oh thank fuck

so, for those who don't really get into that, that's Judge Hershey. She's been a recurring Judge Dredd character of wavering importance for about forty years now.

She was introduced as a bright, young, slightly inexperienced, but kinda caring character who helped out during the (slightly tiresome, tbh) Judge Child mega-epic and stuck around through decades of heavy stories. She spent years and years as Dredd's boss, eventually, after getting elected by her fellow Judges to be Chief Judge.

(Thus the funky chestpiece. It's 70s tradition.)

She hardened up a lot over the years and oversaw some of the series' greatest triumphs and worst tragedies. Overall, highly competent, if increasingly totalitarian as she took a harder and harder line on what needed to be done to keep Mega-City One safe and in line.

Except towards the end where various writers (Rob Williams) started undermining her repeatedly and Dredd kept going up and bullying her into pushing agendas he supported by threatening to resign.

Ultimately telling her, during the middle of a crisis situation where they had differing views, that he no longer respected her authority. (A far cry from their relationship years ago, where she was one of the few folks he might call a friend.)

Eventually, John Wagner, Dredd's top writer, killed her off. Gave her an incurable disease, had her settle her affairs before taking the medical option rather than the alternative.

...Except then Rob Williams decided he'd have a new strip, headlined by her, where she was ~secretly cleaning up~ the mess that'd cropped up thanks to his characters.

But now she was old and barely competent and so far removed from her ideals that one of his other lunatic characters came in just to remind her of how she used to do things. Ignoring that the other dude was, uh. A dirty cop.

It's kind of like if Dick Grayson got sick, died somewhere, and then got brought back to life by someone who spent years treating him as an obstacle for other characters to look cool by bullying into submission, but now Dick was down with being a drug dealer if it meant bringing down the mafia that a new, secret Robin created without anyone knowing.

Also he was suddenly barely competent.

So her finally getting put to rest is just. What she deserved years ago, really. Her final appearance under Wagner's pen was a good sendoff and should've been it.

Man, Rob WIlliams just

Dredd's a weird mix of hero and villain under the best pens.

Williams writes Dredd as a villain, but treats him as a hero.

All of the horrific stuff he does, the way he abuses everyone around him (in ways he doesn't under other writers), all of that is forgivable because Judge Dredd Is Always Right.

And if he burns bridges and makes people suffer, then that's fine with him because he knows better than anyone around him. Because he's been on the streets for sixty years now.

What a way to shave out everything interesting about the character.