Judge Death
Judge Death is a male comic character that features in 2000 A.D.
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Biography
Sidney De'Ath was the son of a sadistic traveling dentist
A sadist thrilled by inflicting pain, Sidney would soon go on to murder three bullies from his school. He joined the Judges in order to be able to kill people legally, gaining the nickname 'Judge Death' for his hard-line stance on executing all lawbreakers.
The psychopathic and obsessive Judge shortly afterwards encountered the witches Phobia and Nausea, the "Sisters of Death", who he saw as a means to achieve his vision of total justice - the complete extermination of all life. He reasoned that since all crime is committed by the living, life itself is a crime. Hence the monster's catchphrase: "The crime is life, the sentence is death!" Using their dark magic, he had himself transformed into the undead Judge Death. Along with the "Sisters of Death" and his fellow Dark Judges, he wiped his world clean of all life.
Once that was done, he left "Deadworld" and crossed dimensions to reach Mega-City One. His body was destroyed after his first massacre in 2102, and his spirit took control of Judge Anderson in an attempt to rebuild it. He ended up trapped, but the other three Dark Judges arrived to free him and together they slaughtered thousands of citizens. He and his cohorts struck several times, causing great carnage each time, but they were always defeated by the Judges Dredd and Anderson. Eventually the Sisters of Death, now spectral beings, arrived in Mega-City One and along with the Dark Judges, they enslaved the judges, conquered the city and created their "Necropolis" - a horror that took the lives of 60 million people.
Necropolis failed and Judge Death soon ended up as the only Dark Judge left free in this world. Inevitably he too was eventually captured, after jumping across dimensions to Gotham City. He would break loose on several occasions afterwards, being recaptured each time. In his final escape in 2124, he managed to keep his escape secret for a while and then lured Anderson into a trap by murdering children. Catching Anderson unawares, he put her in a coma so she couldn't stand against him - he also infected her with a pestilence spirit so that when she woke up a great plague would be unleashed. Anderson, warning herself via a hallucination of herself around during Death’s rise, purposely remained in her coma.
Death went out into the Cursed Earth, slaughtering as he went and re-evaluating his cause and methods. He decided that Weapons of Mass Destruction were the most effective way to achieve his ends and went on a quest to find them. Using a bunker full of nuclear weapons, he destroyed Las Vegas and tried to destroy Mega City One, but was stopped by the city's anti-missile system. The judges, believing it was just an old bunker becoming active, fired "bunker buster" missiles at him destroying his body releasing his spirit into the astral plane, whereupon he was attacked by Houcus Ritter, a man whose family he had killed when he first entered the Cursed Earth. Houcus had been in Las Vegas when it had been destroyed and had become an angel. He beat Death to the ground then opened a pit leading to hell. Death was then dragged into Hell by the vengeful ghosts of all those he had killed.
After eliminating all life on his Earth, turning it into Deadworld, the other three Dark Judges are satisfied they can rest now but Judge Death is increasingly restless. When aliens explorers from another dimension appear, Death kills them and takes their dimension-hopping technology, concluding he must spread death to other Earths too. The other Dark Judges don't think this is necessary, so Death travels alone to Judge Dredd's Earth. Despite his power, he is defeated by Judge Dredd and Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson. After his body is destroyed, his mind is telepathically imprisoned by Anderson. He is freed a year later, becoming a frequent menace to Mega-City One and Dredd while developing a particular hatred for Judge Anderson. Judge Death later remarks that he and Anderson share a telepathic link and he can never truly rest while she still lives.
Following the Necropolis story where the Dark Judges temporarily controlled Mega-City One, Judge Death hides, eventually renting an apartment at the Sylvia Plath block from nearly blind landlady Mrs. Gunderson, using the alias "Jay De'Ath". During this time, Death tells his life story to journalist Skuter, later killing him when the man sells a truncated version of the story to a tabloid. He then travels to the DC Comics version of Earth in Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham, meeting the villain Scarecrow before being defeated by Batman, Judge Dredd, and Judge Anderson. Imprisoned in Anderson's mind again, he is brought back to Dredd's Earth and his spirit is imprisoned in a special cell. Over the next several years, Death escapes a few times only to later be imprisoned once again, sometimes within a special "glasseen crystal" that can only be destroyed with liquid nitrogen.
During The Wilderness Days, Judge Death travels under the name "Jay De'Ath" and considers the scope of his quest. He concludes he has made his task harder by killing victims face to face when weapons of mass destruction would destroy greater numbers. After destroying Las Vegas and its entire population, the Judges defeat him again.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Judge Death appears in something close to a Judge's helmet, though its modified visor resembles a portcullis.
A twisted creature from another dimension, Judge Death reasoned that since all crime was committed by the living, life itself was unlawful, and he set out to destroy all existence. Once a young boy called Sidney De'Ath, the warped son of a dentist, who tortured his patients and would sometimes kill them, Sidney grew up admiring his father's work, saying it had a prolonged affect on him.
Powers and abilities
Judge Death is a spirit inhabiting a corpse. The body itself is very difficult to hurt, as damage inflicts no disabilities unless appropriately severe (severing a limb or burning him, for example) and the dead flesh cannot feel pain. If the host body is destroyed, then Death's spirit can escape and possess living humans. Death, usually with the help of another, prepares the new host body by using a mixture of chemicals to decay the flesh and let the body reach full ripeness.
Judge Death has some degree of superhuman strength, being able to lift human beings with one hand or toss them easily. He's capable of making illusions of himself and invading the minds of others.
Death always kills his victims in particularly gruesome ways. His primary method of killing is to thrust his razor sharp fingers into the body of his victim and then squeeze the heart until it bursts, aided by his ability to "phase" through physical matter like a ghost.
Notes
- Judge Death was created by John Wagner and Brian Bolland where he made his first appearance in 2000 AD prog 149.
Alternate Versions
In other media
Video games
- In Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death, Judge Death appeared in the setting of the video game.
Appearances
- 2000 AD:
External Links
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