History[]
Spikes Harvey Rotten is a character from the 2000 AD strip Judge Dredd. After several years of gun-running for Cursed Earth gangs, he eventually came to Dredd's attention when he and his biker gang the Muties took part in the Mega-City 5000 race across Mega-City One. Spikes and the Muties were competing against the Spacers and their leader Zoot Smiley. The two gangs then found themselves trapped after they had been circled off in an operation led by Judge Dredd.
After the gangs broke through the judicial road block, Spikes, Smiley and co raced through the city to the finish line. Dredd and a group of Judges (including Judge Giant) gave chase. While the other Judges were knocked from their Lawmasters by the bikers, Dredd and Giant kept to the chase. As Spikes and Smiley got close to the finish line inside a shopping centre, the two Judges split up to take out the respective leaders. Dredd knocked out Smiley and Giant challenges Spike to a game of chicken. Giant bailed and Spikes crashed just before the finish line. He dragged himself across several metres before collapsing with the goal just out of his hand's reach.
After arrest Spikes was sent to rehabilitation. This failed to reform his character and he tried to escape. During his escape he was captured by Judge Dredd, who forced Spikes to serve as his guide across the Cursed Earth, helping him avoid danger as he delivered a much-needed cure to the infected citizens of Mega-City Two. Spikes reluctantly agreed and set off alongside Dredd, several other Judges, some War Droids and the Killdozer.
The journey quickly went underway and Spikes was given a Lawmaster primed to self destruct should he try and escape. Not far from the city walls, he and Dredd entered small town named Deliverance run by an insane old man calling himself the Lawgiver. Dredd was captured and placed in a cell shortly before the town was attacked by mutant rats named the Devil's Lapdogs which ravaged the area and killed the Lawgiver. Spikes broke Dredd out of his cell and Dredd then delt with the rats.
As the journey continued, Spikes encountered a whole range of bizarre foes alongside Dredd including the Mutant Brotherhood, Vegas City mafia, Vampiric Med-Droids, the Jolly Green Giant and more. Eventually the group took on Tweak, a small rock-eating alien that had escaped from slavery. Initially thinking him a dumb animal, Spikes mistreated the alien but upon learning its story and intelligence he softened up and befriended the creature.
Upon reaching the town of Repentance, Spikes and Dredd were knocked out by the townspeople and tied to posts as sacrifices to the black tyrannosaurus known as Satanus and his pack. The two escaped however and Spikes blew up one of the tyrannosaurs with a grenade he found when dealing with the vampiric Med-Droids. Spikes and Dredd then led the dinosaurs back to Repentance and proceeded to trash the town, forcing its evil inhabitants to seek refuge in the Cursed Earth.
After a few more misadventures, the group now consisting of Spikes, Dredd, Tweak and Judge Jack finally reached Death Valley, the last leg of the journey. As they travelled through the ruinous desert they were set upon by a army of maddened war-droids that formerly fought against the Judges in the Battle of Armageddon. They quickly killed Judge Jack and chased the others who ended up hiding in a small derelict building. For the next several days the trio fought against the robot legion and their leader General Blood'n'Nuts. Eventually Spikes was gravely wounded. Knowing he was dying and not wanting to hold the others back, he decided to go out in a blaze of glory and began firing wildly before being shot down in a hail of bullets. Shortly after Dredd dressed Spike's body in a Judge's uniform and placed him on the last Lawmaster. Setting the bike and Killdozer to auto-pilot, he had it drive straight into the Legion before self-destructing, taking out a large number of the war-droids, including the General himself. Afterwards, Dredd looked back on his fallen friend and lamented that he was the greatest punk he had ever known.
To honour his sacrifice, a statue of Spikes was erected alongside one of Tweak in the Hall of Heroes.
Powers and abilities[]
Abilities
Armed combat; motorbike racing; smuggling.
Strength level
Young human male who gets regular strenuous exercise.
Paraphernalia[]
Transportation
The Killdozer; Lawmaster; his own motorbike.
Weapons
Various guns and a grenade earring he stole from Fort Knox.
Notes[]
Spikes' first appearance was complicated by the fact that someone on the creative team seemed unable to distinguish between him and Zoot Smiley. Spikes' speech balloons sometimes went to the man with a big bushy beard and a spiked helmet, and sometimes to the clean-shaven man with long flowing hair.
Trivia[]
Spikes appeared in a flashback in the Armitage episode in Judge Dredd Megazine #320, drawn by Patrick Goddard.
Links[]
- Appearances of Spikes Harvey Rotten
- Character Gallery: Spikes Harvey Rotten
- Images that feature Spikes Harvey Rotten
- Fan-Art Gallery: Spikes Harvey Rotten
- Spikes Harvey Rotten quotations
Discover and Discuss[]
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