Detective-Judge Armitage

Detective-Judge Armitage is a fictional Judge in the Judge Dredd setting. He was created by Dave Stone and Sean Phillips for the Judge Dredd Megazine, and is from Brit-Cit, rather than Dredd's Mega-City One. He is one of the main English characters in the comic.

Biography

Armitage is a tall, white haired man with a goatee, usually wearing a trenchcoat, suit and tie. His real name is unknown: "Armitage" was a fake ID he used in 2080.

He despises the system of privilege that got his superiors where they are and, by extension, his superiors themselves. Because he refuses to "play the game", he is very unpopular with the upper ranks, despite being very good at his job. Another character trait is that he never carries a gun. Despite this, Armitage's knowledge of weapons is extensive, mainly due to his activities during the Brit-Cit Civil War, when he fought in the London Liberation Army against the Emergency Military Government: however, the LLA were on the losing side and in 2080, he decided to join the Judges instead. The corruption of the new government saw him become cynical and morose, and this only got worse when his lover Liora was killed by the crime lord Efil Drago San, in revenge for the Detective Judge crippling him.

Although this means he has gained a reputation for being impossible to work with, Armitage has done outstanding work in the Brit-Cit Justice Department's plainclothes Homicide Division. He has managed to not only irritate his higher-ups though but also most of the other Judges, to the extent that when Shok-Tak (Brit-Cit's SWAT division) entered a building to rescue a Judge in danger, they remarked with disgust "aw, drokk it, it's only Armitage". (Megazine #301)

He has a long-time partner in Detective-Judge Treasure Steel, and recently picked up a new partner, upper-class Detective-Judge Timothy "Timbo" Parkerston-Trant.

Influences

In the same way that Dredd was based partly on Dirty Harry, Armitage owes something to the cynical but unbending police detectives seen in dramas such as Inspector Morse and Taggart. As with most such characters, he has a junior partner: Rookie Judge Treasure Steel. Although both harbour a grudging respect for each other, Steel has become Armitage's closest friend and ally.

Publications

He has appeared in his own eponymous comic series as well as two Judge Dredd novels and audio play. In the audio, he was played by Trevor Littledale.

Comics

• Armitage (all written by Dave Stone):
  • "Armitage" (with Sean Phillips, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 1) #9-14, 1991)
  • "The Case of the Detonating Dowager" (with Sean Phillips, in Judge Dredd Yearbook 1993, 1992)
  • "Influential Circles" (with Charlie Adlard, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 2) #10-18, 1992)
  • "Flashback" (with Charlie Adlard, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 2) #19-21, 1993)
  • "Flashback II" (with Charlie Adlard, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 2) #31-33, 1993)
  • "City of the Dead Prologue" (with Peter Doherty, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 2) #63, 1994)
  • "City of the Dead" (with Charles Gillespie, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 2) #64-71, 1994–1995)
  • "Little Assassins" (with Adrian Salmon, in Judge Dredd Mega Special 1996)
  • "Bodies of Evidence" (with Steve Yeowell, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 3) #64-67, 2000)
  • "Apostasy in the UK" (with John Ridgway, in Judge Dredd Megazine #212-213, 2003)
  • "Dumb Blond" (with John Cooper, in Judge Dredd Megazine #266-#270, 2008)
  • "The Mancunian Candidate" (with John Cooper, in Judge Dredd Megazine #285-#290, 2009)
  • "The Unpleasantness at the Tontine Club" (with John Cooper, in Judge Dredd Megazine #300-#301, 2010)

Novels

• Judge Dredd:
  • Deathmasques (by Dave Stone, Virgin Books, August 1993, ISBN 0-352-32873-8)
  • The Medusa Seed (by Dave Stone, Virgin Books, January 1994, ISBN 0-352-32895-9)

Audio CD

• • Get Karter! (script by David Bishop, Big Finish Productions, 2002)

External links

• 20000 AD profile