Maintaining order on the chaotic streets of futuristic Mega-City One, Judge Dredd is the ultimate lawman. Authorized to convinct and sentence perps on the spot, he not only enforces the law, he is the law! And he also happens to have a movie coming out later this month that should hopefully wipe the memory of the risible Sylvester Stallone adaptation.

A is for Atomic Wars

But if you're wondering who Judge Dredd is, the following is a brief overview of the character's past, present and potential movie future.In the year 2070, the highly xenophobic, and borderline psychotic, US president Robert L. Booth gave the order that would begin World War III. Believing that the US’s anti-nuclear shield would shelter the States from any retaliation, he launched a massive nuclear attack against his perceived enemies. The US’s defenses failed through, and the resultant counterattack devastated much of the continent. The Mega-Cities’ defensive laser grids protected them from the brunt of the attack, but the rest of the country was reduced to a barren radioactive wasteland known as The Cursed Earth.Further reading: “The Cursed Earth” in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 02 , and Judge Dredd: Origins

B is for Blocks

C is for Cassandra Anderson

D is for Dark Judges

E is for Ezquerra, Carlos

F is for Fargo, Eustance

G is for Garland, Alex

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H is for Hall of Justice, Grand

I is for Irradiated

J is for Joseph Dredd

K is for Karl Urban

L is for Law , as in “I am the Law!”

In the vast urban centres known as the Mega-Cities, citizens live packed together in the close confines of massive super-skyscrapers known City Blocks. The average height of a city block is 400-700 stories, and the average population of a Mega-City One block is 60,000 people. City Blocks are frequently named after famous people or fictional characters, and are often named after 2000 AD creators - one of the blocks in the movie is named after artist Henry Flint. Large blocks can be like their own nations, and tensions and rivalries between neighbouring blocks sometimes escalate into fully fledged conflicts known as Block Wars.Further reading: “Block Mania” in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05 Portrayed by Olivia Thirlby in the movie, Judge Cassandra Anderson is a rookie with powerful psychic abilities due to a genetic mutation. At the start of the movie, Dredd is putting Anderson through her paces when they are called to investigate a heinous crime.In the comics, Anderson has been around since 1980, and is a member of a special division of Justice Department known as Psi Division. Her powers enable her to sense approaching danger and foresee events in the near future. She is also able to read peoples’ minds through telepathy. The character even has her own spin-off series in the pages of Judge Dredd Megazine called Anderson Psi-Division.Further reading: Judge Anderson: Psi Files Volume 01 While they don’t feature in the new movie, Alex Garland has expressed that he would like to expand the film into a trilogy, and that the Dark Judge will likely appear in the third film.The dark judges - Judge Death, Judge Fire, Judge Fear and Judge Mortis - hail from a parallel universe known as Deadworld. They are led by Judge Death, who determined that all crime was committed by the living, and thus by extension, life itself was a crime. After destroying all life in their own universe, the Dark Judges happened across a dimension jumping warp device, used it to travel to Mega-City One, and took it upon themselves to end all life there too.Further reading: “Judge Death” in J udge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03 , “Judge Death Lives” in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05 , and many, many, more...Carlos Ezquerra is the artist who is responsible for Judge Dredd’s iconic look. Co-creator John Wagner originally suggested that Ezquerra should make Dredd look like the character Frankenstein from the movie Death Race 2000. Ezquerra took this basic idea and added a number of embellishments like a visor, zips, chains, and elaborate body armor like his infamous spaulders, which Wagner initially thought to be “way over the top.” Ezquerra went on to illustrate many of the major Judge Dredd storylines of the last 35 years.Chief Judge Eustace Fargo is commonly referred to as the “Father of Justice.” Fargo was the man responsible for establishing the Judge system of law, and was Mega-City One’s first Chief Judge. Officially, he was born in the year 1999, and died in the year 2051 - though the modern Judge Dredd blockbuster “Origins” revealed that this was far from the truth.Further reading: Judge Dredd: Origins Alex Garland is the writer and co-producer of Dredd. He first rose to prominence in 1996 with the publication of his critically acclaimed novel The Beach, which was used as the basis of the 2000 film of the same name, directed by Danny Boyle. This lead to him and Boyle collaborating on the contemporary horror classic, 28 Days Later - a movie that elevated his “geek cred” no end, and made him the perfect candidate to write a movie like Dredd.A self-confessed fan of 2000 AD, Alex Garland has been reading Judge Dredd’s adventures since he was “10 or 11 years old,” so needed to do very little research when it came to plotting the new movie. He originally drafted two different versions of the movie, which he has mentioned he plans to explore in subsequent films, possibly making a trilogy.The Grand Hall of Justice is the headquarters of the Justice Department of Mega-City One. The Grand Hall houses a number of governmental offices, the living quarters of several senior judges, a well stocked armoury, and two public museums - The Hall of Heroes, which commemorates the most distinguished heroes and judges of the city; and The Black Museum, which contains exhibits relating to the city's most notorious criminals.Following the atomic wars of 2070 most of the United States was reduced to an irradiated wasteland known as the Cursed Earth. Considered unfit for human habitation the cursed earth is populated by all manner of hideously mutated creatures and monsters. Mutated humans are banned from living in the Mega-Cities, and so are forced to eke out a living in the vast and lawless wastelands.Further Reading: The Cursed Earth Saga , or Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 02 Judge Joseph Dredd is by far the most famous of the Judges of Justice Department, and over the years has become the face of law in Mega-City One. Joseph Dredd and his brother Rico were cloned from the the DNA of Chief Judge Eustace Fargo in the year 2066. Their growth was artificially accelerated so that when they were born they were effectively five years old, the minimum age for enrolment in the Academy of Law.Judge Dredd’s face has never been shown in the comics, creator John Wagner says this is because "It sums up the facelessness of justice − justice has no soul. So it isn't necessary for readers to see Dredd's face, and I don't want you to."In the comics, Judge Dredd ages in real-time, so as a year passes in real life a year goes by in the comic. Thus the first Dredd story, published in 1977, was set in 2099, and stories published in 2012 are set in 2134. This makes Judge Dredd 73 years old!Karl Urban is the man inside the helmet in the new Dredd movie. Rising to prominence with his role as Eomer in the second and third instalments of the Lord of the Rings movies, Urban went on to wow fans with his amazing performance as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 reboot of the Star Trek Franchise.In interviews Urban has impressed fans with his familiarity with the character of Judge Dredd, and the passion he shows towards the project. He’s even promised that the character will never remove his helmet while he is playing the role!The law in Mega-City One is upheld by the Judges - law enforcement officers who combine the roles of police officers and traditional judges, allowing them to dispense instant justice - trying and sentencing criminals on the spot.The Judge System was created by Eustace Fargo, special government prosecutor for street crime, between 2027 and 2031, to combat a rising tide of violent crime and to speed up the process of justice. Following the Third World War of 2070 and upon discovering that President Robert Booth had stolen the election, the Judges overthrew the Government of the United States and seized power.A Judge's standard-issue weaponry includes a daystick, a boot knife, stun grenades, and a Lawgiver pistol, which is programmed to respond only to the palm-print of the Judge to whom it was issued, and fires six different types of ammunition. Judges are also issued a Lawmaster motorbike, which is armed with machine guns, a laser cannon, and an onboard AI.