Books like The Day the Law Died. John Wagner, Pat Mills

I don't know if The Day The Law Died is conventionally held to be in the A-list of Judge Dredd mega-epics? But for my money it's basically perfect, finding as it does that elusive alchemical formula between dramatic tension, ultraviolence, and untrammeled silliness that will power a golden age of Dredd for years from this point.Which means that any shortfall in this volume comes from its (loose) sequel, Helter Skelter. And while this Ennis-penned story is no disaster of Judgement Day proportions, its conceit of "a team-up of all the protagonist's greatest foes" was bloody silly in The Pandorica Opens and it's bloody silly here. But in the wrong way: Judge Cal was so joyously bonkers in the original, that this spiteful, pull-the-wings-off-flies sadist is cheap in comparison. And obviously none of Dredd's other "greatest foes" finds their finest hour as part of a gauntlet for Joe to run, in which he obviously disposes of them in a few panels/with a cheap quip each. Also, what did Judge Giant ever do to Garth Ennis to get branded as a pan-dimensional loser here?It's interesting to see Ennis writing Dredd here as a dichotomy between the unlikeable, inflexible stone killer and the moral hero with total commitment to protecting every single citizen at absolutely any cost. However in spite of the hagiographical sections, I do think the Dredd of this era comes across as quite unpleasant, engaging in way too much unnecessary brutality towards the perps; give me the uncomplicated idealism and the singing-and-dancing-Klegg musical interludes of the late 70s any day.