The citizenry of Mega-City One are used to being under the boot of the Judges, but few have looked upon Judge Death and lived to tell the tale.
The citizens of Mega-City One are all too familiar with stringent laws and the Judges who enforce them, but one Judge, in particular, has proven to be the harshest…
Hailing from an alternate Earth, hardline law-enforcer Sydney De’Ath had already earned the moniker ‘Judge Death’ before he encountered the witches Phobia and Nausea. Transformed into an undead simulacrum of a Judge by the witches, he began a quest for what he termed ‘total justice’: the eradication of all crime through the extermination of all life.
Aided by his fellow Dark Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis, Death wrought genocide upon what is now known as ‘Deadworld’. Not content with his work, he then used dimensional jump technology to reach Earth…
Arriving in Mega-City One in the year 2102, he found a city—and indeed a whole planet—rife with the living and the lawless. Bent on continuing his mission, he began slaughtering the occupants of Mega-City One. Only Dredd and Psi-Division’s Judge Anderson were able to stop Death, and even then only by sealing the Dark Judge—his spirit trapped within Judge Anderson—inside an impermeable slab of the miracle plastic, Boing®.
Enter Fear, Fire and Mortis
Death—and Anderson—remained sealed inside this slab of Boing® and confined to the Grand Hall of Justice. However, his Deadworld cohorts Fear, Fire and Mortis engineered Death’s release from his Boing® tomb and provided a new host body for his incorporeal form. Reunited with his fellow Dark Judges, Death resumed his crusade against Mega-City One, sealing themselves inside Billy Carter Block along with its occupants.
The intervention of both Dredd and the revived Judge Anderson could not avert the resulting massacre as the Dark Judges slaughtered masses of the block’s residents. Following a confrontation with Dredd and Anderson, Death and his compatriots fled to Deadworld, only to be pursued by the two Judges. There Anderson channelled the myriad spirits of the Dark Judges’ victims, using the force of their collective to seemingly destroy the Dark Judges.
The Revenge of the Dark Judges
Lured back to Deadworld by visions of Judge Death, Psi-Judge Anderson was tricked into resurrecting the quartet of Dark Judges. When Death and his fellow fiends then used teleportation devices to travel to Mega-City One, they brought yet more carnage to the megalopolis. Anderson followed them back and—in a tense confrontation—destroyed the Dark Judges’ teleportation devices, confining them to what appeared to be an eternity in Limbo…
Necropolis
Death and his fellow compatriots, however, would return to visit even greater devastation on Mega-City One. Aided by the witches Phobia and Nausea, the Dark Judges emerged in 2112 to find MC-1 lacking Dredd’s protection. Unimpeded by his nemesis, Death oversaw a slaughter of biblical proportions which brought Mega-City One to the edge of oblivion. Only Dredd’s return from the Cursed Earth—and his reuniting with his old ally Anderson—saved the city, but not before the Dark Judges had killed sixty million of the population.
Classic Moment
Judge Death Lives (2000AD prog #224–228 / Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 05)
Judge Death is reunited with his fellow Dark Judges Fire, Fear and Mortis. Together they bring their unique form of justice to the residents of Billy Carter Block.
Further Reading
Young Death: Boyhood of a Superfiend (Judge Dredd Megazine volume #1, issues #1–12 /Judge Death: Young Death)
When journalist Brian Skuter is granted an interview with Judge Death he discovers the grotesque events which shaped the uniquely driven—and evil—creature.
Extract From Dredd’s Comportment
‘No one in the history of MC-1 has murdered more of its citizens than Death and his Gruddam cronies. And not only are they stone-cold killers, but they’re drokkin’ hard to kill.’
Appropriately, Judge Death is one of the deadliest perps in the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game. Although he has no ranged attacks whatsoever, he has a natural Fight stat of 5, and his signature Heart Squeeze attack gives him an extra dice when determining potential damage. This coupled with the fact that his targets cannot roll Resist dice when hit by Death—places him amongst the game’s most lethal exponents of melee combat. To make matters worse, Death also has an Evade stat of 5; one of the highest in the game…
Arch Villains of MC-1
Mega-City One has been the target of violent coups, crime wars, otherworldly onslaughts and foreign invasions – each being the brainchild of a villain wanting to see the city, Justice Department and/or Dredd himself perish…
This box set contains five of Judge Dredd’s greatest villains, including Judge Death.
Remember, if you order the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game rulebook or Starter Set from our webstore, you’ll receive this special edition Dredd vs Death dioramic miniature:
Richard Coates