Judge Cal - Legacy

Legacy

To prevent a new Chief Judge Cal, Griffin set up Black Ops Division to keep an eye on Justice Department itself. Fear of another corrupt leader caused Dredd to abandon the "Judge Child" Owen Krysler on the planet Xanadu, rather than take the chance that he could be redeemed.

Although dead, Cal continued to harass Mega-City One from beyond the grave. Over twenty years after his demise, a disc with his computer files on it—long thought lost—resurfaced, containing the evidence Cal had used to subvert and blackmail corrupt judges when he was head of SJS. Several of these judges had risen to very senior positions in the Justice Department over the years, believing their dark secrets to be safe. By this time the SJS had been cleaned up and a wave of arrests followed, resulting in significant political fallout. (See also Judge Edgar.)

Not long after that, in 2123, Mega-City One was attacked by another incarnation of Cal, from a parallel universe in which he had not been insane but had actually killed Dredd and ruled the city ever since. This alternative-history Cal took over the Grand Hall of Justice, killing hundreds of judges in the process, and crucified all his prisoners in the street. He was finally stopped by Dredd and killed (again with the help of a civilian, Darien Kenzie), but only after considerable loss of life.

It is also ironic that the very wall that Cal built to effectively imprison the population of Mega City One helped in the city's defence on a number of occasions, including attacks from Sabbat's zombies. However its most prominent role was when the wall's weaponry functioned as an anti-missile defence system against Sov-block missiles during the Apocalypse War.

A revionist opera about Cal's life was brought out in 2125, presenting the tyrant as a misunderstand figure.