Judge Dredd Has a Gay Kiss in New 2000 AD Story? Well, Sort Of...!

Making the rounds the last few days on the Internet is the panel at left, taken from an actual Judge Dredd story in the venerable U.K. comics magazine 2000 AD. It shows, quite clearly, Judge Dredd kissing a man--all in service of a story called "Closet." That's some pretty conclusive stuff, right there. Surely, it can mean only one thing for the thirty-five-year-old character. But...no, not so much. In an interview with Comic Book Resources earlier this week, writer Rob Williams described the story in question:

A brutal act takes place, Taylor's father disappears and suddenly this kid is all alone in a world that seems to be firmly telling him to keep who he is hidden so no one gets hurt. Then he finds himself in a Dredd-themed underground gay club, where everyone dresses either as Dredd or as a perp, Dredd being the ultimate symbol of macho, leather-clad repression in this city. It's kind of a Village People deal turned up to 100 in a Mega-City One style. And then the real Dredd arrives.

Arrives and is, apparently, unaffected by the strange fetishism of him. As so many people have pointed out over the years, Dredd isn't exactly a full human being. The likelihood of him settling down with a nice man or woman of his choosing is basically zero, provided Christopher Nolan doesn't get hold of him and give him a happy ending. "
Not only is he unaware of" his cultural impact, Thomas told CBR, "he couldn't care less. Dredd is the law. End of story. He's the most famous, feared Judge in Mega-City One but it doesn't play on his mind one iota." That's one of the things, of course, that kept the Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd film from really feeling like Judge Dredd. He seemed too much like a guy who had bought into his own hype, and it seemed as though that affected him, gave him ego. Dredd doesn't have ego--he's simply an extension of the Law. That's the identity he's carved out for himself and to give him anything else would likely bring his whole psyche crumbling down around him. "Dredd may well be gay, straight or bi. But it's all buried beneath layers upon layers (upon layers). There's a man there, like anyone else, he's not a robot. But Dredd's pure repression. Although, can you imagine what would happen if that repression ever fell away, just for an instant?" Thomas continued. "Sure, Dredd could be gay. You can't look at the original costume design of leather and chains and not see a fetishistic edge there. But, as I said before, Dredd's feeling are so deeply hidden, he is extremely unlikely to ever let them show. With Dredd, you only ever get subtle glimpses of the man beneath."