorably—even if it’s just the one guy pushing for mutant killing robots. And you certainly can’t have people warming up to Magneto and feeling “Well, Robert Kelly is such a d**k maybe Magneto ain’t wrong.”

Again, rules for comics written during a time when the country was involved in war and social issues—and there was a distrust of the government by people who got shafted and soldiers left out to dry.

By 1970s, those themes were explored and the writing became less “Aquaman saved some sailors” and more “What is Superman even fighting for if you’re all treating each other like this?”

A Dreddful Use of Power

My favorite depiction of the ineffective/incompetent authority in western comics has to be President Robert Booth from the Judge Dredd franchise. This guy was the prime example of “Don’t let him have the launch codes.”

I’ve said a lot about Judge Dredd, Booth, and the world of Dredd over the years but someone who could cause a global nuclear apocalypse as well as a civil war off of big d**king—incompetent. The 22^nd century is a mess and the only effective authority happens to be the Judges. Sure, there’s issues among the Judges and with each decade of publication their power seems to weaken but it’s better than being under Booth.

I suppose you could say that Booth was effective at destroying the world or rather d**king the world, especially with all the mayhem that followed as the U.S and other countries got back “normal”.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

For instance, one trope I hate is the naming of characters and places in most fantasy anime. Normally, the names are European in nature—nothing unique but expected. However, it gets ridiculous when the names are lengthy. When this happens, the name is announced by some haughty noble with an obnoxious amount of self-importance.

It annoys me because it tends to happen more than once in the series because this character is part of a larger family, so them and their siblings all have four or five names, a title, an heir ranking, and so on. I don’t know, many one of the snooty nobles becomes a friend of the main character. You know how it goes.

On that note, the fantasy series Bastard!! can be disgusting with this particular trope as Kazushi Hagiwara uses heavy metal references. I mean, some of the band names and musicians would make for cool character, attack, and location names…I just can’t stand by a spell called “Stryper” blocking a spell named after Slayer.

Sure, 80s Stryper was very good with releases like Soldiers Under Command and To Hell with the Devil, but those albums aren’t Hell Awaits or Reign in Blood.

Incompetent Authority in Anime and Comics

But this is AfroGamers, not The Black Rock and Heavy Metal but Bastard does present us with our featured trope—and a favorite of mine: incompetent authority and government. In the first few episodes of Bastard, the kingdom of Metallicana comes under attack by several powerful foes.

Well, they’re powerful for season one, first half of the season enemies. They’re definitely above the knights’ skill level and paygrade as far as threats are concerned. The kingdom’s council/king’s advisors all elect to summon a sealed away evil wizard—Dark Schneider—to defend them. Summon an old, easily agitated, lecherous magical wild card who tried to turn your kingdom into a parking lot a decade and a half go…to defend said kingdom.

Things have gotten to a state where the kingdom is just down horrendous when you’re asking opps for help. To say the kingdom is weak would be inaccurate, they just can’t deal with the threat of magic and mayhem. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, that’s why characters like Doctor Strange, Brother Voodoo, The Sandman, and Spawn are around: magic and the paranormal have a tendency of messing things up differently from alien agendas and super science.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what the nature of the threat is, whatever authority is in charge is typically ineffective at what they do. In the case of Bastard, the council repeatedly requests Tia Noto Yoko to unseal Dark with her virgin’s kiss whenever a threat arrives. You could say that the kingdom had 15 years of peace and didn’t need to bolster its defenses for similar foes but I don’t know maybe…build your forces up anyway. Just as a precaution.

I don’t what the case in the Super Mario Bros franchise is but the Mushroom Kingdom is ridiculously poorly defended. Bowser might as well just walked in each time and snatched the Princess. He never needed his airships, Clown Car, or Koopa Troopas. Now depending on what you think Mario and Luigi’s origins in this other world are—whether they were born in the Mushroom Kingdom or fell in there—entrusting the rescue of a head of state to plumbers just seems irresponsible.

Seriously, where does the confidence come from in that decision? It’s probably the same brilliant minds who figure bringing randoms from another world/dimension to solve their world’s problems is a great idea.

It’s not. There are always additional problems in isekai summoning such as a religious powerhouse or a cult/conspirators working behind the scenes. They’re the wrench in the works. Sure, there’s a world-destroying threat and we’re on a schedule but that doesn’t stop nobles, royals, and clergy from complicating the whole situation.

At the moment, isekai is my favorite manga/anime/manhua genre and this trope always stretches out the story just enough to provide lore and a constant, looming threat to the world and the MC’s quest. If authority just worked as it should, the MC might not be needed half of the time. In these series, the MC is basically a heroic janitor—who might have a blessing or cheat—here to clean up these otherworlders’ issues.

You know, so they can eventually go home.

We can’t get into ineffective authority without touching on Western comics but that’s a-whole-nother piece because there are too many examples to list! Share your favorite or least favorite instances of bumbling or ineffective authority in a series!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Judge Dredd’s Awareness and Adaptability

Judge Dredd is a clone of the greatest Chief Judge ever—Eustace Fargo—at his physical peak. As “The Father of Justice”, Fargo was seen as the perfect cop in every way. Dredd has those genres as well as training from childhood. Think of it as Bruce Wayne training in gymnastics, ninjutsu, and other marital arts from a young age while pursuing engineering and detective sciences.

Dredd was trained to be a physical menace of an officer. However, this is Mega-City One! Criminals come in all shapes, sizes, motivations, and boldness. The judges never know who or what they will run into! Sometimes, the problem isn’t solved with something like a raid or simple arrest.

So, these judges are also schooled on investigative sciences and the law from an early age. Judges remove the need for a court room judge and prosecutors except for extreme cases. While there are departments for advanced investigation and detective work, usually a judge’s awareness and on-the-street investigative skills are enough to sentence people on the spot.

Dredd is another beast. His awareness and adaptability are ridiculously high. When you factor in how much experience he already had in his 2000 A.D debut and the experience he has now, it’s no wonder he is still the top cop even though he’s older.

He can survive and avoid situations someone his age might react slower to with little effort. Dredd moves better than Batman did in Dark Knight Returns. There was time when Batman was depicted as just knowing what a substance was just by observing, smelling, and feeling it. Eventually, that gave way to sometimes using advanced technology.

While that’s cool and one of my favorite part of Batman are the gadgets, Judge Dredd is still very much old school Batman, old school detective. He just knows whatever a substance is even though he has access to technology. Rarely does anything get past Judge Dredd.

Dredd Doesn’t Miss

Now, this isn’t true as there have been times when Judge Dredd missed his shot. However, he rarely misses. I’d say that if Dredd missed, he was using the wrong ammo. His gun, the Lawgiver, is capable of different ammo from the same cartridge and his ricochet rounds have come in handy more than once.

If anything, if he fails the first time and figures out a weakness or opportunity—which Dredd always does—he’ll get his opponent the second time around. That’s definitely one of his strengths: there is always a round two if necessary.

Usually, it’s one and done but sometimes these Mega City-One scumbags can be a little craftier than expected or it’s an ambush situation. Dredd is never fooled more than once. I’d also factor this into his high level of adaptability as mentioned above.

Like any good hero leading a series, there’s some level of learning from defeats or draws. A hero who doesn’t is one that is often done for comedy or is simply a hero who is meant to fail. Dredd is one who learns from previous situations and the present one.

Remember, Dredd stories are often told in shorter form. Things move much quickly than in longer form comics and will be wrapped up sooner. It’s just the pace of Dredd stories but on top of that, Dredd just ties his business up sooner.

He doesn’t have many reoccurring foes or mortal enemies for a reason. Those who are his mortal foes are often beyond his reach as a mortal judge and not someone that he arrested and are somehow free again.

Dredd is Fighting Aging and Winning

Going back Batman in Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne is fighting aging and losing. He’s carrying out his mission but his body isn’t having any of it. Meanwhile, Dredd is aging and kicking its ass—and his aging in canonical! His stories in 2000 A.D are told over the years throughout his career and adventures.

While there are different adaptations being published, all of the Dredd stories are within the main timeline of events for several of the 2000 A.D series. He’s seen tons of gnarly things, run-of-the-mill dirt bags, remnants of the past, and even otherworldly beings.

It’s all nothing different from other heroes in any other comics but it’s all done without reboots or restarts. The writers just pick things up with what previous writers presented and that’s part of these characters’ backstories.

You could say that’s more of a nod to the writing than just Dredd being near immortal but sometimes it’s great to see a hero in changing world as opposed to a rebooted or retconned world brought up to date. Everything changes around him, characters die, new threats arise, deals and treaties breakdown and it all happens over time.

That’s always been an issue with me and comics, the lack of a sense of time. Events and villains come along back-to-back, sometimes the time between these events aren’t specified or anything. However, due to the number of comics within a particular timeline, some events that occur in Doctor Strange might be behind-the-scenes in X-Men or The Avengers.

That ultimately gives writers wiggle room to reboot a timeline. Dredd has supernatural elements in some stories but the presence isn’t strong enough that a whole timeline can be reset so that Dredd doesn’t age.

Nope, he’s just duking it out with Father Time and keeping Mega City-One as safe as it deserves to be.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Power Rangers Always Had Potential as a Universe

The way that the Power Rangers franchise is done now is that the show runs in Japan and are later cut up in the West to where the action scenes remain but relevant out-of-Ranger mode, outside of monster battle scenes are filmed and added to make a new show.

If you watch any tokusatsu with subtitles, you’ll notice it’s an entirely difficult show from what we get in the West. Actually, some such as the Kamen Rider franchise are a little more violent and intense that the few series we got during the 90s and 00s.

Then again, Power Rangers was always geared towards kids. It’s colorful, there’s fighting, monsters, and explosions—it’s a live action shonen-oriented anime, basically. It’s also one that should’ve been moved towards being a universe series earlier.

In its current form, PR tends to run for a few seasons before moving on to a new generation of Rangers. Sometimes older Rangers will return as part of a new series or there will be reunion shows where the OGs fight alongside the new generation Rangers.

However, there aren’t several series running at one time with crossovers. That’s why eOne’s approach of a cinematic universe of television shows and films is so intriguing.

Making a Cinematic Universe on Netflix

The franchise as well as eOne—Entertainment One—are owned by Hasbro which also has Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering in its war chest. With Disney+, HBO, Paramount, and other networks and companies with a streaming wing having the means to create cinematic universes from many franchises.

Right now, doing that with anything that is a superhero franchise—which the Power Rangers are—or superhero-adjacent is the way to go. Disney+ manages to do this not only with its Marvel holdings but also Star Wars.

Netflix has series that should finish out or get to a possible third season before jumping at that idea but Power Rangers give them greenlight off the bat. It’s a familiar franchise known the world over and it has been that way for almost 30 years in the west. People know PR and there’s never been a generation of viewers where the franchise hasn’t been on the air.

It’ll be interesting how eOne goes about it because looking at the early series, some of it happened around the same time as Might Morphin’ Power Rangers chronologically. Also, even though one villain is defeated doesn’t mean that a hero’s work is done.

Actual Storyline Build Is Here!

Actually, the Angel Grove crew of Rangers should’ve always been on guard before passing the torch to a new generation. Instead—as a kid in the 90s—we just got new Rangers shows such as Zeo and Turbo. Both were cool series but they just kind of appeared with the other Rangers simply moving on besides Tommy Oliver—the original Green Ranger and White Ranger.

In a cinematic universe, we won’t have that “here are some new Rangers” approach. There would be a build to a new generation and the current generation would work alongside another group of Rangers elsewhere.

Hell, we might even have the Angel Grove Rangers show along with Rangers on another planet or in another time. It’s all very exciting. I’m hoping we get a show about the origin of the first Power Rangers because to be honest, Zordon and Alpha were just in Angel Grove for what seems to be years and bestowed the power of the Rangers on five teenagers who showed no prior qualification to be Rangers.

Not only that but they just took to the role. It wasn’t until late in the first season and early in the second season that the Rangers started to have issues being Rangers and even then, it was a monster-of-the-week issue.

While we see monster-of-the-week on The CW DC shows with each different villains harassing one city, those heroes have issues outside of being superheroes and those villains return often. There’s no way we’re going to see Power Rangers on Netflix in the 2020s running a monster-of-the-week approach without any return or whatever. That’s just lazy and tacky.

Bringing In Other Heroes from Saban Series

What I’m hoping for is that we see other Saban heroes and teams. Masked Rider was my favorite of all of them even though the show flopped in the U.S. Servo from Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad would be cool to see as well. The series wasn’t Saban but no one’s claiming the Samurai Syber-Squad.

I wouldn’t even mind seeing the Big Bad Beetleborgs make appearances. When you have a superhero show any time after the 2009 and another hero makes an appearance, they’re likely to get a show. It would just be cool for both older fans and a new generation of fans to see a new spin on all the cool stuff Saban gave my generation during the 1990s and Netflix and eOne might just be able to pull it off well.

Discuss it! What would you like to see this tag team do with Power Rangers? Keep it focused purely on the Rangers or expand it? More films than shows? A more mature approach? A nice mix for everyone? Let us know!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Here are three times when not only the city but the country—everyone—failed a hero.

Spawn’s Country Failed Him

Let’s warm things up with one we’ve talked about in the past. Detroit native Al Simmons was a top-tier lieutenant colonel in the U.S Marines as part of Force Recon. He moves up to become a member of the Secret Service and eventually the CIA.

In the CIA, he becomes an assassin and is dropped into various hotspots and the like carrying out dirty work for the U.S. Simmons becomes disillusioned with work as it isn’t how he wanted to serve his country.

He’s a good man who does very bad things and it wears on. On a mission in Botswana, his boss Jason Wynn orders Simmons’ field partner—who later becomes Chapel—to kill him.

Burned to death, Simmons is sent to Hell—half because his mother was worshipped the devil and half because his great grandfather survived a lynching but refused to sell his soul—so his soul was damned off the bat.

The rest is history: he wants to see his wife again, makes a deal with devil, and is sent back to Earth as one of the devil’s soldiers as Spawn. Yeah, the country failed him hard.

The Big Bang in Dakota’s Paris Island

Most of this list is how the country failed eventual vigilantes. In a case of the city failing the heroes you don’t have to look further than the early 90s—and recently revived—Milestone Comics imprint. Especially the 1993 comics from the publisher.

The Big Bang—inspired by Black urban legends—was an event where several street gangs went to a spot in Paris Island for a big end-all-be-all fight for control of the island. With such a large event, of course the police are notified and the mayor greenlights the use of an experimental tear gas of dubious origins and research.

What results is death and/or mutations both horrific and amazing. This is the birth of villains and heroes in Milestone Comics’ Dakotaverse such as Virgil Hawkins who becomes the popular Static, his foe/school mate Francis Stone who becomes Hotstreak, and my personal favorite of the Milestone series, the superhero group Blood Syndicate.

Dubbed “Bang Babies”, there’s no way to say that they weren’t failed by their city. As a matter of fact, with any incident where characters are failed by their city or country, the situation is covered up.

The Death of Tak Se’Young’s Parents and the Trauma of Siyeon in Rooftop Sword Master

When this article is dropped my review of Rooftop Sword Master might have already been posted or you can expect it sometime after this one. RSM is a superhero fantasy revenge tale about a rail-thin victim of bullies who becomes a sword-wielding, muscle bound behemoth and sets out to gain revenge for himself, his girlfriend, and his parents.

After an incident that leaves middle schooler Tak in a coma and his girlfriend locked away in a mental hospital, his parents try to appeal to the public for justice. The bullies went unpunished, their parents went unbothered, and they were so rich and powerful that the whole thing was covered up.

They get nowhere and end up immolating themselves in front of civilians as a last-ditch effort to get the government to do something about it.

After coming out of a coma, living alone, depressed, unable to do anything about it, Tak gets a blessing of sorts in a large otherworldly sword. The sword gives him powers and immense strength and now he has the means to handle it directly.

Violence and revenge are never the answers but the city failed Tak and everyone close to him so horribly that violence and revenge seem pretty damn reasonable. After all, the incident was largely covered up until his parents killed themselves and something had to be done.

On that note, the government failed further as the bullies were only expelled, their parents issued a public apology and sent their kids out of the country, and Tak got hefty compensation. The bullies still have their parents and got to live life while he’s mostly orphaned—outside of his aunt.

Bruce Wayne’s Parents Were a Pack in the Batman Franchise

The Batman franchise has been around since 1939, so everyone knows Batman. He comes into existence because his parents are killed by a mugger or hitman often identified as Joe Chill but the police are unable to do anything about it.

Not only do the police fail Bruce Wayne but Gotham City in general fails him. Hell, the city is such a mess that it fails multiple characters—heroes and rogues alike.

As a result, it ends up with corrupt police, a commissioner who tries his best to turn things around, a ton of criminals and crime bosses, and a hero who breaks the law not merely for revenge but also to make sure no one else goes through what he went through.

Gotham City messed a bunch of people up, folks.

Aunt May Was On Death’s Bed During Marvel’s First Civil War

A while back, I discussed why I enjoyed the original “Civil War” story arc from 2006 and 2007. Two groups of heroes duked it out in a series of battles over the “Superhero Registration Act”.

The Act was meant to reign superheroes and superhumans in as they were too destructive even when doing the right thing or protecting others. It had been batted around for some time and is technically a wider version of the “Mutant Registration Act” from decades earlier—or years earlier if we’re going by Marvel’s mess of a timeline.

Peter Parker sides with Tony Stark who is in favor of SRA. The Act is supposed to hold everyone accountable for their actions—basically making them government employees. As a trade-off and to answer the concerns of technically vigilantes about their families and private lives, civilian relatives are supposed to be protected.

Given upgraded gear, Spider-Man is presented as a poster boy of the pro-SRA side. Part of being the poster boy is revealing his true identity as Peter Parker. Not only does this prompts J. Jonah Jameson to sue but also his enemies start making moves after he Spidey defects to the anti-SRA side.

While in hiding Aunt May is critically—technically mortally—wounded by a sniper bullet. Aunt May probably would’ve remained safe if Peter remained with pro-SRA side, so Peter failed Aunt May in that respect.

However, with the direction that the Registration Act was going, Peter was failed by the government. If things had gone differently and if some semblance of peace between the opposing sides could’ve been achieved things obviously would’ve gone differently and no one would’ve been annoyed by the “One More Day” arc.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

“Influential” in this sense means if the listed comic anthology resulted in either characters being continued and eventually getting their own series in a comic universe, a publisher or imprint being established, or writers and artists going on to bigger work in the industry.

An “attempt” where there is an anthology but once it ends—usually early—you hear nothing else of the talents at a larger stage or the works created just return to void isn’t going to make the list.

We’re looking at stuff that was built to last, not stuff that came in last.

Weekly Shonen Jump (1968-)

One of the oldest long-running comic anthologies on this list, Weekly Shonen Jump is definitely the most influential anthology out of Japan and the most influential anthology going now.

Manga readers increased globally as a result of the late 90s anime boom, Weekly Shonen Jump manga scanlations, and eventually the release of Shonen Jump in the West in the mid 2000s.

WSJ had a huge role as it made it possible to follow storylines regularly instead of dealing with the illegal nature of scanlations and not knowing if a studio would continue an anime.

Plus, the number of popular anime franchises that had their beginnings in Weekly Shonen Jump or were re-ignited is not to be overlooked: Dragon Ball, Gundam, Inuyasha, Ranma ½, One Piece, Naruto, Fairy Tail—the list goes on.

Marvel Amazing Fantasy (1961-1962, 1995-1996, 2004-2006)

This comic anthology underwent several name changes in its time. The series was based around a mix of science fiction and fantastical adventures. In the early 1960s, Stan Lee was the main writer and stories were mainly based off of outlines with artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko filling things in.

As comic book writing was still very in the “monster/villain of the week” format, the stories didn’t need much to fill five or six pages and as Lee admitted, a lot of the comics were created to fill out the rest of other anthologies.

Marvel Amazing Fantasy is influential in introducing The Amazing Spider-Man—who would obviously go on to his own series and spinoffs as well as become the face of Marvel Comics.

Detective Comics (1937-2011, 2016-present)

Detective Comics is where everything started for DC Comics following the National Allied Publications period. Like Amazing Fantasy, stories followed a fast-paced approach ending based around hard-boiled detective tales.

For many comics and comic anthologies before the late-70s and early-80s, you can expect much of the same before a new wave of writers came into the industry. Also like Amazing Fantasy, it was a vehicle for another iconic comic book character in Batman with issue #27 in March 1939.

I suggest checking out those 1930s Batman stories just to compare where the character started and where they are now. The Caped Crusader went from shooting villains—which was a common ending to hard-boiled detective fiction—to advanced martial arts and crime fighting tech over several decades.

2000 A.D (1977-present)

Definitely my favorite comics anthology of all time, 2000 A.D is a weekly series that served as a vehicle for iconic British characters such as the ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog, Slaine, Rogue Trooper, and personal favorite Judge Dredd.

I’ve talked a ton about Judge Dredd and soon we’ll get into other 2000 A.D series but as a whole, this anthology really delivered on the science fiction front—and quite a bit as far as sword and sorcery.

EC Comics Tales from the Crypt (1950-1955, 2007-2010, 2016-present)

Most of us will remember Tales from the Crypt as the HBO series that ran from 1989 until 1996—much longer than I remember, actually. The show is an adaption of a series from the 1950s.

It was known for presenting a more mature form of horror both in content and the writing. Like the Twilight Zone, themes touched on a variety of issues that were considered taboo to address in media at the time.

In the end, Tales from the Crypt and EC Comics as a whole were victims of the Comics Code following the book Seduction of the Innocent as well as the 1954 subcommittee hearing about the impact of comics on children.

Given that EC titles such as Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror featured graphic violence—for the 1950s—EC Comics was a prime target as other publishers featured mild violence and often painted the police and government favorably.

Sometimes, keeping it real can go wrong—even in comics.

Today, comics are much laxer and many publishers don’t adhere to the Comics Code. This move started in the late-90s with publishers such as Image Comics featuring graphic content.

By the early-2000s, Marvel dropped the Code and with the last decade, we saw DC follow suit. You could say EC Comics was also influential in showing that the Comics Code was almost 60 years of nonsense and publishers could’ve governed themselves the whole time.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

A Familiar Theme

This story comes before the story “The Return of Rico”—which honestly should’ve been a multi-part story itself. As a matter of fact, “The Neon Knights” should’ve also been two or three parts or at least returned as threats as robots are such a significant part of the Dredd universe.

That aside, I dig this one-shot episode as a companion to the events of “The Robot Wars”. It seems natural that some human beings would be fearful of robots following the incident and form a prejudiced vigilante group.

It’s a familiar but rarely used trope in comics as seen in the X-Men franchise and is based on the formation of such groups following the American Civil War and World War I.

Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons weren’t exactly reinventing the wheel with this story but by British comics in the 1970s, this was pretty groundbreaking. It’s odd because this was pretty much a one-shot.

That’s not to diminish the story’s punch as short stories have often influenced whole genres while whole books that are also groundbreaking can go undiscovered for years. Sometimes those one-shots and short stories open the doors to other influential works but are more digestible examples of a writer’s work.

Also, Judge Dredd is a sci-fi series with its roots in cyberpunk. It’s a genre that explores social and economic inequality with a backdrop of neon lights, skyscrapers, and technological advances that aren’t accessible to everyone.

This story is right at home in the genre.

Judge Dredd: The Neon Knights

This story features a group that looks similar to the Klan who are totally against robots being a part of society. As expected, they become violent fast and begin attack robots in Mega-City One.

Things land on Judge Dredd’s doorstep when his robot butler and sidekick Walter the Wobot is attacked by the Knights. Dredd sets off to investigate and bring them in.

Now, if it’s one thing you should’ve learned after several recaps of Judge Dredd from the 1970s is that Dredd rarely loses. He might lose sometime during the storyline but at the end, he usually succeeds if there’s no outside forces such as politics and backdoor deals.

You know, things that Dredd tends to distance himself from but eventually becomes involved in. That’s another trope for another time, folks.

The story ends with Dredd busting the group and revealing the leader of the Neon Knights to be a robot themselves. After the other members see this, they pretty much abandon their leader.

Could The Story Have Been Expanded?

Not only could the story have been expanded, it should’ve been expanded. “The Neon Knights” had the potential to be a landmark story in the Judge Dredd series.

Also, the group could’ve been reoccurring threats to Mega-City One. The city is massive, running the majority of the Canadian and American east coast. On one hand, Dredd could’ve stamped the group out easily because it’s Dredd.

However, these kinds of sentiments of fear and panic-driven bigotry don’t simply die out once a group is put in the dirt. When those sentiments are allowed to breathe and grow, we get revival groups, new groups, and different chapters of a larger groups.

The Neon Knights should’ve have become a massive threatening cabal of racism but I could see the group existing in pockets and chapters. Maybe they expand their scope to include mutants or even clones—such as Dredd himself—as targets.

There is a lot that could’ve been done here but the same could be said for a short-lived stories and characters in not only Judge Dredd but 2000 A.D in general.

Is It Worth a Read?

It’s a six or seven-page story so there wasn’t a lot of twists and turns, just the one twist at the end. The thing about the twist is if you’ve watched The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, or read any comics or sci-fi literature before going back to read this, you’ll see the twist coming a mile away.

However, if you think of the story in the time it was written—post-Civil Rights Movement and post-Summer of Love—the story and the twist are pretty fresh. Prior to Mills and Gibbons working on the story, you had similar themes in The Uncanny X-Men and Tales from the Crypt.

That’s really what I like about stories like this, there are familiar tropes mixed in with writing that would influence future stories or continued from previous ones.

Is it a standalone story? Pretty much. However, the roots for this story stretch back to “The Robot Wars” months earlier. There’s no “Hey those robots tried to kill everyone but let’s move on and deal” here, you expect groups like this to rise or see an increase in membership when events like that happens.

Again, the Civil War, World War I, and 9/11 are all real-world examples of this happening and comic books always reflected that regardless of the decade.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Then again, he actively pursued in something illegal in the name of crime fighting. Stalking, vigilantism, terror, hostage taking, sabotage, disturbing the peace, the list goes on.

Sometimes, one has to take similar methods to deal with the opposition. As long as you state your cause as just, people will view it differently than criminals who do the same from profit, revenge, and mayhem.

Now, I don’t believe Batman sets out to kill or murder criminals but there is one main reason I believe he does kill.

Street Thugs Don’t Have Healthcare

For most of his publication history, Batman has been portrayed as vigilante superhero and the “World’s Greatest Detective”. Sherlock Who? He has all the forensic investigation tech and utility belt of goodies to solve whatever needs solving.

He could find Jimmy Hoffa if Hoffa was the head of Gotham’s Teamsters. He’s that damn good. Gotham is a crime riddled city that has a hard split between wealth and poverty. As is sometimes the case in real life, people turn to crime to make money and support themselves and their families.

These criminals join what are mostly disfigured or mentally afflicted crime bosses—and not a rogues’ gallery of supervillains—to do a bunch of RICO Act stuff. Oh, there’s some occasional terrorism and conspiracy thrown in as well. This is gloomy, bleak Gotham City after all.

Batman’s supervillains aren’t offering anyone healthcare, dental care, or mental health services, obviously. I mean, they’re not members of the Guild of Calamitous Intent from The Venture Bros.

As a result, if they unfortunately run into Bats, they’re getting their ass handed to them several ways from “Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.”

Batman Outclasses and Out-Arms Most Criminals Skill-wise

Now, I’m not one to say “Batman has an unfair advantage.” When you play any games, one of the things you might lapse into is building this powerful character with all the dopest weapons and the best skills for your play-style.

Then you might take that career to fight whatever boss is next while clapping mobs along the way. Just rampaging one-shots or really eating into the mobs with your upgraded attacks and gear.

Don’t say you’ve never done this before. That’s cap.

Then you have “The Caped Crusader” stalking poor hoodlums either doing an illegal gig or hitting a lick. He dives out of nowhere like Rey Mysterio and throws his entire body weight plus the weight of his gear onto a criminal below.

Hell, for good measure he might lump up the guy he just landed on. On one hand, it’s unnecessary but on the other hand, better safe than sorry. If anyone makes a move in that alleyway, he’s throwing batarangs at them.

Those batarangs are sharp and there’s been times he’s thrown it right into someone’s hand or wrist. Fortunately, no one bled to death—as far as we know.

Let’s Talk About Fighting The Big Bad Bat

How about the brave legal-impaired souls who foolishly decide to throw hands with Batman? Oh, he’s busting out ninjutsu, judo, karate, boxing—all of the fighting disciplines. He’s a hyper-trained crime-fighter who has to be in Olympic shape even if he gets older.

So, Bats will kick some in the gut with his full strength and send them spine-first into a brick ball or dumpster. When the animated series aired in the 90s, you’d often see criminal fall into a pile of crates, into some trashcans, or against a wall.

That’s only because WB knew Batman was murking people. There’s no way these mostly normal crims are taking those kinds of blows and no one dies of their wounds or on impact.

Think about as your garden variety purse thief or house invader running into someone as fast as Bruce Lee while catching a haymaker to the temple from Mike Tyson. Or getting thrown by 1988, 1992, and 1996 Olympic gold medal wrestler Aleksandr Karelin.

That’s a one-way trip to either the grave, traction, or an iron lung. However, the comics and cartoons show these guys standing, handcuffed, and thrown in the paddy wagon.

In reality, the Gotham City PD should have body bags in bulk when someone calls in “Uh, we’ve found batarangs at the scene” or “Yeah, we’ve got two tied up from that conveniently placed, very strong clothesline up there and this guy’s head went through this brick wall.”

Batman Kills

All of that is just to say that it’s kind of naive to think that Batman doesn’t kill. I do think he tries not to kill and that he restrains himself. However, this is a guy who should’ve retired from fighting organized crime and constantly released hardened criminals early in his career.

All of his time, effort, and wealth should’ve been—and a significant portion has been—directed to fighting the greater superhuman and supernatural threats to Earth. Even though he doesn’t have powers like other members of the Justice League, his power is his wealth.

When you think about it, he’s actually been doing the most the entire time by fighting threats well below his level. His only threats really come from maximum security-level rogues that had time to plot something that would test his mettle.

These little guys hitting licks just so happen to be the ones he’ll run into often on his night patrols.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Who Is Judge Rico?

This guy was the twin brother of Judge Joe Dredd and a direct clone of Chief Judge Fargo, the founder of the Judges and the first Chief Judge.

The Judge system would merge the duties of judges and police officers thus rendering both positions obsolete. In the Academy of Law, the Dredd brothers were considered the cream of the crop with Rico being the better of the two.

In his time as a Judge, Rico—along with Judge Dredd—would handle reestablishing order. They would also join in on the raid to arrest President Booth following the Atomic Wars which caused the Cursed Earth.

It would be an injury during a mission in the Cursed Earth years later that Rico began to change and stray from the path of justice. At the same time, Judge Dredd was improving as a Judge. Fearing he would be surpassed by his brother, Rico turned to crime.

Titan

Eventually, he was arrested by Dredd and given the dreaded “twenty on Titan.” This means that someone is sentenced to a twenty-year stint at the Titan Penal Colony on Saturn’s moon of the same name.

Titan serves as a work camp where prisoners bust rocks for their sentence and send the materials back to Mega-City One. To perform their work, prisoners must undergo disfiguring surgery which allows them to breathe in space.

It’s basically a scarlet letter for ex-prisoners sentenced to Titan—along with the scarred face that comes from the storms on the moon. During his time on Titan, Judge Rico came to resent Judge Dredd for putting him away.

The one reminder of Earth for Rico came in the form of a sexual relationship with a reporter a couple of years before his release. Vienna Dredd is the daughter he would never meet.

Rivalry and Feud with Judge Dredd

Rico makes his debut and exit in “The Return of Rico!” from program #30 of 2000 A.D. It’s a brief read at six pages so his story isn’t really elaborated on. From that episode, we just know that he was corrupt—something a Judge must never be—and sentenced to Titan.

Once he was released, all he had on his mind was revenge. He committed some crimes in Mega-City One knowing that Dredd—as the city’s top cop—would come to respond. Especially when his brother was scheduled to be released.

In their final showdown, Rico’s hubris does him in. He believed that he would always be better than Judge Dredd in everything and Dredd remembers Rico being a particularly deadly shot—the best, actually.

However, Rico had been on Titan for two decades and hadn’t gotten his Earth legs back fully. Dredd had the advantage and gunned his brother down. As a result, Dredd always had some regrets about what happened and tried to hide things from his niece.

What I Love About the Rico Character

In other comics and books involving Judge Rico, his story is expanded greatly. The best active Judge of his generation before his arrest, Rico used his badge and fast gunslinging to extort and participate in illicit trade.

What I love about stuff like Judge Dredd: Year One and the eBook content is that the backstory is expanded upon greatly. From Rico’s version of events, he was simply extorting money for providing protection and upholding the law.

His first showdown with Dredd happened because he shot a shopkeeper. According to Rico, the shopkeeper was a chocolate smuggler but from what Dredd could see, it was a guy who didn’t pay Judge Rico protection money.

Rico also said that he didn’t kill Judge Dredd because he didn’t want to kill his brother. Obviously, that sentiment changed after twenty years of busting rocks on Titan.

The thing I love most about Rico is that there was potential for more of his story to be told and what he could’ve been as a Judge at the end of the 21^st century. Judge Dredd is a series that starts when Dredd is in his early 30s, it doesn’t start with the origin of Dredd.

With that said, if Dredd is continued as a film franchise, it would be great to revisit the lawman’s origins. This would be easier if the Dredd TV series ever takes off.

Everything from the Chief Judge Fargo being cloned until the arrest of Rico would take two seasons minimum. Whatever network or studio picks the license has a long-running material on their hands.

The Importance of the Year One

Going back to Judge Dredd: Year One, without this canon-expanding material, Judge Rico would’ve ended up as an “essential” footnote in Dredd’s backstory. The way comics were written during the 1960s and 1970s served more as a good starting point to revisit characters in future decades.

However, the writing shouldn’t be held up as gospel unless the stories were iconic for their time. You weren’t getting much of that as things were more “villain of the issue” in the 1960s and fast-paced continuous stories in the 1970s. Factor in that Judge Dredd is an anthology series in 2000 A.D and you have a character—Judge Rico—who was going to be breezed through.

There was only so much that could be done with six pages at that time but the writing has improved to the point that a ton can be done with that to set up the next week.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Marvel Navigates Strange Financial Waters

So, how did Marvel buckle and what about The Avengers? The first question’s answer is simple. During the late 90s, the comic book market was really going through it. Most publishers were getting clapped. DC would survive thanks to being a subsidiary of a larger company.

Marvel managed to stay afloat but would end up selling off the film rights to several major titles. By “major” I mean that these were the publisher’s A-list heroes and teams such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic 4, and the X-Men.

What’s interesting about this is that Marvel went to battle for its film rights before this. You’d think there would be some foresight or that after surviving a scrape with bankruptcy, it would be more proactive in keeping its properties.

In the case of some of the series, it’s a matter of the film rights being out in the world decades earlier. This is why Fantastic 4 ending up getting sub-licensed to 20^th Century Fox in the late 80s. Or X-Men going to the same company in 1994. It resulted in cash for Marvel to keep its head above water and later on to start investing in its own movie studio.

The Avengers: Foundation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Wesley Snipes originally wanted to do a Black Panther movie in the late 90s. That fell through, obviously. I always found that odd since in the pages of Marvel Universe, T’Challa has always been written to have a more prominent role than Blade. Hell, Luke Cage even ascended to being a significant character in the early 2000s—after Blade turned everything around for Marvel.

When the first Blade film dropped it resulted in a very nice chunk of change for Marvel. Blade, like Luke Cage, and Ghost Rider were basically on Marvel’s B-team. They were still respected characters among long-time readers but these guys didn’t have mainstream appeal of Spidey or Wolverine.

At least until Blade rocked it at the box office. After that, Marvel looked at the rest of their B-tier characters to see who else could possibly give them box office gold. A couple of other films came with The Hulk and Ghost Rider getting their time at the cinema.

Marvel would strike gold after running Captain America, Iron Man, and The Avengers. These heroes were always in the mix of the comics’ biggest events with big, universe-changing roles. However, star powers counts. While within the comic universe, these teams and characters would’ve been important A-tier players. When it came to star power beyond comic book fans, we’re talking B+ players.

Once those films dropped, that all changed and now the benched players were delivering highly-rated films. Marvel was swimming in money. Meanwhile, two of the three A-tier players were mostly dropping the ball as far quality films but still generating hundreds of millions.

With that, The Avengers, Captain America, and Iron Man became A-tier players and that was reflected in the comics and other media.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.