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Is Dredd intelligent?

Started by Pete Wells, 15 July, 2020, 06:16:55 PM

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Pete Wells

So, I was listening to a podcast the other day and someone I really respect (a known comic fan from outside of 2000 AD) was talking very knowledgeably and interestingly about Dredd. Several times during the interview however, he alluded to Dredd being a bit thick, very much a one note, blunt instrument and it really got my goat!

I've always assumed that Joe is pretty darned intelligent. Yes, he's hard as nails, tenacious and bloody minded, but I've never (or rarely, I guess it depends who's writing him) thought of him as stupid. Despite the regime he represents.

Over the years we've seen some fantastic procedural strips with Dredd very much being the detective, we've seen him efficiently take control of, and turn around, a failing sector house, we've seen him change citywide policy and outwit and outmatch many a foe.

All that has to take some smarts, or is my love for the character robbing me of my objectivity and limited intelligence?

What say you, boarders?


NapalmKev

I would say he's intelligent.

Rejuve treatments aside: As a Judge you wouldn't get to Dredd's age and see as much action in MC1 if you didn't have more about you than just a strong arm and a gun.

Cheers
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

NapalmKev

Quote from: PerskelW on 15 July, 2020, 06:36:05 PM
Mostly Horseshit but also a vote for Dredd being intellingent.

Fixed that for them!

Cheers
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

pauljholden

Quote from: Pete Wells on 15 July, 2020, 06:16:55 PM

I've always assumed that Joe is pretty darned intelligent. Yes, he's hard as nails, tenacious and bloody minded, but I've never (or rarely, I guess it depends who's writing him) thought of him as stupid. Despite the regime he represents.
What say you, boarders?

Pragmatic and smart.

But not a strategic thinker, more tactical thinking smarts. The onyl time I think of Dredd making a strategic decision is in allowing mutants in and he lost that battle.

Chief Judge needs strategic thinking, Dredd wants no part of it.

-PJ

JayzusB.Christ

Hardly canon, but there's a lovely bit in the Dredd / Armitage book I always bang on about, Deathmasques, where Armitage realises that Dredd isn't thick after all - Dredd's intelligence is focused and laserlike, and is always applied to getting the job done.

Dredd is more articulate than most (a fact lost on one or two past Dredd writers), as well as witty and thoughtful. 
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Eamonn Clarke

He's clearly the best detective and investigator in MC1.

He has huge tactical intelligence and street smarts..

He might lack the strategic overview that chief judge requires, or he has it and chooses not to exercise it because he doesn't want the job (episode 125 btw).

But yes, he is very intelligent.

And, in a reference up a spam post that's probably gone by now, he could spot a fake passport a mile away.

Colin YNWA

Yeah different sorts of intelligence. He's clearly got a fantastic deductive mind and that's evidenced numerous times. He's also got incredible intuition from years of experience. He's got immense depth of factural knowledge on a number of specialist subjects, not least the law but also technical knowledge of the stuff he needs to know etc etc. But there are areas he's lacking, he's not got time for strategic thinking he's too busy operationalising.

So yeah clearly pretty damned smart with an intelligence that adapts to what he needs to focus on. The idea that he's a bit dull might stem from the fact he's been described a few times in the last few years as  blunt instrument or similar. That again though is about how he's been used by the justice department rather than any measure of his raw capacity to learn, or his intelligence. Seems to be of he's had the desire to apply himself he'd make a fine political thinker, but he's never gone that way, has no real interest and so isn't the person you'd turn to for political insight or analysis.

Bet he's a stickler for spelling and grammer too and would not tolerant a typo...

The Enigmatic Dr X

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 15 July, 2020, 07:59:02 PM
Yeah different sorts of intelligence. He's clearly got a fantastic deductive mind and that's evidenced numerous times. He's also got incredible intuition from years of experience. He's got immense depth of factural knowledge on a number of specialist subjects, not least the law but also technical knowledge of the stuff he needs to know etc etc. But there are areas he's lacking, he's not got time for strategic thinking he's too busy operationalising.

So yeah clearly pretty damned smart with an intelligence that adapts to what he needs to focus on. The idea that he's a bit dull might stem from the fact he's been described a few times in the last few years as  blunt instrument or similar. That again though is about how he's been used by the justice department rather than any measure of his raw capacity to learn, or his intelligence. Seems to be of he's had the desire to apply himself he'd make a fine political thinker, but he's never gone that way, has no real interest and so isn't the person you'd turn to for political insight or analysis.

Bet he's a stickler for spelling and grammer too and would not tolerant a typo...

I saw what you did their!
Lock up your spoons!

TordelBack

#8
Definitely intelligent - he wrote the Comportment, didn't he? I'd say Fargo's smarts were a far bigger concern for Judd & Co to reproduce in his clones than any hit-things-real-good ability Eustace may have had. It's Joe's sharp eye for detail, excellent recall and on-the-spot analysis that makes him the judge he is, the utter commitment and dogged determination are what enable him to get the job done. I'd argue that the reflexes, toughness and  physical strength are actually the product of applying his unique mind to the Academy's teachings (plus maybe a bit of Judd-icious tinkering with his general constitution).

Funt Solo

Quote from: TordelBack on 15 July, 2020, 08:14:18 PM
Definitely intelligent - he wrote the Comportment, didn't he?

We've never seen inside the Comportment, though. It might just be a bunch of doodles.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

TordelBack

We saw a page in Necropolis (Part 3) - but if there were doodles too that'd be further sign of intelligence. Or so I tell myself.

Richard

He sometimes does stupid things; this is usually due to sloppy writing or by a writer who is unfamiliar with the character. Some writers have just portrayed him as a mindless thug. Those who know him better, and especially Wagner, give him more credit.

I, Cosh

Quote from: Funt Solo on 15 July, 2020, 08:17:12 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 15 July, 2020, 08:14:18 PM
Definitely intelligent - he wrote the Comportment, didn't he?

We've never seen inside the Comportment, though. It might just be a bunch of doodles.
We haven't but Rico has in Leaving Rowdy. He seemed impressed.
We never really die.

Colin YNWA


JOE SOAP

Quote from: Funt Solo on 15 July, 2020, 08:17:12 PM
We've never seen inside the Comportment, though. It might just be a bunch of doodles.

Apart from one page while Kraken reads it in Necropolis.