Angel Family
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Mean Machine Angel
A psychopathic cyborg (though he was not always this way) and the youngest member of the Angel family with whom Dredd has several run-ins with, and is also one of his most enduring opponents.
- Abusive Parents: His father often punished him for his original peaceful attitude, even having his arm cut off and replaced with a cybernetic, and later arranged for a dial to be implanted into his head, turning him into a monstrous thug. During the "Son of Mean" storyline, Mean treated his own son (who was exactly like he once was) much the same way.
- Always Someone Better: Downplayed; in one prog, Dredd recruits Mean Machine to rescue a stranded ballet team from a gang of mutants called the Headbangers, a tribe of Violent Glaswegian stereotypes who decide leadership through headbutting duels. Their current leader, the McBean, actually matches Mean Machine butt for butt, until Dredd worries that he might legitimately beat the cyborg and so cheats by surreptitiously sticking the mutant with some sedatives.
- Amazon Chaser: He's very attracted to "Seven-Pound Sadie" Sarah , a female outlaw who's first action on meeting him (he tried to rob a bank she was already robbing) was hitting him with her iconic sledge hammer. She eventually became the mother of his son.
- An Arm and a Leg: His right arm was replaced with a cybernetic claw by his father when he was "upgraded". He also loses his remaining organic arm as well during the climax of the Judge Child arc, when Dredd blows it off, resulting in his iconic lopsided appearance of robotic clawed arm and stump after his resurrection. He doesn't seem to mind the loss too much.
- Axe-Crazy: He's a gleefully sadistic hillbilly who just loves headbutting stuff. Subverted when his dial is finally removed and he settles into civilian life by living with his son. Further subverted when he contracts the Chaos Bug and survives it, while regaining his sanity.
- Back from the Dead: He was originally killed during the Judge Child arc, but brought back, as he was a popular villain.
- Badass Normal: By Mega-City One standards, anyway. Mean Machine is just a dumb hick from the Cursed Earth with some clunky, low-grade cyber-implants. Yet he has the distinction of not only being part of the very small group of perps who have gone up against Dredd multiple times, but of also being both one of Dredd's most daunting foes after the Dark Judges and having the longest list of survived encounters with Dredd.
- Berserk Button: Anything that reminds him of Dredd. During the story "Born Mean", he was accidentally freed by some environmentalists, one of whom suffered from Elmuh Fudd Syndwome. Mean headbutted the man, simply because his speech impediment reminded him of "Dreddy's robot" (Walter).
- The Brute: Often serves as muscle to anyone who hires him.
- Character Catchphrase:
- "Izzat so?"
- "Ya got Mean Machine Angel on (insert number here)!"
- Cyborg: He was transformed into one by his father, who thought he was too soft. Given a robotic arm and a dial which controls the amount of rage in his brain. When it goes to 4, you're in trouble.
- Dumb Muscle: Not very bright, but very, very strong. This is often a cause of his defeat, since he can physically throw down with some of the best, including Dredd, but he's easily outsmarted. Fans have even theorized that he never gets his missing left arm replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic, despite that option being easily available, because he's too simple-minded to think of it. Or maybe the Justice Department just doesn't want him to be even more dangerous with two arms instead of one.
- Enemy Mine: Mean Machine and Dredd have actually teamed up on multiple occasions, and there are subtle hints that Dredd actually has a certain respect for the cyborg.
- Shortly after his resurrection, with the aid of brain surgery that makes him think Dredd is his father, Mean Machine helps Dredd track down a band of mutant raiders who have stolen priceless treasures and a cargo of Judge clone-babies intended for Tex-City.
- The famous "Three Amigos" storyline sees Dredd teamed up with Mean Machine and Judge Death to bring down a mad mutant warlord threatening the Mega-Cities of America with nuclear missiles.
- In one short prog, Dredd recruits Mean Machine to help him rescue some captured Mega-City performers from a band of headbutting-obsessed mutants called the Headbangers.
- The Family That Slays Together: With his father and the rest of his siblings, until they are killed during the Judge Child arc.
- Fratricide: During the Judge Child arc, Dredd hits him in the head with a heavy length of chain, jamming his dial on 4 and 1/2. As part of his rampage, he instinctively lashes out at his brother Link, delivering a headbutt that kills Link.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: He's been subjected to this several times over the years. While the methods seem to work at first, something always happens to make his former personality resurface.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: By 2129, Mean is reverted to his original personality after his dial is successfully removed and his muscle mass significantly decreased. Dredd acknowledges that the diminutive simpleton is a far cry from the cyborg berserker who once terrorized the city.
- I Hate Past Me: During the "Travels With Muh Shrink" storyline, Mean hijacked a time machine, and used it to go back before his family got involved in the Judge Child saga, and warn them not to get involved. Past Mean gives his future self "a face full a' four" in response. Mean is angry — not just because his offer of help was refused, but because his younger self didn't even deliver a good four.Mean: Boy, you butt like a puff a' bad wind!
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Mean falls in love with Porsha Wuss, a social worker who visits him in prison. He gets fitted with the Warden, a device that causes him pain whenever he gets violent urges, and the two are allowed to get married. Their wedding is attacked and when Mean thinks Porsha is killed, he attacks her "killer" so brutally that he shorts out the Warden. When he realizes Porsha is still alive, he breaks up with her, afraid he'll hurt her, and returns to the iso-cubes willingly.
- Not Hyperbole: Over the years, Mean has often threatened to headbutt someone "down to a greasy spot". He finally follows through on this threat during the closing moments of the "Son of Mean" storyline, repeatedly headbutting the doctor who had been using him as a test subject until there was nothing left but a big red puddle.
- Serious Business: Headbutting. When a university student (believing Mean was still hypnotized into acting a child) mockingly headbutted him, Mean actually shed a tear, but not for the reason the student believed he did.Mean: I'm a' cryin', boy, because there ain't nuthin' sadder than watchin' an ammy'teur!"
- Siblings in Crime: With Junior, the only other survivor of the Angel Family.
- Stronger with Age: Implied during "Travels With Muh Shrink". After his younger self headbutted him (knocking him into the Angel family shack), Mean retaliated with a headbutt that sent his younger self flying into the next page.
- Too Spicy For Yog Sogoth: During the "Three Amigos" storyline, Judge Death tried to possess him. Mean not only resisted, but up so much of a fight that the addled Death fled his body.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was a gentle child until his father had him turned into a cyborg in his teens. His son eventually inherits his original personality.
- Use Your Head: Headbutting someone hard enough to send them flying is his Signature Move.
- Unstoppable Rage: Well, true to his name, Mean can never really get rid of that scowl on his face, but the intensity of his rage controlled by the dial in his forehead. The higher it goes, the stronger and angrier he gets. However, a strong impact to the head can cause the dial to get stuck on 4 1/2, which causes him to go ham on anything that breathes, blindly running around and spasmodically banging his head against everything in sight. This has led to his defeat on multiple occasions, a trend that started with the trait's first appearance in the finale of the Judge Child arc, when it caused him to kill his brother Link and then blow himself up by headbutting a gas pump.
- Unskilled, but Strong: He doesn't have a lot of fighting techniques other than headbutting someone or an occasional swipe with his claw, but given that he's nigh-unstoppable and has a metal skull, you don't need much finesse with that.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Mean Machine seemed to be on the way to scoring the unique distinction of ultimately getting a happy ending; most of Dredd's repeat-rogues wind up dead, often as early as their second appearance, but Mean gets his aggression dial removed and to go back to a normal life with his son. Except that, during the Chaos Bug outbreak, he becomes infected and temporarily reverts to his murderous ways. After being cured, the ashamed Mean exiles himself from Mega-City One, ultimately dying in a Heroic Sacrifice made to free a group of slaves.
Pa, Link and Junior Angel
A family of murderous hillbillies led by Elmer "Pa" Angel that originally appeared in the "Judge Child" storyline, and for the most part got killed off there. Despite this, they've reappeared in several prequel stories.
- Abusive Parents: Pa. He was so disgusted by Mean's original peace-loving nature that he let his brothers torture him, and eventually had him turned into a violent Cyborg psychopath. Weirdly, in his own twisted way, he's shown doting on his son Junior.
- Axe-Crazy: Junior is, without a doubt, the absolutely craziest member of the Angel family.
- The Brute: Link
- Dumb Muscle: Link is described this way by Mean's younger self; he's evil, but he's also so dumb he doesn't realize he's being evil.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: They love to make people suffer and die; they think it's hilarious.
- Death by Childbirth: "Ma" Angel died giving birth to Junior.
- Hillbilly Horrors: They're a bunch of primitive, dimwitted, feral individuals from the wastelands beyond the Mega-Cities, who relish in nothing more killing and torturing.
- The Family That Slays Together: Their entire gimmick. Imagine the Hewitt family without the cannibalism. Maybe.
- The Patriarch: Pa Angel.
- Post Humous Character: Most of the Angels have been dead for decades, but still keep appearing in new stories.
- Retcon: Pa and Junior's deaths were retconned at one point, but the story was so disliked that they have never appeared again and the resurrection is generally ignored.
Fink Angel
Oldest son of the Angel family. He prefers to work alone, picking off travellers in the Cursed Earth with his 'Pizens'.
- The Bad Guy Wins: An alternate version of Fink that was part of Alternate Judge Cal's Legion of Doom managed to survive his fight with Dredd, killed him, then led an entire army of Cursed Earth mutants to raze Mega-City One to the ground.
- Karmic Death:
- Invoked and subverted in his first appearance; Dredd subdues him by stabbing him with Ratty's fangs; as a Cursed Earth rat, Ratty possesses lethally toxic venom glands. However, rather than killing Fink, it merely incapacitates him, allowing him to be captured.
- Played straight in his second appearance, when Dredd kills him by knocking him into a killing engine that Fink and Mean Machine had created to torture Dredd to death. For added irony, moments beforehand, he had accidentally killed Ratty by striking him with his pizen-stick.
- Also played straight with the alternate Fink; Dredd shoved Ratty down his throat, causing the panicking animal to bite him to death from the inside.
- Loners Are Freaks: Even by the standards of the Angel gang, Fink was a freakshow.
- Master Poisoner: He's a poison expert, killing his victims by throwing barbed metal balls coated in poison at them or by poisoning water sources. If forced to fight, he uses a venom-smeared spiked cudgel he calls his "pizen-stick".
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: With his skeletal features, greenish skin, and predilection for both poisoning his foes and ambushing them from holes he's dug to conceal himself in, as if buried alive, Fink calls to mind a ghoul in every way apart from being undead.
- Signature Headgear: He's never seen without his trademark bowler hat. His pet Ratty also wears one.
- Skull for a Head: His lips and nose have rotted away because of radiation exposure in the Cursed Earth. His appearance in general is pretty skeletal as well.
- Verbal Tic: Refers to "poison" as "pizen", as well as sharing the standard hillbilly burr as the rest of his family.
- You Dirty Rat!: His best friend is Ratty, an hyperintelligent rat with a bowler hat and poisonous fangs.
Ratfink
The son of Fink.
- Bastard Bastard: Was born out of the wedlock and is a ruthless criminal like his father.
- Beast Man: He resembes a human rat hybrid.
- Legacy Character: To his father.
Junior Suggs a.k.a. Mean Angel Jr.
The son of Mean Machine and Sarah "Seven-Pound Sadie" Suggs.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: He has his father's pre-modification personality. Both his parents tried and failed to corrupt him.
- Ironic Name: His name is Mean, but he's unfailingly sweet and moral.
- Morality Dial: As a last-ditch attempt to corrupt him. Mean Machine takes Junior to a hospital to give him a dial like his. The doctors do it, but secretly install a dial whose only settings are Soppy, Good, Virtuous, and Saintly.
