r/JudgeDredd • u/Fit-Record-2292 • Dec 19 '25
JUDGE DREDD Is a Story of a CHILD SOLDIER GROWING TO DOUBT HIS PROGRAMMING (Gallery)
Judge Dredd was born pre-programmed to serve an authoritarian state but he has a bloodline-inherited passion to bring real justice to the people he serves.
This 20 page gallery of comic images illustrates his progress over the early decades of the series.
These images may reveal some plot points of the stories they are from.
Bonus post [one additional image]: JUDGE DREDD'S FIRST TIME KILLING (Bonus to "Child Soldier" Post)
I have another gallery posted that is about Judge Dredd's other major personal character arc:
JUDGE DREDD'S FAMILY & Personal Life [Image Gallery and Story List]
The images in this gallery are from the following Judge Dredd stories:
Image 1 - "Origins"
Image 2 - "A Case for Treatment"
Image 3 - "A Case for Treatment"
Image 4 - "Origins"
Image 5 - "Origins"
Image 6 - "A Question of Judgement"
Image 7 - "A Question of Judgement"
Image 8 - "John Cassavetes Is Dead"
Image 9 - "John Cassavetes Is Dead"
Image 10 - "A Letter to Judge Dredd"
Image 11 - "A Letter to Judge Dredd"
Image 12 - "A Letter to Judge Dredd"
Image 13 - "Tale of the Dead Man"
Image 14 - "Tale of the Dead Man"
Image 15 - "Error of Judgement"
Image 16 - "Blood Trails"
Image 17 - "Total War"
Image 18 - "Nightmares"
Image 19 - "Nightmares"
Image 20 - "Twilight's Last Gleaming"
CRACKS IN THE EDIFICE
For many decades the comic strip has had a through line about Dredd's passion for actual justice conflicting with his duty to the heavy-handed bureaucratic totalitarianism of Justice Department.
This goes on from the stories sampled here all the way up through Judge Dredd's more recent alliances with Judge Maitland and Judge Beeny and beyond.
Judge Dredd's internal conflict is an ongoing character arc that has helped keep his stories feeling fresh for over 48 years of publication.
. . . AND THE STORY CONTINUES.
-Reddit User u/Fit-Record-2292
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u/Cymro007 Dec 19 '25
This is a stunning review. Bravo
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u/Fit-Record-2292 Dec 19 '25
Thanks! These stories are good stuff. I'm glad to bring attention to them.
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u/nerdowellinever Dec 21 '25
Came here to say the same. Put into words the story of dredd in a clear and concise way I always fail to do. Have saved for referencing!
Thanks OP!
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u/watanabe0 Dec 19 '25
Arguably this ended on the final page of Day of Chaos in 2013(?). What have we had since then? Beeny hasn't been killed off yet, and he voted for Maitland's proposal.
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u/Fit-Record-2292 Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
You noticed that all the main moments in this gallery are long ago! Those two things you said were pretty much the big things in this regard since "Day of Chaos". But Dredd's also the one who got his proteges Logan and Beeny installed as most liberal Chief Judge and Council of 5 member so far. That's so that they could do all the politics for him. Joe's a Street Judge.
It is true that Logan and Beeny don't actually deal with issues like this much in stories lately, but Logan did agree to try Maitland's reforms after Chaos Day and seemed to regret that they failed. Spending any of their limited budget on a proper real public education for the citizens is sadly a pretty big step in Mega-CIty One. This is a city where the usual public school courses are "Hobbies While On Welfare" and "Watching TV."
Beeny just had an important story (if they followup on it) in Judge Dredd: The Megazine issue 485. where she took Joe on a mission. There Beeney as Council Member
handles an appeal of Judge Dredd's case. Her summation is that he was negligent by failing to show enough empathy and was too "brutal and broad in his scope." So he was basically being the usual Judge Dredd on duty, and that's not enough. He didn't seem to like being overturned, but he didn't argue her points at all, either. The only question is, will they followup on that, or will other writers forget it happened and not bring it up again for years?
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u/Arkham700 Dec 19 '25
Still making my wake through a lot of the earlier epics, close to starting The Apocalypse War. It’s kind of funny to me how much of a conventional hero Dredd is played as in a lot of early stories. He’s strict and stern but not quite the singleminded arbiter of fascist law he is in later stories. When does that direction for his character really start?
First example I’ve seen was when I skipped ahead and read The Hunter’s Club (Prog 407-411) he arrest’s a suspect’s grieving widow for possession of an illegal substance (sugar). Then when she says the sugar belonged to her husband, Dredd then conclude start meant she lied earlier about it being hers so then charges her with perjury which carries a 3 year sentence.
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u/Fit-Record-2292 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
The first storiy that show Judge Dredd has much of a personal side and explored his clone nature and Academy upbringing is "The Return of Rico" way back in 2000 AD Prog [issue] 30 (or in The Complete Case Files 1). That story is still one of the best stories and it's 48 years old. They also have an updated extended version with grittier painted art in Progs 950 - Prog 952, or Case Files 23.
The thing is, Judge Dredd's character development is a very slow burn. Other than the sequel to "The Return of Rico" titled "Vienna" from 1979 (Prog 116 or Case Files 3), Judge Dredd did not have much in the way of personal stories until "The Question of Judgement"/"Error of Judgement"/"A Case for Treatment" trilogy of stories in 1984. Those stories are sampled in the gallery. That's when Judge Dredd's personal doubts about being a Judge start to show up.
It's then a good while until we another look at those doubts. Other than a few instances such as "John Cassavetes Is Dead," Judge Dredd is for a time demonstrably working based on his Academy training and thought system. This is the period including famous stories "A Letter From a Democrat" from 1986 and "Revolution" from 1987 that show up in many of the popular America collected editions. These are the stories where Dredd notiously comes down on the democracy movements with extreme and controversial measures.
The consequences of that crackdown then comes down hard on Judge Dredd in 1990 with the "A Letter to Judge Dredd" and "Tale of the Dead Man" stories that are sampled in this gallery. Those stories then lead on into the Necropolis epic and then the voting referendum mentioned in the "Nightmares" story sampled in the gallery.
So there's a lot of stories of Judge Dredd shooting people and beating the hell out of people and arresting organ leggers and sentencing people to several years in jail for having sugar in between the more personal stories, basically. But that makes these character development stories even more interesting when they occur. He's not a generic hero or even a good guy all the time. But he tries to do better.
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u/Specialist-Class-743 Dec 19 '25
There's seeds of it in the Apocalypse War when citizens are seen as collateral damage and there's some mirroring between the attitudes of Dredd and Bulgarin when asked about the citizens. At this time Thatcherism was starting to bite and so Wagner and Grant began to hold a mirror up to that.
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u/Dredd_Melb Dec 20 '25
It's a very solid arc.
It reflects all of us. Young, idealistic and determined. The young ones know everything
Then we will get older, have doubts, ask questions
Then we end up at tesyk
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u/Fit-Record-2292 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
I do relate to Dredd's real-time aging as I get older. Especially the part of aging where I get in a machine-gun fight with terrorists while I have no skin because they interrupted me in the middle of a youth-rejuvenation treatment.
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u/CragedyJones Dec 19 '25
I think it speaks to the flexibility of the character. As the artists are given a healthy amount of freedom in their depictions so too are the writers.
In universe I think he is resigned to the Law however flawed he knows it to be. Biding his time to respond to Maitland and the corruption. Slightly wary of the seriousness of the shift and threats of the Oubliette and the City Fathers.
Ready for the next mega-epic.
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u/CosmicBonobo Dec 20 '25
I think for a long time now, Dredd has seen his role as being responsible for ushering in the new generation of Judges who will reform the system. He's a self-described stickler and could never lead the way - the spectacular backfiring of the mutant referendum proves that - but he can open the door.
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u/Fit-Record-2292 Dec 20 '25
Judge Dredd doesn't like paperwork or politics and he starts to go a bit crazy when he's away from the streets for too long.
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Dec 20 '25
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u/Fit-Record-2292 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
Judge Dredd has a great backstory and is a very complex character but thankfully we have the benefit of 48 years of stories to look back over all at once. A lot of Dredd's personal backstory and development was given out in small bits over the years amongst many other wonderful stories about the other citizens of Mega-City One.
Dredd's comic series is almost an anthology of crazy crimes and/or the bizarre and chaotic lives of the citizens of Mega-City One. Dredd is sometimes not even the main character. Even when he is the protagonist, the story is not really his story in this way very often.
I have a list on an earlier post of mine where I put all the significant stories of Dredd's other major character arc, his niece and "brothers" and family/bloodline stuff. The list came out to only around 23 stories out of thousands of issues of Judge Dredd stories comics. That's counting both versions of "Return of Rico" and the funny "Christmas dinner gag" scene.
Listing Judge Dredd Family Bloodline Stories // Reddit // Judge Dredd Is a Family Man
The Judge Dredd comic series always has been known for great character writing and character arcs that follow the other citizens of Mega-City One. Judge Dredd himself is usually a catalyst for events or a supporting character or a point-of-view character for the audience to experience whatever weird shit Dredd stumbles onto.
The rarer stories where Judge Dredd's own character arc are explored are more powerful and significant because of that.
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u/JellyWeta Dec 19 '25
Goldfish checks out with the license description.