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90-506: Wagner explained: There were many unresolved questions about the origins of the Judge system and some apparent contradictions that required sorting out... It's a task I'd always shied away from because of the difficulty of making sense of it all while still telling a story that was worth reading – but I knew that sometime it had to be done, if for no other reason than my own satisfaction. 2000 AD editor Matt Smith has expanded on this to touch on

180-475: A "somatic death" occurs while muscles die over one to two hours following this last condition. It has been possible to obtain a successful resuscitation and recover life in some instances, including after anaesthesia, heat stroke, electrocution, narcotic poisoning, heart attack or cardiac arrest, shock, newborn infants, cerebral concussion, or cholera. Supposedly, in suspended animation, a person technically would not die, as long as he or she were able to preserve

270-640: A Black Ops Division of Judges. Under Judge Bachmann, their agents were brainwashed to worship the city as a god. Following "Day of Chaos", the regular military (particularly the Space Corps) have been helping to keep order in Mega-City One. Tensions exists between them and the Judges. By 2136, following Chaos Day and a dual war with the Xhind/colonial insurgency, Mega-City One no longer had the military power to stop

360-558: A Defence-Div, 1990s spin-off Maelstrom had heavily armed STAR (Strategic Target Attack Retaliation) Judges to carry out targeted strikes, and the Insurrection serials give the Special Judicial Service its own space fleet and armed force to stamp out rebellions. In contrast, stories by John Wagner have presented the military as a separate group, with some members believing the Judges are too lenient. Uniforms differ depending on

450-521: A Judge a twenty-year sentence of hard labour on Saturn 's moon, Titan , after surgical modification to enable the convict to survive Titan's atmosphere . They were also expected to live in celibacy, to avoid personal attachments that might bias them or make them vulnerable to manipulation and blackmail. The Justice Department has its own domestic intelligence division (the Public Surveillance Unit), and their own medical facilities. There are

540-399: A billion credits in exchange for Fargo's body. As required by the terms of the exchange, Dredd leads a small, lightly armed party on a mission across the hostile Cursed Earth to retrieve their esteemed "Father of Justice." Since Fargo was believed to have died in the year 2051, and the mission takes place in 2129, much of the story consists of Dredd explaining to the members of his team how it

630-470: A cameo role by a character referred to as "City Father Washington," whose status and role in the city's history has not been elaborated on. Judges are the product of many (normally 15) years' of training and psychological conditioning. Training takes place in the Academy of Law and generally begins at age five. The Judges recruit promising children, and also grow their own clones. Their standard issue firearm

720-409: A human shield, Booth was killed by his own side during the ensuing battle. Back in Mega-City One, Fargo was revived again, but this time he did not survive. His final words were spoken to Dredd alone: "We created a monster ... we're the monster!" He told Dredd that the Judges had gone too far and had destroyed America, and urged Dredd to do everything he could to undo it. Dredd's reaction to this plea

810-423: A lot of the city's diplomats, but they always report to a Judge before making any decisions. Not all valued skills are the same as the real world ones, examples of this are human taxidermy and professional gluttony. Most of the highly intelligent citizens end up in crime such as PJ Maybe, and Nero Narcos, as they are very limited in the wealth or power they can attain (the amount of real power a citizen can gain though

900-422: A minor mistake (anything where the citizen is alive and not in an intensive care ward) such as wrongful arrest or search, they do have to pay the citizen a compensation fee if there are no crimes to be charged with. On that basis, if they can't find any evidence for the main charge, then they will look for any minor crime or misdemeanors to charge to citizen with to get themselves off the hook. Firearm possession

990-435: A number of reasons, such as saving the lives of seriously ill or injured people by temporarily putting them in a state of hibernation until treatment can be given. The primary focus of research for human hibernation is to reach a state of torpor , defined as a gradual physiological inhibition to reduce oxygen demand and obtain energy conservation by hypometabolic behaviors altering biochemical processes. In previous studies, it

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1080-432: A number of specialist divisions within the Judges, notably Psi Division, which consists of psychic judges used to predict the future and read minds, and Tek Division, made of forensic scientists and engineers. The SJS (Special Judicial Squad) monitors and polices the Judges internally. Block Judges (Judges assigned to a particular city block) also hear civil cases in each City Block , where they try civil claims. When

1170-674: A number of weird and wonderful futuristic hobbies and attractions, including: The high population density of Mega-City One requires a complex system of transport. This often serves as accommodation as well as a means of getting around the city. Suspended animation Suspended animation is the temporary (short- or long-term) slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. States of suspended animation are common in micro-organisms and some plant tissue, such as seeds. Many animals, including large ones, may undergo hibernation , and most plants have periods of dormancy . This article focuses primarily on

1260-481: A perpetually nomadic existence in vehicular mo-pads ( mobile homes ) due to inadequate housing provisions. These citizens travel the city via the many public transport routes available, rarely stopping. Some mo-pads are quite luxurious, complete with swimming pools. Most of the city's energy supply is covered by geothermal energy in the form of a controlled volcano called the Power Tower. For administrative purposes

1350-483: A political choice to deal with the high crime rate. Most ordinary citizens are sent to the Iso-Cubes, tiny cells located within huge prisons. For example, one strip saw a citizen sentenced to a month in the iso-cubes for littering, while in another story a citizen was given 6 months for jaywalking. Judges impose immediate sentences on the spot, usually lengthy sentences of imprisonment (or "encubement"). In extreme cases, even

1440-584: A rebellion on Titan. Many crimes in Mega-City One are controlled by flamboyant mob bosses : Most work in Mega-City One is carried out by robots ; this has led to problems with boredom and unemployment. Boredom has fostered many problems in the city, with citizens spending their leisure time rioting over jobs, experimenting on their neighbors, and running amok in the streets. Weird fads include Block Wars (wars between neighboring apartment blocks, waged by each block's defense militia ), "ugliness clinics", and odd fashions. Leisure in Mega-City One consists of

1530-542: A referendum was held in which the people were allowed to decide whether to restore democratic government, but by this time the memory of democracy had become so distant that the majority of citizens did not bother to vote, and most of those who did opted to retain the status quo . In the early years of Judge Dredd , Mega-City One had not been established as a dictatorship – "The Purple People Breeder" ( 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1978 ) mentioned "presidential candidate Howard Surb", while "Ryan's Revenge" ( Dan Dare Annual 1979 ) had

1620-600: A reserve force composed of citizens. Each city block contains a Citi-Def force in case of crises, though usually they turn up in Dredd as rogue factions waging block wars. In very rare, desperate and often last stand scenarios the Justice Departments auxiliaries are issued weapons and fight alongside Judges, such as in the latter stages of both the Apocalypse War and Judgement Day. Mega-City One also runs spy networks and

1710-493: A rising tide of violent crime and to speed up the process of justice. While there was heavy protest in Congress over the idea of abandoning due process , the electorate was in favour and President Gurney (who supported Fargo's plan) was re-elected with a massive majority. The original uniforms heavily resembled those of normal American police officers, albeit with helmets and heavy body armour, and rode Lawranger motorcycles. Following

1800-601: A small town in themselves. Each one will typically possess a hospital, gymnasium, school, and shopping district. A citizen can quite literally live their whole lives without leaving their block. Due to the high unemployment rate, boredom is rife among citizens – this, coupled with the high loyalty citizens develop to their blocks, along with a city-defence militia for most city blocks, leads to many "Block Wars", riots (more like small wars) between two or more blocks. Blocks are named after famous or historical figures, often with current events in mind. A typical example – shortly after

1890-593: A street judge retires from service at the end of his career, he may choose to take the "Long Walk", leaving Mega-City One for exile outside its borders. He may do this either in the Cursed Earth, a radioactive desert outside the city walls, or in the Undercity , the ruins of New York that lie beneath the mega-city. The Long Walk begins with a brief ceremony at the city gates, wherein the retiring judge walks through an honour guard of judges as they discharge their firearms into

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1980-525: Is a fictional city that features in the Judge Dredd comic book series and related media. A post-nuclear megalopolis covering much of what is now the Eastern United States and some of Canada, the city's exact geography depends on the writer and artist working the story. From its first appearance it has been associated with New York City's urban sprawl ; originally presented as a future New York, it

2070-529: Is a way to slow the bodily processes that would lead to death in cases of severe injury. This involves lowering the body's temperature below 34 °C (93 °F), which is the current standard for therapeutic hypothermia . In June 2005, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh 's Safar Center for Resuscitation Research announced they had managed to place dogs in suspended animation and bring them back to life, most of them without brain damage , by draining

2160-494: Is illegal when done for voyeuristic purposes, but legal when done under the authority of a Judge. If any of these ever get out of hand and there is no legal justification for banning, Judges simply impose a heavy tax on them, restricting them to only the few very wealthy citizens. Most are poorly educated and many can barely read or write, some sectors are said to be entirely illiterate, but Judges aren't that concerned, as it makes it easier for them to control and they can weed out

2250-519: Is of the essence due to the city being in severe danger (or the Justice Department's authority is). They used that reason to torture Total War cell leaders, leading to the deaths of several of them. The Judges covered this up, "arresting" them by faking heart attacks, strokes or whatever was realistic or convenient at that time and then told their next of kin they had died, with this they could do whatever they wanted to them. They also used torture on

2340-415: Is only legal with the proper firearms permit , which is very hard to obtain. The only real exception is for Citidef units, which may use heavy weapons. (Since Block Mania the security on these is extreme and they are only issued during wartime.) In spite of this, many firearms are in circulation; some are sold on the black market while others are left over from the various invasions that have occurred over

2430-524: Is reliable again. In 2019 a story set in 2141 stated that the population had been revised upwards to 130 million, due to a number of reasons, including the overestimation of the number of deaths in Chaos Day, a declining death rate since then, and births and immigration. It also confirmed that many citizens fled either before or during the Chaos plague and have been slowly returning in the seven years since, and that

2520-860: Is required. Suspended animation is understood as the pausing of life processes by external or internal means without terminating life itself. Breathing, heartbeat and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. For this reason, this procedure has been associated with a lethargic state in nature when animals or plants appear, over a period, to be dead but then can wake up or prevail without suffering any harm. This has been termed in different contexts hibernation , dormancy or anabiosis (the latter in some aquatic invertebrates and plants in scarcity conditions). In July 2020, marine biologists reported that aerobic microorganisms (mainly), in "quasi-suspended animation", were found in organically-poor sediments , up to 101.5 million years old, 68.9 metres (226 feet) below

2610-458: Is that Fargo might still be alive – a secret history which was concealed from the public for decades. The middle chapters of "Origins" cover Fargo's life history, and how he founded his Judge System in 2031. After serving twenty years as chief judge, however, Fargo succumbed to a moment of weakness and had an illicit affair with a female colleague, something strictly forbidden by the Judges' code of celibacy. Unable to cope with his own lapse in

2700-480: Is the Lawgiver handgun, which can fire six different kinds of ammunition. It has a handprint-reading sensor which only allows its owner to use it, and a self-destruct device to kill or maim unauthorised users. Judges ride Lawmaster bikes, which are heavily armed and have artificial intelligence. The Judges themselves are not above the law – a violation that would earn a citizen a few months in an Iso[lation]-Cube may earn

2790-416: Is very limited) legally. Mega-City One's laws are harsh, with many crimes not found in present-day law. Possession of sugar, for example, is illegal, as is the smoking of tobacco outside of licensed Smokatoriums, and coffee is banned as an illegal stimulant. The laws are enforced by the Judges, who are a combination of a judge and police officer. Ordinary laws are enforced more harshly than the present day, as

Origins (Judge Dredd story) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2880-604: The Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise separation there was an episode with block war breaking out between the "Kidman" and "Cruise" Blocks. A proposed crackdown on civil rights in Britain led to a block being named David Blunkett Block in one story. Since the abolition of democratic government in America in 2070, Mega-City One has been a dictatorship run by the Justice Department. It subsequently became an independent city-state following

2970-463: The Third World War of 2070 and discovering that President Booth had stolen the election, the Judges seized power. The citizens are shown to be a mixed bag. 98% are unemployed (due to advances in robotics) and range from lazy and sloth-like to highly rebellious violent criminals, bent on destroying and killing as much as they can for whatever reason they can think of at that time, if any. Most of

3060-400: The blood out of the dogs' bodies and injecting a low temperature solution into their circulatory systems , which in turn keeps the bodies alive in stasis. After three hours of being clinically dead , the dogs' blood was returned to their circulatory systems, and the animals were revived by delivering an electric shock to their hearts. The heart started pumping the blood around the body, and

3150-998: The sea floor in the South Pacific Gyre (SPG) ("the deadest spot in the ocean"), and could be the longest-living life forms ever found. This condition of apparent death or interruption of vital signs in humans may be similar to a medical interpretation of suspended animation. It is only possible to recover signs of life if the brain and other vital organs suffer no cell deterioration, necrosis or molecular death principally caused by oxygen deprivation or excess temperature (especially high temperature). Some examples of people that have returned from this apparent interruption of life lasting over half an hour, two hours, eight hours or more while adhering to these specific conditions for oxygen and temperature have been reported and analysed in depth, but these cases are considered rare and unusual phenomena. The brain begins to die after five minutes without oxygen; nervous tissues die intermediately when

3240-442: The 1970s, induced hypothermia has been performed for some open-heart surgeries as an alternative to heart-lung machines . Hypothermia, however, provides only a limited amount of time in which to operate and there is a risk of tissue and brain damage for prolonged periods. There are many research projects currently investigating how to achieve "induced hibernation " in humans. This ability to hibernate humans would be useful for

3330-431: The Chaos bug disproportionately killed the elderly ensuring a higher number of fertile age survivors to repopulate the city. By this point then Chief Judge Hershey believed the city could once again safely absorb such a vast increase in numbers, as many undamaged blocks remained available to be re-inhabited. Mega-City One has protectorates and colonies outside of the city walls: Blocks are huge and can be considered to be

3420-419: The Judges and become president again. By 2129 he had discovered Fargo's stolen cryogenic unit, which had been lost in the Cursed Earth when Judd's agents' hovership crashed. When Dredd attempted to exchange the ransom for Fargo, Booth double-crossed him and put him on trial for treason, intending to execute him. However Dredd had anticipated this and planned a timely rescue by his comrades. Taken hostage for use as

3510-515: The Judges existed alongside a regular police force, were popular with the citizens, and the people enjoyed robots doing the work, with the "Grand Judge" saying they would not consent to work more than ten hours a week. Over time, the strip would have the Judges as a feared police-state force with sole power; prog 118 (written when unemployment was going up in Britain) established that citizens resented being unemployed and took up bizarre crazes to deal with

3600-603: The Judges show a lack of empathy towards them. For example, in his Christmas message, Chief Judge Francisco asked citizens if a large number that were on welfare could commit suicide in order to help balance the budget for the following year. Some Judges openly view citizens as a nuisance to be removed, or like Judge Manners, as a sub-human race to be used and abused as the Judges see fit. The citizens occupy their time with many strange and outright bizarre hobbies, such as simping (recreational stupidity), bat gliding, sky surfing and peeping (spying on people at home and in public), which

3690-650: The Judges until they were a match for the United States Army , as a precaution against President Booth. When Booth was overthrown after the Atomic Wars, the remains of the US Army were routed and finally destroyed in 2071's Battle of Armageddon. (In the immediate aftermath of the war, military discipline broke down and the Judges had to kill or arrest soldiers that were preying on the citizens.) Mega-City One's military forces are inconsistently portrayed. During crises inside

Origins (Judge Dredd story) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3780-517: The Judges. This deception had been conceived while Fargo's doctors had predicted that he would not survive long. However Fargo defied their expectations and began to slowly recover. He was therefore kept in a secret medical facility, isolated from the world so that the cover-up would not be discovered. When his condition began to deteriorate again, Chief Judge Solomon had him cryogenically frozen in suspended animation until such time as medical science could cure him. By 2070 President Robert Linus Booth

3870-667: The Mayor giving orders to Justice Department. The Luna-One story arc briefly mentioned the governing body "the Grand Council of Judges" and "the Triumvirate", part of a unified state called the United Cities of North America, but this was dropped by prog 61. (This is not a complete list of mayors, but only of those who appeared in the comic.) The identity of the current mayor is not known (as of May 2024). A story in 2000 AD #32 featured

3960-555: The Third World War laid waste to most of the world. Booth had believed that his new "nuclear screens" would protect America from retaliation, but only Mega-City One on the east coast, Mega-City Two on the west coast, and Texas City survived. The rest of America was virtually annihilated, creating the Cursed Earth which became populated by mutants and outlaws. Consequently, another of Booth's aides turned against him and provided Goodman with evidence of Booth's earlier crimes. Goodman made

4050-469: The air, while another judge formally bids him farewell. Judges who take the Long Walk are expected never to return, but to die "bringing law to the lawless." Alternatively, retiring judges may instead be placed in administrative or teaching posts instead of taking the Long Walk. The Judge System was created by Eustace Fargo , then special government prosecutor for street crime, between 2027 and 2031, to combat

4140-401: The background of one panel looked so futuristic that editor Pat Mills instructed him to draw a full-page poster of the city. Ezquerra's vision of the city – with massive tower blocks and endless roads suspended vast distances above the ground with no visible means of support – was so futuristic that it prompted a rethink, and a whole new city was proposed. Art director Doug Church suggested that

4230-484: The boredom, and this remained part of the strip from then on. Mega-City One evolved out of a growing conurbation stretching from Boston to Washington DC , which took form in the 21st century to cope with the escalating population crisis in the United States and – as a solution chosen to deal with the high crime rate – led to the introduction of the Judge system. Mega-City One was one of three major areas to survive

4320-520: The break-up of the United States and had already been granted autonomy within the Union in 2052. Its ruler is the Chief Judge, in current stories (as of September 2023) Judge Logan . He is accountable to a council of five senior judges. The citizens are permitted to have an elected city council and mayor, but with no significant power: the idea is that a facade of democracy will placate most people. In 2113

4410-564: The citizens docile and easier to control. Some show huge promise, intelligence, and have extremely useful skills, many top scientists and engineers are not Judges. Most of the city's biggest advancements in areas such as food, new materials, technology (unrelated to weaponry), medicine and architecture and construction design (including the Halls of Justice) came from ordinary citizens. All the major businesses and entertainment (apart from Justice Department propaganda channels) figures are citizens as are

4500-455: The city at this point. The population and city sprawl were halved by nuclear attack and Soviet invasion in 2104 (in the 1982 story " The Apocalypse War "), with the loss of the entire south in a saturation nuclear strike. The north-west and upper north were also lost, leaving the city stretching from roughly New Hampshire through North Carolina and losing the Canadian territory. A small part of

4590-606: The city is divided into 305 sectors, most of them renamed to fit the new size of the city after the Apocalypse War, and clumped into Central, North, South, East, and West. Sectors 1 (the centre) to 300 constitute the main city. The North-West Hab Zone encompasses sectors 301-5. The Hab Zone was mostly ignored by the city and Sector 301 became disparagingly nicknamed "The Pit" due to its high crime rate, until Chief Judge Volt had it cleaned up in 2118. Other slum areas have been called "Angeltown" (Sector 13's slums) and "the Low Life". Following

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4680-462: The city should extend along the entire Eastern Seaboard, and be called Mega-City One, and his idea was adopted. While the first Judge Dredd story is set in "New York 2099AD", prog 3 retconned that and said New York was just part of Mega-City One. The back of prog 3 included an Ezquerra "Futuregraph" poster of Mega-City One (a page from an unused Dredd story), which said the city stretched from Montreal to Georgia and had 150 million citizens; it

4770-412: The city, regular Judges or Citi-Def are almost always shown doing the fighting instead and the military is usually mentioned in outer space – "Day of Chaos" eventually explained that they're unlicensed to act against the civilian population. From "The Cursed Earth" onwards, the city's armed forces have usually been presented as a branch of the Judges ("Judge-Troopers"): stories by Gordon Rennie introduced

4860-587: The city. Working for an unseen character called Linus, their task is to deliver a small box to the Grand Hall of Justice in the centre of the city. They are all killed by Judge Dredd while accomplishing this task, but Dredd fails to retrieve the box. The contents of the box are not revealed until the first episode of "Origins." Meanwhile, Dredd, between his efforts to catch the mutants, has recurring dreams about his clone father, Chief Judge Fargo , and his brother, Rico Dredd (both long deceased). The dreams hint about

4950-606: The colonies. (When originally introduced in The Corps spinoff, they were Judges from the Academy of Law but in later stories these are recruited citizens.) Another force are the Genetic Infantry: genetically engineered men, bred in a lab to be dedicated soldiers. (The story Warzone had an ex-Genetic Infantry soldier who was a primitive version of the Genetic Infantry from Rogue Trooper . ) The Citi-Defs (Citizen Defence) are

5040-399: The comic's celebratory thirtieth anniversary issue, but publication was interrupted because artist Carlos Ezquerra moved house during his work on the story. The editor decided to permit him time to finish the strip himself rather than replace him with another artist. The prologue story introduces a team of mutants from the radioactive Cursed Earth desert outside Mega-City One, who infiltrate

5130-453: The contents: John has always been waiting for the right story to come along to tell Dredd's origins... And in this case he's come up with a riveting plot that will keep readers intrigued and excited, as well as filling in some of the backstory that we've never seen before – President Robert Booth 's initiation of the Atomic Wars , Chief Judge Fargo taking control of Mega-City, etc. The fact

5220-449: The death penalty may be imposed, although relatively sparingly compared with the present day, and reserved for mass murder or the endangerment of the security of the city, but sometimes it is used simply to make an example or to intimidate the citizens. Nevertheless, many criminals are shot to death while resisting arrest, and resistors who survive Judge assault often receive a whole-life cube term. The Judges themselves are not exempt from

5310-554: The dogs were brought back to life. On 20 January 2006, doctors from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced they had placed pigs in suspended animation with a similar technique. The pigs were anaesthetized and major blood loss was induced, along with simulated - via scalpel - severe injuries (e.g. a punctured aorta as might happen in a car accident or shooting). After the pigs lost about half their blood

5400-511: The early human population whose remains have been retrieved at the Archaeological site of Atapuerca . In a paper published in the journal L'Anthropologie , researchers Juan-Luis Arsuaga and Antonis Bartsiokas point out that "primitive mammals and primates" like bush babies and lorises hibernate, which suggests that "the genetic basis and physiology for such a hypometabolism could be preserved in many mammalian species, including humans". Since

5490-550: The epic story to follow. The box is delivered to Chief Judge Hershey , who informs Dredd that it contains a ransom note and a sample of living tissue which matches the DNA of Judge Fargo, the first chief judge and the revered founder of the Judge System . (Forensic tests establish that toxins in the tissue show that the source lived through the last century, and so the sample must be Fargo's rather than Dredd's.) The note requires payment of

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5580-424: The events of the 2011–12-story Day of Chaos (set in 2134), Mega-City One was left in ruins and almost 90% of its population was killed. After decades of being the main megacity and superpower on Earth, the city is now bankrupt and in severe decline with many judges considering the situation unsustainable. However over the following few years the city began to grow again due to immigration, taking in of refugees and

5670-509: The evidence public, and public opinion turned against Booth. A demonstration outside the White House became a massacre when troops opened fire on the crowd. But the evidence of election fraud was not conclusive, and impeachment proceedings against Booth were too slow for Goodman to protect his position, for Booth had discovered that Fargo was alive and had been revived from suspended animation. Booth sent troops to arrest Fargo, intending to expose

5760-497: The exacting moral standards he had inflexibly demanded of his subordinates, Fargo tendered his resignation to the President of the United States. Spurning the entreaties of his two deputies, Judge Solomon and Judge Goodman , and of President Pierce, to reconsider his decision and resume his office, Fargo instead chose to commit suicide. However his attempt to take his own life failed, leaving him with significant brain-damage and without

5850-425: The first episode Dredd admitted to Hershey that he had lied about Fargo's last words. Hershey in turn admitted that Fargo had said the same thing to her, and that she had told the same lie to Dredd. However whereas Dredd took Fargo's warning seriously, Hershey dismissed it as the ravings of a brain-damaged invalid, adding that she hoped Dredd would not consider resigning over their differences. This story also featured

5940-432: The government of the United States. For his crimes Booth was sentenced to 100 years in suspended animation, to let posterity decide his ultimate fate. Goodman became dictator of the United States (which soon split into three sovereign city-states), with Fargo – his existence still a secret – advising him from behind the scenes. However Fargo soon deteriorated again. He also became demoralised, having intended that

6030-435: The gradual return of millions of citizens who sat out the plague overseas and off world. By October 2137 the population stood at seventy two million and was growing rapidly reaching 100 million around 2139. However the destruction of the Academy of Law during Chaos Day has disrupted the supply of cadets, and it is all the remaining judges can do to cope with the expanding population as it will be years before replacement of losses

6120-463: The law; in fact they are expected to obey it more strictly than any other. A violation that would earn a citizen a few months in an Iso-Cube would get a Judge a twenty-year sentence, served as hard labor on Saturn 's moon, Titan , after surgical modification to enable the convict to survive outside without needing an expensive space suit . (Titan is a moon of Saturn in reality, but was located over Jupiter in an early Dredd strip.) When Judges do make

6210-399: The leading democrats before the democratic march, such as keeping an elderly democrat awake all night and then releasing him without charge, knowing he would have to march all day the following day and making severe threats to another involving his young children. The original United States Armed Forces no longer exists: the explanation in "Origins" was that Chief Judge Goodman had built up

6300-449: The minimum conditions in an environment extremely close to death and return to a normal living state. An example of such a case is Anna Bågenholm , a Swedish radiologist who allegedly survived 80 minutes under ice in a frozen lake in a state of cardiac arrest with no brain damage in 1999. Other cases of hypothermia where people survived without damage are: It has been suggested that bone lesions provide evidence of hibernation among

6390-424: The more intelligent simply when major crimes occur. Those that can read though are not much better, for example, when a book that detailed how to commit suicide was released, thousands of previously non-suicidal citizens (including the book's author) killed themselves since they had read how to do it in the book. At one point in some of the more dangerous blocks, Judges put sedatives into the air systems to help keep

6480-414: The myth of his death and thereby destroy the Judges' reputation for integrity. Joe and Rico Dredd, cadets at the time, managed to rescue Fargo from capture. However Goodman realised that urgent action was needed to defeat Booth, and the constitutional mechanism for trying him and removing him from office could not be completed in time. On Fargo's advice, Goodman deposed Booth, suspended Congress, and usurped

6570-503: The north west survived: the North West Hab Zone, separated from the rest of the city by a stretch of radioactive wasteland called Nuke Alley and linked to the main city by a bridge. The population remained at around 400 million from 2104 until 2134. Mega-City One has a far greater population density than any city in the present-day world. Most city dwellers (citizens) live in huge apartment blocks (50,000+), though many citizens live

6660-439: The nuclear war in 2070, due to an experimental laser missile-defense system built not long before. The other two being Mega-City Two (encompassing California, Washington and Oregon) and Texas City. Apart from those megacities, the United States has been reduced to the Cursed Earth. Eventually, Mega-City One extended to Miami, Florida, which became a holiday resort, and spread west into Ohio and/or West Virginia . The megacity

6750-423: The overthrow of democratic government should be temporary, and regretting his own part in establishing a lasting dictatorship. Shortly after surviving an assassination attempt by renegade judge Morton Judd , Fargo was returned to suspended animation once more. However, only one month later Fargo's body was stolen by Judd's agents. When Judd was eventually brought to justice and Fargo's body was still not recovered, it

6840-425: The past thirty years. Some families still possess twentieth-century handguns that have been handed down through the years. These are sometimes found by crime blitzes and will usually earn culprits the same penalty as a lasblaster from their time period. Torture is normally illegal, but in extreme circumstances and with orders from the Chief Judge they employ it (both physical and psychological), for example when time

6930-537: The potential of large animals, especially humans, to undergo suspended animation. In animals, suspended animation may be either hypometabolic or ametabolic in nature. It may be induced by either endogenous, natural or artificial biological, chemical or physical means. In its natural form, it may be spontaneously reversible as in the case of species demonstrating hypometabolic states of hibernation . When applied with therapeutic intent, as in deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA), usually technologically mediated revival

7020-504: The remaining blood was replaced with a chilled saline solution. As the body temperature reached 10 °C (50 °F) the damaged blood vessels were repaired and the blood was returned. The method was tested 200 times with a 90% success rate. The laboratory of Mark Roth at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and institutes such as Suspended Animation, Inc are trying to implement suspended animation as

7110-479: The return of some of the mutant Fargo Clan (who were first seen, briefly, in "Origins") – mutant descendants of Fargo, and therefore Dredd's relatives. In this story, Dredd put forward a motion to repeal the anti-mutant laws, beginning a new story arc about mutants. "Origins" introduced some new characters, Dredd's cousin Randy Fargo and his family, a clan of mutants living in the Cursed Earth, who returned to

7200-412: The story comes just as 2000AD is approaching its 30th year anniversary gives it a nice sense of history too. "Origins" was preceded by a five-episode story called "The Connection", written by John Wagner and drawn by Kev Walker . It appeared in progs (issues) 1500-1504 and was immediately followed by "Origins" in progs 1505-1519 and 1529–1535. It had been intended that the final episode would appear in

7290-568: The story. The STAR Judges were given an origin as founded in 2108 by Commander Brand, with Brand and his original squad secretly left to die after committing an act of genocide in 2111 (this was covered up as a legitimate act of war and the STARs turned into martyrs, allowing Mega-City One to still claim the devastated planet). The main military force mentioned is the Space Corps , composed of marines and fleets, who fight against alien races that threaten

7380-515: The strip in the sequel " Mutants in Mega-City One ." In addition to the judges who appeared in the flashback episodes described above, the following characters appeared in the story in the "present day" of 2129, as members of Dredd's team: Both stories were released as a trade paperback in 2007 , with a cover by Brian Bolland ( ISBN   1-905437-23-4 ), and in a volume in the series " Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection " by Hachette Partworks in 2015. Judge (2000 AD) Mega-City One

7470-436: The use of his legs. Fearing that their political enemies would use the scandalous circumstances of Fargo's resignation and injuries to destroy Fargo's legacy, Solomon and Goodman covered them up. Using sophisticated video technology, they faked footage of Fargo bravely sacrificing his life in the line of duty, gunned down in a brutal drive-by shooting. This enabled them to present Fargo as a martyr, increasing public support for

7560-452: Was retconned as the centre of a "Mega-City One" in the third issue. The Architects' Journal placed it at No. 1 in their list of "comic book cities". When the series Judge Dredd was being developed in 1976–77 it was originally planned that the story would be set in New York, in the near future. However, when artist Carlos Ezquerra drew his first story for the series, a skyscraper in

7650-643: Was built over the top of the old cities and the polluted Ohio River, creating the lawless Undercity , though a few buildings like the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty were moved to Mega-City One for the tourists. Maps of the city show that in the early 22nd century, it stretched roughly from southern Maine down through Florida and to the north-east has absorbed the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor in Canada. 800 million citizens lived in

7740-607: Was demonstrated that physiological and biochemical events could inhibit endogenous thermoregulation before the onset of hypothermia in a challenging process known as "estivation". This is indispensable to survive harsh environmental conditions, as seen in some amphibians and reptiles. Lowering the temperature of a substance reduces its chemical activity by the Arrhenius equation . This includes life processes such as metabolism. Cryonics could eventually provide long-term suspended animation. Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR)

7830-430: Was in the White House, having illegally rigged the voting computers to win the 2068 presidential election, and murdered one of his aides who threatened to expose the fraud. Booth pursued an aggressive foreign policy, openly stating that he would begin a nuclear war if the rest of the world did not comply with his demands. The Judges – now led by Chief Judge Goodman – attempted to dissuade him, but to no avail, and

7920-438: Was not shown, but when Chief Judge Hershey asked him what Fargo's last words had been, Dredd lied and pretended that Fargo had said something else less controversial. Fans speculated at the time that this indicated that this theme may be followed up in later stories. This speculation was soon proved correct. "Origins" was soon followed up in a series of stories, starting with " Mutants in Mega-City One ", written by John Wagner. In

8010-558: Was part of the "United States of the West" (USW). Prog 4 then established that Mega-City One was surrounded by wildernesses from the Atomic Wars. The 150 million population was later revised to 100 million in earlier strips and abruptly bumped to 800 million later on. The United States of the West concept was dropped entirely; a "United Cities of North America" of three megacities was mentioned in prog 42 and then itself dropped in favour of Mega-City One being an independent entity. In early strips,

8100-428: Was thought lost forever. Thirty years later Booth's cryogenic machinery failed, and he was inadvertently revived. Judge Dredd resentenced him to life working on a farm in the Cursed Earth, to make amends for the destruction he unleashed on America. (This was first portrayed in the 1978 story "The Cursed Earth" .) Instead however Booth raised an army of mutants, the "New Mutant Army," who he intended to use to overthrow

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