Anderson See
Judge Anderson.
Beeny First appearance:
Judge Dredd Megazine vol. 3 issue 20 (1996). Created by
John Wagner and
Colin MacNeil.
America Beeny is the child of America Jara and Bennett Beeny, two main characters who appeared in the first
America story. America Beeny appeared briefly in the second story, but her first main story was the third in the
America trilogy, in which she took a lead role. In 2119 Beeny was enrolled as a cadet in the Academy of Law by her father just before his untimely death, and served well enough to qualify for the accelerated graduation program. In her tenth year, as with all tenth year cadets, she was required to plan and execute a criminal investigation on her own. Allowed to choose her supervisor, she chose to work with Judge Dredd. In 2130 she graduated to full judge at age 15. In late 2137 Beeny and Dredd investigated a Total War terrorist cell which had assassinated a member of the Council of Five,
Mega-City One's highest legislative body. Following the arrest of the perpetrators, Dredd recommended that Beeny be appointed to the vacant Council seat, and
Chief Judge Hershey agreed. She was briefly removed from the Council in early 2141, when the entire Council was dismissed by the new chief judge,
Judge Logan. However, shortly afterwards Logan acknowledged that this had been a mistake, and he reinstated her.
Castillo First appearance:
2000 AD #891 (1994). Created by John Wagner and
Mark Harrison.
Judge Laverne Castillo was a
street judge who was taken off street duty when she froze in combat and allowed a fellow judge to be shot and seriously wounded. Transferred to administrative duties, she became the personal aide to Chief Judge McGruder and accompanied the Chief Judge on a diplomatic visit to the planet
Hestia. When their spaceship crashed there, Castillo so impressed Judge Dredd that on their return home he recommended that she be transferred back to street duty. This time she excelled in her chosen role, and was Dredd's
sidekick in a number of stories until she was murdered in 2123 by aliens after eight years on the force. During her time on Hestia, Castillo developed a secret and unrequited crush on Judge Dredd. Writer
John Wagner never developed this theme any further with her character, but this idea was taken up again with the character
Galen DeMarco and used to greater effect, with significant repercussions in the relevant stories.
Deacon First appearance:
2000 AD #2082 (2018). Created by
Michael Carroll and Jake Lynch.
Judge Francesco Deacon was one of the first street judges in the 2030s. Before becoming a judge he was in the military police. He first appeared in
Michael Carroll's novel
Judges: The Avalanche, and simultaneously in the
Judge Dredd comic strip story "Paradigm Shift" in
2000 AD #2082–2086 in May 2018, also written by Carroll and with art by Jake Lynch. He has since appeared in a minor role in the series "Dreadnoughts" in the
Judge Dredd Megazine.
Dekker First appearance:
2000 AD #370 (1984). Created by John Wagner,
Alan Grant (writers) and
Kim Raymond (artist).
Judge Dekker first appeared in
1984 as a
rookie judge, being successfully evaluated by Dredd as to her suitability to become a full judge. She did not reappear in the strip again until
1991, when writer
Garth Ennis used her as a recurring secondary character in several 1991 and 1992 strips – most prominently as the investigating judge against the "Muzak Killer". By this time an experienced street judge, she was killed in the
1992 story "
Judgement Day" (set in 2114). Upon her death Dredd considered that she was ''"...the best rookie he'd ever had, bar none."'' He later hallucinated her during his crucifixion in "Goodnight Kiss". An alternative, evil version of Dekker from a
parallel universe appeared in the 1994 novel
Dread Dominion.
Dolman First appearance:
2000 AD #1378 (2004). Created by John Wagner and
Carlos Ezquerra.
Dolman was a cadet at the Academy of Law. He was cloned from Judge Dredd's DNA. Although he performed well at the Academy, he resented his lack of control over his own life and chose to leave the Academy and Mega-City One. He joined the
Space Corps and was transferred to an offworld Academy, though he regularly returned to the city; keeping in touch with
Vienna Dredd and took classes at night school. Shortly after "
Day of Chaos", Dolman returned to the city: he felt obliged to help out, especially with his family in danger. He was an advisor and non-combatant in the Corps by now, and first arrived in the city when Marines were asked to break the siege at Sue Perkins Block. Colonel Lynn Easter viewed him with mild contempt, especially when he tried to stop her bombing the block, but Dolman used his judge training to cripple a marine, forcing her to call off the airstrike, and then assist Dredd in stopping the siege. (For most of the story Dolman went unnamed, leaving his return a surprise.) He was injured in the process and sent to hospital, with Dredd calling him "a judge" over Dolman's protests. The Corps were left angry that Dolman had shot a marine – a decision Dredd agreed with – and Easter and two others assaulted him in hospital, but Dolman was able to take them down. He won by a landslide.
Mutant townships in the
Cursed Earth were set up, to which to expel the mutant citizens. Francisco also had Hershey and Dredd given new postings, off-world and in the townships respectively, until the mutant issue died down; how much of this was his own idea and how much was Sinfield's remained ambiguous. and succeeded him as acting chief judge. Both Dredd and the mayor were left confused and suspicious by Francisco's sudden collapse in confidence and by his support of Sinfield. This eventually led to an investigation, and Sinfield's crime was uncovered. Sinfield was arrested, and Francisco returned to office. Francisco appointed Dredd to the Council of Five. In 2134 Dredd learned of a terrorist plot to infect Mega-City One with a deadly pathogen. Dredd recommended a ground assault on the terrorist's camp, but Francisco overruled him and ordered an air strike. Consequently, the fact that it was not the real camp was not discovered until it was too late, and Mega-City One was infected. By the time the disease was contained, 350 million people had been killed (out of an initial population of around 400 million), and Francisco resigned in shame of "presiding over the
worst disaster in our history". He appointed Judge Hershey as his successor.
"Dirty Frank" First appearance:
2000 AD #1389 (2004). Created by
Rob Williams and
Henry Flint.
Judge "Dirty Frank" is a judge who has been undercover for so long that he has lost his sanity. He refers to himself in the third person, has dubious personal hygiene and can urinate for twenty three minutes non-stop. During the investigation into Judge Smiley, Frank was wounded and later declared dead, but this was simply a ruse and he was once again sent undercover this time abroad to locate and infiltrate the remaining agents of Smiley. According to the introduction in the collected graphic novel, his physical appearance is based on
Alan Moore, since his supposed death he has taken a more cleaner, trimmed and tidy appearance.
Gerhart SJS Judge Alex Gerhart was Dredd's interrogator when a Tek-Division scientist was murdered. He used the opportunity to pressure Dredd about whether he felt guilty for
Chaos Day, knowing it was revenge for his own destruction of East-Meg One. Gerhart himself did feel Dredd was responsible. When their paths next crossed, he was hospitalised saving Dredd from a missile attack: he intends to one day arrest the man and put him on trial for Chaos Day. In 2136, Gerhart was sent with Dredd and
a marine squad to investigate a potential uprising on the Titan penal colony. In 2140 he resigned and took the Long Walk. Gerhart was murdered by insane SJS Judge Pin in 2141 for being a close associate of Dredd.
Giant Judge Giant can refer to either of two characters. They are father and son. Their first names have never been given. They are both descended from another
2000 AD character, 'Giant' (real name John Clay), who starred in his own series in
2000 AD,
Harlem Heroes, which ran in progs (issues) 1–27 of the comic. '''John 'Giant' Clay'
made a cameo appearance in the Judge Dredd
strip in prog 28. Since Judge Dredd himself did not appear in 2000 AD'' until prog 2, the Giant family's appearance in the comic predates Dredd's debut in his own strip.
Judge Giant Sr First appearance:
2000 AD #27 (1977). Created by John Wagner and
Ian Gibson. The original Judge Giant first appeared in prog 27 of the comic (
1977) as a rookie
judge who had just graduated from the Academy of Law. Set in 2099, his first appearance in "The Academy of Law" (progs 27–28) was a
crossover with
Harlem Heroes, set decades after the events depicted in that series. It featured a cameo appearance by his father, John 'Giant' Clay, as a very old man at the end of the story. "The Academy of Law" is also notable for the debut of another important supporting character,
Judge Griffin, as well as the Academy of Law itself. It tells of Rookie Giant's
Final Assessment, a grueling test of his judgment and abilities under Judge Dredd's supervision. Dredd is satisfied and Giant becomes a full Street Judge. Judge Giant became Dredd's recurring
sidekick for the next four years. His most important story was the 23-episode
Judge Cal storyline, in which he first saved Dredd from being executed and then fought with him against Cal's renegade judges and alien mercenaries (Kleggs) until the end. Although he had an important role in that story, his appearances in later tales were generally little more than mere cameos, and his importance within the strip tailed off somewhat. He was finally killed off in the "
Block Mania" story (1981) while trying to arrest
Orlok just before the
Apocalypse War. The unheroic circumstances of his death (he was shot in the back in a brief scene) were controversial among fans, since although they were used to seeing popular characters killed off in
2000 AD, they were disappointed with the cursory way in which Giant's death was depicted. In an interview years later, writer
Alan Grant said: "When we wrote the death of Giant, I thought it was a great idea to kill him off in such a casual, natural (for a judge) way. But when the reader outcry came, I was startled and forced to see things from their point of view."
Judge Giant Jr First appearance:
2000 AD #651 (1989). Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. In 1989 the story "Young Giant" established that the original Judge Giant had fathered a child in 2101, something prohibited to judges. Orphaned when his mother was murdered in front of him shortly after the
Apocalypse War in 2104, Giant's son had been inducted into the Academy of Law, where he performed extremely well but with a worrying streak of violence that threatened his ability as a judge. With Dredd's help, Cadet Giant was able to get past his deep-rooted anger and brought his mother's killer to justice. Unlike his father, who became a full judge in his first story, Cadet Giant remained a cadet for five years during his recurring appearances in the strip. He was a major protagonist in one of Judge Dredd's biggest and most significant epics, "
Necropolis", even taking over the lead role from Dredd himself in half a dozen episodes (including two in which Dredd did not even appear). He led a group of cadets who remained free of Dark Judge control and, at one point, were personally hunted down by
Judge Mortis. He would later be one of the first people to battle Sabbat's zombies during
Judgement Day. Eventually, he became the youngest cadet ever to graduate from the Academy, at the age of fifteen, having been fast-tracked. In a story reminiscent of his father's debut, Giant's Final Assessment was conducted by Judge Dredd, who passed him as fit to become a judge in 2116. The new Judge Giant has made several appearances since, and actually saved the whole world from a deadly virus in 2117. He is apparently one of the best judges in
Mega-City One, although he has not featured in any story to the extent that he did in "Necropolis". (In a six-page one-off story in the
Judge Dredd Megazine #216 called "Whatever Happened to John 'Giant' Clay?" (2004), Judge Giant met his grandfather for the first time. The original Giant had not appeared in any story since 1978, and this story ended with his death from old age.)
Goodman First appearance:
2000 AD #2 (1997). Created by Peter Harris and
Mike McMahon.
Chief Judge Clarence Goodman was Mega-City One's longest serving chief judge, and the first to appear in the comic. He was in the first ever episode of
Judge Dredd in prog 2 (March 1977), although not named until prog 86. He was assassinated in prog 89, but returned in flashbacks in the story
Origins (2006–2007). Goodman was deputy chief judge of the United States, first under
Chief Judge Fargo and then under
Chief Judge Solomon. From 2052 each American mega-city ran its own justice department, and Goodman was deputy chief judge of
Mega-City One, succeeding Solomon as chief judge in 2058. In 2070, after
President Robert Booth started a nuclear war which devastated America, Goodman overthrew the president and Congress and took over the city; the other mega-cities became independent. Thirty years later Goodman was assassinated by Judge Quincy and others, on the orders of his own deputy,
Judge Cal.
Greel First appearance:
2000 AD #892 (1994). Created by John Wagner and Mark Harrison.
Tek-Judge Todd Greel was head of Tek-Division, and he personally took over the
Mechanismo robot judge project after the project's previous heads, Stitch and Quiggley, were disgraced. In 2116 Greel compelled Stich to give evidence against Dredd for having illegally destroyed a Mark II robot to sabotage their field test, which resulted in Dredd being convicted and sent to the penal colony on Titan. Immediately afterwards, Greel was briefly acting chief judge. However he was implicated in an assassination attempt on
Chief Judge McGruder when one of his Mark IIA robots attempted to kill her and she had to be saved by Dredd while
en route to Titan. Although Greel's alleged guilt was never proved, McGruder curtly demoted him to a junior position in Traffic Control, effectively finishing his political ambitions for ever. The Mechanismo programme was aborted, and Dredd was pardoned. Greel was succeeded as head of Tek-Division by Judge McGovern and then
Judge McTighe. Greel later appeared in
The Pit, running Traffic Station Alamo in the North-West Habzone: enforcing petty restrictions on other judges, his only remaining power.
Griffin First appearance:
2000 AD #27 (1977). Created by John Wagner and Ian Gibson.
Judge Jürgen Griffin first appeared in prog 27 in a story by John Wagner and Ian Gibson. He was Principal of the Academy of Law, and had taught Dredd when he was a cadet. When the insane
Chief Judge Cal seized control of Mega-City One, Griffin and other Academy tutors joined Dredd's resistance movement. Griffin was one of only two of these tutors who was still alive by the time Cal was overthrown; the other was
Judge-Tutor Pepper. Dredd declined to succeed Cal as chief judge and nominated Griffin for the office. Griffin was elected chief judge by acclamation, and appointed Pepper as deputy chief judge. Griffin proved to be capable chief judge, and he maintained a great respect for Dredd: when the Council of Five questioned Dredd's abandonment of the "Judge Child," Owen Krysler, Griffin reminded the council of how Dredd's actions on a prior occasion had saved Mega-City One from Judge Cal, and he ruled against an inquiry into Dredd's judgement. Unfortunately, Griffin was captured by the enemy during the
Apocalypse War in 2104 and brainwashed into supporting their propaganda campaign. Dredd judged it impossible to rescue Griffin, and so he assassinated him instead, during a live television broadcast. In his final moments of life, Griffin regained his true personality in response to Dredd's accusation of treason. Griffin admitted he deserved to die, a sentence Dredd duly carried out. (1980).
Guthrie First appearance: 2000 AD #971 (1995). Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.
Judge Guthrie was originally a street judge. In 2117, while he was working undercover in Sector 301, his controller, Judge McDade, set him up to be murdered, as she was in league with the criminals he was investigating. He escaped, and when McDade and two other bent judges tracked him down, he was forced to kill them all in self-defence. Not knowing who to trust, he went into hiding, but was soon discovered and had to kill a fourth corrupt judge. Guthrie was arrested by Judge Dredd, who cleared his name and returned him to uniformed duties. Meanwhile, information provided by Guthrie had led to the arrests or deaths of a number of other corrupt judges, including the head and deputy head of Sector 301's SJS (internal affairs) unit. Altogether, two dozen judges were arrested during Dredd's investigation. Back on street duty, Guthrie participated in Dredd's clampdown on local organised crime in the sector, including a fierce gun battle with gangsters on Alamo Street. He was wounded in action during a riot immediately afterwards, but made a full recovery. When Dredd was kidnapped by an eccentric millionaire who collected celebrities, Guthrie was one of the judges assigned to the case. He later fought in the Second Robot War in 2121. Those stories were written by John Wagner; the character subsequently appeared in stories written by
Gordon Rennie, in whose hands Guthrie was less fortunate. In 2127 Guthrie was severely wounded in an explosion, and was declared unfit for street duty. He had to be talked out of euthanisa by Judge Giant. Due to having lost all of his limbs, he was made into a cyborg, and was subsequently assigned to command a sea-barge which had been converted into a prison. After that, the character made no further appearances until he was killed in a story written by
Rob Williams, published in 2025 and set in 2147.
Herriman First appearance:
2000 AD #891 (1994). Created by John Wagner and Mark Harrison.
Deputy Chief Judge Paul Herriman was originally a
street judge and had worked in every major division of Justice Department. He saw himself as a conciliator, preferring to operate by consensus. In 2116, he was one of the senior judges who tried to pressure
Judge McGruder into reinstating the Council of Five, in order to have the power to remove her. After McGruder stood down, Herriman was one of the candidates in the election to replace her. Running against Judges Dredd,
Volt and
Hershey, Herriman came third. Chief Judge Volt appointed Herriman deputy chief judge. In 2117 Herriman became the first deputy chief judge to regularly preside over meetings of the ruling Council of Five following Volt's decision to abolish the chief judge's
ex officio chairmanship of the Council. In the graphic novel
Batman vs. Judge Dredd: Die Laughing, Herriman was assassinated by
Judge Mortis in 2120 while he was acting chief judge when a "Robo-Skeeter" mosquito drone infected by Mortis's spirit form stung him. Herriman's corpse was then used as Mortis's vessel. Mortis masqueraded as Herriman while his body slowly decayed, until Mortis finally took over and manifested in his true form. Herriman was succeeded as deputy chief judge by
Judge Hershey.
Hershey First appearance:
2000 AD #162 (1980). Created by John Wagner and
Brian Bolland.
Judge Barbara Hershey first appeared in
The Judge Child in 1980, in an episode written by
John Wagner and drawn by
Brian Bolland. For nearly two decades she regularly appeared as Dredd's junior colleague, before being promoted to become his superior in 1999; she was chief judge twice. She also had her own solo series,
Judge Hershey, in the
Judge Dredd Megazine (1992–1997). In the 1995 film
Judge Dredd, Hershey is played by
Diane Lane. Shortly after her graduation from the Academy of Law in 2102 at age eighteen,
Judge Hershey joined the crew of the spaceship
Justice 1 for the dangerous deep-space mission to find the Judge Child, who had been abducted by the Angel Gang. Two years later, during the
Apocalypse War, Hershey was called upon again by Judge Dredd to join his "Apocalypse Squad" for a daring commando raid which ended the war. When
Chief Judge McGruder resigned her position in 2108, she appointed Hershey as the youngest ever member of the Council of Five, Mega-City One's highest legislative body. Even so, she soon experienced the power that goes with the office when she was asked to serve as acting chief judge while McGruder – back for an unprecedented second term of office – attended a crisis meeting of judges from all over the world to find a way to defeat
Sabbat the Necromagus in 2114. Her sister Hillary, a civilian, was killed by Sabbat's zombies, leaving her son Anton, Barbara's nephew, an orphan. The following year, when Anton was kidnapped, Hershey rescued him. When McGruder resigned for the second time, in 2116, Hershey was one of the candidates to replace her, but she received only 13 votes from the 400 senior judges who voted.
Chief Judge Volt appointed her to the new Council of Five, and in 2120 she became deputy chief judge. The following year she became acting chief judge following the suicide of Volt at the end of the
Second Robot War. In 2130 she repealed the
anti-mutant laws (largely at Dredd's insistence), making her unpopular with the public and many judges. In the following year senior judges began a campaign to have her voted out of office and replaced with a hardline candidate who would reinstate those laws. and appointed Hershey to a position on another planet. After two years away from Earth, Hershey returned to Mega-City One and resumed her old role as a street judge. In the story
Day of Chaos, set in 2134, a deadly plague wiped out seven eighths of the city's population. Francisco resigned and appointed Hershey to form an interim government. In 2141 Hershey decided to step down for a second time, and nominated
Judge Logan as her successor. Publicly she retired due to desire to move on from the top post, but in private she had concealed a terminal illness contracted during her time off world and had managed to hide it from all but her doctors. Hershey was the third longest serving chief judge (after
Fargo and
Goodman), having held office for a total of sixteen years. Several months later, with no signs of improvement, Hershey asked to be euthanized. This story, "Guatemala," was published in September 2019, 39 years after the character's first appearance. In later episodes of the same story, it was revealed that Hershey had had another sister (not named in the story), who lived in
Guatemala. As this sister was unable to have children, Hershey had donated her eggs, and so the resulting child and grandchildren were genetically Judge Hershey's own. Years later, Guatemala was taken over in a coup and Hershey's sister was murdered. Hershey's last request to Dredd was for him to go there and rescue her surviving relatives from danger. Dredd later infiltrated Guatemala under the guise of a diplomatic mission, located the family and was able to rescue Hershey's daughter, granddaughter and unborn great-granddaughter; however her grandson was killed in the operation. The family were returned to Mega-City One to live under Justice Department protection. Hershey's death was not as it seemed however and was in fact faked. Hershey believed she had been poisoned by her enemies and that a cure existed somewhere. She faked her death in order to retire and leave the city to hunt down the agents of former black ops chief
Judge Smiley who she believed was responsible for her illness and held the cure. In her own series, written by
Rob Williams and illustrated by
Simon Fraser, she teamed up with undercover Judge 'Dirty' Frank and during their first investigation she was seriously wounded losing an arm and leg. But after receiving bionic replacements vowed to fight on. After completing her objectives she died in prog 2349 (September 2023).
Janus First appearance:
2000 AD #842 (1993). Created by
Grant Morrison and Carlos Ezquerra.
Judge Judy Janus is a member of Psi Division, Justice Department's unit of judges with psionic powers. She is portrayed as a young and ditzy
psychic (she is a
precog and
telepath). The character was created by
Grant Morrison,
Mark Millar and
Carlos Ezquerra and first appeared in prog 842 in the story
Inferno (1993). She later appeared in her own
eponymous strip,
Janus: Psi Division (1993–1997), and in
Dave Stone's 1995 novel
Wetworks. Despite not starring in any stories for decades since, she was shown to still be an active judge in prog 2250 (2021), and is now part of Psi Division's senior leadership the Council of Psis; her ditzy carefree attitude has not changed.
Lamia First appearance:
2000 AD #1640 (2009). Created by
Ian Edginton and Dave Taylor.
Exorcist-Judge Miryam Lamia was killed in action and then returned from the dead in circumstances that have not been explained. This experience left her with the unwanted ability to see and speak with the ghosts of the dead, and bizarre patterned markings on her body. Although communicating with the dead initially helped her to solve cases, she became unable to cope with constantly seeing ghosts, as there were so many of them, and she became a recluse, spending most of her time secluded in a room which the dead could not enter. She first appeared in prog 1640.
Logan First appearance:
2000 AD #1350 (2003). Created by John Wagner and
Charlie Adlard.
Judge Logan is chief judge of
Mega-City One (as of October 2025). Logan first appeared as Dredd's assistant in the 2003 story "The Satanist", a role he held for nine years. During this period he appeared in the "Total War" storyline (2004) and in "
Origins" (2006–2007). In "Origins" he was severely wounded in action and required major surgery, including an artificial lung, arm and spleen. In "
Tour of Duty" (2009–10) he was promoted to senior judge. Shortly afterwards he personally discovered the evidence which resulted in
Chief Judge Sinfield's conviction and removal from office in 2132. In "
Day of Chaos" (2011–2012) he again lost his arm in an encounter with
Judge Mortis and was hospitalised. He received a prosthetic arm. Logan was not seen again (except in a cameo) until "Machine Law" in 2019, in which it was revealed that he had become the sector house chief in Sector 6 in 2139. However, he eventually realised he had tried to go too far too soon. Following a serious problem involving several robot judges in 2148, he considered resigning.
Maitland First appearance:
2000 AD #1790 (2012). Created by
Al Ewing and Nick Dyer.
Judge Maitland is a judge working for Accounts. She first appeared in "The Bean Counter" (prog 1790), the first strip after
Day of Chaos, where she had a 'meeting' with Dredd in the middle of a riot because he would not come to her office. A highly lethal combatant, in mid-battle she berated Dredd for his contempt towards divisions like Accounts and his lack of paperwork, pointing out the necessity of "bean counters" like her to keep Justice Department functioning. In "
The Cold Deck," she reported to Chief Judge Hershey about the city's crippled finances and advised nationalising the banks that had collapsed, then reclaiming their capital retroactively. Unknown to either of them, she was part of Dredd and Judge Smiley's team investigating Judge Bachmann: after tracking Black Ops' funds to Overdrive Inc, she was mindwiped so that Bachmann would not find out that he had recruited her. Her memory was returned when Black Ops' coup started, as Bachmann's office was right next to Accounts; she was able to rescue a wounded Dredd, patch him up, and hold off Black Ops agents until help arrived. After the coup was stopped, Dredd apologised for doubting her work in Accounts. She was subsequently promoted to head of Accounts Division, as the previous head (and "72.342%" of the division) had been killed in Bachmann's coup. Maitland has been successful as head of accounts but has found the job stressful due to the constant rebudgeting and more demands with less money being pushed upon her. While looking for a suitable compromise she realised that by spending more on education and social welfare programmes the department could balance the books, dramatically decrease crime and increase the quality and length of their citizens' lives. The Council of Five rejected her proposal and Chief Judge Logan even asked the SJS to begin monitoring her. She took her ideas to Dredd however, who was more receptive and said that he would take them to the Council himself. Logan subsequently authorised Maitland to conduct a pilot scheme in the North West Hab Zone. The pilot scheme was successful and vindicated her theories but was unpopular with hardliners on the Council. One Judge Hernandez schemed with a wealthy media baron to sabotage the scheme and when Maitland discovered this he freed a mob hitman from the cubes and set her up to be assassinated by him. After her death Hernandez publicly destroyed her image and legacy, burying her success, concealing the data proving her theories correct. Maitland however suspecting her own assassination leaked some of it out and Dredd, although unable to prove it, deduced Hernandez's corruption and involvement in her death.
McGruder First appearance:
2000 AD #182 (1980). Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant (writers) and Brian Bolland (artist).
Chief Judge Hilda Margaret McGruder was chief judge of Mega-City One from 2104 to 2108 and again from 2112 to 2116. After the death of the insane
Chief 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, 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. She ran into Dredd during the
Necropolis crisis and returned with him to fight the
Dark Judges. With Silver missing and presumed dead, she subsequently returned to the office of chief judge. Her first task was to once more get the city and Judge force back on their feet, as well as to deal with all the dead. She decided not to appoint a Council of Five, but instead take advice from any and all Senior Judges when the time came; in an early such discussion, on Dredd's advice, she agreed to a public referendum over whether the Judges should continue to rule the city. Her second term became increasingly beset with doubts about the quality of her leadership and her sanity. To cover up the losses of Judges from the recent crises, she began a programme of
robot judges which went disastrously wrong. However, she kept trying to revive the Mechanismo project despite clear evidence it was unworkable, and without a formal body like the Council of Five there was no way to oppose her if she would not listen to advice. In 2116 a deputation of senior judges, including Dredd, attempted to persuade her to reform the Council (with a view to then removing her from office), but they were unsuccessful, partly as she realised they would try to do away with her. Her final attempt to revive Mechanismo caused the robots themselves to try and assassinate her. By this point, Dredd was under arrest for his unlawful attempts to stop the project and McGruder's growing madness had embarrassed her on a tour of the colony world Hestia. When the assassination attempt was uncovered, and when Dredd was the sole reason she (and others) survived it, she pardoned him, scrapped the project, and agreed to stand down from office. She was succeeded by
Judge Volt. Declining to take the Long Walk again, she became a civilian and decided to write her memoirs. In her retirement she developed
Alzheimer's disease and her mental health rapidly deteriorated even further. The facts of her death were covered up.
McTighe First appearance:
Judge Dredd Megazine vol. 3 #40 (1998). Created by Alan Grant and Andrew Currie.
Tek-Judge McTighe was head of Tek Division. He is the longest-serving head of Tek-Division to appear in the comic, as that office usually tends to have a high rate of turnover. He succeeded Judge McGovern in 2120, and joined the Council of Five shortly afterwards, following the death of
Judge Herriman. During the mutant rights vote, Dredd said McTighe was a "yes man" who would vote the way Chief Judge Hershey told him. He resigned from the Council in 2131, following Hershey's recall from office; he was not invited back when Niles and Buell were. He remained in charge of Tek Division. Following the events of Chaos Day, McTighe was left despondent, believing they had failed to protect the citizens. He was assassinated in
2000 AD #1940 (2015), in a story set in 2137. It was revealed in #1943 that he had been re-appointed to the Council of Five at some point since the events in the story
Trifecta three years earlier.
Morphy First appearance:
2000 AD #387 (1984). Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant and
Ron Smith.
Judge Morphy was the senior judge who supervised Dredd's
Final Assessment to become a full judge, when Dredd was a
rookie in 2079. During most of Dredd's career he mentored him, giving advice when needed, and was in many ways a father figure to him. He was killed in the line of duty in 2112, only a few months short of retirement. Dredd took his death very badly and almost murdered one of the killers, restraining himself only at the very last moment. The perpetrators were sentenced to thirty years. A recurring joke in the series is that Dredd always wears the wrong sized boots. This can actually be traced to Morphy's first appearance, where Dredd confided to his former supervisor that he'd been experiencing doubts about the job. Morphy advised him to requisition a pair of boots two sizes too small: "You'll be so busy cussin' those damned boots you won't have time to worry about anything else."
Niles First appearance:
2000 AD #706 (1990). Created by John Wagner and
Steve Dillon.
Judge Roger Niles was head of the Special Judicial Squad (internal affairs) until 2122, when
Chief Judge Hershey made him head of the Public Surveillance Unit.
Chief Judge Sinfield briefly replaced him as head of PSU with Judge Benedetto; Niles was reinstated by Chief Judge Francisco. When Judge Dredd ran against Sinfield in an election, Niles was Dredd's campaign manager. Niles was killed when the Statue of Judgement, which contained PSU headquarters, was destroyed by terrorists in 2134, after 22 years in the comic.
Nixon First appearance:
2000 AD #1387 (2004). Created by Rob Williams and
Henry Flint.
Judge Aimee Nixon was a corrupt undercover judge. She was eventually arrested and sentenced to 20 years on the Titan penal colony. She was the original lead character in the series
Low Life, until that position was taken by
Dirty Frank and she became a supporting character. Later she escaped from Titan and became an antagonist in
Judge Dredd stories.
Oldham First appearance:
2000 AD #1611 (2008). Created by Al Ewing and
Simon Fraser.
Judge Oldham was a street judge and irritant for Dredd in several Al Ewing strips. He was a bullying, reactionary judge with a streak of incompetence. In his first appearance he wanted to break a siege with extreme force despite the risk to hostages. Then, when part of the security at the World Sex Championships, he shirked his duties to bully the competitors claiming he was "keeping the deviants in line", and allowed a gunman in. Oldham and Dredd do not like each other. In his first appearance, Oldham implied Dredd was being "soft" due his mutant sympathies. Dredd recommended that Oldham be moved to meat-wagon duties. Instead, Oldham was made a Senior Judge under
Judge Sinfield and given authority over the older Judge Giant, as a rebuke to Dredd's old ally. During this time, he shot an unarmed mutant and showed no concern. When Sinfield was deposed, Giant became the dominant partner and tried to turn Oldham around. Despite some progress, Oldham made some basic mistakes in an operation and was shot dead by an escaped killer.
Omar First appearance:
2000 AD #361 (1984). Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Brett Ewans.
Psi-Judge Omar became head of Psi Division after his predecessor Ecks was killed in the
Apocalypse War. He personally assisted Judge Dredd in his investigation into the haunting of a sector house, and later he exonerated
Judge Anderson when she was accused of negligently permitting the
Dark Judges to escape and threaten the city. When psi-criminal Shojun the Warlord unleashed the demonic Seven Samurai on the city, Omar volunteered to sacrifice his own life in a suicide attack to destroy them using a psionic amplifier. He was succeeded as head of Psi-Division by
Judge Shenker. After losing a leg in the 21st century he retired from active service and became a tutor at the Academy of Law, where he taught many of the city's most important and senior judges while they were cadets, including teaching Applied Leadership to both
Judge Dredd and future chief judge
Cal. When Chief Judge Cal became insane Pepper volunteered to fight with Dredd to depose the tyrant. In the moment of victory Dredd was offered the position of chief judge, but he declined in favour of
Judge Griffin. Griffin then appointed Pepper as his deputy. Two years later Pepper was assassinated by game show contestants from a
reality television show, in which contestants gained points by confessing to crimes they had not yet been caught for. Pepper's death led to the show being taken off the air. An artist oversight in this story saw him die with the full complement of two legs.
Perrier First appearance:
2000 AD #255 (1982). Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Carlos Ezquerra.
Judge Perrier first appeared in the story "
The Apocalypse War", fighting the Sovs at the frontline. She did not appear again until years later when writer Garth Ennis took over the strip and brought her back in "A Clockwork Pineapple". She was then killed off in "
Judgement Day", swarmed by zombies before she could reach the city.
Pin SJS Judge Bela Pin was an elderly judge who after suffering a mental breakdown on Chaos Day began to murder judges who fail to meet up to her exacting standards, but who she is unable to punish through official channels. Blaming Dredd for the state of the city after Chaos Day she began a vindictive vendetta against him and his closest allies. She killed Judge Gerhart and seriously injured Dredd and Judge Maitland before Dredd was able to knock her into an open burial pit where she was eaten by rats.
Prager First appearance:
2000 AD #328 (1983). Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Steve Dillon.
Judge Prager is one of the judges who chose to take the
Long Walk into the
Undercity rather than the Cursed Earth. After four years he made his first appearance in prog 328, when he saved Judge Dredd who had been transformed into a werewolf. He next appeared decades later to warn the judges of a new threat to the city from
Bones, but at the same time reveals he has been infected and transforms into a werewolf at each full moon. Declining the cure and in his wolf form, he helped Dredd defeat Bones' army. Impressed with Prager, Dredd offered him the opportunity to return to the city as a reinstated Judge but Prager declined, admitting he liked the wolf transformation, and that the Undercity was now his domain.
Ramos First appearance:
Judge Dredd Megazine vol. 3 issue 54 (1999). Created by John Wagner and Andrew Currie.
Judge Hoolio Ramos was head of Street Division on the Council of Five under
Chief Judge Hershey. In 2130 he was sent to
Titan in disgrace after Dredd uncovered crimes he had committed thirty years before, when he was part of a group of
vigilante judges who had taken it upon themselves to execute criminals that the law could not legitimately touch. The truth about these crimes was suppressed, and the public told that Ramos was simply being moved to a new posting off-world.
Renga First appearance:
2000 AD #1033 (1997). Created by John Wagner and
Sean Phillips. One of the four cadets involved in the "
Hunting Party" storyline,
Renga had briefly worked undercover in a juve gang for
Wally Squad; the experiences left him disgruntled and antisocial as well as sporting a gang tattoo (which was later removed). His attitude caused him to clash with Dredd while on a mission to locate the source of
Dr. Bolt's Dune Sharks. After a disastrous attempt to 'save' a Cursed Earth girl from a ritual (which meant the end of her community), it appeared that he was going to be expelled from the Academy. However, he distinguished himself when he was part of a group of Judges that was temporarily thrown back in time to Erie, Pennsylvania during the start of the
Atomic Wars, as well as in the final clash against the Dune Sharks, and so Dredd gave him a second chance. After he graduated from the Academy, he was personally chosen by Dredd to assist in the Fargo mission in "
Origins." He also appeared in the story "The Scorpion Dance".
Rico First appearance:
2000 AD #1186 (2000). Created by John Wagner and Simon Fraser.
Rico is a street judge cloned from the same DNA as Dredd. Since Judges
Joe Dredd and Rico Dredd were cloned from the DNA of
Chief Judge Fargo in 2066, at least eight further clones of the Fargo bloodline have been produced by the
Mega-City One Justice Department. The first of these to graduate from the Academy of Law was given his final street assessment by Joe Dredd in 2122. His original name was Dredd, so to avoid complication at dispatch, on receiving his
full eagle the clone took the surname Rico, in honour of the late Rico Dredd. He has no first name. During his first five years as a cadet, he had been in the Texas City academy of law, before returning to Mega-City One. After a short period with the traffic division, Rico was assigned to Sector 108, where he overcame his colleagues' resentment at his ancestry and hardline attitude, and proved himself to be a brave and resourceful judge. He has a strong bond with his clone brother Joe Dredd (although Dredd is old enough to be his father), and when the older man's living quarters were moved to the Grand Hall of Justice, Rico took over his apartment in Rowdy Yates Block. While serving in Sector 108 Rico had to have one of his lungs replaced with an artificial one following an injury in the line of duty. Later he suffered a gunshot wound to the jaw, but has since had this replaced with a synthetic copy. When Mega-City One's
mutant citizens were exiled to townships in the
Cursed Earth, Rico was one of the judges sent to supervise them, under Dredd's command. When Dredd returned to the city he left Rico in charge. Rico led a contingent of mutant volunteers back to the city to help rebuild it following the disastrous events of the story
Day of Chaos.
Roffman First appearance:
2000 AD #1102 (1998). Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.
Judge Roffman works in the Public Surveillance Unit. He originally served in the SJS in Sector 301, but was transferred to Street Division in Sector 303 after bugging his superior officer's office. Due to his inexperience he bungled a raid and inadvertently discharged his weapon, shooting and wounding another judge. Suspended from duty, his efforts to make amends (again by spying on his new commanding officer) backfired and almost resulted in the end of his career. Instead
Judge Edgar, head of PSU, recognised that his suspicious and devious character made him ideally suited to surveillance work, and she recruited him. He flourished in his new role, and continues to assist Judge Dredd in investigations, including tracking a possible rogue judge in
Sector House and carrying out spy work in
Lawcon. He was also forcibly teamed up with
Galen DeMarco during
the Second Robot War, showing cowardice and amorality much to Galen's disgust. These flaws would later save the day at Lawcon, which was undergoing infiltration by
shape-shifting genocidal aliens: when the infiltrators tried to draw him into a trap by calling for help, Roffman (unlike other law enforcers) simply ignored them, leaving him free and able to help expose the infiltration to Dredd later. He distinguished himself years later in the search for the members of the Total War terrorism organisation when they began detonating nuclear bombs around the city. Most of his appearances since then have shown him working remotely from PSU. Roffman was severely injured in 2134 when his office in PSU headquarters was destroyed during the story
Day of Chaos (2012), losing both his legs and his sphincter, which required artificial and clone-grown replacements. Dredd was quietly angry that Roffman had been moved to the head of the queue when hundreds of other judges were allowed to rot in hospital. Despite his feelings, in
The Cold Deck he turned to Roffman for help in finding stolen Justice Department data, without telling him what it was. Roffman was left horrified when he learnt it was a gold clearance file and that Dredd had failed to stop it being transferred, and after he discovered the file contained a list of undercover judges, he reported it to Bachmann as it was "too big" to leave to Dredd.
Sanchez First appearance:
2000 AD #2003 (2002). Created by John Wagner,
Andy Diggle and Henry Flint.
Judge Sanchez was a newly graduated Judge when
Mr. Bones released the
Incubus on Mega-City One. She fought alongside Dredd and Judge Giant in the defence of the Grand Hall of Justice but it appeared the strain would break her. However, the various perils (including being impregnated by the Incubus) helped mould her into a strong judge. Consequently, she was chosen as one of the team assisting Dredd in his mission to rescue Chief Judge Fargo from his kidnappers in the Cursed Earth (in the story "
Origins"). She states during this time that she is not sure she agrees with the Justice Department's policy of celibacy for Judges.
Shenker First appearance:
2000 AD #457 (1986). Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant and
Cliff Robinson.
Judge Shenker became head of Psi Division in 2108, and was at the same time appointed to the Council of Five by outgoing
Chief Judge McGruder. In 2122 he was dismissed from the Council by
Chief Judge Hershey because of the disappointing performance of his division, but he remained head of the division until 2144, when he resigned. He was succeeded as head of Psi-Division by Judge Shakta.
Silver First appearance:
2000 AD #457 (1986). Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Cliff Robinson.
Judge Thomas Silver was chief judge of Mega-City One between 2108 and 2112. He began his career as a
street judge, serving during the Atomic War and the Second American Civil War. To his later shame, in the early 2070s he was one of the many judges who agreed with
Morton Judd's ideas of genetically altering the citizens to be more docile. In 2096 he was wounded in action and compelled to retire from active service. He became principal lecturer in Applied Violence at the Academy of Law. In 2108
Chief Judge McGruder resigned and left the city on the
Long Walk. One of her final acts as chief judge was to appoint Silver to the Council of Five, the city's highest
legislature. The Council unanimously chose Silver for the highest office. Dredd's own responsibility for the deaths at the march, and the corrupt way in which the law had been enforced fed his doubts about the integrity of the system to which he had belonged since birth. When in 2112 a young boy was brutally murdered by a man who had been brain-damaged by a judge during the Democratic March, Dredd's reservations came to a head and he tendered his resignation and took the Long Walk himself. Silver reacted by ordering a news blackout on Dredd's resignation, and covered it up by going so far as to replace Dredd with an imposter,
Judge Kraken, a
clone from the same DNA as Dredd. Silver believed that Dredd had become such an important figure of law-enforcement in the public mind that his departure, if it became known, would incite an intolerable increase in crime. Silver's judgement proved to be fatal, as only weeks later Kraken's loyalty was turned against the city, precipitating a catastrophe which resulted in the whole city falling under enemy occupation with the loss of 60 million lives. (
See main article Necropolis.) Silver despaired recovering the situation and fled the command centre in Mega-City One's darkest hour of need. He attempted to commit suicide but botched the job, and was captured alive. He was murdered by Judge Death and then reanimated as a
zombie, but with all his mental faculties intact so that he could be tormented endlessly while his city was systematically extinguished of all life. So ended Silver's life, but not his undeath. When Dredd returned to rescue his city, Silver again fled and hid, fearing that in his
undead state he would be summarily destroyed by the survivors of the disaster. Only when several months had passed did he dare to return to the city. On arriving once more in his Grand Hall of Justice in 2113, he discovered that in his absence his predecessor, McGruder, had reclaimed her office. He challenged her right to be chief judge, pointing out that she had resigned as chief judge whereas he had not. McGruder retorted that Silver was medically dead. However, since McGruder had dissolved the Council of Five there was no recognised authority with the power to decide the issue. The constitutional crisis was finally resolved when both litigants agreed to abide by Judge Dredd's verdict. Dredd actually ruled in Silver's favour, but then convicted him of gross dereliction of duty for deserting his command in time of war. Dredd executed Silver by incinerating him, and McGruder became chief judge by default. Silver went neither quietly nor with any dignity, crying and pleading for mercy. His incinerated remains were unceremoniously swept away by a cleaner, a truly ignoble end for a head of state. Silver's ghost haunts the Grand Hall of Justice.
Smiley Judge Smiley was appointed head of a special "
black operations" unit by Chief Judge Griffin in 2101, after Judge Cal's reign of terror. His role was to work in the background as "a judge to judge the judges who judge the judges," to protect the city from a future ''coup d'état'' by another corrupt judge like Cal. One of his missions drove
Judge Frank insane; Smiley arranged for him to be transferred to Wally Squad. including agent Miss Anne Thrope: she was used to manipulate undercover judge
Jack Point into working for Smiley, and tried to explicitly recruit him as an agent. After the "
Judgement Day" conflict in 2114, Smiley disappeared and was presumed dead,
Judge Bachmann duly replacing him as head of his unit. Smiley had actually moved into a secret psi-shielded office hidden in the Grand Hall of Justice, where he remained out of sight for 20 years, covertly monitoring the Justice Department and waiting until he was needed, although he mentions to Hershey that he has influenced many events in the city since his disappearance. Eventually the threat he had been preparing for turned out to be Bachmann herself, who in 2134 plotted to seize control of the city. Smiley recruited a team of judges to investigate her – a team so secretive that to prevent their discovery Smiley suppressed their memories of his existence and their objectives, using a post-hypnotic command to reawaken them when needed. They succeeded in defeating Bachmann, who was killed by Smiley himself. Both Hershey and Frank were angered by Smiley's tactics: Hershey because Smiley could have brought her on board at any time and deliberately left her out of the loop, and Frank because Smiley had deliberately let hundreds of people die in order to force Bachmann into the open. Hershey openly suggested that they had "swapped one problem for another". The character Judge Smiley honours the
John le Carré character
George Smiley, an important supporting character and later central character in many of his post-war espionage stories.
Solomon First appearance:
2000 AD #68 (1978). Created by
Pat Mills and Mike McMahon.
Judge Hollins Solomon succeeded
Judge Fargo as Chief Judge of the United States in 2051, and in the following year became Chief Judge of
Mega-City One, when Mega-City Two and Texas City acquired their own chief judges for the first time. In 2058 he resigned and was succeeded by his deputy,
Clarence Goodman (with whom he had served as joint deputy chief judge under Fargo). Instead of appointing a new deputy chief judge, Goodman appointed a Council of Five to advise him, and Solomon served on the Council from its inception until after the judges seized power from the president and Congress in 2070. In 2071 Solomon presided over the war crimes trial of
President Bob Booth, sentencing him to 100 years in suspended animation so that a future generation could decide what to do with him. It is not known what became of Solomon after that, but he had only appeared in
Judge Dredd stories in flashbacks in
The Cursed Earth and
Origins (until 2022, when he and all other deceased former Chief Judges appeared as ghosts haunting a citizen).
Stark First appearance:
2000 AD #1033 (1997). Created by John Wagner and Sean Phillips. A Brit-Cit exchange cadet,
Stark applied for full transfer to Mega-City One. He first appeared in
The Hunting Party, undergoing a hotdog run under Dredd and tracking down dune sharks; he showed himself to be a capable Judge and bonded with fellow cadet Renga. He would later be part of Dredd's team during the
Second Robot War, helping liberate the city: it was his suggestion that they reprogram Narcos' Assassinator droids and use them against him. When sent undercover to combat a block mafia in Shirley Temple Block, Stark was infected with Grubb's Disease by a mob boss – as was his partner, an old comrade of Stark's who he'd brought in on the operation. Driven mad by the death and the terminal infection, he killed himself to infect the mob boss. His body was returned to Brit-Cit.
Steel Judge Amy Steel was the sidekick of Dredd in
David Bishop's
Judge Dredd audios for Big Finish. An exchange Cadet from Brit-Cit, she was a competent and bright-minded young Judge, assisting Dredd in several cases including against Judge Death; during her rookie assessment, she destroyed the Frendz syndicate's hovership headquarters and took out its current boss. It was eventually revealed that her stepfather was infamous Brit-Cit gangster Harry Karter, who she believed had killed her father when she was a young child; in fact, it turned out she had (accidentally) killed him, and her mother had made a deal with Karter to erase this from her mind. While Karter was brought down, Amy Steel was psychologically damaged and turned in her Judge badge. Amy Steel was played by
Claire Buckfield.
Vass Judge Vass is (or was) a senior judge and became a member of the Council of Five in 2132. During
Day of Chaos, he clashed with General Poll over the fate of civilian hostages and found Poll's comments about street Judge ineffectiveness "uncalled for". Despite this, he voted in favour of air strikes that would doom the hostages. When the Chaos Virus reached the city anyway, Vass proposed rounding up the first-stage infected, flying them to Cursed Earth burial pits on the pretence of taking them to a medical facility, and then killing them en route. Chief Judge Francisco condemned this as "monstrous" and refused to do it, but the proposal was leaked to the public and caused a citywide uprising. Vass was left horrified by what he had inadvertently caused and resigned, returning to the streets. It is not known whether he survived.
Volt First appearance:
2000 AD #917 (1994). Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.
Chief Judge Hadrian Volt was chief judge from 2116 to 2121. Volt became a street judge in 2096 and fought in the First
Robot War and the
Apocalypse War. He later served in the Special Judicial Squad and in the Aliens Bureau. In 2114 he was promoted to chief of Sector 53, where his outstanding administrative ability and judgement reduced violent crime in his sector to the second lowest level in the city. When
Chief Judge McGruder resigned her office in 2116, there was no Council of Five to choose a new chief judge in the normal way, since she had dissolved the Council years earlier. Therefore, she ordered that her successor be elected by the city's 400 Senior Judges. After careful consideration, Volt decided to stand as a candidate in this unprecedented election, and polled a clear majority of the votes (208), defeating three other candidates, including Judge Dredd himself. (Ironically most people had believed that Dredd would win, but – as Dredd himself observed – he had annoyed too many judges over the years. Dredd even voted for Volt himself!) Volt immediately set about instituting significant constitutional reforms. He reinstated the Council and permanently established the new system of electing chief judges. In 2117 he restored the obsolete office of Mayor of Mega-City One and created a council of elected citizens to give the people more say in how they were governed (although ultimate power continued to reside with the Justice Department). He also established a policy of encouraging the judges to foster better relations with the community. He was also the author of two books:
Riding the Apocalypse, a history of the Apocalypse War, and
Just Justice, setting out his ideas for legal and political reforms. But the general public would never be told the truth.
Acting Chief Judge Hershey decided that in the aftermath of such a cataclysmic conflict the Judges' interests required a more heroic death for their fallen leader. The Public Deception Unit therefore set about concocting a false story in which Volt had died valiantly in combat, and fabricated the evidence to prove it. Volt was the perfect Judge to reform the Justice System which under his two predecessors had become badly corrupt and damaged. Ultimately however he simply was not up to the job of wartime leader. This has however been true of many chief judges, with power usually passing to Dredd in times of crisis, as seen for example in the Apocalypse War and Necropolis. Volt was succeeded by Deputy Chief Judge Hershey, who was elected chief judge in her own right in early 2122. ==Other judges==