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All rise. Court is in session. The honourable Judge Dredd presiding.
I will admit that aside from Batman, the Judge is one other comic book character who I have a soft spot for. I'm not really sure why, as at face value, he seems to represent exactly the type of fascist government that I usually feel diametrically opposed to. I'm also not really sure why, given my usual leanings in the direction of relative pacifism these days, I occasionally still feel the requirement for a certain amount of gratuitous, bone-crunching violence, as part of a balanced cultural diet.
I think it's because I recognise that in Dredd's case, his environment is as extreme in the direction of chaos, as he is in the direction of order; so the two essentially balance each other out. A man of Dredd's level of fascism and brutality would be completely inappropriate in our universe; but on the Cursed Earth, his attitude makes a lot of sense.
Also, in case anyone here is aware of the Moral Alignment system which Gary Gygax developed for Dungeons and Dragons, Dredd for the most part represents the textbook definition of
Lawful Neutral; which, even though I'd never adhere to it myself, still remains one of the most interesting of the alignments in my opinion, from an anthropological point of view. Dredd is actually a fascinating individual, psychologically.