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    The Judge Child

    Character » The Judge Child appears in 63 issues.

    A powerful oracle who was incorrectly predicted to save Mega-City One in the future.

    Short summary describing this character.

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    Origin

    Owen Krysler was a mutant born in Mega-City One with the natural abilities of precognition, he was born with an odd eagle-shaped birthmark on his forehead.

    At a young age his family moved out of the city into a settlement in the Cursed Earth. Four years after moving into the Cursed Earth the settlement where the Krysler family lived was attacked by slavers, both of the Judge Child's parents were killed in front of him and he was taken as a slave.

    Creation

    The Judge Child was created by John Wagner, Ron Smith, and Brian Bolland, with his first comic book appearance being in 2000AD #156 in 1980.

    Major Story Arcs

    The Judge Child Quest

    On his deathbed Judge Feyy, a well respected Precog of Mega-City One predicted that in 2120 a "Judge Child" would be destined to save the city from certain disaster. The child would be recognized by an Eagle shaped birthmark on his forehead.

    Taking the prediction very seriously, Chief Judge Griffin ordered Dredd to find this "Judge Child", but by the time Dredd had tracked his location to a small settlement in the Cursed Earth, Owen Krysler had already been kidnapped by mutant slavers.

    On the slave market the child was bought by the Filmore Fargo's Brotherhood of Trash (a cult which digs up discarded rubbish from the past - old cans/bottles etc, which are now worth a lot of money). He was supposed to die so that he could help the Brotherhoods leader, Fargo (a man who thought that he was a reincarnated Egyptian Pharaoh), into the afterlife.

    Judge Dredd managed to sneak into the Brotherhood camp as a slave, and almost saved Owen. But he had already been abducted by a member of the Brotherhood.

    This member used the Judge Child for his owns ends, and sold his abilities as a fortune teller - predicting when people would die. Dredd tracked them down, but again was just a little too late, with the child being abducted by the Angel Gang shortly earlier and taken off planet.

    The Angel Gang wreaked carnage on the planet Xanadu, and the Judge Child told them that they would all die. When Dredd finally caught up with them, Pa and Junior Angel managed to escape with the Judge Child, heading to a place called Grunwald's Kingdom, a refuge for robots.

    After a lengthy chase, Dredd caught up with the last surviving Angel gang members. Krysler watched while Dredd seemingly executed Junior, but saved Pa from Dredd so that he could kill him himself, breaking the ledge Pa was hanging from and sending him plummeting to his apparent death.

    After finally reaching the end of his quest and looking into the Judge Child's eyes, Dredd could see only evil looking back at him. Based on intuition alone Dredd decided that the Premonition must have been flawed, and that a child such as Owen Krysler could only bring destruction to Mega-City One, not avert it.

    In the end he decided to leave The Judge Child behind and return to Mega-City One alone. Whatever fate would befall the city in 2120, they would face it without him.

    Destiny's Angels

    After being left on Xanadu for some time the Judge Child, still angry for what Dredd has done to him decides to put into action a plan for revenge that he is certain cannot fail.

    The first thing he decides to do is to free Fink Angel from his incarceration in Mega-City One, and then to raise Mean Machine Angel from his grave on Xanadu, using a potion of his own creation.

    The Judge Child sends the two of them to kill Dredd, and after a short time they meet and decide to team up, first looking for Dredd at his apartment. Dredd being absent at the time, the two Angels decide to kidnap Maria, thinking her to be Dredd's wife, and smash up Walter when he tries to stop them.

    Using Maria as bait to lead Dredd into a trap, the two Angels manage to catch Dredd, but after tricking Mean Machine to set him free Dredd succeeds in killing Fink, and subduing Mean Machine.

    Knowing the Judge Child to be responsible, Dredd orders an attack on his location on Xanadu and the Judge Child is killed by a hail of missiles, the Grunwalder surmising that it wasn't the Judge Child's precognition that showed him his plan's success, but his own overwhelming hope to see Dredd die.

    City of the Damned

    After the Tek-Division create a time machine, Chief Judge McGruder, still wary of Feyy's catastrophic prediction decides to send Judge Dredd, and Judge Anderson into the future to have a look around and make sure that everything seems alright.

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    When arriving in the future it becomes clear to Dredd and Anderson that everything is not alright. Mega-City One is in ruins, the usually bustling streets are largely deserted, dead bodies can be seen on the ground, and groups of vampires rove the streets feeding on whoever they can find.

    The vampire's Dredd comes across were all previously judges, and when visiting a sector house Dredd runs into a gang of Vampire Judges being led by a Vampiric Judge Hershey. Dredd and Anderson fight their way out of the Sector house and decide to search for answers.

    By watching some historical tapes Dredd discovers that a malevolent being known only as "The Mutant" is responsible for Mega-City One's current state. The Creature is powerful, able to manipulate and change reality as it sees fit, the Judges are powerless to interfere, and the Mutant changes them all into frenzied, bloodsucking Vampires as he thinks it to be ironic.

    The two Judges make their way to find the mutant, along the way they come across a group of monsters, and whilst escaping Dredd has both of his eyes gouged out, the two are then separated by a flood.

    Dredd is spoken to by The Mutant using astral projection, and though blind he still decides to make his way towards the monster in the hopes of trying to kill it. When he reaches The Mutant it explains to him that it is, in fact the Judge Child.

    After he was killed, the Grunwalder used some biological matter to recreate the Judge Child, but something went wrong, creating a monstrous freak with enhanced Psi powers. Somehow the creature retained the memories and thoughts of the Judge Child, so after growing it decided to resume its vendetta.

    After explaining all of this the Judge Child reveals a zombie version of Dredd from his own timeline, and sends it after Dredd, giving him a head start. Dredd and Anderson run into each other whilst running from the Zombie, the two are heading away from the Time Machine, but it turns out that Dredd remembers the location of a teleporter. They use the teleporter to directly teleport into the Time Machine and The Judge Child doesn't have enough time to react before they use the Time Machine to escape.

    Back in the present Dredd is fitted with some new, bionic eyes, and he and Anderson travel back to Xanadu and kill the Mutant before it has time to grow in power and threat.

    Powers

    The Judge Child is an oracle and can not only predict the future, but also manipulate the turns of events however he sees fit. The Judge Child has also been shown to have other Psychic abilities, such as astral projection, and mind control that only works on the weak-willed. On top of his natural abilities the Judge Child is knowledgeable on other aspects of the occult, able to raise the dead back to life.

    The Mutant is a very powerful reality changing entity, if he thinks something he can make it happen.

    Quotes

    "I saw a possible future and steered them into it. So what? they deserved to die"

    "Curse You, Joe Dredd!"

    "I am the Mutant, I am the Doom that was foretold"

    Other Media

    In the 2012 movie, Dredd, there is a reference to the character in the form of a film poster for the fictional movie "Krysler's Mark", featuring a child as the central character.

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