Mega-City One - History

History

As Judge Dredd stories are set 122 years into the future and progress forward in 'real time' (stories from 1977 are set in 2099, and stories from 2012 are set in 2134), they have an extensive fictional chronology.

Stories in earlier issues would link Dredd to the chronology of the Invasion!, Ro-Busters, and Harlem Heroes strips: Mega-City One's construction is mentioned in Ro-Busters once it had moved to 2000 AD, and in a story that follows from Invasion!, while Mega-City One appears in Harlem Heroes and its lead character Giant is the father of Judge Giant. The former two strips have since been retconned out of Dredd history.

• Before 2027: America's population is rapidly approaching one billion, and an urban conurbation now stretches from New York to Washington in an attempt to contain the populace of the East Coast states. This will eventually become the first Mega-City, a new kind of urban development to house greater numbers of people. The development causes huge amounts of civil unrest and gang-related crimes.

• 2027: An alliance of street gangs, led by the P Street Posse, storm the White House itself. Due to intimidation of the jury, no convictions occur. This incident will lead to the creation of the Judge System to police the country. Eustace Fargo appointed Special Prosecutor for Street Crime by President Thomas Gurney.

• 2028: President Gurney re-elected due to his support for instant street justice.

• 2031: First deployment of the Judges in the United States, led by Chief Judge Fargo. Special centres train the new recruits, often hand-picked from the regular police, and old style judges have to undergo the new judge training program with the power to convict and sentence criminals on the spot.

• 2039: The success of Mega-City One inspires the creation of more Mega-Cities - Mega-City Two is planned to cover the Western seaboard and Texas City will cover Texas and other southern states. Other nations will follow..

• 2051: Fargo resigns and attempts suicide, but survives with serious injuries. He is secretly placed in suspended animation and his death is faked. Deputy Chief Judge Solomon becomes chief judge.

• 2052: Congress passes the Autonomy Act, giving extensive powers of self-government to the three American mega-cities. Each mega-city has its own chief judge: Solomon continues to serve as chief judge of Mega-City One.

• 2057: Deputy Chief Judge Goodman becomes chief judge and creates the Council of Five. Psi Division created.

• 2064: A new process of accelerated cloning, with DNA taken from senior Judges, is created by Morton Judd to quickly bolster Justice Department's ranks. Joe and Rico Dredd are two of the first clones from this process, growing to physiological age 5 in a matter of months.

• 2066: Six clones, including the Dredd twins, are inducted into the Academy of Law.

• 2068: President Robert L. Booth is elected, gaining support under the line that the rest of the world was living off America's backs. (It later emerges that he rigged the election.)

• 2069: International relations are soured when Booth sends troops to seize control of foreign oil reserves.

• 2070: In response to growing international tensions and their impact on American foreign policy, Booth starts the Atomic Wars to mass public support. Despite Booth's promises, America's nuclear screens fail to keep out many of the retaliatory strikes. Most of the planet is devastated in a nuclear holocaust, and the world's Mega-Cities are among the few to survive relatively unscathed due to experimental laser defences. All Judges and the military are deployed to maintain order in the decaying society, with the Judges forced to constantly fight against soldiers for committing criminal acts. It is discovered Booth rigged the election and killed a witness to conceal the crime. Shocked and betrayed, the citizens of America rise up against the government and call for the Judges to take over the country. Fargo, secretly reawoken from suspended animation, advises Goodman to take over as ruler of the United States in a coup. Booth is sentenced to 100 years in suspended animation, but has enough loyal followers and robotic Mek-troops to fight a civil war against the Judges until 2071.

• 2071: The Battle of Armaggedon. At the heart of the Cursed Earth, near Mega-City Two, Booth's army is finally defeated at the cost of the lives of one hundred thousand judges and troopers. The Hiroshima Accord is settled by the various global Mega-Cities.

• 2072: Massive inflow on homeless refugees from the Cursed Earth pour into the Mega-Cities, causing a massive amount of block construction. Space is becoming even tighter. Genetic apartheid laws are soon brought in to keep mutants out of Mega-City One.

• 2083–86: Civil war breaks out between Mega-City One and Texas City, the latter feeling it is being dominated by the other Mega-Cities while MC-One and Two oppose its secession in the interests of unity and the highly valuable resources Texas owns. The war leads to years of stalemate, and Mega-City One decides the conflict is pointless and allows Texas to secede. Note: this event possibly retconned by story "Origins."

• 2088: Establishment of Luna-1, a moon-based Mega-City, by all three American Mega-Cities to renew and cement relations between them. Government of the colony is divided initially between all three cities, with a senior judge being sent every six months to take over as Judge-Marshal.

• 2099: Population is now over 800 million. Chief Judge Goodman, possessed by a malevolent psychic mutant called the Monkey, is forced to undermine the stability of the city to have it descend into anarchy; Judge Dredd takes the Monkey out. The Statue of Judgement is erected in honour of the Judges. Renegade droid Call-Me-Kenneth starts the highly destructive First Robot War, devastating large areas of the city. Judge Dredd becomes the last Judge-Marshal of Luna-1 to serve a six-month tour of duty: Judge Tex succeeds him as permanent Marshal of Luna-1.

• 2101: Deputy Chief Judge Cal, head of the Special Judicial Squad, has Goodman assassinated and assumes control. He brainwashes most of the Judges into obeying him, brings in alien Kleggs as mercenaries, and implements increasingly insane and dictatorial rules - twice sentencing the entire city to death! Judge Dredd leads a rebellion against him and eventually succeeds, with resistance member Judge Griffin taking over as chief judge. Under Cal, a vast wall has been built around Mega-City One. The powerful mutant Father Earth leads a massed attack on Mega-City One, destroying Power Tower (a controlled volcano) and unleashing a flood of lava, before being stopped. A few months later, an invasion of mutant spiders leads to the burning of entire sectors.

• 2102: Judge Death arrives in Mega-City One and kills dozens before he is captured. The dying Psi-Judge Feyy predicts an apocalypse will occur in 2120 that can only be averted if a figure known as the Judge Child, who will become Chief Judge, can be found; Judge Dredd leads a mission to retrieve the Child, only to determine him as evil and leave him stranded on an alien world.

• 2103: The Sov block of East-Meg One, using robotic pirate Captain Skank as a proxy, secretly seize control of Mega-City One nuclear weapons and launch an attack on the city, destroying several sectors; after being caught, they nuke one of their own sectors as compensation. Judge Death is freed by the other Dark Judges; they go on a killing spree in Billy Carter Block before their physical forms are destroyed.

• 2104: Sov Judge Orlok drugs the city water supply, increasing the aggression of the population and leading to block wars springing up across the entire city - which turns out to have just been a diversion. With the Judges tied up with the Block Mania, the Sov Judges of East-Meg One launch the Apocalypse War. A coordinated attack shatters Mega-City One's defences, leaves multiple blocks destroyed by nuclear weaponry (the south of the city faces "total nuke out!" killing 150 million), and leads to a massed invasion by Sov forces. A bitter resistance is put up by Judges and Citizen-Defence units, despite heavy losses and the death (after being brainwashed into a Sov agent) of Chief Judge Griffin. Victory is achieved when a team led by Dredd causes the nuclear devastation of the entire East-Meg One. Judge McGruder becomes the new chief judge and oversees the rebuilding of the devastated city.

• 2107: A time travel mission is deployed to 2120 to determine the truth of Feyy's death-bed prediction. The Mega-City One of the future is discovered to be devastated and ruled by demonic creatures (including a zombie Judge Dredd) under a mutated form of the Judge Child - now revealed to be responsible for the great disaster. The Judges take action to ensure this future is averted. Later the Dark Judges gain physical form again and, using personal teleporters, and cause massacres across the city - even in the Grand Hall of Justice - without being stopped. They are eventually defeated and trapped in dimensional limbo.

• 2108: Shojun the Warlord unleashes the demonic Seven Samurai on Mega-City One, killing thousands - including the head of Psi-Division. McGruder steps down and is replaced by Judge Silver. Pro-democracy activists take over a TV station and are executed live on air by Dredd.

• 2109: Under Silver's orders, Dredd leads the Judges in a dirty-tricks operation to undermine the upcoming Democratic March - including having Wally Squad (undercover) Judges in the crowd provoke a riot, so the Judges have an excuse to go in and use violence while seemingly having the moral high ground.

• 2110: Morton Judd and his Judge-clones - the Judda - launch an attack on the Hall of Justice. They are defeated and their base in the Oz Radback is destroyed. The Dredd-clone Kraken survives and is eventually turned into a Mega-City Judge.

• 2112: Fortean manifestations occur in the city and across the globe, as the subterranean Deros attempt to invade; an East Meg 2/MC1 Psi team stops them. Dredd resigns and takes the Long Walk, following doubts about the Judge System caused both by Kraken and his role in breaking up the Democratic March. Silver covers up Dredd's retirement and Kraken assumes Dredd's place. While in the Cursed Earth, Dredd is injured and rendered amnesiac by the Sisters of Death. Meanwhile the Sisters of Death are able to psychically influence Kraken into helping them cross over into Mega-City One and to free the Dark Judges from limbo. The city is turned into a Necropolis - the Judges are under psychic control, with Silver abandoning his post and being turned into a zombie for Death's amusement; decay, disease, starvation and suicide are rampant; and the Dark Judges hold daily cullings. A handful of judges who escaped brainwashing, including Dredd and McGruder returned from their Long Walks, are able to banish the Sisters, execute Kraken and capture the Dark Judges (except Death and the Sisters), but not before 60 million citizens have been killed. McGruder assumes the post of Chief Judge again, but without a Council of Five. The Hunters Club organises the sponsored charity massacre "Death Aid" for Necropolis orphans. The anonymous figure later known as Tempest takes covert control of Mega-City One's criminal underworld.

• 2113: Under Dredd's urging, a referendum is held where the citizens will vote whether or not, following the failure of the Judges to stop Necropolis, to bring back democracy. Judge Grice and others attempt to assassinate Dredd to stop this, and are arrested. The citizens, as Dredd anticipated, vote to keep the Judges - those few that can be bothered to vote. The undead Silver tries to reassume command but is executed for dereliction of duty.

• 2114: Judgement Day - the time-travelling Sabbat the Necromagus unleashes zombies upon every Mega-City on Earth. An international coalition of Judges is sent to take him out, but not before five entire Mega-Cities have been nuked when it appears they're lost to the zombies. The final death toll is three billion. Following the loss of many Judges to the zombies, McGruder instigates the Mechanismo project - robot Judges - to the outrage of many Senior Judges, as it becomes clear she is increasingly senile and unstable.

• 2115: Grice breaks out of the Titan penal colony and takes over the city by infecting the population with the deadly Meat Virus, incapacitating many Judges. After much random death and destruction, including the destruction of the Statue of Judgement, Grice is defeated. Dredd deliberately sabotages the Mechanismo project.

• 2116: A gathering of Senior Judges attempt to make McGruder step down but to no avail. After her pet Mechanismo project goes wrong and a rogue Mechanismo robot tries to kill her, she finally steps down from office. An election is held among the Judges and Judge Volt becomes the new chief judge.

• 2117: Satan emerges from the fallen Icarus asteroid, shrugs off every Justice Department attack and threatens to destroy the city; Psi-Judge Anderson barely defeats him.

• 2118: Judicial crackdown on the Frendz crime syndicate in Sector 301 leads to major retaliation, with heavy rioting and gang violence that puts the Sector's judges in a retreat. After a siege at Traffic Station Alamo, the battle is won by the Judges. McGruder dies in battle in the Cursed Earth. Mega-City One briefly attacked by dune sharks.

• 2121: Crime lord Nero Narcos triggers the Mark II Lawgivers to self-destruct and then starts the Second Robot War. The Judges are briefly overthrown before Dredd, with help from Brit-Cit, reprograms Narcos' robot reinforcements to turn on their comrades and the Judges are able to retake control. Judge Volt commits suicide over the event, which is hushed up; Judge Hershey becomes the new chief judge.

• 2123: An army composed of perps from parallel universes, led by an alter-dimensional Judge Cal, invade Mega-City One.

• 2124: Orlok captured, but not before releasing a virus that kills tens of thousands of citizens. Judge Death escapes confinement.

• 2125: Mutant terrorist Mr Bones attacks the Hall of Justice with a hostile alien species. Orlok put on trial and then executed on live TV.

• 2126: Terrorist group Total War triggers multiple nuclear bombs, resulting in the deaths of four million people.

• 2127: Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been left homeless by the bombings, and live in overcrowded, crime-ridden emergency camps. The Half-Life plague, spread by a traitor in Psi Division, spreads a wave of murderous violence that eventually kills one million people. The Sisters of Death launch another attack, with entire blocks being wiped out by plagues and poltergeist activity.

• 2128: Mega-City One leads a peacekeeping mission to Ciudad Barranquilla during a civil war; this turns out to be a pretense for regime change, putting in a new Supreme Judge that they can control.

• 2129: Death of Judge Fargo. A portal opens to the dark-matter composed fifth dimension Kaluza; demonic creatures invade the city, slaughtering whole sectors and causing crime-increasing psychic backlash until the Judges invaded Kaluza and shut the portal down. Thirty city-blocks designed by Findhorn Gask turn out to secretly be giant robots, which come to life and rampage through the city, before being convinced to stop and turned into a satellite city. Council of Five discusses and rejects a proposal by Dredd to end the mutant ban; rejection followed by a massive crackdown by Dredd on the city's Mutant Farm facilities. Attempted coup by Space Corps veterans under General Vincent. Serial killer PJ Maybe, under a false identity, becomes Mayor of Mega-City One.

• 2130: The anti-mutant laws are discussed again due to pressure from Dredd and repealed out of fear he will resign otherwise; there is widespread rioting by citizens as a result, followed by frequent hate crimes against mutant migrants.

• 2131: Events and disasters from the Bible devastate the Low Life. Senior judges, against the mutant rights laws, force a vote on replacing Hershey as chief judge in the hope of undoing the changes. Judge Francisco becomes chief judge, and the entire Council of Five is replaced. The decision is made to build townships for mutants, and Dredd is exiled to them. The townships will use mutants as Deputies and allow trial-by-jury. Subtle conflict exists between Francisco and his Council.

• 2132: Deputy Chief Judge Sinfield usurps Francisco using brainwashing drugs and becomes acting chief judge. Laws become even harsher for mutants. PJ Maybe attempts to assassinate Sinfield, hospitalising him, and his identity is discovered by the Judges. Sinfield is arrested and Francisco returns to office. MC-1 covertly deploys psychic weapons in Sino-Cit territory, testing how they can handle psi-warfare. After a vicious war with corrupt Judges, the Hondo yakuza take over the Low Life's criminal underworld.

• 2133: Francisco attempts to balance the budget with various cost-cutting measures, with the buzzword "the Big Community". A nuclear bomb is detonated in Sector 17, killing half a million people. The Low Life's Judges, particularly the Wally Squad, are purged due to criminal infiltration. The Black Ops Division under Judge Bachmann quietly assassinates the Township Chief Judge of mutant Township Three and his deputies, in order to put a less liberal Judge in charge. New elections for Mayor are held, with several candidates killed by an escaped Maybe; East-Meg agents capture a prominent biologist and prepare to unleash the "Chaos Bug" bio-weapon on the city.

• 2134: The Chaos Bug is released, in conjunction with multiple terrorist assaults and Sov sabotage - foreign allies only send robots due to fear of infection. Most of the Academy of Law and Public Surveillance are killed (and the Statue of Judgement destroyed); the Dark Judges temporarily escape. A (rejected) proposal to simply murder the infected is made public, sparking a vast uprising that devastates the city and allows the Bug to spread; an overwhelmed Justice Department is forced to genuinely murder the infected and only wins against the uprising because the smoke from burning blocks drives insurgents off the streets. By the time the virus dies out, 350 million citizens and 60% of the judges are dead; Justice Department is near collapse, bolstered by a 40,000 strong mutant army from the Cursed Earth townships. Francisco resigns and Hershey forms an interim government. The economy has collapsed and welfare ends; Space Corps Marines are recalled to the city to help restore order but are soon at odds with both Judges and citizens after trying to airstrike a rebellious block. Hershey plans a major reorganisation of Justice Department, merging multiple divisions into a larger Street Division and a new Undercover Operations Division; Bachmann makes a power play, which sees a list of every undercover Judge given to Overdrive Inc.