Saying goodbye to the Bat and Judge Dredd goes gay (maybe)

"It was like ending a relationship or something. Somewhere in the back of my head I can hear myself saying, Dude, it’s not you, it’s me. I just can’t hang out any more. Good luck with that whole fighting crime thing." writes Greg Hatcher in this entertaining post HERE on the end of his love affair with Batman.

And in other comic book related news the 2000AD fan community have gone into a spin of speculation after the comic posted a pic of Judge Dredd in a passionate embrace with a perp on its website. The pic ran with the following teaser - Has someone finally melted Judge Dredd’s stony heart? Find out in January 2013…

The teaser is doing its job since speculation is at fever pitch - some fans are OK with a gay Dredd while others are getting insanely angry - Judge Dredd doesn't do gay, one fan wrote on the 2000AD message board but then added - apart from the codpiece in the Stallone/Dredd movie.

Still the 2000AD powers that be are keeping tight lipped about the forthcoming storyline - though making Dredd gay would be absurd and perhaps a politically correct step too far.

Are 2000 AD  following in the wake of Marvel and DC’s activities ? Already we've seen Marvel’s Northstar getting hitched to his long term boyfriend, and DC’s  Alan Scott came out as gay in the 52 reshuffle. Even Archie Comics had its first gay character, Kevin Keller, marry the love of his life, Clay Walker several months ago.

One thread on the 2000AD message board suggested that it will be Dredd's evil clone, Rico who turns out to be gay, but this would a problematic if 2000AD had this storyline in mind. If the gay Judge was indeed the evil Rico then the subtext of the story could be misunderstood - what for instance would it be saying about homosexuality?

Does it matter if Dredd does come out as gay?It is after all just a comic book but go tell that to the fans. One wrote -  "It would make sense if Dredd was a violent, repressed homosexual who vented his frustrations with his fists. Having said that....a gay Dredd still goes against that whole celibate "I'm only married to the LAW"-thing that all of the Judges have. I'm calling BULLSH!T on this one."

Another added - "..Spikes Harvey Rotten! Come back! All is forgiven!!!

A very gay Dredd

And sticking with Dredd it looks as if the movie franchise is dead after the failure of the latest Judge Dredd movie which although receiving rave reviews didn't find an audience - The film took a total of $6.3 million in its opening weekend, below the $9 to $10 million the studio estimated.

I kept help thinking that maybe this was something to do with the fact that the film was only out in a 3D cut, which is the reason I haven't yet seen the movie and will wait for the DVD. I don't really like 3D and find it gives me a headache and from what I've heard I'm not alone is this. Also and again this is personal preference but whenever I see a movie with 3D tagged onto the title, it feels gimmicky and turns me off.