Judge Hollins Solomon served as Deputy Chief Judge under Fargo and later as Chief Judge. He is famous for the "Judgement of Solomon" against President Booth.
Character Biography[]
Solomon was joint Deputy with Clarence Goodman in the earliest days of Justice Department. He was a far more politically minded man than his boss and when Fargo violated his own celibacy rules with associate Sequenta Tells in 2051, Solomon pushed to cover up Fargo's mistake and carry on. Fargo however decide to commit suicide, but his attempt would fail and leave him severely injured. Solomon would purpose the idea to fake a heroic death for him as a public relations move and hush up Tells, to save face with the public on the Justice department's image.[1]
While it was known Fargo would have prefered Goodman to succeed him, Solomon was seen as less of a 'Fargo lackey' by the public and got on better with President Pierce. Part of why he was promoted to Chief Judge of the United States was to help Pierce negotiate with the Texans and Californians when drafting the Autonomy Act. [2]
He became Chief Judge of Mega-City One in 2052 after the Autonomy Act, where he would pass immigration laws against Americans in 2055. [3] Solomon created the modern department hierarchy with various specialised divisions and leaders, starting with agreeing with Marisa Pellegrino's proposed Special Judicial Squad and moving into Med Division and Tek Division. [4] One of his last acts was to formally establish Psi Division at the end of his term of office in 2057.[5] Various Street Judges were disgruntled by his changes and dismissed him as a "politician" compared to Fargo.[6]
Due to his paranoia, he'd insisted on a paper library in the Grand Hall of Justice - a countermeasure for his fear hackers would get into Justice Department systems ane erase the records.[7]
In 2057, he became tired of the politics and handed the role over to Goodman. On his way out, he advised Goodman to build up Justice Department's arsenal due to concerns of Booth. Solomon still served as a senior Street Judge on the Council of Five and was advising action against Booth when the Atomic Wars suddenly broke out.[8]
When Booth was deposed and arrested, it was Solomon who got around the Judge's qualms about executing the last president: the "Judgement of Solomon" sentenced Booth to 100 years of suspended animation, or what he called a "living death". Future generations would then sentence Booth properly with the benefit of hindsight.[9] (Booth himself found the Judgement laughable, rhetorically asking "was that supposed to be some kind of terrible punishment?"[10])
Solomon has not been seen since 2071 and has most likely died. The Space Corps have a warship JDSS Solomon named in his honour.[11]
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. Before Origins, there was debate among fans as to whether Solomon had ever been Chief Judge: he wasn't wearing the uniform and rank wasn't given, but he was sitting on an eagle throne and passing judgement.
A feature published in the 2000 AD Annual 1984, giving an unofficial timeline for future America, stated that Solomon reigned between 2051 to 2058. (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 Oz. This story showed a flashback to 2070 with Fargo (in his first strip appearance) as the absolute ruler of America,[12] implying that Solomon was not chief judge when he sentenced Booth.
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.
References[]
- ↑ Origins
- ↑ Judges: Necessary Evil
- ↑ Origins
- ↑ Judges: What Measure Ye Mete (and Necessary Evil for the SJS)
- ↑ Origins
- ↑ Judges: What Measure Ye Mete
- ↑ Dredd Year Three: Fallen Angel
- ↑ 2000 AD #1505–1519 and 1529–1535
- ↑ Prog 68 for the judgement, Origins for the hindsight retcon
- ↑ 2000 AD #1532
- ↑ Prog 919
- ↑ 2000 AD #559