Rico Dredd
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Rico Dredd is a fictional character who has appeared in the comics in 2000 AD magazine, notably in "The Return of Rico" (in 2000 AD #30, 1977). Eighteen years later, original author Pat Mills revisited this story in progs 950 to 952.
Rico was a brother of Joe Dredd, the star of 2000 AD - which is to say that they were both from the same batch of clones - and, like him, became a Judge in Mega-City One. Rico was removed from the cloning tanks twelve minutes before Joe and habitually referred to him as his little brother. At the Academy of Law, Rico demonstrated the higher levels of skill and achievement. However, his promising career ended soon after graduation when he was found to be engaging in criminal activities, including extortion, racketeering and extra-judicial killing. After a possible attempt at suicide by cop, he was arrested by his own brother and given the standard sentence for corrupt Judges - twenty years on the prison colony of Titan.
After serving his time on Titan, Rico returned to Mega-City One seeking revenge on Joe. Confronting him at his home, Rico challenged him to a shoot-out to settle their differences, knowing that he could always outdraw his brother. While Rico had retained superior skills to his 'little brother' Joe, he had grown used to a different strength of gravity after twenty years on Titan. This slowed him by a split second and allowed Joe Dredd to shoot him dead. Carrying his brother's lifeless body out of Rowdy Yates Block, Dredd declined a Med-Judge's offer of assistance, allowing the writer, Pat Mills to conclude the story with a line from the Hollies song, "He ain't heavy - he's my brother!"
- In Garth Ennis' Helter Skelter (progs 1250-1261), an alternate version of Rico from a parallel universe appears, this time the henchman of an alternate Judge Cal.
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[edit] Judge Rico
At least seven clones of the Fargo bloodline (the judge who Dredd is a clone of) have been produced by the Mega City One Justice Department. The first of these to graduate was given his final street assessment by Judge Dredd in 2122. His original name was Dredd, so to avoid complication at dispatch, on receiving his full eagle the clone took the name Rico (as a surname).
After a short period with the traffic division, Rico was assigned to Sector 108, where he overcame his colleagues' resentment of his ancestry and hardline attitude, and proved himself to be a brave and resourceful Judge. He has a strong bond with his clone brother Dredd and when the older man's living quarters were moved to the Grand Hall of Justice, Rico took over his apartment in Rowdy Yates block. In the recent 'Bloodline' story he suffered a gunshot wound to the jaw, but has since had this replaced with a synthetic copy.
[edit] Film version
The original Rico was used as a villain in the Judge Dredd movie, in which Joe (in the movie he is referred to as Joseph) was played by Sylvester Stallone and Rico by Armand Assante. In this version, Rico and Joseph were non-identical, Rico's DNA being corrupt.
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