Walter the Wobot
| Walter the Wobot | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Rebellion Developments |
| First appearance | 2000 AD prog 10 (1977) |
| Created by | John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra |
Walter is a fictional character from the Judge Dredd comic strip in British comic 2000 AD.
Walter was Judge Dredd's house robot. He is usually used in stories to provide comic relief, and he has a speech impediment which causes him to pronounce his R's as W's. (This was a defect caused by fear and stress.)
He was originally a robo-servant at the Grand Hall of Justice, and was drafted by Judge Dredd during the First Robot War to help him infiltrate the robot stronghold. Unlike the majority of the robots, Walter believed robots should be diligent slaves for humans. It was Walter who landed the final blow on rebel leader Call-Me-Kenneth, being used to override the city's Weather Control computers and unleash a lightning storm, and he was made a free robot (the first ever) with the rights of a human citizen in 2099 for his loyal services. However he was so devoted to Dredd that he chose to remain in Dredd's employ and even got rid of his freedom papers in exchange for a Deed of Ownership giving him to Dredd. (A later story would retroactively reveal he was granted his freedom again for services against the insane Judge Cal.).
He remained a major recurring character – in the run of stories set on the Moon, he was in fact the only supporting character from Mega-City One – and several stories were even told from his point of view. In some strips, he assisted Dredd in his cases. Walter also was involved in the mega-epics The Day The Law Died, where he went undercover to help bring down Judge Cal, and the Apocalypse War, where he assisted Dredd in escaping the enemy-occupied Grand Hall of Justice.
Whatever Dredd did, Walter remained pathologically loyal: even when he saved Dredd's life but was still sentenced to a month in jail (as he had struck a human in the process), Walter agreed he deserved the sentence. Dredd was forever irritated by the robot but, although he would never admit it, he developed a small fondness for the robot.
He left Dredd's service after he sustained serious damage at the hands of Mean Machine Angel. This was an effort by the writers to kill him off when Judge Dredd stories were becoming grittier and more mature; in the same story, Dredd's landlady Maria was also written out.
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