Judge Dredd (character)

This article is about the fictional character. For the franchise, see Judge Dredd.

Judge Dredd
Illustration by Carlos Ezquerra
Publication information
Publisher	Former IPC Media (Fleetway) Current Rebellion Developments
First appearance	2000 AD no. 2 (5 March 1977)
Created by	John Wagner (writer) Carlos Ezquerra (artist) Pat Mills (editor)
In-story information
Full name	Joseph Dredd
Team affiliations	Mega-City One Justice Department Academy of Law Luna 1 Justice Department
Notable aliases	The Dead Man
Abilities	Excellent marksman Expert in unarmed combat Bionic eyes grant 20/20 night vision and reduced blinking rate

Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of 2000 AD (1977), which is a British weekly anthology comic. He is the magazine's longest-running character. He also appears in a number of film and video game adaptations.

Judge Dredd is a law enforcement and judicial officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One, which covers most of the east coast of North America. He is a "street judge", empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals.

In Great Britain, the character of Dredd and his name are sometimes invoked in discussions of police states, authoritarianism, and the rule of law.

In 2011, IGN ranked Judge Dredd 35th among the top 100 comic book heroes of all time.

Judge Dredd made his live action debut in 1995 in Judge Dredd, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Later he was portrayed by Karl Urban in the 2012 adaptation Dredd.

Character and appearance

Judge Dredd from his first published story, as drawn by Mike McMahon in 1977. The character's appearance has remained essentially unchanged since, except for a more prominent jawline.

Joseph Dredd is the most famous of the Street Judges that patrol Mega-City One, empowered to instantly convict, sentence, and sometimes execute offenders. Dredd is armed with a "Lawgiver", a pistol programmed to recognise only his palm-print, and capable of firing six types of ammunition, a daystick, a boot knife and stun or gas grenades. His helmet obscures his face, except for his mouth and jaw. He rides a large "Lawmaster" motorcycle equipped with machine-guns, a powerful laser cannon, and full artificial intelligence capable of responding to orders from the Judge and operating itself.

Dredd's entire face is never shown in the strip. This began as an unofficial guideline, but soon became a rule. As John Wagner explained: "It sums up the facelessness of justice − justice has no soul. So it isn't necessary for readers to see Dredd's face, and I don't want you to".

On rare occasions, Dredd's face has been seen in flashbacks to his childhood; but these pictures lack detail. In an early story, Dredd is forced to remove his helmet and the other characters react as if he is disfigured, but his face was covered by a faux censorship sticker. In prog 52, during Dredd's tenure on the Lunar Colonies, he uses a 'face-change' machine to impersonate the crooked lawyer of a gang of bank robbers.

In Carlos Ezquerra's original design, Dredd had large lips, "to put a mystery as to his racial background". Not all of the artists who worked on the strip were told of this. Mike McMahon drew Dredd as a black man, while Brian Bolland and Ron Smith drew him as white. The strip was not yet printed in colour, and this went unnoticed. The idea was dropped.

Time passes in the Judge Dredd strip in real time, so as a year passes in life, a year passes in the comic. The first Dredd story, published in 1977, was set in 2099, whilst stories published in 2025 are set in 2147. Consequently, as former editor Alan McKenzie explains, "every year that goes by Dredd gets a year older – unlike Spider-Man, who has been a university student for the past twenty-five years!". Therefore Dredd was 38 when he first appeared, but is now

years old, with 
years of active service (2079–2147), and for almost 30 years Dredd's age and fitness for duty were recurring plot points (in prog 1595 (2008), Dredd was diagnosed with benign cancer of the duodenum).

How Dredd's ageing would be addressed was a source of reader speculation until 2016, when writer Michael Carroll and artist Ben Willsher published the story "Carousel", in which Dredd is ordered to undertake rejuvenation treatment. Regarding the possible death of the character, in an interview with Empire in 2012 Wagner said: "There could be many ways to end it, but the probability is that I won't still be around when it happens! I would love to write it, but I can't see it happening. I'll leave the script in my will".

Weapon

The Lawgiver is a fictional weapon used by the Judges including Judge Dredd. The Lawgiver is a self-loading handgun featuring manual and automatic focusing and targeting, plus a built in computer capable of controlling its operation. It fires a range of speciality ammunition. An in-line gunsight shows the view directly down the barrel. A Lawgiver can only be operated by its designated Judge owner, whose palm print is programmed into the gun's memory.

An earlier weapon appeared in the Origins storyline. Though little was known about the gun itself, it was capable of firing standard and armour-piercing rounds.

The gun has a maximum range of up to three miles and has six distinct settings:

• Standard execution - A standard bullet, with identical effects to normal kinetic energy projectile weapons.
• Heat Seeker or Hot Shot - A standard bullet propelled by the unstable element, 'Argon 88 b'. Heatseeker rounds lock onto the target's heat source, enabling the Judge to target fleeing perps, accurately fire in low-light situations and so forth.
• Ricochet - A metal bullet coated with rubber. Ricochet rounds can bounce off solid surfaces while retaining enough kinetic energy to penetrate flesh. This enables the Judge to, for example, kill a perp that is using a human shield, bouncing their shot off a back wall and hitting the target from behind.
• Incendiary - Capable of setting its target on fire. Less widely used due to practicalities of incinerating targets in built-up city areas, although useful against unconventional adversaries such as Judge Death.
• Armour Piercing - Armour-piercing rounds are extremely dense and contain a more powerful charge for higher muzzle velocity. Useful against cybernetic criminals and armoured opponents. When used against humans, it can travel through multiple targets.
• High-Explosive (HI-EX) - A round containing an amount of extremely concentrated high explosive. Judges must employ caution when using this extremely dangerous round; the blast caused by the exploding bullets can just as easily harm those firing as well as the target. Generally used rarely; against crowding attackers or large/dangerous foes.

Fictional character biography

Further information: § Major storylines

Senior Judge Joseph Dredd and his brother Rico Dredd were cloned from the DNA of Chief Judge Fargo, the first Chief Judge, in 2066. Their growth was artificially accelerated to an apparent physiological age of 5, with all the appropriate knowledge for their age electronically implanted in their brains during gestation. The name 'Dredd' was chosen by the genetic scientist who created them, Morton Judd, to "instill fear in the population". As cadets during the Atomic Wars of 2070, they were temporarily made full judges to restore order to the panic-stricken streets. Distinguishing themselves, they were chosen to take part in assaulting the White House when the Justice Department deposed President Booth. They were fast-tracked through the Academy of Law, Joseph graduating second in the class of 2079, while Rico came first. Later that year, Joseph arrested Rico for murder and corruption. Twenty years later, when Rico sought revenge after serving a 20-year sentence, Joe was forced to shoot him in self-defence.

Joe Dredd excelled as a judge, rapidly gaining promotion to the rank of senior judge. Offered the opportunity to become Chief Judge in 2101, Dredd declined, preferring to serve on the streets enforcing the law. He has however served temporarily in other senior positions. In "Tour of Duty", Dredd was appointed to the Council of Five, Mega-City One's highest governing body, on which he served for two years (2132 to 2134). On several occasions he saved his city from conquest or destruction by powerful enemies, and in 2114 he saved the entire world during the Fourth World War.

Although Dredd holds his duty above every other priority, this devotion is not blind. On two occasions (in "The Robot Wars" and "Tale of the Dead Man"), Dredd resigned from the force on points of principle, but both times he returned. In 2113, Dredd insisted that the Justice Department gamble its existence on a referendum to prove its legitimacy. In 2116, he risked 20 years' imprisonment with hard labour when he challenged the policy of a chief judge; and in 2129, he threatened to resign to persuade another chief judge to change the city's harsh anti-mutant apartheid laws.

In 2130, Dredd was diagnosed with cancer of the duodenum, though it was benign.

Family and associates

• Rico Dredd: Judge Dredd's clone 'brother'. Soon after Joseph and Rico became Judges, Rico became corrupt, forcing Joseph to imprison him. Twenty years later, Rico sought revenge, and Joseph was required to kill him.
• Judge Kraken: He is another clone brother from the same stock as Joseph and Rico Dredd, but from a later batch produced by a rogue operator.
• Vienna: Dredd's niece, fathered by Rico in jail. Dredd has gone out of his way to save her on occasion.
• Judge Rico: Dredd himself has been cloned. One such clone, who adopted "Rico" as a surname, is often mistaken for Dredd. Judge Rico eventually inherited Dredd's apartment at Rowdy Yates Block.
• Dolman: Another Dredd clone; formerly a trainee judge and member of the MC1 Space Corps.
• Cadet Paris: A recent addition to the family – an SRY depleted female clone of Dredd.
• Judge Anderson: For years, Dredd had a close but uneasy friendship with Cassandra Anderson of Psi-Division, which came to an end when Anderson briefly abandoned the law. Later, after she returned to duty, Dredd denied this friendship, but he re-affirmed it after she was injured while saving the city.
• Judge Hershey: Dredd has known Chief Judge Hershey since 2102. Like all Chief Judges since Goodman, Dredd has easy access to her, but they also have a personal relationship based on mutual respect. Dredd believes her to be "the best Chief Judge we've ever had".
• Walter the Wobot and Maria: Dredd used to share his flat with a domestic robot called Walter the Wobot, who performed all his domestic chores. Dredd also had a landlady called Maria. In later years, Dredd parted company with both. Walter later reappeared and Dredd reassigned him to take care of elderly widow Mrs. Gunderson.
• Galen DeMarco was a Judge infatuated with Dredd. This breach of regulations led to her resigning from the force and becoming a private investigator. Dredd tried to help her adjust to civilian life; but when he further rejected her advances, she eventually severed contact.
• Fargo clan: Revealed in 2006 was a town occupied by the mutated descendants of Ephram Fargo, the twin brother of Chief Judge Eustace Fargo. These mutants, who share the common mutation of an overly large, exaggerated chin, are relatives of Judge Dredd himself, and consider him a "cousin". This led to Dredd campaigning to have Mega-City One's mutant segregation laws repealed.
• Judge Beeny is a Judge who, since 2007, Dredd has taken as his protégée. On Dredd's recommendation, Hershey appointed her to the Council of Five.
• Judge Morphy was Dredd's mentor at the beginning of his career, until killed in the line of duty.
• Judge Logan was Dredd's assistant for a number of years. He was later promoted to sector house chief. Dredd encouraged Logan to become chief judge when Hershey resigned, and Dredd's public endorsement of him was instrumental in Logan attaining that office.