Judge McGruder

Judge McGruder
Chief Judge McGruder (painted by Peter Doherty)
Publication information
Publisher	Rebellion Developments
First appearance	2000 AD #182 (18 October 1980)
Created by	John Wagner, Alan Grant and Brian Bolland
In-story information
Full name	Hilda Margaret McGruder

Chief Judge Hilda Margaret McGruder is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd stories published in the British comic 2000 AD. She was the first female Chief Judge of Mega-City One, and the first Judge of Mega-City One to become Chief Judge twice (in 2104–2108 and 2112–2116). Her first names are a reversal of the first names of Margaret Hilda Thatcher, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time the character was introduced to 2000 AD.

After the death of the insane Judge Cal, McGruder was appointed to eliminate corruption from the discredited Special Judicial Squad. She was head of the SJS from 2101 to 2104.

She led the resistance to the invading forces during the Apocalypse War after Chief Judge Griffin was killed and Judge Dredd was taken prisoner. As the only surviving member of the Council of Five after the war, she became chief judge by default. In her first term she established herself as one of the city's most able rulers as she set about rebuilding the war-torn city.

She resigned after four years in office following the Seven Samurai incident, blaming herself for a massacre she thought she could have prevented (although most of her colleagues were more forgiving and begged her to stay), and took the Long Walk into the Cursed Earth. (Her final act in office was to dismiss all of the senior judges who disagreed with her decision to resign, saying this proved they had poor judgement.) She was succeeded as chief judge by Thomas Silver.