Dark Judges
| Dark Judges | |
|---|---|
Judge Death by Frazer Irving
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Rebellion Developments |
| First appearance | 2000 AD #224 (8 August 1981) |
| Created by |
John Wagner and Alan Grant (writers) Brian Bolland (artist) |
| Characteristics | |
| Notable members | Judge Death |
The Dark Judges are recurring villains in the Judge Dredd science fiction comic strip in the UK comic 2000 AD. They also appear in the 2003 computer game Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death. They are Judge Death, Judge Fire, Judge Fear and Judge Mortis. Later storylines added the "Sisters of Death" (Phobia and Nausea) to their ranks. Former Judge Kraken was also a Dark Judge for a brief time during the Necropolis story.
The Dark Judges were originally a group of four lawkeepers from a parallel dimension. They were led by Judge Death, who had determined that all crime was committed by the living - thus, by his logic, all life was a crime. The other three were slavishly devoted to him and his philosophy, and the four went around killing people on whatever justification they could find (Judge Fire sentenced a whole school to death for noise pollution). The society of the parallel universe they inhabited placed very little value on human life and many inhabitants were sadistic and violent, but even by the standards of their people the Dark Judges were vicious.
Things changed when Death encountered Phobia and Nausea (the future Sisters of Death) in a cave. The Sisters were death cultists and mass murderers with supernatural powers, and Death fell in love; the three of them committed acts on victims that he admitted sickened even him. With their help, he and his acolytes were able to become undead beings, thus being 'pure' to judge without hypocrisy. The Sisters would themselves become ethereal beings with hideous magical powers. The Dark Judges subsequently murdered the entire population of their world.
Dimension-travelling visitors chanced upon the now 'Deadworld' and found the Dark Judges. After 'judging' (i.e., killing) them and taking their dimension jumping warp devices, Judge Death travelled to Mega-City One, against the opinions of his colleagues, in order to 'dispense justice'. Death was eventually defeated by the combined efforts of Judges Dredd and Anderson, his body having been destroyed, and his spirit form held inside Judge Anderson, herself encased in the miracle plastic Boing on display in the Justice Department's Hall of Heroes.
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Wikipedia