Judge Death

Once a lawman in a twisted parallel dimension where all crime is committed by the living, Judge Death concluded that life itself is the ultimate crime. He exterminated his own world's population and crossed into Mega-City One to continue his sentence upon humanity.

Few villains in Bronze Age comics arrived with such immediate, chilling impact as Judge Death, who first stalked the pages of 2000 AD in 1980, conjured into terrifying existence by writer John Howard and the incomparable art of Brian Bolland. Born from the anarchic British comics scene that gave the world Judge Dredd, this ghastly figure has haunted 2000 AD for over four decades — nearly 200 catalog appearances and eight key issues speak to a legacy that is anything but mortal. He keeps genuinely formidable company, sharing the page with Joe Dredd, Psi Judge Anderson, and his fellow dark judges — Judge Fire, Judge Mortis, and Judge Fear — a rogues' gallery that makes every encounter feel like an event. If you want to understand why 2000 AD became one of the most important comics publishers in the English-speaking world, Judge Death is exactly the kind of unforgettable, enduring creation that makes the case.