History[]
Judge Fire is a character from the 2000 AD strip Judge Dredd who subsequently appeared in other strips such as The Fall Deadworld. He originally worked as a Judge on the parallel Earth where Sidney was born, subsequently known as Deadworld. After he burned down a school for breaching noise regulations at playtime, incinerating 1,800 pupils, Sidney renamed him 'Judge Fire' in honour of the occasion. Later, he was recruited by Sidney, now Judge Death, to be one of his Dark Judges, alongside Judge Fear and Judge Mortis. They were tasked with eliminating all life, since all crime is committed by the living, and eventually succeeded in slaughtering Deadworld's entire population.
The Dark Judges have since crossed the dimensional barrier to the universe inhabited by Judge Dredd, and have clashed with both him and Judge Anderson on several occasions. Perhaps their greatest triumph in Dredd's dimension was when they murdered sixty million citizens of Mega-City One during the incident known as Necropolis. Judge Fear was eventually apprehended by Justice Department, and the remaining three Dark Judges were last seen wreaking havoc on one of the Big Meg's colony worlds in the series Dominion.
Judge Fire seems to have had an attachment to a woman on Deadworld whom he nominated to become a 'Sister of Death'. The woman, now named Sister Despair, disliked Judge Fire so much that she first hid herself under Deadworld's ocean and then, when he didn't take the hint, erased herself from existence rather than be possessed by him, leaving only part of her skull behind. Judge Fire kept the piece of bone as a memento for a while before disintegrating it on the grounds that he was a Dark Judge, and Dark Judges feel nothing.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers
Judge Fire is a disembodied spirit who gains corporeal form by possessing the bodies of others, a process which kills the host, using chemicals called 'Dead Fluids'.
Abilities
Able to generate and control fire, even underwater.
Strength level
Probably superhuman.
Weaknesses
Suction traps (when incorporeal); combine harvesters (when corporeal).
Paraphernalia[]
Transportation
Dimension jump device.
Weapons
Flaming trident.
Notes[]
- Boing®, the miracle plastic, cannot be used to trap Judge Fire, because it just ignites.
- Judge Fire featured in a one-page humour strip written by Matt Smith and drawn by Jock in the 2000 AD 40th Anniversary Special. He was shown attending a party with some other Judge Dredd supporting characters (and using his flaming trident to light Judge Death's cigar) which was abruptly terminated when Dredd showed up.
Trivia[]
- While planning Judge Fire's appearance, Brian Bolland wrote that "I can't think of any other variations on the costume so I'm sticking with Death's costume." Judge Fire resembles a burning skeleton because Bolland was trying to make one of the Dark Judges easier to draw. (See the character sketches at the back of volume six of Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection.)
- This didn't work for Greg Staples, artist of the 2015 series Dark Justice: "I hope to never have to draw Judge Fire again in my life. Having to paint fire. Moving fire. Constantly. And things setting on fire? It'll be like my Spielberg Jaws moment. I'll just wake up in the middle of the night in a stone cold sweat." (Source: Comic Book Resources.)
Links[]
- Appearances of Judge Fire
- Character Gallery: Judge Fire
- Images that feature Judge Fire
- Fan-Art Gallery: Judge Fire
- Judge Fire quotations
Discover and Discuss[]
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