Characters / Judge Dredd: Judges Of Mega-City One

Judges of Mega-City One

Joseph Dredd

"I am the Law."

The comic's law-abiding, unflinchingly-authoritarian protagonist, Judge Joseph "Joe" Dredd. Born in 2066, he and his brothers were cloned from the genes of Eustace Fargo, the founder of the justice system in the Mega-Cities. Perhaps the greatest Judge to ever roam the streets, Dredd brings the fight to all those who are the enemy of the Law, from common thugs to up and including supernatural creatures, powerful cyborgs and even godlike beings. No matter how powerful one could be, no one is above the name of justice, enforced with his trusty Daystick, Lawgiver and Lawmaster.

---

• The Ace: Dredd is an absolute crackshot, an expert in hand-to-hand combat, excellent on a bike, is a first-rate investigator and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the law and is very much aware of its loopholes. He's only really lacking people skills and social flexibility, though he does use them on rare occasions.
• Amnesiac Hero: As The Dead Man, Dredd has no memory of who he is or how he came to be in the state he was in. He does, however, retain his Improbable Aiming Skills. Eventually, he has flashbacks of the incident that led to him being burnt to a crisp and regains his memories in full upon recovery of his badge.
• Anti-Hero: He's a staunch enforcer for a brutal dictatorial system who doesn't hesitate to execute criminals or give excessive prison sentences right on the spot for any and all infractions, but he ultimately believes that he's protecting his city. Besides, most of his enemies also tend to be much worse.
• Anything but That!:
  • Dredd killed his own brother in a shoot-out, crossed the Cursed Earth, fought Judge Death and his Dark Judges, led the resistance against the Sov-Block and nuked East Meg to end World War IV, got his eyes torn out, suffered all manner of unspeakable torture, all without so much as flinching, but as one short story reveals, there is one assignment even Judge Dredd balks at - having to preside over a Block Court, where an entire city blocks worth of citizens bring all their petty grievances up. One day of having to listen to hundreds of idiots and their ridiculous, entitled complaints was enough to make Dredd threaten Judge Nicely, the man he was substituting for, with a reassignment to a Cursed Earth work farm if he didn't come back rather than having to do it again.
  • His hatred of paperwork is legendary within the department, which is one of the reasons he won't take the Chief Judge's job. During the "Mega City Justice" arc, he decides to run against Sinfield and has an Imagine Spot where he's being bombarded with forms to sign. As it is, he ends up on the Council Of Five once Francisco comes back and he absolutely despises the council meetings.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Is on the receiving end of several of these, but the one with the most impact on him was from a juve named Wenders in the famous "A Letter for Dredd" storyline. Already having some doubts about the Judge System, Wenders' innocently pointed questions about things like if the drastic uptick in criminal activity isn't partially caused by the expanded definition of what's illegal causes Dredd to become so doubt-riddled that he resigns from the Justice Department and started his Long Walk.
• Artificial Human: Dredd and his brother Rico are clones bred from the genetic material of Chief Judge Fargo to follow in their father's footsteps. He's proven himself one of the most dedicated Judges on the force over the years.
• Badass Biker: He patrols the streets on his Lawmaster and uses it effectively in combat.
• Badass Normal: Dredd might as well be the grand champion of this. He has no special powers or mutations - all he needs is a gun, a bike, utter refusal to die and Improbable Aiming Skills to bring even the most lethal of opponents to justice.
• Blood Knight: The reason he's refused the Chief Judge's office so many times is that he loves the streets of Mega City One too much. He even notes that it's the most violent, evil city on Earth, but God help him, he loves it.
• Born as an Adult: Downplayed. The cloning process that created him grows him to a physical age of around 5 or 6, which is the age cadet judges are first inducted into the Academy of Law.
• Bothering by the Book: Depending on the Writer, as with many of Dredd's characteristics, but it's implied in some stories that, whilst he would never outright manipulate the law to his own advantage, he's not above remembering and choosing to enforce more obscure laws that allow him to punish people who get on his nerves. Most notably, there's his invocation of the Slum Clearance Act after visiting the Nelson Rockefeller Orbital Suburb, an ultra-luxurious space station originally intended for Mega-City One's social elite exclusively. Mind you, this ended up turning the place into Mega-City One's first orbital slum, and a hellhole so bad that Judges consider 6 months there to be worth 5 years patrolling the streets of MC1 itself!
• By-the-Book Cop: He is completely dedicated to the law and will enforce it to the word-by-word, though he has been known to use it to help the innocent.
• Cain and Abel: Most notable with Rico, his Evil Twin. Dredd was Abel and Rico was Cain, though it was Dredd who eventually killed his brother. Vienna later notes that with Kraken and the misformed clone he mercy killed, Joseph has killed quite a few of his clones.
• Celibate Hero: He was bred and trained to follow the celibate lifestyle of the Judges. DeMarco did manage to get a kiss out of him - but he very much did not actually return her feelings.
• Character Catchphrase: "I am the law!" He considers himself to be the ultimate enforcer of the law, not someone who makes up his own. Anyone who thinks of enforcing their own sets of rules, especially if it causes other people to be harmed, is an enemy of Dredd.
• Character Development: It's subtle and obscured by his recurring problems with Depending on the Writer, but Dredd's character has actually undergone a lot of growth over the years. Starting as a hardcore fascist-conservative, whilst he's never lost his loyalty to the ideals of the Judge System, he has developed a somewhat more liberal and thoughtful mindset, as when he resigned the Justice Department over his doubts about their anti-democracy crackdown, pushed for them to allow for a legitimate vote to restore democracy, and forced them to repeal the anti-mutant discrimination laws.
• Cool Old Guy: Since Judge Dredd ages in real time, he's 83 in 2021. Longevity treatments keep him going, though.
• Cowboy Cop: Bizarrely, a trait that has evolved increasingly in his characterization but in the opposite way is the trope normally handled. As Dredd has matured over the decades, he's become increasingly willing to bend the rules (which is to say at all) but only on the side of mercy and tolerance. This makes him positively lenient in the fascist authoritarian government of Mega City One. Previously, his aversion to this attitude was one of his defining traits (albeit being a Judge allowed him ridiculous amounts of authority to begin with).
• Deadpan Snarker: Despite being portrayed as somewhat emotionless, he has a dry sense of humour and will often make a quip when arresting perps. He's also not above using a Bond One-Liner.
• Depending on the Writer: This is actually a problem with Dredd, as his personality varies wildly depending on the story, due to the fact that some stories are Black Comedy, and others are supposed to be straight-up action fare. In the darkly comedic stories, Dredd is basically a huge Jerkass who goes out of his way to make the citizens miserable, as a satire of overly restrictive legislation. In the more action-oriented stories, Dredd is a more traditional hero who, while an extremely strict lawman, still wants what's best for everyone. In the worst cases, the two different writing styles look like completely different characters.
• Dented Iron: Despite the rejuve jobs and skin grafting, Dredd's body has shown its age after 50+ years on the streets, being largely covered in scars and bullet wounds. Subverted in "Carousel", where the rejuve technology has advanced so much that Dredd is essentially given entirely new skin. He's told they could do the same for his bones, but he declines.
• The Determinator: Once he's embroiled in an investigation, he's been likened to a dog with a bone, in that he simply will not leave a case to go cold. This obviously extends to combat as well, because, if you have broke the law, he will pursue you to the end of the universe to bring you to justice, and the only way to prevent that is to flat-out kill him.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He once defeated and arrested the Devil when Old Nick made the mistake of trying to corrupt Dredd. He also punched Judge Fear, who induces mortal, paralysing fear into his enemies, through his face. Twice!
• Divorce Assets Conflict: In the "Block Court" story, one squabbling couple are fighting over who gets what in their divorce, and seem to put more energy into who gets to keep a fondue pot than custody of their kids. Dredd finally gets so fed up with their pettiness that he declares their divorce final, confiscates all their possessions, which will be sold and the money given to their kids, who will be taken in by child services, since they'd be better off with the city raising them than their idiot parents.
• The Dreaded:
  • It's in the name. Crime often drops precipitously in whatever sector he patrols without him even intervening, on account of perps being so absolutely terrified of him that they either go underground, move to another sector, or straight-up drop the illegal lifestyle entirely to avoid getting on his shit-list. Given the stuff he's done over the years, criminals have every right to fear him. Those who don't are either completely off their gourd or Too Dumb to Live.
  • On one occasion, a gang of thieves broke into a guard house and discovered Dredd asleep inside. They're so convinced that running or trying to kill him will end in their arrests and deaths, that when Dredd wakes up, he finds they've tied themselves up for him.
  • Dredd's reputation in Mega-City One is so wide-spread and fearsome that there's an actual mental illness named after him: Dredd Syndrome is a condition in which some poor civilian becomes so terrified of being punished for even the most innocuous and accidental of lawbreaking that they wind up in a coma, haunted by endless nightmares of Dredd chasing them down and hounding them about their "sins". Dredd is less than thrilled about this condition's existence, and particularly about it being named after him.
  • This even extends to the board game based on the comic where the players play judges competing to get the most arrests for the most serious crimes. One of the in game cards you can play reads "Judge Dredd is with you. The perp gives in without a fight." This even applies to Judge Death committing murder, the most dangerous combination of perp and crime in the game.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Dredd was a lot more unambiguously heroic in his earliest adventures. This typically wasn't so much his character being different per se, but the lighter-storytelling tended to emphasize his positive traits, what few they may be, much more than his negative ones.
• Electronic Eyes: After losing his real ones in City Of The Damned, courtesy of several mutants, he gets a pair of bionic replacements, which augment his already impressive marksmanship abilities. They also reduce blinking and gives him perfect vision at night. Dredd says he should have made the switch years ago.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: While Dredd doesn't necessarily LIKE anyone, he is also tough-but-fair, personified. To him, every citizen and visitor of Mega-City One deserves equal protection under the Law... except for Kleggs. The members of this alien race are universally fucking despised by Dredd, which is entirely justified given that each and every single Klegg we have seen so far are murderous, gluttonous, dog-kicking assholes. Even when Sensitive Klegg, a member of his race who is actually a law-abiding pacifist, actually saved Dredd and earned citizenship into Mega-City One, Dredd still has some passing disdain for him.
• Experienced Protagonist: When he's first introduced, Dredd has already been serving as a Judge for twenty years. As of 2018/2140, he's been on the streets for over fifty years. The man has more mileage than half the force put together!
• Expy: His characterisation is heavily inspired by Harry Callahan if Callahan's methods were actually the norm, as opposed to being frowned upon by everyone else in the police department. His appearance, on the other hand, was inspired by Frankenstein.
• The Faceless:
  • His face is almost always concealed by his helmet. Presumably, Dredd looks like his clone "father" Fargo, who has been seen without his helmet from time to time, but even before the Dead Man, Dredd could have sustained any number of injuries that changed his face.
  • Averted in The Dead Man, where his face is burned beyond recognition due to being set on fire by the Sisters of Death, then falling into a river of Hollywood Acid.
  • Subverted in some newer stories: "Riot in Iso-Block 9" (Meg 402) has him undergo a face-changing operation as part of an undercover mission, with the only shots of his pre-operative face being from behind. Similarly, Carousel (Meg 375) features Dredd giving some mooks a Full-Frontal Assault - while completely skinless and later in silhouette, preventing any of his face from being seen beyond the general structure.
• Fair Cop: While we have no idea what his face looks like (though his clone father Fargo had particularly chiseled features), he's well-built enough to attract Bella Bagley, a very persistent stalker, a kiss in the heat of the moment from Judge Cassandra Anderson in the newspaper strip when she believes a bomb is about to blow them up, as well as the attentions of and a deep kiss from Judge Galen DeMarco (though to her credit she didn't take it to stalking levels).
• Feeling Their Age: He ages in real time; while he looks in his 40s due to advanced medicinal technology, he's actually in his 70s, with over 50+ years of active service. His body has shown its age, being Covered in Scars and bullet wounds, and his fitness for duty as a result have been recurring plot points, to the extent that he developed benign duodenal cancer. The problem is ultimately solved in the story "Carousel," where he undergoes rejuvenation treatment.
• The Fettered: Dredd aims to be the physical incarnation of justice, as proven by his catchphrase, "I am the Law".
• First-Name Basis: He's generally on a Last-Name Basis with most people, even those with whom he's gone through much together with, such as Hershey or Anderson. However, there are a few people who he will refer to by first name, such as someone who was in his class at the Academy, such as Bart Kimble, or a family member like Rico or Vienna. When Galen DeMarco is wounded on the street, Dredd referring to her by her first name leads DeMarco to conclude that Dredd does care for her.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Zigzagged. Dredd has the honest respect of most, if not all, Judges in Mega-City One. However, his strictness and uncompromising attitude means that not many Judges actually like him on a personal level.
• Good Is Not Nice: He frequently executes criminals, passes down disproportionate sentences, and can be downright fearful to the random citizen. He's still the last line of defence for the survival of the Meg.
• The Gunslinger: Since the strip has Space Western elements, Dredd has been known to make use of the Quick Draw. Considering that his lawgiver is holstered in his boot, it's highly impressive that he can manage this at all, never mind outdrawing people. He also has Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Heroic Build: Averted at first, since Joe Dredd was created in the 1970s as a parody of the leaner Dirty Harry-type cop. He bulked up over the years.
• Heroic Willpower: Dredd has shown himself even more resistant than most Judges towards telepathic attacks and other attempts to break his will. Notably he has been able to No-Sell seeing Judge Fear's face twice, which for most people causes them to die of shock or at best break their minds and leave them a terrified gibbering lunatic.
• Honor Before Reason: It's noted during the Mechanismo incident, specifically during the Tenth Planet part of the storyline, that had Dredd said the word most of the Judges would have sided with him against McGruder. However, his own code of honor wouldn't allow him to do so.
• Hypocrite:
  • A curious example of such and one that is actually a source of a great deal of Judge Dredd's occasional bouts of Mangst. Judge Dredd is as close to the perfect Judge as can be achieved by the system but the system is so utterly corrupt, badly designed, and contradictory that it is impossible to actually hold it up the way he wants to. Yet he continues to try and act to the letter of the law. A Downplayed Trope at the best of times but increasingly so as Character Development.
  • It has also been stated that Judge Dredd's refusal to move into any form of leadership beyond being a Senior field agent is also something that has crippled the Justice System. Dredd hates any form of bureaucracy and paperwork but the steady stream of incompetent, insane, or evil Chief Judges means that none of the reforms Dredd could introduce ever happen. Dredd often speaks of the law and its obligations but puts his desire to stay on the street over the greater good.
• I Am the Noun: The law. As he will be quick to remind you, "I am the law". He aims to be the physical incarnation of the laws of the Meg, though he does mellow out a bit in his most rigid ways of thinking over time.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: A comically dark deconstruction. He's incorruptible when it comes to the Law, not to morality. Dredd is a HUGE asshole, but he's as incorruptible as they come, even compared to 21st century morality, much less the Bad Future he lives in. He might behave like a dick, but he's an absolute defender of the Law.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He's a crack shot with his lawgiver, noting that he always hits what he's shooting at. One of the earliest clues to his identity as the Dead Man is his ability with a firearm.
• Inspector Javert: In strips where the citizens, perps or even other judges are the protagonists, he is shown investigating the case at hand. This is most notable in "America", which is a tragic love story between two childhood friends.
• Irony: Judge Dredd is staunchly against the inclusion of robot Judges in the Justice Department. But, as many have pointed out In-Universe, the strict restrictions on personal liberties and idealized emotional detachment expected of Judges means that many people would not find that much difference between a functioning robot Judge and an "ideal" human Judge like Dredd himself.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Enhanced interrogation techniques are part of the Justice Department armory. Dredd himself has tortured known criminals if he needed information.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's absolutely rigid with his application of the law, but he's been known to use it on occasion to help innocent citizens out of their predicaments. Additionally, though it's often ambiguous on whether or not he protects innocents out of the goodness of his heart or his loyalty to the law, he has on a few occasions displayed acts of kindness that seem born of an almost idealistic view of the law. A good example of this was an early story from the 70s, where Dredd was tasked with teaching a new recruit. Naturally, the recruit was warned at how hard and tough Dredd can be, and how he doesn't pass almost anyone, but over the course of the story, it's very heavily implied Dredd is this way so he can weed out those who seek out Judge position to abuse their authority and not because they want to protect the civilians. In a surprisingly optimistic turn of events, the new recruit very much upholds these good values.
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Probably one of the most famous examples in fiction. It's a Judge's duty to find perps and sentence them on the spot, and Dredd was known as the biggest zealot in the Justice Department until his Character Development set in. However, the trope is zigzagged; whilst Dredd is judge & jury, and does have the legal power to execute, most crimes in Mega-City One actually don't carry the death sentence. Unless a perp is either guilty of particularly major offenses (treason, murder, rape or terrorism) or is stupid enough to resist violently, Dredd usually just sentences them to terms in the isocubes. In fact, most of Dredd's killcount comes from a combination of his legal ability to defend himself with lethal force^note if a perp tries to kill Dredd, he is free to return the favor, which isn't that big a stretch from modern police guidelines and perps getting killed off by bad luck or stupidity whilst trying to resist arrest — getting run over, trying to jump down garbage grinders, and so forth.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Judge Dredd is, understandably, a rather cynical man. However, he shows a genuine faith in the principles of Justice, and his respect for the Law approachs an almost naive idealism; Dredd sincerely believes that the Law can be, and should be, all that a Judge thinks about, when virtually every other Judge is shown to take a somewhat more pragmatic stance. More than once, Dredd is told that Judges are still human, and all their training can't change that.
• Knight Templar: He believes in the absolute supremacy of the law, and pursues it vigorously despite Mega-City One being a totalitarian dystopia. A big part of his rationale however, is the fact that while Mega-City One is a dystopia, it actually isn't authoritarian at all, but extremely chaotic. Dredd views himself as a proportionate response to the environment in which he operates, and most of the time it's a fairly accurate perception.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: His massive chin is probably his most prominent physical trait, something he inherited from his clone father Fargo. It's even gotten more prominent over the years.
• Like Father, Like Son: Obviously, he's a clone of Fargo, but he's an ever purer distillation of Fargo's absolute belief in the Law. He also sometimes shares Fargo's later doubts in the efficacy of the Justice System, enough so to briefly resign over it.
• Loophole Abuse: Judge Dredd knows the law backwards and forwards so he merrily makes use of this all the time. He wouldn't consider it abuse of a loophole, though, because he is a judge and it is technically his job to interpret the law. One example would be when a perp made a deal to have his forty year sentence reduced for vital information and Dredd agreed, so he reduced it by one day.
• Made of Iron: He is incredibly difficult to kill. Even when he's completely engulfed in flames and acid rivers, he survives. Yassa Povey notes that he refuses to die and a judge overseeing his skin grafting notes that he's never seen such extensive damage in someone who is still alive.
• Man of the City: If you attack the Big Meg, make no mistake, he will take it very personally. East Meg One in particular found this out the hard way.
• Man on Fire: The Sisters of Death burn him alive when he first confronts them. He survives.
• Married to the Job: He doesn't have a personal life outside of being a Judge, which is the ideal for Judges, but not always followed.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Judge Joe Dredd. Invoked by Morton Judd and the other clone engineers, who wanted him to instill fear in the populace.
• Never Bareheaded: He never appears without his helmet on. He even bathes and showers with it! Except during the time he spent in the Cursed Earth as the Dead Man.
• Noble Bigot with a Badge:
  • Zigzagged. For the most part, Dredd doesn't seem to personally share the Fantastic Racism endemic to most humans in the setting in regards to mutants, aliens and robots (in one notable incident, he went out of his way to save a mutant town in the Cursed Earth from mutant spiders after they pleaded Mega-City One for aid), but he upholds the law and the law states he must oppose those races. That said, this is another of his many Depending on the Writer character aspects, boiling down to which author was writing and how big of an asshole they felt Dredd should be.
  • Dredd actually has something of a soft spot for mutants, and was always quick to offer a hand when he could during his stints in the Cursed Earth. After learning he had mutant relatives, he even lobbied for a repeal of the mutant discrimination laws, forcing them to let mutants back into the city.
  • For the most part, Dredd doesn't care about aliens unless they're actively breaking the law — and, as with mutants, if they call to the law for help, he will answer that call. That said, he has been established as having a personal dislike for the Kleggs, an aggressive and warlike race of alien mercenaries who resemble humanoid crocodiles. He's even lampshaded it by noting that he's not sure why they're an exception to his general tolerance for aliens, although logic suggests it's due to the fact that the insane Chief Judge Cal depended heavily on the support of Klegg mercenaries during the end days of his reign over Mega-City One, and hence were responsible for the deaths of numerous people, citizens and Judges alike.
  • The one time he plays it straight is that he really doesn't seem to like robots very much. In particular, he has repeatedly objected to the proposed "Mechanismo" project of creating robot Judges as a way to shore up their desperate need for manpower... although, in his defense, every iteration of the Mechanismo project has gone horribly wrong as the robo-Judges invariably become TOO strict even by Judge standards and go on murderous rampages. He does tolerate Walter, although he finds him very annoying.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Once more, Depending on the Writer, but it's repeatedly been shown that, despite Dredd's best efforts to act as a purely logic-driven enforcer of the law who is more machine than man, he does have more than a few moments of letting his emotions get the better of him.
  • During his second encounter with Stan 'Deathfist' Lee, Dredd makes a point of tossing aside his Lawgiver and beating Deathfist in a no-holds-barred, bare-knuckled fight. As the Chief Judge Silver notes, the expected thing to do in that situation was basically to shoot Deathfist, and he suggests that Dredd's motivations were to avenge his earlier humiliation when Deathfist handed him the only Curb-Stomp Battle of his career. Dredd protests that his actions were strictly motivated to bolster the reputation of the Justice Department, but it's obvious the Chief Judge doesn't entirely buy his explanation.
  • The second half of the Democracy storyline revolves heavily around Dredd's growing doubts about what he was involved in, both the viability of democracy and his own Justice system.
  • One story involves Dredd being brought before a hearing for assaulting a member of the Accountants branch of the Justice Department. It's then explained that Dredd became involved with a family whose daughter had required a transplantation of her brain into a robot body to avoid dying, but the transferal was faulty, leaving the daughter heavily brain-damaged. Wanting to genuinely help her, Dredd had paid for the surgery needed to bring her back to full cognitive awareness, but then some of the young children she used to be friends with mocked her for her appearance as a brain in a transparent bubble on a robotic body and she ran away in distress, getting fatally hit by a passing vehicle. It was the accountant berating him for spending so much money on her in the first place (though to be fair, said accountant was also being a real jerk), combined with his own distress at her death, that caused him to lose his temper and punch the man.
  • After Maria left his employ, Dredd actually took time off to find her - now an alcohol-sodden vagrant - and tried to convince her to get herself some help. Ultimately, when she refused, he sentenced her to mandatory rehabilitation.
  • Preceding Dredd's taking the Long Walk for the first time is his nearly killing a defenseless perp who was involved in the murder of his mentor and surrogate father, Judge Morphy, in a sincere state of emotional distress.
  • Its been implied that he really does return Judge DeMarco's attraction to him, especially in one particular scene where she kisses him, but it doesn't matter. The Law is very clear on this point, No Judges are allowed to have personal relationships anything more than distant friends. It doesn't matter if other Judges might blur the line or look the other way, to Dredd, all that matters is what the Law says, in spite of what he might feel personally. Even as late as Trifecta, he shows what might be considered a bit of jealousy when he sees that DeMarco is romantically involved with Jack Point. Tiny bit, but the feeling's there nonetheless.
  • In the prog A Death in the Family, Dredd uses his legal power as a Judge to kidnap a city councilman whose recently introduced Euthanasia Integrity Program resulted in a man being euthanized against his will and scare the living daylights out of him by forcing him to undergo a near-completed euthanasia himself in order to 'persuade' him to change the rules so entrants can legally refuse to undergo euthanasia.
  • In the prog Wounded Heart, Dredd attends the funeral of a female socialite called Melba Omerta Tang, who recently assisted him in cracking an organ-sharking case. It's a rare moment of vulnerability and guilt for Dredd; as part of that assistance, Melba had asked that he not kill the nest of Glohawks outside her apartment, but an exterminator had gone behind his back and killed them after Dredd had visited. She had blamed Dredd and accused him of breaking his promise, and he is shown genuinely struggling with how to handle the guilt, having no way to explain himself now that she's gone.
  • The progs detailing ex-Judge deMarco's side of "Doomsday" shows that Dredd actually showed up to her apartment shortly after East-Meg put the 10 million bounty on his head, offering what comfort he could, pointing her in the direction of a private investigator who could use her assistance, and getting her a firearms permit. When she got drunk for the first time, he also took her home safely and actually gave her some good advice.
    • In the same progs, when one wit jokingly points a finger-gun at Dredd and says "bang", he responds by forcing them into an immediate strip-search, then sends him to the Justice Department for a full interrogation and illegal substance check, whilst also sending Judges to search his apartment and interrogate the children.
  • In The Devil You Know, once he discovers that Judge Grice is the head of the conspiracy to have him taken out before the referendum to repeal the rule of Justice Department, Dredd confronts him in his office and proceeds to beat the absolute shit out of him. Two other Judges waiting outside turned a blind eye to the whole thing, eventually settling on the cover story that Dredd and Grice are redecorating Grice's office, even as Dredd tosses Grice through a glass door.
• Nuke 'em: Judge Dredd himself pressed the Big Red Button that launched East Meg One's own nukes against them at the climax of the Apocalypse War, winning the desperate struggle for Mega City One in a single stroke and killing all 500 million inhabitants.
• Older Than They Look: He ages in real time, and entered his 80s in 2019. The rejuvenation technology slowed his aging process down to where he's physically in his early 40s.
• One-Man Army: He's taken on entire gangs by himself, and oftentimes emerge only slightly winded, reasoning that they don't deserve to have whole squads of judges come after them. He also has one of the highest body counts of any comic book character, even when you factor out his nuking of half a billion people in East-Meg One.
• Papa Wolf:
  • While he's not Vienna's father, he's the closest thing she has to one (and genetically speaking, he is her father in a loose sense, since Rico and Dredd are identical clones of the same man), and Dredd loves his niece dearly. Not even Grud could help anyone who tries to harm her.
  • This extends somewhat to the Fargo Clan, a clan of mutants descended from Eustace Fargo's twin brother, Ephram Fargo, making them genetic relatives of Dredd. Learning of their hardships is what drives Dredd to lobby for reversing the discriminatory treatment of mutants by the Mega Cities.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Dredd's a strong supporter of this philosophy, especially evident in his way of brutally punishing lawbreakers and his act of nuking East-Meg One off the face of the earth, killing half a billion people in the process after the destruction of half his city.
• Perpetual Frowner: As shown by his many expressions in the page image, which seems immutable.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He's well-known as an authoritarian hardass, but he makes a point of being there for his niece when she returns to Mega-City One from Brit-Cit. He's also been known to help out the few innocent citizens he comes across through legal means.
  • He's one of the few Judges who does not consider the mutants to be sub-human, and is vehemently against the apartheid system that they live under, even before he finds out he has mutant relatives, the descendants of Eustace Fargo's (Dredd's clone father) twin brother, Epheram.
  • When 'Two-Ton' Tony Tubbs winning the Mega-City Fats Competition after the Fatties craze is made legal again leads to a riot that causes the platform to break and several of the protesting competitors to smother under their own weight, Tony expects Dredd to throw him in the cubes for being the source of it. Instead, Dredd proclaims the man innocent and imprisons the organizers of the event for criminal negligence leading to death, a sentence of 15 years apiece.
  • When Nikita Engels, the insane sole survivor of East-Meg Judges deployed here during the Apocalypse War, claimed that he is confident in East-Meg One's victory while bleeding out from a gunshot wound, Dredd decided to stay his tongue, not having the heart to tell the dying man that his city was already nuked clean off the face of the earth and that they have lost.
  • Perhaps the best example of this is when he secretly busts out ex-Chief Judge Hilda McGruder (who at the point was a senile dementiac scheduled for euthanasia) and brings her with him to fight cannibals in the Cursed Earth, allowing her to go out with a gun in hand and her dignity intact rather than being put down like a sick dog. He even remarks that a woman like her deserved better.
• Principles Zealot: His sole concern is upholding the law, though he has been shown to bend or exploit loopholes in it during his Pet the Dog moments.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Defied, in spite of his suspicious-sounding catchphrase. Dredd has the authority to determine punishment for law-breaking, not to make new laws as he sees fit.
• Secret-Keeper: He is perhaps the only person who knows that Chief Judge Fargo actually condemned the Judge System on his deathbed and pleaded for Dredd to begin dismantling what was originally supposed to be a temporary system. Instead, he claimed that Fargo had wanted the Judges to continue their rule, as he understandably felt the system was too ingrained into Mega-City One to be removed without causing chaos.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: In the comics and the novels, Dredd has been responsible for final assessment of Judge Cadets on several occasions, both in Mega-City One and in the form of the infamous "Hotdog Run" in the Cursed Earth. He has a well-earned reputation as one of the harshest possible teachers to get for final assessment, as he demands perfection from his cadets to ensure they'll be tough enough to survive in Mega-City One.
• The Stoic: He's almost always composed... which makes the moments when the mask slips or cracks particularly memorable.
• Shoulders of Doom: The Judges in Mega-City One, including Dredd, all have huge shoulder pads. The right one is an eagle to symbolize the origins of the Meg, back when Mega-City One was a constituent part of the United States.
• Smith of the Yard: He's the most famous judge in Mega-City One (and arguably the world) in no small part thanks to some of his exploits, such as nuking an entire city to win a war, defeating the Dark Judges and arresting the devil.
• Super Cop: Downplayed. His Electronic Eyes give him an edge over the average Street Judge, but for the most part he is still a Badass Normal. He doesn't have explicitly supernatural abilities like Anderson and her colleagues in Psi-Division.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Whenever Dredd has to work with somebody from outside of the Justice Department, it's clear that he does not enjoy the process, and neither does whoever he's partnered with. This includes both natives of his own world, such as Devlin Waugh, the badass Camp Gay vampire assassin-exorcist, and crossover characters, such as Batman.
  • It's shown that Dredd sometimes even has problems getting on with other Judges, usually due to his own inflexible demeanor, antisocial behavior and extremely high standards. One of the earliest examples of this is during the Judge Child arc, when he is shown butting heads with Judge Lopez over the latter's wearing a mustache^note perfectly legal by Justice Department regulations, Dredd just felt it went against the spirit of "proper" Judge behavior. He also used to express disapproval of Judge Anderson's sense of humor.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Being burnt alive by the Sisters of Death in The Dead Man leaves him with amnesia until he finds his badge in a destroyed town.
• Tyke-Bomb: He and the rest of his siblings were cloned from the DNA of the first Chief Judge Fargo. The Justice Department designed Dredd to be the ultimate lawman, and trained him from birth. He first saw action during the immediate aftermath of the Atomic Wars in 2070, when he, his brother Rico and all the other cadets were dispatched along with the Judges to maintain order in Mega-City One, which had fallen into anarchy despite surviving the brunt of the nuclear attack.
• Unscrupulous Hero: He has no compunction whatsoever with killing perpetrators or doing whatever he feels is necessary to uphold the law for a dictatorial system or to defend Mega-City One. He is even willing to go as far as to nuke the entirety of East-Meg One to the soil during the Apocalypse War.
• Wrote the Book: Literally. Dredd has penned "The Comportment", a guide which is required reading for all Cadet Judges.

---

Cassandra Anderson

Cassandra Anderson is a member of Justice Department's Psi-Division, a unit of telepaths specialized to deal with out-of-this-world threats. She is perhaps the closest thing to a partner Dredd could ever have, having repeatedly fought alongside him against the Dark Judges as well as various other supernatural foes. Has her own spinoff series, Anderson: Psi-Division.

---

• Action Girl: As a female judge, she patrols the streets with great competence.
• Boyish Short Hair: After she loses her hair during the "Half Life" arc, it never grows back to its original length. How long it grows varies but it's a sign of her advancing age.
• Breakout Character: She was initially intended as just one of Judge Death's victims. She proved so popular that she returned many times since and even ended up getting her own spinoff.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's rather flippant with her superiors and has a more relaxed attitude than other judges. The tradeoff of her powers is considered to be worth it. Psi judges are usually more in tune with their emotions.
• Character Catchphrase: "Grud on a greenie!"
• Closer to Earth: Far less extreme than Dredd, though it may be her Psychic Powers.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting:
  • Her initial appearance was based on Debbie Harry.
  • Inverted later on—in several stories written after the 2012 movie, Anderson resembles◊ Olivia Thirlby a lot.
• Deadpan Snarker: It's part of her attitude. Her superiors note that she's somewhat flippant with it.
• Dream Weaver: Cass has learned to employ lucid dreaming, which has come in handy against both the Sisters of Death and Judge Death.
• Fair Cop: Her appearance is based on Debbie Harry, so she definitely falls under this trope.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Her battles against the Dark Judges alongside Dredd have earned his respect, something that's very difficult, especially for a Psi Judge to earn.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Her blonde hair marks her out as a more traditionally good character than most other judges. Or, at least, less brutal.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: She rarely ever wears a helmet, even in combat situations, although the in-story Hand Wave is that it obstructs her psychic abilities.
• The Lost Lenore: She falls in love with a Sov Psi Kop named Mikhael, though he dies soon after. Using lucid dreaming techniques, she is able to keep his memory alive and be with him as she sleeps.
• Meaningful Name: Named for the mythical Cassandra, who was also a psychic.
• Ms. Fanservice: For the most part, Anderson in Judge Dredd doesn't provide much fanservice other than being hot in general. Her own spinoff, however, is a different story. In the first collected volume alone, she spends half a story naked in a coma (she is mostly covered by a sheet, but still), has another judge walk in on her in a shower, and goes clubbing in a low-cut, tight minidress.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In one of the classic comics, Anderson is utterly horrified when she realises the Dark Judges tricked her into resurrecting and loosing them on Mega-City One. She mostly gets over it within a couple progs, reasoning that she needs to focus on taking down the Dark Judges rather than moping about.
• Older Than They Look: She's presently either in her late 50s or early 60s, but doesn't even look 30. Arthur Ranson did draw her as looking more mature in the mid noughties, but other artists haven't followed through with this.
• Only Sane Man: Noticeably less extreme and brutal than the average cop. Doesn't mean she doesn't kill the occasional criminal here and there.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Most of the covers she appears on have her do this, when she isn't using a Lawgiver.
• Psychic Powers: She's the top psychic in Psi Division and her powers have allowed her to counter such supernatural foes as the Dark Judges, even being capable of containing their spirits.
• Repressed Memories: For years she blocked out the fact that she had been abused by her own father.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: After being placed on suspension for her role in resurrecting the Dark Judges, she's placed on suspension pending a likely Titan trip. Anderson's decision to disobey her suspension and break the rules is what ultimately allows them to strand the Dark Judges in limbo.
• Token Good Teammate: Like most Judges she's trained to shoot perps resisting arrest with no compunction, but she has a softer side than most of her colleagues and is willing to go against the system given a choice To Be Lawful or Good.

Rico Dredd

Joe's twin clone brother and field partner for the longest time, before he became corrupt. Like Dredd, he was bred and trained in the academy, and performs just as well as him. After unsuccessfully trying to bribe Dredd — who witnessed him extorting and killing a civilian — into silence, he was sentenced to twenty years on Titan. Much later, Rico returned and swears revenge on his brother, who promptly shot and killed him.

---

• The Ace: He graduated from the academy in first place, beating even Dredd.
• Always Someone Better: At the academy, he was the only one with higher marks than Joe.
• Anti-Villain: Dredd reckons so. Lawman Gone Bad or not, they're still blood brothers and his death still haunts Dredd many years later.
• Ax-Crazy: Had traces of this even before his exile and confinement on Titan, most notably when he murdered Judge Kenner, shooting Kenner with an incendiary round, blasting off his limbs, and mocking him as he died.
• Cain and Abel: Is the Cain to Joseph's Abel. Dredd sends him to Titan and he comes back to seek revenge, only for Dredd to kill him, something Dredd still feels remorseful for, even after years.
• Cyborg: Like all Titan inmates, his respiratory system and skin has been modified with cybernetic implants so he can survive on Titan without a space suit. It's pretty horrific looking.
• Dirty Cop: Shortly after hitting the streets, he started his own criminal operations, which gets him sent to Titan.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Had a daughter with a visiting journalist. Said daughter is eventually semi-adopted by Dredd, as genetically speaking, she is his daughter as well.
• Facial Horror: His time on Titan cost him his normal face, with cybernetic implants covering most of it and his nose missing.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He's an even better shot than Dredd. The only reason Dredd is able to defeat him is that his body has gotten used to Titan's lower gravity and he is slower as a result.
• Lawman Gone Bad: He was top of his class, better than even Dredd, but he began running his own criminal activities not long after he hit the streets. His worst act was the brutal murder of Judge Kenner, which he committed because the latter had grown increasingly suspicious of Rico. Rico was able to pull it off by pretending to be Joe, with Kenner realizing the truth too late.
• Posthumous Character: His first appearance is the one in which he is killed. Any subsequent appearances are in the form of flashbacks and dream sequences.
• Small Role, Big Impact: After spending two decades on one of Saturn's moon, angrily plotting his vengeance against his clone brother, his revenge story is wrapped up in a single prog, with all it takes is a single shot from Joseph. However, he is still Dredd's brother, his partner, and killing him puts a heavy mental toll on Joseph that never truly goes away.

Giant

The original Judge Giant was one of Dredd's Rookie Judges, who later was made into a full Judge after Dredd sets up a Batman Gambit to expect Giant to arrest him, thus showing that he passed the final test. After being killed by Orlok the Assassin, his illegitimate son took up his mantle.

---

• Canon Welding: The original Giant is the son of John "Giant" Clay. Clay himself appears in a Whatever Happened To......? story where he has a final conversation with his grandson.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: The original Giant is shot In the Back by Orlok just before The Apocalypse War begins.
• In the Back: Orlok shoots the original Giant from behind after his Satellat distracts him.
• Jive Turkey: The original Giant blatantly abuses this trope, speaking rather free-spiritedly and refers to Dredd as "J.D. Baby". Mind you, the only other person who gets away with calling Dredd like that is Max Normal, his informant. His son largely averts this, however.

America Beeny

America Beeny is the daughter of Bennett Beeny and America Jara who is inducted into the Academy just before Benny's death.

---

• Action Girl: She is one of the youngest judges ever to graduate from the academy as she was fast tracked in record time. Dredd is even impressed with her competence and determination and she is quite skilled on the streets.
• Dead Guy Junior: She's America Beeny, and her mother was America Jara. Her father wanted her to have her mother's name to keep her memory alive. Which he was also doing by living in her mother's body.
• Deadpan Snarker: Never short of an answer, as her tutor noted of her while she was still at the academy. Snarks in virtually every appearance since — something the older Judges tend to comment negatively on.
• Internal Reformist: Benny enrols her in the academy partly to keep her safe and partly to make the system change. She does state that she believes the system must change, she also wishes to be a judge and proves her worth on the streets.
• Legacy Character: She is the daughter of the protagonists of "America". She has many of her mother's traits, along with her father's good nature.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: When attacked and pinned by one of the surviving members of the Democratic Terrorists her mother was affiliated with, she pulls a knife from her boot and stabs him square in the rear. When the med team arrives they've removed his pants... all the while keeping the knife lodged there.
• Someone to Remember Him By: She was conceived through deliberate artificial insemination in order to keep America Jara's memory alive.
• Tangled Family Tree: Her biological mother and her biological father are technically the same person, as her father had his brain put in her mother's brain-dead body and inseminated him/herself with sperm from his original body, leading to the birth of America Beeny.

Galen DeMarco

Galen DeMarco is a Judge who comes under Dredd's command in Sector 301 and later falls for him. She eventually resigned due to her conflicting ideals as a Judge and became a private detective.

---

• Action Girl: A very capable judge, she is in line for promotion to Senior Judge at just 23. This makes Dredd question what she's doing in The Pit, especially as she volunteered.
• Character Catchphrase: In her early solo stories, she puts a spin on Dredd's own "I am the law" by reminding people "I am not the law."
• Fair Cop: She's a young and attractive judge who gets the attention of other judges. Even Dredd is tempted.
• Has a Type: Judges. She requests a transfer to The Pit to be with Warren after he is transferred from Harbour Division, where they met. She later falls for Dredd, though he spurns her advances, despite them sharing a kiss. Currently, she is in a relationship with undercover judge Jack Point.
• First-Name Basis: When she's wounded on the streets, Dredd refers to her by her first name. She takes this as a sign that he cares about her. Even as late as "Trifecta", he still does so. As such, she often refers to him by his first name.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is depicted in various states of undress at times, particularly just after she's had sex with a fellow judge. An infamous cover depicted her with a Navel-Deep Neckline and this trope carried over to her appearances in The Simping Detective.
• Non-Idle Rich: Her father leaves her several billion credits in trust for her. In spite of this, she sticks it out as a judge for several years until her feelings for Dredd force her to make a decision. Even when she leaves, she becomes a P.I. instead of just swanning around with her money. Subverted in her later stories, where her money has been stolen and she's struggling to make ends meet.
• Private Investigator: She becomes a private detective after resigning from Justice Department, as it's a good use of her skills and allows her to pick and choose which elements of the job she wants to go with.
• Rank Up: She becomes Sector Chief of Sector 303 at a young age, though her feelings for Dredd forced her to resign.
• Really Gets Around: She was known for her tendency for romantically involving herself with various fellow Judges, which put her in trouble with Dredd and eventually caused her to resign as a Judge when she couldn't sacrifice her personal passions for the job.
• Transplant: Started off in the main strip before getting her own Spin-Off and then showing up in The Simping Detective as a recurring character.
• Turn in Your Badge: She is forced to choose between being able to be personally involved with people or being a Judge. Having made a move on Dredd, she resigns.

Kraken

Another Fargo clone originally bred by Morton Judd, but was later inducted into the Judge force. After trying to fill Dredd's vacant position, he came under the control of the Sisters of Death and was turned into a Dark Judge against his will.

---

• An Arm and a Leg: He blows up his right hand when he tries to use another Judge's Lawgiver, forgetting it wasn't his.
• And I Must Scream: His fate is beyond horrifying; Death decides to reward his new puppet by mind-controlling Kraken to kill millions of people, while allowing him enough clarity of mind to feel all of it.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Dark Judges use their psychic powers to force him to join them in their mission to turn Mega-City One into a city of the dead.
• Death Faked for You: Silver arranges for Kraken to be executed by lethal injection at Resyk after Dredd fails him. In truth it's a harmless anaesthetic that merely made Kraken look like he was dead, fooling the Resyk staff into deeming him as such. In turn, this allowed him to take up Dredd's identity without anyone (barring Silver and Odell) being the wiser.
• Death Seeker: Kraken outright welcomes his execution at Dredd's hands after Death's control over him is broken.
• Decoy Protagonist: The first half of "Necropolis" proper (As well as two of the "Countdown To Necropolis" stories, "By Lethal Injection" and "Rights Of Succession") are told from his perspective, detailing how the Sisters Of Death manipulate him into luring Kit Agee to Dunc Renaldo Block to use as a psychic bridge and his subsequent retrieval of the Dark Judges from the dimension to which they'd been banished. After that, the story switches over to Dredd.
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • When Silver orders Kraken to be terminated at Resyk for failing his assessment by Dredd, Kraken refuses to resist despite having the opportunity to flee. He even performs the lethal injection on himself as a sign of loyalty to the Department. Of course, he survives.
  • When Dredd finally returns and saves the city, he doesn't try to run or protest and calmly accepts his execution by Dredd after thanking him for ending his torment.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He realizes how badly he's screwed up after he frees the Dark Judges, but in his haste destroys his own arm with a stolen Lawgiver.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He's named after the mythical sea monster.
• Plagued by Nightmares: In the run-up to Necropolis, Kraken keeps having nightmares of Judd calling him a traitor and commanding him to fight against Justice Department while the Sisters of Death taunt him in the background. This gradually causes him to become increasingly unstable, until the Sisters can take almost full control of him.
• Scarred Equipment: By the time Dredd confronts him, his helmet is badly cracked and his uniform is in tatters from months of being Death's puppet.
• Secret Test of Character: His termination by lethal injection at Resyk turns out to be one. Silver notes that if Kraken really was disloyal, he could have escaped in a heartbeat; instead, his willingness to go to his death (not knowing the injection was actually an anaesthetic) proved to Silver that he was worthy of taking up Dredd's mantle.
• Sucksessor: When Justice Department tries to redeem him for his part in the Judda incursion, his field stats actually outstrip Dredd's. Dredd's decision to revoke Kraken's graduation is overturned in his absence, setting the Necropolis disaster in motion. The only thing he really loses to Dredd is mental fortitude, which cause him to be easily swayed by the Sisters of Death.
• Replacement Goldfish: Chief Judge Silver had him replace Dredd name and all after the real Dredd took the Long Walk, believing that Dredd's reputation was too valuable to lose. This was a bad idea.

Grice

A former street Judge who conspired against Dredd during the democratic referendum, he was sent to Titan, where he later escaped and briefly took control of Mega-City One.

---

• Bad Boss: When he becomes obsessed with taking revenge on Dredd, he executes his own men, even the loyal ones.
• BFG: He believes that as Chief Judge, he should carry as large a gun as possible, opting for a flamethrower.
• Car Fu: How he meets his end, via Dredd ordering his Lawmaster to repeatedly run him over.
• Facial Horror: Like all Titan inmates, his nose was replaced with cybernetics to allow his survival on the moon without an expensive space suit. His alteration can be seen as an in-universe example of Technology Marches On, as it's not nearly as extensive or hideous as the work done to Rico Dredd.
• Fallen Hero: He was once a respected Senior Judge until he conspired against Dredd.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He becomes so Ax-Crazy that he eventually decides to destroy the city.
• Prisons Are Gymnasiums: He comes back from Titan much stronger than when he went in by working out constantly.
• Took a Level in Badass: When Dredd first arrests him, the fight between them is a Curbstomp Battle, with Dredd absolutely destroying Grice. When he comes back, Grice defeats Dredd and, even during their final battle, it takes Dredd's Lawmaster to final defeat him.
• Sanity Slippage: He gets crazier when he installs himself as Chief Judge, even executing one of his co-conspirators with a chainsaw and takes a flamethrower as a personal weapon.
• Villain Protagonist: He gets his own Spin-Off, Purgatory, detailing his imprisonment on Titan, where he and his fellow conspirators, as well as other prisoners, are horribly mistreated by the warden and organized a breakout.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He starts out as this. Believing that a democratic vote would destroy the city, he conspires to assassinate Dredd, which fails. After this, though, Revenge is his main motivation.

Rico II

Another clone of Dredd, who takes on the original Rico's name in tribute after Dredd tells him of their time in the academy together.

---

• Dead Guy Junior: He takes the original Rico's name out of respect.
• The Faceless: Just like Dredd, his helmet never comes off either. Like Dredd and Rico, he presumably looks like their clone father, Fargo.
• Lamarck Was Right: He's the only real successful Dredd clone and, apart from Dredd himself, the only other Fargo clone to stay a Judge without going bad. When they do team up, they think so much alike they barely need to speak to each other.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Being a Dredd clone, this is a given. When it's blown off, he's given a replacement made of titanium. Dredd notes that some perp broke his own hand trying to punch Rico out.
• Take Up My Sword: At the end of Grindstone Cowboys, a badly wounded Dredd tells him that it's up to him now before Dredd's H-wagon is destroyed.

Fintan Joyce

Fintan Joyce is a retrainee who transferred from Murphyville after Chaos Day.

---

• Fingore: In his first appearance, he gets his fingers lopped off in the Undercity and keeps fighting. He's either got them reattached or regrown in subsequent appearances.
• Legacy Character: He's the son of Charlie Joyce, the Irish judge Dredd teamed up with in "Emerald Isle". Charlie is established to have died in the intervening years and this becomes a plot point later on.
• Officer O'Hara: He started out in Murphyville's Justice Department before transferring to the Big Meg. Murphyville's judges are a lot more relaxed in their policing and lifestyle regulations for their judges, something Dredd isn't happy with.
• Transfer Student Uniforms: He wears his Irish judge's uniform upon arrival to Mega-City One before he's issued his Mega-City uniform.
• Sherlock Scan: He figures that there's something illegal going on in an all night diner because the cook's apron is actually clean, meaning he's not actually a cook.

Irwin Guthrie

A former Wally Squad Judge working out of sector 301, Guthrie returned to uniform during "The Pit" after proving his innocence to Dredd. Working with Dredd for years, he was crippled in an explosion and rebuilt as a Cyborg.

---

• An Arm and a Leg: During "Blood Trails", he takes the full brunt of an explosion, which costs him his limbs.
• Blood Knight: He loves being in the thick of the action. The reason for his despair after his injury is that he won't get to be out on the streets again.
• Code Name: His Wally Squad designation was Bad Boy, which fits his Cowboy Cop nature.
• Cowboy Cop: He states himself that he "wasn't exactly Captain Bydabook". Given his time undercover, he had to adapt life on the streets, giving him an unorthodox way of approaching judging.
• Death Seeker: Briefly, he contemplates euthanasia after losing his limbs. Giant snaps him out of it, though.
• Deep Cover Agent: He's introduced as a Wally Squad Judge. Dredd isn't sure just how deep he's under cover, suspecting that he might possibly have gone native. He helps Dredd uncover the corruption in The Pit, eventually gaining his trust.
• Manly Facial Hair: His moustache is so badass, it's the only part of his that doesn't sustain any damage when he's blown up.
• Race Lift: Early depictions of him vary his skin tone, ranging from Ambiguously Brown to outright being a black man. Later depictions settle on him being white, though.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: When he gets his new body, he's at first stuck driving a catch wagon, since street judges aren't allowed obvious cybernetics. He later becomes Warden of the Black Atlantic prison, the violent nature of which he enjoys.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After losing his limbs to a bomb, he's given a cybernetic bodysuit with a variety of upgrades, such as as Arm Cannons and self repair systems.

Morphy

Dredd's assessing judge during his final street evaluation, Morphy became a mentor to Dredd over the years, offering Dredd advice over the years, most notably suggesting he wear tighter boots to help forget about any doubts he might have.

---

• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Goes out on the streets. As he dies, he notes that a judge of his experience should not have got caught out the way he did.
• The Mentor: As Dredd's assessor during his final exam, he's always willing to give Joe some advice about judging.
• Parental Substitute: When holding the perp responsible for Morphy's death over a traintrack, Dredd notes that while Fargo was his biological father, Morphy was like a real father to him. As such, Dredd takes his death very badly.
• Plot-Triggering Death: While the letter from William Wenders (and his subsequent death) is what puts the seed in Dredd's mind about the judge system, it's Morphy's death at the hands of a pair of thugs that's the final straw that causes Dredd to resign and take the Long Walk, leading into Necropolis.
• Retirony: Gets killed on the streets six months before he is due to take up a posting at the Academy of Law. Dredd does not take this well.

Barbara Maitland

An accounts judge who has worked alongside Dredd on several occasions. Serves the city through her prodigial abilities with numbers at a time where that determines where they go through the brink - and currently trying to push through a very “radical” idea of diverting some of that funding to education instead of law, after realising that is what would actually bring down crime.

---

• Badass Bookworm: A trained Judge, as Black Ops Estrella and Bachman are reminded of.
• Badass Bureaucrat: She's very capable both with an accounting ledger and a lawgiver, so much so that Dredd tells her she should be on the streets as opposed to crunching numbers.
• Big Damn Heroes: Her exploding through a wall and rescuing a critically injured Dredd.
• Black and Nerdy: All about her numbers and statistics, navigating those of Mega-City 1 as a matter of crisis management with essential ease. Her exact ethnicity is unknown but her skin tone comparable to Giant’s when the two worked together.
• Determinator: Her current pushing for an education programme for citizens has been very unpopular among judges, given very little chance to succeed to - but she is trying and exceptionally busy for it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Horrified at what Smiley was up to and calls out Dredd when his actions inadvertently lead to the death of Judge Sam.
• Face Death with Dignity: She ultimately survives courtesy of reaching a flamethrower and Nixon getting distracted, but when the unkillable monster shows up Maitland’s response is essentially “come and get me”. Similar bravery was shown in the face of Judge Smiley.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Serves as the Bad Cop to Dredd, of all people, in her introduction - she argues to a perp just how much cheaper it would be to simply blow him away rather than taking him in alive. The perp surrenders.
• Killed Off for Real: Council of Five member Hernandez, setting her up to be assassinated by Domo.
• The Idealist Was Right: Maitland herself isn’t an idealist, she follows her numbers and concrete proof. However her sector 304 project gets her viewed as a Wide-Eyed Idealist at best and a terrorist at worse by many judges and journalists. This same project is shown in the strip to genuinely work and make a real, positive difference to those who live inside. It only fails due to department sabotage.
• To Be Lawful or Good: When she realises that the Judge System is doing more harm than good, how they could be diverting the fund to education to make much more of an actual difference - she grapples with whether or not to take this to the press.

Giant II

• The Big Guy: Well built as an adult.
• Children Forced to Kill: Forced to be active much earlier than most cadets, taking the lead over a small group of them following the takeover of Judge Death.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has his moments such as about Dredd’s complete no-nonsense demeanour.
• Everyone Has Standards: Against Judge Smiley and his murderous operations, helping take down the corrupt Black Ops. He is also opposed to other Judges being callously put in undue (beyond what their jobs requires) risk.
• The Heart: Giant is not soft, as a Judge after all, but he tries do the right thing and is more inclined to friendships and talking things through than numerous other stunted Judges are. This is something that has recently caused increasing clashes with Dredd and feelings as if the friendship is onesided.
• Legacy Character: Jnr is the son of the first Judge Giant, himself the son of John "Giant" Clay, conceived by an unjudicial liaison.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Had to be first as a Judge cadet, then surviving as a child when Judge Death invades Mega-City and takes control of the adult Judges.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Judge Dredd over not just the death of Judge Sam, but Dredd’s complete refusal to talk to those supposed to be his friend’s afterwards about everything that went down.

---