Do we like them?

Do we like Judge Dredd?

A character from Judge Dredd (2000 AD) (1977–present)

Our score: 5 out of 10. We'd back him against the chaos, but not without worry. He's incorruptible and brave, and he enforces a harsh system that often shows no mercy.

Mega-City One is a sprawling, overcrowded megacity of hundreds of millions of people, set in a future America. Crime is constant, so the Judges, who combine police officer, judge, jury and executioner, keep order. Joe Dredd is the most famous of them. He's a stern, helmeted lawman in black and gold who almost never takes the helmet off.

Dredd is a satirical figure, created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra for 2000 AD in 1977. The strip mocks authoritarian law-and-order fantasies while still giving us a hero who gets results. He's honest, tough and loyal to the Law above all else, even above his own comfort and friendships. He does have a dry sense of humor, and over the years the stories have shown that he cares more than he admits.

That's why he scores a middling four. We cheer when he stops a killer or a gang, and he is genuinely incorruptible. But he lives inside a system that punishes harshly and curbs freedoms, and he rarely questions it. He's a man we'd want next to us in a crisis, and not one we'd want to be judged by on an ordinary day.