The Dark Judges are recurring villains in the fictional Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. They are Judge Death, Judge Fire, Judge Fear and Judge Mortis. Recent storylines have 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. Judge Dredd, drawn by Mike McMahon for the first ever story Judge Joseph Joe Dredd is the main character of the longest-running strip in the British comic 2000 AD, having been featured there since its second issue in 1977. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Note: This is an article about the British comic book 2000 AD, rather than the year 2000 2000 AD logo 2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction oriented comic. ... Judge Death is a character from the fictional Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. He is the leader of the Dark Judges, a sinister group of undead law enforcers from the alternative dimension of Deadworld, where all life has been declared a crime. ... Judge Kraken is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip featured in the long-running UK comic 2000 AD. Kraken was originally one of the Judda, a tribe of rogue clones of Chief Judge Fargo created by the renegade Judge Morton Judd and based beneath Ayers Rock in...

History

The Dark Judges were originally a group of 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. Thanks to the magic of Phobia and Nausea (the Sisters of Death), the four Dark Judges murdered the entire population of their world. Judge Death is a character from the fictional Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. He is the leader of the Dark Judges, a sinister group of undead law enforcers from the alternative dimension of Deadworld, where all life has been declared a crime. ...

Dimension-travelling visitors chanced upon the now 'Deadworld' and found the Dark Judges. After 'judging' (ie, killing) them and taking their dimension jumping warp devices, Judge Death travelled to Mega-City One and began 'dispensing 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. Mega-City One is a huge fictional city covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. ... Judge is a title held by several significant characters in the Judge Dredd series, which appears in the British comic book 2000 AD. In the fictional future history of the series, the role of Judge combines those of judge and police officer, thus avoiding long legal wrangles by allowing for... Judge Cassandra Anderson, created by writer John Wagner and artist Brian Bolland in 1980, is a fictional character that started as a supporting character in the comic strip Judge Dredd of 2000 AD and eventually rose in prominence and became the star of her own strip. ...

Having sensed Death's peril, his comrades Fear, Fire and Mortis crossed the dimension warp to rescue him. Released from imprisonment and with a new body created, the four Dark Judges continued their 'judgement' upon Mega-City One. Dredd and Anderson intervened, and pursued the Dark Judges back to Deadworld. There, the spirits of the Dark Judges' millions of victims flowed through Anderson and seemingly extinguished their spirits forever.

However, the Dark Judges were not destroyed but merely weakened, and four years later, Judge Anderson was duped into returning to Deadworld, where she was forced to resurrect them. Armed with teleporter technologies, the four returned to Mega-City One, leaving Anderson for dead. Anderson survived, however, and used the dimension warp technology against the Dark Judges, consigning them to limbo, the void between dimensions. This is where they were to remain for the next few years. Teleportation, or teletransportation, is the process of moving objects (or more likely with present techniques, fundamental particles) from one place to another by encoding information about the object, transmitting the information to another place, such as on a radio signal, and creating a copy of the original object in the...

Following Judge Dredd's resignation and his replacement by the ex-Judda Kraken (recounted in the Judge Dredd stories Tale of The Dead Man and Countdown to Necropolis respectively), the sisters of Death - Phobia and Nausea - used their powers to influence Kraken and rescue the Dark Judges from Limbo. With the Mega-City One judge force under their control, the Dark Judges created Necropolis - the city of the dead, killing 60 million citizens. Judges Dredd, Anderson and Chief Judge McGruder, together with a handful of Cadet Judges, returned via The Undercity to defeat them - returning the Sisters of Death to Deadworld, imprisoning Fear, Fire and Mortis within secure containment, and executing Kraken, who had become a fifth Dark Judge. Judge Death eluded capture by hiding in the burial pits of the Cursed Earth. Judge Kraken is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip featured in the long-running UK comic 2000 AD. Kraken was originally one of the Judda, a tribe of rogue clones of Chief Judge Fargo created by the renegade Judge Morton Judd and based beneath Ayers Rock in... Judge McGruder is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd stories published in the comic book 2000 AD. She was first female Chief Judge of Mega-City One, and the first Judge to become Chief Judge twice. ... Cadet Judges appear in the fictional universe recounted in the Judge Dredd comic strip that appears in the UK comic 2000 AD. Before becoming fully fledged Street Judges, Cadet Judges must serve 15 years at the Academy of Law where they will receive the intensive training and conditioning that will... The Undercity is a part of the fictional universe recounted in the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD. In the comic strip, the cities of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States had become so polluted that by the end of the twenty first... The Cursed Earth is a part of the fictional universe recounted in the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD. Following the Atomic Wars of 2070 most of the U.S.A. became a radioactive wasteland. ...

However Death was eventually captured by Dredd with the aid of Batman (see Judgement on Gotham). Batman, more properly known as The Batman and occasionally as The Bat-Man, is a fictional character and superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. ...

After numerous escapes, Death escaped into the Cursed Earth and remains at large.

Character Details

The Dark Judges are undead and, as such, cannot be conventionally killed. They are ghostly spirits that must first inhabit dead bodies in order to do physical harm. This begs the question of how the four of them might reincarnate at once, but that was answered by the episode in which the spirits of the Dark Judges possessed and tricked Judge Anderson into preparing bodies for them. Reincarnation involves obtaining a fresh, dead body, either by murder or chance. The judges then summon elaborate machinery that produce "dead fluids" that bring the body to "full ripeness," then the spirit inhabits and animates the body. The incarnate Dark Judges are all emaciated, zombie-like humanoids with sharp claws. Undead is a collective name for all types of corporeal and non-corporeal entities who were once alive in the normal sense, died, and then continued to exist in the world of the living, usually as a ghost or animated corpse. ... A zombie is a kind of undead, or figuratively, a very apathetic person. ... A claw is a curved pointed growth found at the end of a toe or finger, or in arthropods, of the tarsus. ...

At this point, the Dark Judge dons a uniform, or "robes of office," which gives him his unique identity. It is rarely made clear how the uniforms are obtained. The first Batman crossover humorously treated this subject by showing the Scarecrow's henchman dress Death in biker garb. All the Dark Judges' uniforms are variants of the traditional judge uniform. Judge is a title held by several significant characters in the Judge Dredd series, which appears in the British comic book 2000 AD. In the fictional future history of the series, the role of Judge combines those of judge and police officer, thus avoiding long legal wrangles by allowing for...

• Judge Death appears in something close to a Judge's helmet, though its modified visor resembles an inverted picket fence. Many 2000 AD illustrations make use of the visor as a visual shorthand for Judge Death. His mouth is pulled into a toothsome rictus. On his right shoulder is a pterodactyl, as opposed to the Judges' eagles. His left shoulder pad and elbow pads are festooned with bones. His tunic is fastened with crude stitches rather than a zipper, and his badge and belt buckle are shaped like a human skulls with extended fangs, the latter with bat wings. Death's preferred attack is to reach directly into his victim's chest and squeeze the heart.

• Judge Fear is an imposing figure with a black, iron helm obscuring his face. It is just as well since his primary attack is to open his faceplate before his victims, showing them the face of Fear and frightening them to death. He has an assortment of bear traps dangling from his belt and is known to throw them at his enemies in order to immobilize them. His belt also holds an enormous padlock of indeterminate utility. He wears a thick robe with ornamental bear traps on the shoulders. His belt buckle is a shrunken head.

• Judge Fire is immersed in flame, but otherwise his uniform resembles Death's. He has a human skull for a head and weilds a flame-spewing trident. As such he has the greatest kill capacity of his brethren.

• Judge Mortis (from rigor mortis) is in a perpetual state of disintegration. His touch brings swift decay, and he is sometimes employed by Judge Death to prepare the Dark Judges' host bodies. His head is a horse skull and he has a short, bony tail. His uniform's right shoulder is a bird skeleton and his left shoulder is protected by a perforated pad. Mortis' badge is a stylized horse skull with his name emblazoned in wood.