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Mutants are a recurring theme in the Judge Dredd science-fiction stories published in British comics 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. They appear in several stories. They are genetically-flawed, physically-deformed people who are the subject of prejudice and apartheid in the 22nd century.

Overview

Mutants have appeared in Judge Dredd since the earliest stories in 1977. "The Cursed Earth" (1978) explained that they were de novo mutations created by radiation or radioactive contamination following the Atomic Wars in 2070. Their genetic mutations (which are inherited by their children) caused them to exhibit bizarre physical deformities, which made them the victims of irrational prejudice by those fortunate enough to be unaffected by the disaster — normal people, or "norms." As a result, all mutants were deprived of citizenship and expelled from Mega-City One, Judge Dredd's city on the east coast of America, and forced to live in the radioactive wasteland outside the city, the inhospitable and lawless Cursed Earth. There they remained for sixty years.

Mutants were prohibited from entering the city, and those who attempted to enter by scaling the city walls would be arrested and expelled, or killed resisting arrest. They would usually feature in stories simply as hostile criminals for Dredd to fight, but some stories set in the Cursed Earth would also show them in a more sympathetic light, as victims of unjust oppression by future society (or sometimes more directly as victims of crime). Initially mutants were mainly used in fight sequences in action stories, but as the years went by, and the tone of Judge Dredd stories matured to appeal to a wider audience, stories featuring mutants increasingly emphasized the injustice of their plight, and the harsh, uncompromising enforcement of the anti-mutant laws by Judge Dredd and the Mega-City Justice Department (for example "The Gipper's Big Night," (1991)).

Judge Dredd himself was prepared to treat mutants decently when he met them in the Cursed Earth, so long as they behaved themselves. However, any who entered his city were automatically criminals, and had to be dealt with accordingly and without compassion. Any normal person who harboured a mutant was themself guilty of a crime, and liable to strict penalties. Since a normal woman could still give birth to a mutant child, the parents of mutated offspring would sometimes go to great lengths to conceal the birth and raise their child in secret. Detection of a mutant foetus in a routine pregnancy scan would result in mandatory abortion; detection of a mutant birth would result in the parents being forced to choose between exile to the Cursed Earth or euthanasia of the child.

However in 2007 a storyline began in which Dredd insisted on the repeal of the anti-mutant laws. This story is till ongoing as of 2008.

Dredd's mutant relations

In 2006, early episodes of the story "Origins" introduced Randy Fargo and his family, mutants who are distant cousins of Judge Dredd. Dredd was unaware of their existence until he met them in the Cursed Earth in 2129. After the Fargos helped Dredd in his mission, they parted on amicable terms. However they would soon return to the Judge Dredd strip in 2007. "Origins" heralded a turning-point in the treatment of mutants by writer John Wagner, and indeed by the character Dredd as well. Instead of making brief appearances in the strip to emphasize the science-fictional setting, mutants became the focus of a new storyline which explored Dredd's shifting attitude towards the issue of mutant rights, which began in 2007.

"Mutants in Mega-City One"

"Origins" was followed by the story "Mutants in Mega-City One," which began a series of stories about mutants. This story arc is still ongoing as of 2008.

In "Mutants in Mega-City One," (2007) Judge Dredd concludes that the anti-mutant laws are unjust and should be repealed, having given serious thought to the issue for the first time in his life as a result of meeting his mutant relatives. He persuades Chief Judge Hershey to put his motion to a vote before Mega-City One's ruling body, the Council of Five. While the vote is pending, however, Dredd is still obliged to enforce the very laws he seeks to repeal. When a normal couple discover that their newborn baby is a mutant, they abscond rather than face the Mutant Catchers, who will force them into exile in the Cursed Earth desert. They find refuge with other mutants in a safehouse run by sympathisers, where they hope to live in secret. However Dredd is searching for them, as absconding with a mutant child carries a mandatory sentence of three years.

In the course of his investigation, Dredd (and through Dredd, the reader) learns from another citizen about some of the terrible consequences of the city's prejudice against mutants. When the citizen's family was discovered to have been hiding his mutant younger brother for twelve years, the whole family was incarcerated for their crime, while the child was deported from the city to a mutant internment camp in the Cursed Earth. Unable to cope, the child died, and his body was fed to the pigs, mutants not being considered worthy of a decent burial.

Dredd eventually discovers the safehouse where the couple he seeks is hiding, and arrests everyone present. The normal citizens are imprisoned, and all of the mutants are deported to a mutant camp in the Cursed Earth.

Meanwhile the Council of Five unanimously votes against reforming the law. As a result, when Randy Fargo and some of Dredd's other mutant relations arrive at the city gate to visit him, Dredd is compelled to deny them entry to the city, and they are forced to turn back.

"Mutants in Mega-City One" was immediately followed by "The Facility" and "The Secret of Mutant Camp 5," in which Dredd tours Mega-City One's mutant camps in the Cursed Earth, and discovers that standards of care in the camps have sunk to a shockingly low level. His investigations uncover criminal neglect and appalling abuses, including starvation, torture and outright murder. Dredd cracks down on the camps and arrests most of the staff. Alarmed by Dredd's discoveries, Chief Judge Hershey becomes slightly more sympathetic to Dredd's new views, and orders an improvement in standards at the camps. Nevertheless, no change of general policy is forthcoming.

These stories contained obvious references to Guantanamo Bay detention camp and to the Nazi extermination camps. (They were also the first stories after the end of the "America" trilogy to feature Cadet America Beeny.)

Law reform

In "The Spirit of Christmas," Dredd again confronts the Chief Judge and demands a second vote on repealing the mutant laws, threatening to resign if she does not support him. As the city's most famous and feared judge, Hershey bows to this threat and agrees to schedule another vote, hoping that enough senior judges can be persuaded to change their minds.

Although "Emphatically Evil" (2008) was primarily a story about serial killer PJ Maybe (and Beeny's first case following her promotion to full judge), the mutants story continued as a subplot. Public opinion is radically against Dredd's proposed reforms, with polls showing that 96 percent of the city opposes relaxing strict controls on mutants. While anti-reform protests erupt into riots on the streets, the Council convenes to debate Dredd's motion. Although Dredd is absent from the meeting, not being a member of the Council, he has earlier met with the members to try to change their minds, saying "I believe in justice, and an injustice has to be righted, no matter how inconvenient." However it is not Dredd's logic but his threat to resign which ultimately carries the vote in his favour.

Following the vote, the story "...Regrets" depicts Randy Fargo's return to Mega-City One with his family, this time invited by the Judges as guests of honour. As relatives of Chief Judge Fargo (the founder of the Judge System and Dredd's clone father), their tour of the city attracts much media attention, and controversy. The Mayor of Mega-City One gives them all honourary citizenship, feelings are still running high amongst the population, and talk shows are full of heated debate about the merits of Dredd's law. Public opinion becomes slightly more favourable after Jubal Fargo gives his life to rescue a four-year-old child from kidnappers, and the Fargos return to their home in the Cursed Earth. However mutants' rights still continue to arouse strong passions.

Template:Future comic "Mutie Block" reveals that mutants are being admitted to the city following strict selection processes, and being given segregated accommodation in Norma Jean Baker Block. Anti-mutant protests are still continuing, and mutants are targeted for violent hate crimes, the murder rate for mutants being 3,600 percent above average. Official government policy is to actively discourage mutants from entering the city by giving them demotivational speeches on their arrival and offering cash bribes in exchange for relinquishing their claims to citizenship. This story is ongoing as of August 2008.

Bibliography

This is a list of the stories which make up the ongoing 2007-2008 storyline following "Origins." All stories written by John Wagner.

• "Mutants in Mega-City One" (art by Colin MacNeil, in 2000 AD #1542-1545, 2007)
• "The Facility" (art by Colin MacNeil, in 2000 AD #1546, 2007)
• "The Secret of Mutant Camp 5" (art by Colin MacNeil, in 2000 AD #1547-1548, 2007)
• "The Spirit of Christmas" (art by Colin MacNeil, in 2000 AD #2008, 2007)
• "Emphatically Evil: The Life and Crimes of PJ Maybe" (art by Colin MacNeil, in 2000 AD #1569-1575, 2008)
• "...Regrets" (art by Nick Dyer, in 2000 AD #1577-1581, 2008)
• "Mutie Block" (art by Kev Walker, in 2000 AD #1600-ongoing, 2008)

See also

• Mutant (fictional)

References

1. 2000 AD #61-85
2. Megazine vol. 1 #10
3. 2000 AD #485-488; Megazine vol. 3 #70
4. Megazine vol. 1 #5
5. 2000 AD #1542
6. 2000 AD #1505-1519 and 1529-1535 (2006-07)
7. 2000 AD # 1542-45
8. 2000 AD #1600-....
9. 2000 AD #1546 and 1547-48
10. 2000 AD #2008
11. 2000 AD #1569-75
12. 2000 AD #1572
13. 2000 AD #1577-81
14. 2000 AD #1600-ongoing

• Judge Dredd
• Judge Dredd storylines
• Human-derived fictional species