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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 9117228" data-attributes="member: 4534">This is a weird one, but I'm going to nominate the Democracy storyline from Judge Dredd.  And the reason it's a weird one is because the stories were spread out over a few years, 1986 to 1991, rather than being told in consecutive issues as we're used to.  It started with "A Letter from a Democrat" where a woman writes her husband explaining why she's taking part in a terrorist plot to take over a television studio.  Her letter serves to narrate the comic, and paints us a picture of the average citizen of Megacity One having very little control over their own lives and living in fear of the judges.  The narrator describes a time when she was having a picnic at the park with her husband and toddler and a judge threatened to arrest them when her toddler accidentally tossed a ball and hit him in the head.  Anyway, Dredd ends up killing the narrator and telling everyone, "Democracy is not for the people." The next story came a few years later with "The Democratic March."  A bunch of people inspired by the "terrorist" at the television studio have formed a group that is demanding a democratic government in Megacity One.  They organize a march, and since the Judges don't want to overtly break it up, Dredd is given permission to work outside the law and stop the march any way he can.  He fabricates evidence and blackmails leaders, messes with the weather control of Megacity One to make it rain and keep people from joining, arrests one of its leaders, forces him to stand all night, and puts him in the march knowing he won't be able to complete it thus making him look weak, he's got undercover judges in the march agitating and causing violence giving Dredd the excuse to call in the riot squad and arrest people.  It's really an interesting look at the dirty tricks real governemts use to squash dissent.  A few years later we get "A Letter to Judge Dredd" written from the perspective of a school kid learning about the Judge system.  In it, he points out a bunch of problems with the system and mentions his neighbor, who had been experiencing mental problems ever since a judge hit him upside the head with his daystick (nightstick or billy club).  The kid never mailed his letter, he was murdered by that neighbor on the way to the post and Dredd read it at the crime scene.  In "Tales of a Dead Man," Dredd loses his mentor Judge Morphy who is killed during a routine traffic stop.  Dredd almost murders the man who killed Morphy, but at the last moment the judge-in-training Dredd had been hanging with urged him to follow the law.  Dredd announced he was resigning effectively immediately and would take the Long Walk.  The Long Walk is when a judge retires and brings law & order to the lawless living outside the walls of Megacity One.  Before he leaves, Dredd frees all of the Democracy protesters he had arrested a few years earlier.  And finally we get to "Democracy Referedum" where Dredd is out out of retirement and the democratic movement finally gets their wish as Megacity One is scheduled to vote on whether they want to abandon the Judge system for democracy.  Some corrupt judges are convinced they'll lose in a landslide and attempt to hold power via assassinations, but they're stopped by Dredd.  Another march is organized, but the people don't vote for democracy because utlimately most of them don't care.  Fearing a riot might take place, Dredd faces the marches by himself and tells them they lost the election.</blockquote>

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