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"Bad Bob" in 2128

Robert Linus Booth, nicknamed "Bad Bob" Booth, was the last President of the United States and the man who started the Atomic Wars.

Fictional character biography[]

The last President[]

Harvisson-Boothe landslide

Vice President Boothe

Booth was the Governor of Texas City in 2052, and welcomed the Autonomy Act as a new phase of the United States. He told the press that the country would still be stronger united.[1] When Chief Judge Solomon retired in 2057, he warned his successor that Booth was dangerously ambitious and "no friend of ours": Goodman would need to build Justice Department into a force that could fight the US Army.[2] During the same year, Booth had appeared on The Very Late Show With James Corbyn claiming Texas City lacked the growing petty crime rate of "the coastal cities".[3]

In 2060, Booth was elected vice president, serving under President Harvisson - the election was a landslide victory, in the context of a growing "anti-American alliance". During Harvisson's second term he succeeded to the presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, and was elected president in his own right in 2068 by rigging the vote-counting computers.[4] One of the electoral promises he carried out was the 'No Foul' statutes, where all manner of assault and battery was allowed at sports matches as long as it was on the pitch. This would allow for increasingly violent 'deathsports' as time went on.[5] He also ended most of the regulation on robots, including on checking their artificial intelligence levels - opening the door for ever smarter robots.[6]

It's started

Belligerent and wanting further power, he whipped up public sentiment with the idea that the rest of the world was living off America, sent the army to seize foreign oil reserves, assassinated a dissenting adviser, and threatened to disband the Judges and return to trial by jury. He finally started the Atomic Wars in 2070 in response to international opposition, having convinced the population (and himself) that America's nuclear screens could keep out retaliatory strikes.[7]


The resulting devastation of America and the world led to the Judges taking control of the country. Booth fled the White House and took shelter in the Rocky Mountains with robot armies loyal to him; after the Battle of Armageddon in 2071, he was captured and tried for war crimes. He was sentenced by Judge Solomon, who decreed that he should serve a 100 year term in suspended animation, locked up in the deepest vault in Fort Knox.[8]

Snap, Crackle, Pop[]

Here lies Booth

Booth was served by three robot medics - Snap, Crackle and Pop - who replaced his blood annually to keep him alive. When Fort Knox was hit by a bomb in later years, the robots (following their programming) began to attack and drain blood from nearby villagers in the Cursed Earth. The locals believed there was a vampire plaguing the area and in 2100 they tracked the robots to Fort Knox, where they mistook Booth's cryogenic tube for a coffin.

Judge Dredd prevented them killing him - which inadvertently brought Booth out of suspended animation. Dredd sentenced him to life working on the local farmland, bringing life to the area he helped kill. On their way out, Dredd told Spikes Harvey Rotten that the amount of blood he'd spilled made Booth a genuine vampire.

Mutant army[]

Main article: Origins (Judge Dredd story)In prog 1531, it was revealed that Booth easily took control of the farm, and that he viewed both Dredd's sentence and the Judgement of Solomon as being pathetic.

By 2128 he had become the leader (and possible founder) of the New Mutant Army, an anti-judicial mutant guerrilla army (previously introduced in a 2004 Judge Dredd Megazine story) that has gained widespread support in the Cursed Earth.[9] He also found Chief Judge Fargo's long-lost body, which had lain in cryogenic stasis since 2070, and ransomed it, intending to raise funds for his attempt to reconquer America and reinstate himself as leader. Dredd was captured, mocked and severely beaten.

However, he was taken hostage during Dredd's escape and was used as a human shield. This tactic failed to impress his underpaid and demoralized army, and they simply shot him, reasoning that they could always elect another president.


Sons of Booth[]

The Sons of Booth

When he was still farming in Kentucky, he impregnated a woman who would later illegally enter Mega-City One - she named her son Linus, who was unaware of his heritage but would coincidentally go on to form the Sons of Booth.[10] This organisation beat up mutants, sought out disaffected cits, and put out propaganda saying Booth was unfairly blamed for the wars and criminally deposed. Linus Roavey also put out the theory that Booth was still alive. The Judges became aware of them in 2139, just before new member Kelvin Sprayy modified a nightmare gun into a bomb, and arrested the bulk of them after Sprayy managed to detonate the bomb too early. [11]

Linus remained free, having made sure he wasn't around for the bombing. Later that year, on the fifth anniversary of Chaos Day, he took advantage of a controversial memorial statue made in Dredd's image to start protests; under cover, he had the statue altered to be one of "Bad Bob" and set up Dredd to be seen forcibly arresting an old woman.[12] Following this, the Sons arranged an iso-cube breakout and continued with their stunts, drip-feeding the news to corrupt journalist Mo Malik to get their message out & running an illegal broadcast called Booth Truth. A growing force of sympathisers flooded Judge lines with bad intel.

In 2140, after they stole the stupid gun from Department archives with a plan to hit the Grand Hall of Justice, Dredd exploited the Sons' belief in Booth's survival and tricked them into thinking "Booth" was being moved from an "unregistered iso-block". The Sons rushed in a panic to intercept the convoy and were duly gunned down. Linus discovered from Dredd who his father was - and, to his horror, that his mother had been a mutant - before being abandoned to die in the Cursed Earth.[13]

Deadworld counterpart[]

In Deadworld, there had been a President Boone ruling around the same time. Boone was a crass, venal man and had been an agent of the Sov Block. During his time in office, he built a vast wall on the Frackland/Amexico border to keep out Amexican cartels and the mutants.

Boone was overthrown by the Judges, fled to the Sovs, and broadcasted messages to dissidents calling for resistance against judicial dictatorship. When the Sovs decided to invade America, Boone had outlived his usefulness to them and President Nenovich had him killed by his 'lover'.[14]

Appearances[]

Robert L

Presidential election poster for R.L.Booth.

Booth first appeared in 2000 AD #67 and 68, in "The Cursed Earth". He later appeared in #1038–1040 in "[[The Hunting Party]," and in the story "Origins" (#1505–1519 and 1529–1535).

Other fictional presidents[]

  • Thomas Gurney, re-elected in 2028. Appointed Eustace Fargo as first Chief Judge of Mega-City One in 2031.[15]
  • Foreman Pierce, president in 2051. Appointed Solomon as Fargo's successor.[16]
  • Chambers, female president defeated for re-election in 2060.[17] Undermined by domestic talk of the "Anti-American Alliance"; had attempted a peace summit with foreign heads of state[18]
  • Harvisson, elected in 2060, with Booth as his vice-president.[19] Succeeded by Booth during his second term.[20] Originally an independent senator from Oklahoma, calling the "Anti-American Alliance" situation a "failures of both major parties".[21]

Notes[]

  • Booth is a recurring analogy for any US President the writers dislike. His appearance and later talk of nuclear screens resembles Reagan. The political history and vote-rigging (and the new middle initial) in Origins make him into a George W. Bush reference: another former Governor of Texas who took America to war, and was accused to vote-rigging in 2000. The Sons of Booth storyline would make references to Trump, and Deadworld even more so.
  • The latest he could have been elected governor is 2050.

References[]

  1. Prog 1515
  2. Origins
  3. Judges: (In)Famous novella
  4. 2000 AD prog 1518.
  5. Judge Dredd - Year One: Wear Iron chapter 3 (Al Ewing)
  6. Year Three: Machineries of Hate chapter 5
  7. 2000 AD prog 1516.
  8. 2000 AD prog 68.
  9. Judge Dredd Megazine #219
  10. The Booth Conspiracy Part 5
  11. Sons of Booth
  12. Icon
  13. The Booth Conspiracy
  14. Fall of Deadworld
  15. 2000 AD prog 1510
  16. 2000 AD prog 1514
  17. 2000 AD prog 1515
  18. Judges: (In)Famous novella
  19. 2000 AD prog 1515
  20. 2000 AD prog 1518
  21. Judges: (In)Famous novella
Judge Dredd
Main Characters Judge Dredd - Judge Hershey - Judge Anderson - Judge Beeny - Judge Buell - Galen DeMarco - Dirty Frank - Judge Edgar - Chief Judge Fargo - Judge Francisco - Judge Giant - Judge Goodman - Judge Griffin - Judge Guthrie - Judge Janus - Judge Karyn - Judge McGruder - Judge Niles - Judge Rico - Judge Shenker - Judge Silver - Judge Solomon - Judge Volt - Detective-Judge Armitage - Inspector Shimura - Devlin Waugh - Johnny Woo - Judge Larter - Judge Jack - Judge Agee - Judge Bennett - Judge Castillo - Judge Dekker - Judge Goon - Deputy Cheif Judge Herriman - Judge Kruger - Judge Munn - Judge Perrier - Judge Prager - Judge Minty - Detective-Judge Steel - Detective Judge Trant - Judge Kazan - Chief Judge Ohno - Judge-Inspector Akio Anaba - Judge Marshall Lawson
Recurring Villains Angel Gang - Mean Machine Angel - Elmer Angel - Junior Angel - Link Angel - Judge Bachmann - Oola Blint - President Booth - Judge Cal - Dark Judges - Rico Dredd - Armon Gill - Judge Grice - Morton Judd - Kleggs - Judge Kraken - Mechanismo - Stan Lee - Marty Zpok - PJ Maybe - Nero Narcos - Orlock - Shojun the Warlord - Judge Sinfield - Call-Me-Kenneth - Mr. Moonie - Murd the Oppresor - Owen Krysler - Don Uggie Apelino - Captain Skank - Father Earth - Kazan - Bulgarin - General Blood'n'Guts - Satanus - Satan - Fink Angel - Ratty - Rhode Island Red - Phobia - Nausia - America Jara - Cesare - Judge Mortis - Judge Fear - Judge Death - Judge Fire - Manners - Ramses - Trapper Hag - Sabbat - Wu Yang - Yin Mie - Randolph Whitely - Judge Choke - Judge Sleep - Judge Sludge - Judge Burroghs - Judge Fistula - Judge Skinner - Judge Stigmata - The Seven Samurai - Rex Peters - Slocum - Kenny Who? - Nosferatu - Grampus - Heavy Metal Kid - Ratty - Elvis - The Warlords - DeGaulle - The Joker - The Scarecrow - The Riddler - Arnold Wesker - Lobo - Judge Kurten - Pink Eyes - Aimee Nixon - Mr. Bones - Effil Drago San - Bella Bagley - Dune Sharks - Xenomorphs - Ueno Hama - Raptaurs - The Explosive Man - Judge Sherman - Ankhhor - President Clinton Box - Pamelina Oswin
Other Characters Chopper - Vienna Dredd - Fergee - Yassa Povey - Jacob Sardini - Walter the Wobot - Henry Ford - Spikes Harvey Rotten - Tweak - Tony Tubbs - Otto Sump - Mrs. Gunderson - Sensitive Klegg - Jack Point - Maria - Benneet Beeny - Grunwalder - Old Joe Blind - Max Normal - Toots Milloy - Mr. Harke - Mr. Burr - Jim Grubb - Dave the Orangutan - Nimrod - The Creep - Johnny Alpha - Wulf Sternhammer - The Fargo Clan - Randy Fargo - Jubal Fargo - Hocus Ritter - Batman - Harry Henson
Storylines America - The Apocalypse War - Block Mania - City of the Damned - The Cursed Earth - Day of Chaos - Democracy - The Doomsday Scenario - The Hunting Party - The Judge Child - Judgement Day - Mechanismo - Mutants - Necropolis - Origins - Oz - The Pit - The Robot Wars - Tour of Duty Trifecta - Wilderlands
Crossovers Judge Dredd vs. Aliens - Judgement on Gotham - Predator vs. Judge Dredd - Mars Attacks Judge Dredd
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