His name is Dredd! (Special 2012 Movie lead-in) Part 1

Folks, we have a special guest poster in the house today – and he's brought with him his encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Dredd!!
In anticipation of the release (starting 7^th September for the lucky... ducks in Canada, UK and Spain!) of the awesomeness that promises to be Dredd 3D, we've asked our expert comrade to give you the Judge Dredd crash course! Today he brings you his take on the character and his history as well as thoughts on the 90's Stallone movie and the new one coming down the chimney soon.
Enjoy this romp down Mega-City one lanes and be back here soon for Part II of this Dredded (sorry, couldn't help myself!) expose where we bring you some of the best story-lines from the hard-a$$ law-mans career! And now : to the article!!

- Almost-droolin'-in-Anticipation Akshay

Judge Dredd Special Feature

By Stewart Loud

It always shocks me how many people I speak to who've never read any comics featuring 2000AD's premier law man, Joseph Dredd. With that in mind and with the impending release of the new Judge Dredd film, Dredd 3D (September 2012) starring Karl Urban, here's a piece outlining who he is, what his world is like and what makes him one of the greatest and most original comic characters in the world, as well as a few brief reviews of some of my favourite Judge Dredd stories.

Urban in Judge-gear and movie stills!

For starters, if all you know about him is based on the 1995 train wreck starring Sly Stallone, then please disregard that enormous slap in the face that was dealt to all his fans back then. I could write a 5000-word essay on what was wrong with that film – I mean, double whammy bullets?!? - but today I want to focus on the comics and what makes them so grud damn good!

Created in 1977 by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra and first appearing in 2000AD #2, Judge Joseph Dredd hails from a post apocalyptic future where the majority of the Earth's surface has been rendered an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland, forcing the surviving humans to live in almost unimaginably vast and densely populated “Mega Cities”. Due to the massive level of poverty and civil unrest this causes, the judicial systems we all know today have become completely redundant and the police, army, emergency services and government have been replaced the world over with The Judges.

Mega-City One : Home of Dredd!

Early Dredd!

They are the one and only authority the civilian population knows. Enrolled as cadets at an early age and heavily trained, disciplined and armed, they are tasked with governing, serving, policing, protecting and punishing with the full authority to dispense instant justice. Even on the spot executions are perfectly acceptable if they think that's what the situation calls for in this ultra-violent, dystopian future. Some people regard this as a terrible image of what society could turn into given the right circumstances, while maybe some people who've been to parts of the UK pottery town of Stoke-On-Trent on a Friday or Saturday night might think that this is a system we should implement today.

The majority of Judge Dredd's adventures and stories take place in Mega City One. This is basically the future version of a New York that has now expanded to occupy most of the East coast of America. He is Mega City One's most feared, respected and highly decorated Judge. Over the years he's spent policing it's streets, fighting wars against attacking rival cities and being the button pusher when some place heavily populated needs to be nuked from the face of the Earth, he has amassed a body count of over 2 billion. I – shit – you – not!

Here's what separates him from most other popular fictional characters and makes him so much more original and ground breaking than they can ever hope to be in my opinion :

Some might call him an anti-hero because of the brutal way in which he deals with wrong-doers and law breakers, but that's not the case at all. An anti-hero is someone like Wolverine, The Punisher, Rick from The Walking Dead or the super powered characters from The Authority. They are essentially good people who follow a code of some sort - no women, no kids, whatever - but they can and will kill for what they believe in and they aren't afraid to rebel against the establishment to do what they believe is right.

JUDGE DREDD IS THE ESTABLISHMENT! He's a massively right-wing, authoritarian bully. No body can say he isn't fair, but if he catches you breaking the law then you'd better believe he's gonna bring the full weight of the it to bear on you. He isn't interested in sob stories about why people have broken the law in the first place. Whether they're speeding to get to the birth of their first child or stealing to provide for their dying grandmother – they are going down. I even read one comic where he caught a woman who'd thrown herself off a tall building in a suicide attempt, then jailed her for attempted littering.

Having said all this, when shit gets real in a zombie apocalypse, alien attack or riot, he is the man you want in your corner. Totally unrelenting in his commitment to upholding the principles on which the justice system was founded, he will never hesitate to put his life on the line, not only to make an arrest but also to save the life of a citizen in danger. Combine all this with the fact that Garth Ennis used to write a lot of his stories and what you've got is basically Frank Castle with a badge and the freedom to do more or less whatever he feels is called for in that situation.

Editors Note : And remember folks! Be back here next week for more Dredd-y goodness!!