Judge Dredd/Batman Crossover Reflections

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Reflection on on Batman/Judge Dredd: "Die Laughing": 10,000 hedonist cultists are about to seal themselves in a dome which is proof against nuclear blasts. It's going to be sealed real tight. The dark judges (and Dark Judge Joker, apparently...that's right...Joker turns into a dark judge) are about to infiltrate the dome and kill everyone when it seals up. Cool plot...but what's the problem? Sure, the hedonists die, but why should I care? And won't the dark judges be trapped anyway (well, maybe not?)? I can see why an indiscriminate life-loving hippy like batman would care, and I can see why a living lawbook like Judge Dredd would care...but why on earth should I care as a reader? Sounds to me like everything works out even if Judge Dredd and Batman don't intervene.

Hedonists (at least, those in the comic book) make themselves morally equivalent to brute beasts. In addition, they make themselves utterly useless to the polis or city (in the comic book, the cultists even go so far as to shut themselves off entirely from said city; that's why they're in a sealed dome; they want to keep everyone, especially the police, out), which, in turn, makes me question why they should fall under the protection of her laws. Not to mention, of course, that a hedonist, qua vicious, is, naturally speaking, incurably evil. Interestingly enough, the dark judges do manage to massacre pretty much most of the people in the dome, including the cult leader. A rare occassion in which I found myself rooting for the villian: "Yes, Judge Mortis! His crime is life. The sentence is death. Administer that justice!"

I guess my question is this. We can set the question of whether or not the hedonists deserve to die on one side. The question that I guess I was really asking originally is this: Whether or not they deserve to die and it is fitting for the dark judges to slaughter them...why on earth should I care? Am I really supposed to be sympathetic to these people? I mean, let us suppose that Batman and Judge Dredd just shrug their shoulders and carry on with their day, and the Dark Judges are successful. 1. The hedonists are all dead (no loss for Mega City 1 in my book, for reasons cited above) and 2. the dark judges (may) end up being trapped in a giant dome. Sounds like a win-win, no?
 
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