Tour of Duty

[Colin YNWA]

There are a number of threads about this story, or that discuss it, but none for a few years and not one that take Tour of Duty as a whole, rather for example the two trades have individual threads, so indulge me please.

I've just finished a re-read of the epic as part of my re-read of all the Wagner Dredd's since 950. That means I've read The Pit, Doomsday and Total War recently and so feel safe in saying 'Tour of Duty' is my favourite long form Dredd story with only one possible exception, that being The Cursed Earth. I was very tempted to go back and re-read that right now to see which 'wins' but I'd rather keep my momentum and get to the end of 'Day of Choas' (which I don't think will compete, though strongly suspect I'll enjoy the first 2/3s of more than I did when reading it as it first came out). Also it'll be very difficult comparing the two as they are different beasts...

... or are they.

See that's the reason I felt there was even a vague need to waste the time of anyone daft enough to read this. There are a lot of surface level similarities between Cursed Earth and The Day the Law Died, the epic that followed straight on from it and Tour of Duty. I've no doubt smarter people than me have picked up on this, but I've not seen comment on it, so it may well be wiser people than me have dismissed it as merely superficial, but it got me thinking and I thought it was worth airing, even if only to get shot down.

So what am seeing. Well the common ground comes in the similar board plot points and to a degree the structure. Firstly Dredd is sent into the Cursed Earth, to deal with a plague. In the older epic an external threat far away, in the more recent a metaphorical one, the mutants which has crashed into the city (I of course refer to the mutant 'plague' based on its perception by the Mega City One citizens not in its 'reality). Dredd is therefore cast into the Cursed Earth and deals with its rich and varied life, in short Episodic stories, much like the original story.

Upon his return he being 'cast out' from the Justice Department is forced to deal with a corrupted justice department under the leadership of a villainous Chief Judge, one whom has risen to power by usurping the rightful holders place, while keeping the entire department behind them... well almost. In what is a much more singular narrative Dredd, without the resources of the Department, almost impotent, must use what he can scrape together to see this tyrant overthrown and ultimately its down to the actions of a perp (was Fergie actually a Perp in DtLD? I know he was a vagrant but can't remember if was actually ever said to be guilty of owt?) to take down the villain of the piece.

I mean in very board terms its all there right. Surely deliberately so... or was it subconsciously so... or am I just reading too much into things? John Wagner, unlike say Pat Mills isn't one to return to old stories, though you could argue he has with Strontium Dog, so it seems odd, but on re-read Tour of Duty read like a re-working of the previous two epics (one of which of course he didn't write in the main) for modern times. I can even see subtler things working in the two stories (or sets of). The SJS so vilified in DtLD seemed redeemed somewhat at the end of ToD as they march on mass to arrest Sinfield. Possibly a reflection by Wagner, who has often played them as the cads of the piece, that controls on law enforcement are indeed required and a damned good thing. Again reading too much into stuff?

Has this been discussed to death elsewhere and I've missed it? Am I just reading to much into superficial similarities and thus finding other things jumping out of that which aren't there (I have a history of this you want to hear my reading of Grant Morrison's Final Crisis!) or, unlikely as this sounds to me even as I type, is this worthy of discussion?

[Frank]

Sinfield's an obvious Cal analogue that it must have been noted elsewhere, but it's worth bringing all this nonsense together in one place for hardcore structuralists.  There's a droid impersonating a member of Justice Department, Dredd meets his double again, and the sense of morality and determination to do the right thing Dredd displays in TOD, which sees him consigned to the Cursed Earth, are the salient characteristics displayed by Mills's version of Dredd in the earlier story which bears that name.

One of my pet theories is that there's a sense in the first hundred episodes of Dredd that someone is working behind the scenes to get Dredd out of the city so he can be done away with - first to Luna-1, then to MC2. That's expressed openly on a narrative level in TOD, and the villain of the piece is Sinfield, but it's fun to think that Cal - or even more interestingly, Goodman - might have been up to the same even before the coup. Of course, the evil genius who wanted Dredd out of MC1 and brought low was John Wagner.