NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Judge Silver

Chief Judge Thomas Silver was chief judge (2108 to 2112) of the fictional city of Mega-City One in the Judge Dredd comic strip. The Chief Judge of Mega-City One is dictator and head of state of the fictional future city of around 400 million people in 22nd-century America. ... 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. ... Luna 1 Justice Department=hiddenStructure style=vertical-align: top; This article is about the comic-book character Judge Dredd. ...

He began his career as a street judge, and served with distinction in the Second American Civil War. However 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, teaching the next generation of Mega-City judges. He saw action again when he joined the resistance to the insane Chief Judge Cal, and also when the Academy itself was attacked during the Apocalypse War. 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... The Academy of Law is a fictional place of learning appearing in the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD. The Academy of Law is where the Judges of Mega-City One are trained. ... Chief Judge Cal is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. He was loosely based on the real life Roman Emperor Caligula, who was insane. ... ...

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. Judge Evelyn 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. ... In the long-running British comic strip Judge Dredd, The Long Walk is taken by retired Judges who feel that they can no longer be effective within Mega-City One, instead choosing to take law to the lawless in either the radioactive wastes of the Cursed Earth or the Undercity... The Council of Five is a fictional legislative body in the Judge Dredd universe. ... A legislature is a governmental deliberative assembly with the power to adopt laws. ...

Silver quickly proved to be the most right-wing, hardline chief judge the city had ever seen. In 2109 he ordered a crack-down on the Democracy movement (a loose affiliation of organisations dedicated to democratic reform ever since the Justice Department usurped the elected government of the United States in 2070), putting Judge Dredd in personal charge of a secret campaign to smear the protest groups' leaders and to sabotage their efforts at peaceful demonstration. Undercover judges placed among the protesters turned a peaceful protest march into a violent riot, giving Dredd the excuse he needed to attack the march with riot squads and make mass arrests. Silver used the ensuing massacre as an example of the dangers of democracy and the need for the iron rule of the judges. Armed with this excuse to tighten control, he took every opportunity to do so.

Dredd's own responsibilty for the deaths which resulted, and the clandestine -- indeed 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. By taking this extreme course Silver overruled Dredd's own judgement on Kraken, as Dredd had assessed Kraken and determined that he was unfit to be a judge. 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... Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an original. ...

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 Dark Judges.) 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. 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. ... Judge Death and his lieutenants Fear, Mortis and Fire - artwork by Brian Bolland Judge Death is a fictional character of the Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. Judge Dredd]] movie, a comic set in its continuity, entitled Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future, The Wikipedia photo...

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 and McGruder became chief judge by default. Silver's incinerated remains were unceremeniously swept away by a cleaner, a truly ignoble end for a head of state.

Category: Judge Dredd characters Judge Dredd is a 1995 action film based on the Judge Dredd strip in the British comic 2000 AD. Fans however were highly critical of this film, largely regarding it as a failure. ... Judge Evelyn 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. ... The Chief Judge of Mega-City One is dictator and head of state of the fictional future city of around 400 million people in 22nd-century America. ... Judge Evelyn 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. ...