Mega-City One

Mega-City One is a vast, sprawling, dystopian metropolis covering much of the eastern seaboard of the continent of North America, which slowly coalesced into existence in the first half of the twenty-first century. Its population is huge, but is often severely reduced by apocalyptic disasters, which seem to afflict the city on a regular basis. Made angry and resentful by staggeringly high levels of unemployment, draconian laws (for example, sugar is illegal) and awful food such as the ersatz pseudo-protein 'munce', the disaffected citizens are kept in line by a cadre of unelected 'judges'. The judges, an armed elite who live celibate lives of quasi-monastic devotion to the law, have the power to impose heavy prison (or 'cube') sentences or even the death penalty on malefactors. Trial by jury is unknown, democracy is a sham and attacks by rival city-states, rebellious robots or the unquiet dead are worryingly frequent. About the best thing that can be said for life in the city is that it is preferable to scratching an existence in the 'Cursed Earth', the radiation-blasted hellscape surrounding it.

Mega-City One's mayors have included an orangutan and a serial killer; among its noteworthy citizens are a witch, a baby with the mind of an adult and a sentient polar bear. Perhaps its most famous inhabitant is Judge Dredd, a preternaturally dedicated and single-minded member of the previously-mentioned authoritarian police force who are the de facto rulers of the city. Despite being perhaps the most unswervingly dutiful Judge in the history of Mega-City One, Dredd evinces occasional signs of humanity: he cares for his niece and even has a friend or two. In this respect he epitomises life in Mega-City One, which is harsh and unrelenting yet nevertheless capable, every so often, of creating moments of warmth, compassion or even love.

However, the food is still crap.