15 Most Hated Comic Book Movie Characters Ever

The mid-nineties might be distant, hazy memory but the disappointment that was Sylvester Stallone’s turn as Judge Dredd is as memorably bad as ever.

Anyone familiar with the comic book character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra back in the late 1970s knows that the futuristic avenger of justice very, very rarely takes off his helmet and even on the few occasions he did his face – or at least his real face – was never actually seen. It’s his trademark and basically the unwritten rule of Judge Dredd canon.

But director Danny Cannon (whose next big film was the awful I Still Know You Did Last Summer – go figure) disregarded the most recognisable quirk of Judge Dredd by having Stallone appear sans helmet throughout the movie.

It kind of makes sense: if you’re paying big bucks for an actor like Stallone, you’d want to get your money’s worth and actually show his face. But unfortunately this just removed Judge Dredd’s mystique and coupled with the movie’s cheesy dialogue and an over the top performance from Stallone, the character flopped big style.

It wasn’t until 2012 and the release of reboot Dredd starring Karl Urban as the vigilante judge that we saw Judge Dredd done right. And he kept his helmet on.