PJ Maybe

PJ Maybe
PJ Maybe (left), painted by Cliff Robinson
Publication information
Publisher	IPC Media
First appearance	2000 AD #534 (August 8, 1987)
Created by	John Wagner, Alan Grant (writers) Liam Sharp (artist)
In-story information
Full name	Philip Janet Maybe
Species	Human
Notable aliases	Junior Urchison Pedro Julio Montez Dr Byron Donald Ambrose Roberto Smith
Abilities	Genius-level intellect, master impersonator

Philip Janet Maybe is a fictional character in the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd. He is a notorious serial killer, and most notably assumed the identity of Mayor Byron Ambrose, whom he murdered.

The only child of the Maybe family and a relative of the wealthy Yess family (a family of trouser makers), he was a child genius and serial killer. (His middle name is Janet because his parents wanted a girl.) He deliberately kept his high intelligence secret, by learning to spell badly and act stupidly, in order to avoid getting caught. He killed for the first time at age 12, by murdering a neighbourhood couple whom he chose at random from the phone book, as an experiment. He moved on to gradually killing members of the Yess family, setting things up so his father could assume control of the company. After being apprehended by Judge Dredd, he was sent to an asylum.

During Necropolis, he escaped from the overrun asylum and fled back home (the Sisters of Death spotted him, patted his head, and told him "goood boyyy"). He witnessed his parents' suicide. Shortly afterward, he was contacted by a family friend, Mrs Urchison, who intend to let the Maybes take refuge in her family's bunker. He killed both her and her only child, and used the family's face changing machine to alter his appearance to impersonate her son. After inheriting the family fortune and killing several more associates, he was arrested by Dredd as he was escaping to Ciudad Barranquilla. By this time he had murdered 21 people before his eighteenth birthday.

Imprisoned for seven years in Iso-Block 666, he escaped again by drugging his psychiatrist and another patient with a mind-altering drug, to convince both of them that the hapless patient was in fact PJ Maybe. Using the Second Robot War as cover, he left the Iso-Block and attempted to change his face into that of billionaire Gunga Dinsdale. Tricked by a back street merchant (who disfigured him), he killed a street judge nearby and fled the city.