Judge Dredd is a law enforcement and judicial officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One, which covers most of the east coast of North America.

Wagner had written a Dirty Harry-style "tough cop" story, "One-Eyed Jack", for Valiant, and suggested a character who took that concept to its logical extreme.

In a 1995 interview, Wagner said: "When Pat was putting together 2000 AD, we realised from the success of "One-Eyed Jack" this was the kind of story the paper should have – a really hard, tough cop.

Wagner gave Ezquerra an advertisement for the film Death Race 2000, showing the character Frankenstein (played by David Carradine) clad in black leather on a motorbike, as a suggestion of Dredd's appearance.

Ezquerra added body-armour, zips, and chains, which Wagner initially objected to,[7] commenting that the character looked like a "Spanish pirate.

[13] The story chosen to introduce the character was submitted by freelance writer Peter Harris,[note 3] and was extensively re-written by Mills, who added a new ending suggested by Kelvin Gosnell.

His storyline, "The Robot Wars", was drawn by a rotating team of artists (including Ezquerra), and marked the point where Dredd became the most popular character in the comic, a position he has rarely relinquished.

With Wagner concentrating his energies on that, the Dredd strip in 2000 AD was left to younger writers, including Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, Grant Morrison and John Smith.

Stories from the regular issues of 2000 AD and the Megazine are collected in a series entitled Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files.

Joseph Dredd is the most famous of the Street Judges that patrol Mega-City One, empowered to instantly convict, sentence, and sometimes execute offenders.

Dredd is armed with a "Lawgiver", a pistol programmed to recognise only his palm-print and capable of firing six types of ammunition, a daystick, a boot knife and stun or gas grenades.

He rides a large "Lawmaster" motorcycle equipped with machine-guns, a powerful laser cannon, and full artificial intelligence capable of responding to orders from the Judge and operating itself.

In an interview, Ezquerra commented on how he designed the character, stating he received the basic description of "a menacing policeman dressed in black and driving a motorbike."

[32] In an early story, Dredd is forced to remove his helmet and the other characters react as if he is disfigured, but his face was covered by a faux censorship sticker.

Any attempt by a non-designated user to fire a Lawgiver causes the weapon to self-destruct (a feature introduced by writer Malcolm Shaw).

The setting of Judge Dredd is a dystopian future Earth damaged by a series of international conflicts; much of the planet has become radioactive wasteland, and so populations have aggregated in enormous conurbations known as 'mega-cities'.

[50] Their growth is artificially accelerated in gestation so they are "born" with the physiological and mental development of a 5-year-old child, with appropriate knowledge and training already implanted in their brains.

He openly tells them his doubts regarding the Justice Department, wondering if the system has taken away "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" while trying to instill strict order and control.

Joe later discovers Rico has embraced corruption, engaging in multiple crimes including murder, justifying his actions by saying Judges are thugs and killers by nature.

Joe Dredd continues operating as a judge, quickly gaining a reputation throughout the city as a formidable and incorruptible law enforcement agent.

On two occasions (in "The Robot Wars" and "Tale of the Dead Man"), Dredd resigns from the force on principle, but both times he later returns, believing the Judge System, while imperfect and vulnerable to corruption, is the best protection that currently exists for people.

Before Fargo dies, he calls for Dredd to be at his side and admits his conclusion that the Judge system was a mistake that killed the American Dream, that it was meant to fix things but not last forever.

Editor David Bishop prohibited writers from showing Dredd killing anyone, a reluctance which would be completely unfamiliar to readers acquainted with the original version.

Set in Tokyo in 2099, Dredd Takeru is a part-time street judge whose day job is working as a primary school teacher.

[86] The first eight episodes were originally published in Rock Power magazine, and were all co-written by John Wagner and Alan Grant and illustrated by Simon Bisley.

On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 22% rating, and the site's critical consensus states that "Director [Danny] Cannon fails to find the necessary balance to make it work".

[100][101] Dredd's costume was radically redesigned for the film, adding armor plates and reducing the size and prominence of the shoulder insignia.

[105] In November 2018, Rebellion began setting up a new studio in Didcot, Oxfordshire, valued at $100 million, for Film and TV series based on 2000 AD characters, including Judge Dredd: Mega City One.

The game is a first-person shooter  – with key differences such as the requirement to arrest lawbreakers, and an SJS death squad which will hunt down Dredd should the player kill too many civilians.

[131] In the game players, who represent judges, attempt to arrest perps that have committed crimes in different location in Mega City One.