Judge Fear is one of the four Dark Judges.
Appearance[]
He is an imposing figure who wears a black great helmet accented with large, bat-like wings. When passing judgement, he opens his helmet's faceplate and frightens the accused to death with whatever lies within, whilst reciting his catch phrase, "Gaze into the face of Fear!"
The actual face under the helmet has only been revealed twice: once as a mass of eyeballs, and on another occasion as several grotesque mandibles. No explanation has been given as to whether these monstrosities are indicative of Fear's physical face, or if they are simply manifestations of his victims' fears.
His belt buckle is a shrunken head. He wears a heavy black cape with large, bear trap shoulder pauldrons.
Powers[]
Fear sports an assortment of tools on his belt, notably miniature bear traps, which he is known to throw at his enemies in order to immobilize them; and an enormous padlock which he uses to secure his victims' potential exit routes. In Progs. 421 and 423, Judge Fear is seen to exhibit powers similar to Judge Death's "phasing" ability, thrusting his hands through victims' bodies.
Biography[]
During the great massacre, Fear and Fire took part in a contest to see who could massacre a city block first. One child showed no fear of the Judge and this left him rattled for years afterwards. After Deadworld's fall, Fear holed up in his castle, paranoid that the other Dark Judges would assassinate him.[1]
Having sensed Death's peril after he is trapped in the body of Psi-Judge Anderson after she sealed herself in Boing!, Fear, along with Fire and Mortis crossed the dimension warp to rescue him. Once Death is released from imprisonment and gains a new body, Fear and the other three Dark Judges continued their 'judgement' upon Mega-City One claiming thousands of victims. Dredd and Anderson intervened, and pursued the Dark Judges back to Deadworld using a Dimension Jump Globe liberated from the Dark Judges. There, the spirits of the Dark Judges' millions of victims flowed through Anderson and seemingly extinguished their spirits forever.
Notes[]
- In an interview about the Deadworld prequels, Kek-W commented that "When you think about it, that iconic Bolland punch was Fear's downfall: his first appearance was virtually his last hurrah: it was all downhill from there in. That punch made the guy a potential loser: he met the one man his power didn't work on – so where does he go from there?" As a result, his Dreams of Deadworld: Fear prequel, where he is consumed by paranoia after one person wasn't scared, is "Judge Fear suffering from performance anxiety". Afterwards, for the earlier Fall of Deadworld, "I've kinda made it my personal mission to make Judge Fear scary and interesting again from a story / character perspective."[3]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Prog 1948
- ↑ Prog 227
- ↑ 2000AD Review: Interview with Kek-W