The Long Walk (Judge Dredd)

In the long running British comic strip Judge Dredd, The Long Walk is taken by retired Judges who feel that they can no longer be effective within Mega City One, instead choosing to take law to the lawless in either the radioactive wastes of the Cursed Earth or the Undercity, the paved over remains of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States that lies beneath the mega-city.

Dredd himself took the Long Walk after nursing long term doubts regarding the ethics of the entire Mega City Judge system. These were brought to a head after he received a posthumous letter from William Wenders, a child who had been killed as an indirect result of the Judges' suppression of a pro-democracy march. Whilst roaming the Cursed Earth, however, Dredd encountered the Sisters of Death and returned to Mega City One along with Chief Judge McGruder (who had also taken the Long Walk in an earlier story) in order to confront the Dark Judges. Dredd and McGruder were the first judges ever to return to the city after taking the Long Walk. These events are recounted in the Judge Dredd stories A Letter to Judge Dredd, Tale of the Dead man, The Dead Man and Necropolis.