THE DARK JUDGES • Decoding Judge Dredd's Most Sinister Villains
159When the British anthology comic book 2000 AD debuted in 1977, one growing concern for the UK’s poor and marginalised was the increasing militarisation of the police. As the 1970s closed out, the Judge Dredd comic strip started to take direct influence from the news of the time. Telling stories of police brutality, as conservative voices in Britain called for a further “crackdown on crime”. In 1980, Dredd was introduced to villainous coppers so evil, they made him look like Sergeant Slipper by comparison. 1980 was the origin of The Dark Judges.
I used to dislike Judge Death. I thought this supernatural stuff undermined what was (to me) a gritty, dystopian sci-fi. But like Star Wars, Judge Dredd's world is wacky and fluid enough to be able to tell any kind of story. And actually, if you’re able to integrate that campiness with the darker and more serious themes about what he represents, there’s something really special about Judge Death.
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Mike Molcher's "I Am The Law": https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/GRN762/i-am-the-law
"Essential Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death": https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB729
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Credits
Cover images taken from the 2000AD website and social media accounts and the Great News for All Readers blog.
http://www.2000AD.com
http://www.greatnewsforallreaders.com
Footage of Britain's 1970s economic crisis and the 1977 Battle of Lewisham courtesy of @ACArchive
Footage of the 1981 New Cross Road fire courtesy of @BBC
Footage of the Clapham Park fire, the Repton Park and Trowbridge estate disrepair and the Clapton Park estate courtesy of @ThamesTV
"Oculus", "The Outsider", "Ripple Effect", "Soul Eater", "Alone in the Dark" and "Fear Inc." by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://karlcasey.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@WhiteBatAudio
Sources
https://pastebin.com/CqZFfz4r
Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:56 2000 AD in context
03:14 Judge Death's comic book origin
09:42 Judge Death Lives! Introduces The Dark Judges
12:39 Understanding The Dark Judges
18:56 Four Dark Judges
22:55 Reconciling The Dark Judges
24:11 Where to read these stories
#judgedredd #2000ad #iamthelore