History JudgeDredd / TropesEToL

* InvincibleVillain: Judge Dredd's nemesis Judge Death is his longest-recurring enemy for a reason. He and his fellow Dark Judges have the same training and tactical knowledge as Judge Dredd but are also living dead, meaning they feel no pain and are ImmuneToBullets, and have an array of various superpowers and alien technologies on top of that, including SuperStrength, limited intangibility, teleportation devices, and raising the dead. Their bodies are [[PossessingADeadBody replaceable, possessed corpses]], so destroying those simply slows them down. They're also incredibly powerful psychics, making Psi-Judges especially vulnerable to them, and are assisted by even more powerful {{Undead Abomination}}s known as the Sisters of Death who brainwashed the entire Justice Department to serve as their personal army and can and will drag the Dark Judges out of Hell itself if necessary. Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson have only ever managed to return them to their SealedEvilInACan status before their inevitable return.

* ExtyYearsFromNow: All stories are supposed to be taking place exactly 122 years after they are published.

* HumansAreMorons: Very few people who aren't Judges are ever seen making commendable decisions. Humans were never portrayed being much dumber than as they appeared in "Portrait Of A Politician" though. In it, an [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys orangutan named Dave]] was able to do a better job at predicting the winners of sporting matches than human sports analysts. His fans later rally to get him elected as Mayor of Mega-City One, believing that he can do a better job than an actual person (even ''Dredd'' thinks that electing an orangutan could do some good for the city). Dave the Orangutan won the election [[spoiler: and was later assassinated.]]

** When the election campaign for [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys Dave the Orangutan]] was covered in the story arc, "Portrait of a Politician," every social clique was shown to have formed its own political party and running its own candidate, many of which would kill each other in mob riots leading up to the election. Named parties include the Apathetic Fringe, the Young Norms (presumably an anti-[[{{Mutants}} mutant]] lobby), the Lib-Lab Flab Party (presumably a Liberal-Labor Party amongst the Big Meg's morbidly obese population), the Uglies (just ugly people), and the All-Out-War Party (a group of BombThrowingAnarchists). When the All-Out-War Party starts stirring up trouble, Dredd gives them exactly what they want.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: There used to be an enclave of [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted]] apes living in the city before the Apocalypse War; chimpanzee mobster Don Uggie Apelino and his cronies were occasional adversaries to Dredd during this time. The Big Meg also once elected an orangutan named Dave to be mayor. [[spoiler: He was later assassinated]].

** Averted BIG TIME when [[spoiler:in the separately titled ''2000 AD'' strip "The Dead Man" the titular (and horribly disfigured) "Dead Man" turns out to be Dredd all along and a huge set-up for the Necropolis story arc]].

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The Soviet Union is depicted as surviving into the 22nd century, having been rechristened as the 'Sov Blok'. ''Judge Dredd'' is a LongRunner, first published in 1977 when the Soviet Union and UsefulNotes/ColdWar were facts of life. However the only real difference between Mega City One and Two and East Meg One and Two is that the East Meg system has the death penalty and a ruling council of three, not five. However, despite little real ideological difference remaining, their old rivalry survived the nuclear war that originally devasted most of their countries. This leads to both another war that ends in a Mega-City One victory and then a Sov counterattack in the form of a biological plague another 30 years later.

* InternationalShowdownByProxy: In an early story, a war between Mega-City One and a [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp Sov-controlled East-Meg One]] is fought by fielding small four-man teams from each Mega-City against one another in an Olympics-style competition...to the death.

* JustTheIntroductionToTheOpposites: There's a story which centred around an athlete who garnered massive controversy and criticism by doing well despite no pharmaceutical or bionic enhancements.

* EvilLearnsOfOutsideContext: The Dark Judges inhabit a MirrorUniverse where they exerted much harsher punishments to deal with crime: [[OmnicidalManiac eliminate life]]. [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill No life, no crime]]. When they learn of Judge Dredd's universe and acquire the means to travel there, they embark on a multiversal killing spree to make every dimension like their own. However, Judge Death had apparently already heard a prophecy from a psi-Judge about the dimension-jump devices centuries earlier.

* EvilBrit: The miniseries ''Young Death'', which reveals the origin of Judge Death, strongly implies that he and the Dark Judges are British, or [[AlternateUniverse his world's equivalent of British]]. Although the comics are made in the United Kingdom, Judge Dredd himself is a post-Apocalyptic American.

* GambitPileup: Following the events of "Day of Chaos" anthe spinoff "Insurrection", the City and its colonies ends up falling prey to various unscruptious factions and individuals, such as Judge Carolyn Bachmann, Judge Smiley, Texas City under Pamelina Oswin, Gideon Dallas (working with the alien Lawlords), mutant leader Krait, Mayoral candidate & rogue Psi Carol Smart, the Sons of Booth under Linus Roavey, Total War, La Reine Rouge, Rothman [=MacCallum=], ex-Judge Aimiee Nixon, various {{Mega Corp}}s and the Shadow King.

* GambitPileup: The city underwent this following the fallout of Chaos Day as well as Luthor's failed colonial insurrection between the head of Undercover Operations Division Judge Carolyn Bachmann, Texas City under Pamelina Oswin, Gideon Dallas (working with the alien Lawlords), mutant leader Krait, a faction working within Brit-Cit Intelligence led by Senior Judge Matthew Mayhew, Mayoral candidate & rogue Psi Carol Smart, the Sons of Booth under Linus Roavey, La Reine Rouge, Rothman [=MacCallum=] and the Shadow King.

* EnemyMine: In ''The Three Amigos'', Dredd is forced to team up with Mean Machine Angel and Judge Death. The creators themselves considered this VillainDecay for Judge Death in particular (who's known mainly for killing everything in sight).
* EmergencyAuthority: The prequel arc "Origins" shows that the current Justice System was the result of the surging crime rates in the American mega-cities and endemic corruption in the courts driving a desperate United States Attorney General, Eustace Fargo, to petition Congress to suspend several articles of the constitution and enable him to pioneer a new law enforcement agency empowered with "immediate judgment and sentencing". When the U.S. President started WorldWarIII, the Judges declared him a tyrant and removed him from office, effectively becoming the new government. Fargo himself alludes to this [[spoiler:on his deathbed]] years later, reminding Dredd that "it was never meant to be forever".

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: There used to be an enclave of [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted]] apes living in the city before the Apocalypse War; chimpanzee mobster Don Uggie and his cronies were occasional adversaries to Dredd during this time. The Big Meg also once elected an orangutan named Dave to be mayor. [[spoiler: He was later assassinated]].

* EvilutionaryBiologist: Morton Judd was a genetic engineer who once served as the head of Justice Department's cloning project. He started to see it as the solution to crime by creating a docile population, but Chief Judge Fargo vetoed his proposal on the grounds that it was their duty to police the citizens they have, not create the citizens they'd like. Judd went rogue and fled to the Australian wastes, where for decades he built a CloneArmy to replace the Judges.

** In "City of the Damned" Judge Dredd's eyes are torn out in the BadFuture, but Dredd being Dredd, [[TheDeterminator this doesn't stop him]]. They are replaced by ElectronicEyes later on.

* FakeNationality: In universe, Dredd's landlady/maid (it varies sometimes) Maria has always talked with a heavy Italian accent, but years later when it was revealed that she had died and left a large inheritance to Dredd, it also turned out that she never really ''was'' Italian and was faking her accent "for some reason" the entire time.

* FantasticRacism: Skin color and religion has long since been abandoned as targets for prejudice, and humanity now aims most of their racial hatred towards non-human or inhuman beings, such as robots, mutants and aliens. Aliens are semi-justified since very few aliens ever come to Earth with any pleasant intents, but its been shown that many aliens are actually held captive in the Cursed Earth and used for slave labor. This is technically illegal, but the farms in the Cursed Earth has very little Judge oversight.

** One of Dredd's contacts wears late 19th century business man outfits, complete with pocket watch and walking cane.

** After Judge Dredd succeeds with his counterstrike against East Meg One during the Apocalypse War, the livid War Marshal Kazan captures them and makes sure that they will be kept alive for the rest of their natural lives so they can be tortured continuously. [[VillainBall This ends up biting him when Dredd is released]].

* GambitPileup: The city along and its colonial empire undergoes this following the fallout of both Chaos Day and Luthor's failed colonial insurrection. The most notable ones being Judge Carolyn Bachmann, alien species such as the Lawlords and Enceladus bugs, Texas City under Pamelina Oswin, Mayoral candidate & rogue Psi Carol Smart, Total War, the Sons of Booth, La Reine Rouge, Rothman [=MacCallum=], (former) Judge Aimee Nixon, the Shadow King and Algol Rey.

* EvilTwin: Rico, presumably (see TheFaceless below).

* HumongousMecha: Construction machines piloted by robots.

* InappropriatelyCloseComrades: These are known as "extra-judicial liaisons" - Judges are NOT allowed to have romantic relationships, including with non-Judges (though these rules were somewhat relaxed under Chief Judge Goodman, as shown when Dredd visits his twin Rico shacked up with a rich woman). Judge [=DeMarco=] is a noticeable exception who eventually chose to resign when the [[InternalAffairs Special Judicial Squad]] started to hound her over her affairs with other Judges.

* GreatOffscreenWar: in "Visions of Deadworld", its revealed that the remnants of Humanity led by an individual implied to be Jess Childs, the Judge Child, went to war with the Grey Judges led by De'ath, Mortis and their allies, the Sisters of Death, in a war thar was to become known as the Mortis War.

* GreatOffscreenWar: in "Visions of Deadworld", its revealed that the remnants of Humanity under an individual implied to be the Judge Child, Jess Childs, went to war with the Grey Judges led by De'ath, Mortis and their allies, the Sisters of Death, in a war known as the Mortis War.

* GreatOffscreenWar: in "Visions of Deadworld", its revealed that Humanity under an individual implied to be Jess Stone, went to war with the American Judge system under De'ath, Mortis and their allies in a war known as tge Mortis War.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The Soviet Union is depicted as surviving into the 22nd century, having been rechristened as the 'Sov Blok'. ''Judge Dredd'' is a LongRunner, first published in 1977 when the Soviet Union and UsefulNotes/ColdWar were facts of life. However the only real difference between Mega City One and Two and East Meg One and Two is that the East Meg system has the death penalty and a ruling council of three, not five. However, despite little real ideological difference remaining, their old rivalry survived the nuclear war that originally devasted most of their countries. This leads to both another war that ends in a Mega-City One victory and then a Sov counterattack in the form of a biological plague another 30 years later.

* GambitPileup: The city along and its colonial empire ended up in this following the fallout of both Chaos Day and Luthor's failed insurrection, with various factions and individuals. The most notable being Judge Carolyn Bachmann, the alien Lawlords and Enceladus, Texas City under Pamelina Oswin, Mayoral candidate & rogue Psi Carol Smart, Total War, the Sons of Booth, La Reine Rouge, Rothman [=MacCallum=], (former) Judge Aimee Nixon and the Shadow King.

* GambitPileup: The city along and its colonial empire ended up in this following the fallout of both Chaos Day and Luthor's failed insurrection, with various factions such as their own Black-Ops Division[[note]]under Judge Carolyn Bachmann in 2134 and again under Judge Smiley[[/note]], the Lawlords[[note]]with assistance from both Gideon Dallas and Indira Knight in 2136[[/note]], Texas City[[note]]under the leadership of Chief Judge Pamelina Oswin in 2138[[/note]], Mayoral candidate and rogue Psi Carol Smart[[note]]again in 2138[[/note]], Rothman [=MacCallum=][[note]]in 2139[[/note]] and the Sons of Booth each taking potshots at overthrowing Justice Department, Munce Inc and the Dark Judges terrorisong their colonies, the criminal underworld been thrown into chaos as rival factions such as the Kindred & La Reine Rouge attempting to build up their power-bases following the downfall of the previous [[TheCartel crime cartels]][[note]]such as The Organisation and Mega-City Mafia[[/note]], the rise of suicide cults and rogue Citi-Def units as well as various smaller threats such as Worth Corporation CEO Maurice Worth, Total War, Senior Brit-Cit Judge Gulliver Mayhew, the Shadow King and Judge Bela Pin.

* FourIsDeath: The Dark Judges: Death, Fear, Fire, and Mortis--judges from another dimension where the four of them rationalized that since all crime is committed by the living, life itself should be deemed a crime punishable by death. However, later stories, such as "Necropolis" and Judge Death's OriginsIssue, "Young Death, Boyhood of a Superfiend," introduced the Sisters of Death, Phobia and Nausea, who would be included in their ranks, and one crossover tale with Franchise/{{Batman}} saw SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker become a fifth Dark Judge.