Not that we should let these American comic books have all the fun. Let's show these yankees how badass us Brits can be, eh? Who better to prove that fact than Judge Dredd, the hard-line hard-ass cop who polices the futuristic city streets of Mega City One, a sprawling metropolis that houses millions of Americans after nuclear war left most of the country irradiated and uninhabitable. Dredd has his hands full dealing with the regular perps that run around the place doing regular, cube-worthy crimes - but then, a few years into his 2000AD strip, he got introduced to the Dark Judges. The evil, supernatural dopplegangers of Mega City One's law enforcement, the Dark Judges take an even harder line than Dredd and company: their logic is that all crimes are committed by the living, therefore living itself must be a crime, and the only suitable punishment? Death, duh. C'mon, it's nutty thinking, but you were totally following it. Named after such delightful feelings as TK and TK, the best confrontation Dredd has during his first fight against this lost was with Judge Fear. Opening his portcullis mask to reveal a ghastly visage that has sent lesser men insane, Fear bids our anti-hero to "gaze into the face of fear!" Without missing a beat, the human Judge retorts "gaze into the fist of Dredd!" and punches straight through the dude's head. Even for a non-corporeal being, that' gotta smart.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
