Gaze into the fist of Dredd! Or rather, gaze as the fist of Dredd pulverises punks into judicial submission. Judge Dredd, created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, has been stamping his brand of extreme, no-tolerance justice since 1977 in the second issue of 2000 AD – “The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!” As the magazine’s longest-running character, the futuristic totalitarian law enforcer has been a British pop culture icon for 45 years as of this year (2022), acting as judge, jury, and executioner as he continues to uphold the laws of Mega-City One.
“Freedom – power to the people – democracy… the great American dream. Don’t kid yourself. We tried it before. Believe me, it doesn’t work. You can’t trust the people. So dream on, creep. But just remember – that’s all it is, a dream… America is dead. This is the real world.”
From “Judge Dread: America” – Originally published in “Judge Dredd Megazine” 1.01-1.07.
Simply put, Judge Dredd is the law. Unlike the timid reporter Clark Kent, who dons a cape and overpants to fight crime, Dredd’s helmet, baton and Lawgiver sidearm are his whole identity. On one hand, he’s so committed to his job! But on the other, his dedication to law enforcement means that, even after 45 years of publishing, Dredd has no time for down time, unless he’s taking down crime.
Cloned from the DNA of Chief Judge Fargo – the founder of the Mega-City judicial system – along with his brother, Rico in 2066, Dredd was artificially accelerated in gestation so by the time he was “born” he had the physiological and mental development of a 5-year-old future law enforcer. Fargo clearly believed in teaching them while they’re young. With all the knowledge and training of the Academy of the Law conveniently implanted in his brain, Dredd would go on to save Mega-City One from the likes of the twisted, alter-dimensional Dark Judges, the mutant Angel Gang, Jolly Green Giant parodies Elmer and Abner, and an ever expanding assortment of the weird, freakish, and downright gnarly. One of the unique aspects of the character is that, where superhero comics will reboot their continuity to allow their heroes to de-age and tell more stories in the future, Judge Dredd is part of one continuous story where he has aged in real time. In current story arcs, we’re even seeing the effect this has on his ability to perform as a Street Judge in his 80s.
Batman has Gotham City, Daredevil Hell’s Kitchen, and The Flash Central City. All respective American metropolitans in dire need of protection from unique threats, from the Joker and the Kingpin, to the dastardly pathetic Rainbow Raider – a failed colour blind artist from the Silver Age Flash comics known for shooting coloured lights from his eyes. It is indeed despairing, to be a citizen in a world of superheroes.
In the world of Judge Dredd, however, Mega-City One exists in a post-World War III setting where nuclear holocaust has rendered much of the United States continent a radioactive wasteland, known as the Cursed Earth inhabited by mutants and freaks aplenty. Mega-City One stands as an indomitable megalopolis that stretches the entire East Coast, overpopulated as a city designed for 350 million, where numbers increased to 800 million at its peak. With 98% of its population left unemployed due to the use of advanced robotics, this has led to high and more extreme crimes, with massively over-populated prison systems, inspiring the judicial system to favour the most extreme punishments for even lesser crimes. As a result, an overwhelming number of the population can be considered potential criminal offenders, and with their style of law enforcement, don’t let a Judge catch you so much as jaywalking, or it’ll either be a night or two in an ISO Cube… or summary execution depending on their mood! This means the iconic Lawgiver – the Judge’s multi-use sidearm – gets more use in Mega-City One for on-the-spot executions than not.
If you thought Batman was brutal with his no-nonsense sense of justice even against minor thugs and henchmen, the ruling Judge system is clearly modelled after a fascist police state. Clad in absurdly oversized body armour, massive weapons and threatening helmets, Judges are trained to be brutal and inspire fear in citizens in response to the rampant uncontrollable crime rates of the massive city. And even if he isn’t the Chief Judge, Dredd is the figurehead of this totalitarian regime. Alongside its cast of goofy, nonsensical villains and characters, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s Judge Dredd is ultimately a parody of American macho cop characters from pop culture and their tendency to violate civil rights while dispensing their perversely, sometimes self-empowering understanding of the law for the sake of heroism, not to mention real-world American politics, where we find harshly defined class differences and aggressively clashing political stances: all extremes, with no in-between. Tellingly, the eagle symbol used as a sign of propaganda to represent the self-promoted status as the “land of the free” and promise to uphold citizens rights in America, also recognised as a symbol of tyranny and fascism in 20th century Europe, has been adopted into the iconography of the Hall of Justice and the Judge’s uniforms, making a bold statement connecting the two.
As the protagonist of the magazine, this makes Judge Dredd a unique contrast against typical American heroes, especially in comics. Where American superhero comics espouse “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” as their motivation, which can be traced to their role in World War II propaganda, Judge Dredd exposes a brutal truth behind the statement, mocking the patriotic attitude it promotes, particularly during the America story. In the real, post-World War II world, we have strong stances against extreme Right-Wing politics, we’re vocal against police brutality, and have seen more division between political ideas. As such we can be particularly condemning of extreme nationalism and patriotism as Fascist or Nazism, where supporters of Right-Wing politics might label extreme Left-Wing politics and anti-Conservative thought as overtly “Communist” – both examples of two extremes weaponising enemies of 20th century America and Europe (Nazi Germany and Communist Russia) against rival political discourse. This makes the idea of Judge Dredd as an advocate of the police state ideology in Mega-City One a stark contrast against the type of heroes, themes and stories American comics have a tendency to promote, not to mention a curious choice of “hero” considering his anti-liberal, pro-martial-law ethics. As the iconic line goes: “Justice has a price. The price is freedom.”
Joining Dredd on his mission to bring down jaywalking scum, crack down any would be anarchists who might have the wrong idea about their citizens rights and freedom, and overindulgent high societal hysteria, are the likes of fan-favourite Judge Anderson, a mutant in the PSI Division with psychic abilities that allow her to predict crimes before they happen; undercover Judge, “Dirty Frank”; ex-Chief Judge Hershey, among others. And of course with a city like Mega-City One, Dredd is not without his own rogues gallery. This includes the Dark Judges, who believe as all crimes are committed by the living, life should be considered a crime, meaning “hate the crime, not the criminal” has no bearing to a man who sees all criminals as the crime; the Judge Child, a future threat to Mega-City One foreseen by PSI Division; and Chief Jude Cal, one of the earlier major villains, parodying the Roman Emperor Caligula.
Judge Dredd and 2000 AD celebrate 45 years this year and continue to prove to be a source of entertaining British comics, as well as offering relevant criticism of the modern Western world. It is unadvisable to displease Tharg the Mighty or contradict the Justice Department mandate to continue reading Judge Dredd, but thankfully with stories from America to Origins, Day of Chaos to Cursed Earth Saga and a cast of characters as rich, whacky and downright weird as Judge Dredd, that’s one law citizens will be happy to uphold. Or else it’ll be life in the Cubes, creep…!
