Judge Solomon - Continuity Controversies

Continuity Controversies

In 1977 nobody expected the Judge Dredd strip to last for more than a couple of years, so no concerted effort was made to establish a proper character history or backstory until later on. Consequently a lot of continuity inconsistencies have appeared between the first couple of years of episodes and the later ones. John Wagner would eventually write the story Origins to tidy up the continuity, stating "I knew that sometime it had to be done, if for no other reason than my own satisfaction."

Before Origins, there was debate among fans as to whether Solomon had ever been chief judge. Solomon's rank was not given in his first appearance and he did not wear the chief judge's uniform, although as he was drawn sitting on an eagle throne and presiding over Booth's trial, some fans assumed he was the chief judge. This view was substantially reinforced by a feature published in the 2000 AD Annual 1984, giving an unofficial timeline for future America. It stated the first three chief judges were Chief Judge Fargo (holding office from 2031 to 2051), then Solomon (2051 to 2058), and then Judge Goodman (2058 to 2101). The date given for Fargo's death in 2051 was taken from a picture of his tomb in prog 107, while the date of Solomon's resignation was deduced from a statement in prog 89 that Goodman had ruled for 43 years, ending in 2101. This timeline was later adopted for the Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game.

Other fans pointed out that these dates contradicted the date of 2070 given in the Cursed Earth story, that the timeline was not written by any of the Dredd strip writers and was indeed entitled an "Unofficial Version" (and invited readers to submit their own versions), and that the feature had been superseded by later stories written by Dredd creator John Wagner. One such story was Oz, showing a flashback to 2070 with Fargo (in his first strip appearance) as the absolute ruler of America, implying that Solomon was not chief judge when he sentenced Booth.

However a flashback to 2079 in the story Blood Cadets implied that Goodman was not yet chief judge at the time, while the earlier story Tale of the Dead Man suggested that Fargo was already dead by that time. It could therefore be inferred that another chief judge (although not named) had served between Fargo and Goodman.

Origins would reconcile most of these facts by showing Fargo's death being faked in 2051, while he still secretly survived into 2070. Solomon succeeded him as chief judge, and was in turn succeeded by Goodman in 2057 (contradicting the Blood Cadets reference.)