Compiling special mentions for my Girls of Judge Dredd…
Unlike special mentions for my Heroes of Judge Dredd and Villains of Judge Dredd, I’ve yet to compile my usual twenty special mentions, given the paucity of distinctive female characters that captured my eye or enduring interest up to Volume 19 for special mention. I was able to squeeze out a Top 10 Judge Dredd Girls as at Volume 19 but only ten special mentions – and technically only six or seven from the regular progs or episodes, as I got creative with the other three or four special mentions (one from the Dredd film, one also from the film but as an alternate version of a top ten entry, one as another alternate version in the comic of a top ten entry, and one which features in her own storyline from the Megazine).
However, it is a running list which I will update for each volume as I refresh myself of characters I missed – or art I couldn’t otherwise locate except by screenshots from the episodes. There’s some big names coming up in future volumes for top ten entries or special mention.
(1) MA-MA (2012):
(DREDD – FILM)
“Peach Trees, this is Ma-Ma. Somewhere in this block are two Judges. I want them dead. Until I get what I want the block is locked down.”
That pretty much sums up the plot of the 2012 Dredd film – and its antagonist, Madeline Madrigal or Ma-Ma played by Lena Headey, “a scarred, psychopathic prostitute turned drug kingpin with a trademark for excessive violence”.
She was an original antagonist for the film – and that film features a somewhat alternate version of Dredd in any event – but she did get her own origin comic.
(2) PSI-JUDGE CASSANDRA ANDERSON (2012):
(DREDD – FILM)
Yes – I already have her as the obvious top spot in my Top 10 Judge Dredd Girls but that was the version from the comics. This is the version from the 2012 Dredd film, played by Olivia Thirlby. Although she of course is based on the character in the comics, I feel she is sufficiently different – not least in her origin as Dredd’s rookie – to earn a special mention.
(3) FATHER EARTH GROUPIES (1979):
(CASE FILES 3 – FATHER EARTH: prog 122)
The two flower maidens that follow the mutant messiah Father Earth and literal embodiment of flower power, watering and pruning him. Surprisingly healthy and wholesome given they come from the Cursed Earth
(4) DOCTOR RODNINA (1979)
(CASE FILES 3 – BATTLE OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC: prog 129)
Disappointingly, Doctor Rodnina was a one shot character from The Battle of the Black Atlantic two-episode storyline.
Fortunately for Dredd, this hot Sov doctor – Doctor Rodnina, her name adapted from the Russian word Rodina for homeland – takes her Hippocratic Oath seriously and intervenes to save him from Black Atlantic poisoning
And is that Dredd getting frisky? Don’t worry it’s a ruse – his uncharacteristic attempt at seduction, admittedly framed in more political terms of defection are simply a ploy to steal her scalpel for his escape.
And escape he does, just in time to thwart the more belligerent Sov commander Judge Molotov’s more, ah, terminal diagnosis and treatment, as well as to make good on his declared arrest of the ship and its crew – not least saving Mega-City One from Sov attack. But only for now – as the Sov Judges will prove to be Mega-City One’s most effective recurring adversaries…
(5) JENNO MATRYX (1981)
(CASE FILES 4 – PIRATES OF THE BLACK ALTANTIC: prog 197)
“Nuke boffin” (as Chief Justice Griffin calls her) captured by the Pirates of the Black Atlantic. She chose poorly…
“You had a hard choice to make, Citizen Matryx. You made the wrong one. Take her away”
(6) THE EXECUTIONER / BLANCHE KOMINSKY (1982)
(CASE FILES 6 – THE EXECUTIONER: prog 291)
Ex-cadet turned vigilante to avenge her husband’s death in a tragic tale told without black humor or satire.
Part of her drama and tragedy revolve around its central plot and theme of vigilantism – something which seems to strike at the heart of the Law in Mega-City One, which as I have commented previously, seems to have an awful lot of limitations when dealing with organized crime or criminals. It always strikes me as odd that any self-respecting fascist police state can’t simply act against citizens who are well-known (or highly suspected) figures or even leaders of criminal organizations by, you know, just arresting them without awaiting such inconveniences as evidence or legal process. It goes to show that the characterization of Mega-City One’s Justice Department and Judges as fascist may not be quite so straightforward or without nuance.
Anyway, in this case the vigilante is female, as both the narrative reveals to the reader and the evidence surrounding her actions to the Judges. Indeed, the narrative drops a clue to her motive when we first see her, although the significance of it is only revealed later – she tells a restaurant that she is waiting for her husband, effectively a cover as she excuses herself before scaling the walls to the penthouse and killing her criminal targets, only to depart that her husband won’t be coming. And as the story reveals, the female vigilante – dubbed the Executioner – is seeking her justice against the organized crime figures that killed her husband (albeit indirectly as he committed suicide to avoid loan sharks) and left her two children without a father.
Unfortunately for her, Judge Dredd surmises – correctly – that the Executioner has the professionalism of training consistent with a Judge. Initially – and incorrectly – he reviews female Judges as suspects, before correctly realizing that the Executioner is not a Judge but a former rookie or cadet Judge. And so he narrows it down to ex-cadet Blanche Kominsky, expelled for an “unauthorized liaison with a male citizen”.
And so we come to the tragic part of the tale. As the saying goes, when you plan revenge, first dig two graves – one for your enemy and one for yourself. Of course, Blanche had more than one enemy in mind, but otherwise knew that she was doomed when pitted against both her criminal targets and the Judges, yet can’t let it rest nor wants to live afterwards. As she tells her children goodbye (and that she loves them before sending them to their grandmother) as she knows she is seeing them for the last time, “I have to…I have a job to finish”. And finish it she does, executing the last crime figure responsible for her husband’s death, but not without evading the Judges – including Dredd – who rush to the scene. But she had planned even for this, drawing her gun on Dredd with an apparent threat “It’s all over, all right”, forcing him to shoot (and kill) her. As one of the other Judges exclaims – “Her gun, Dredd – it wasn’t loaded. I guess she wanted to die”. To which Dredd responds, with it seems a touch of pity – “She got her wish”.
(7) VAMPIRE HERSHEY (1984)
(CASE FILES 8 – CITY OF THE DAMNED: prog 395)
Yes – like Anderson, I already have Judge Hershey in the equally obvious second top spot in my Top 10 Judge Dredd Girls, but this is vampire Hershey. Mmm…vampire Hershey. The alternate future version of her in 2120 that has been transformed by the Mutant along with all other Mega-City Judges into vampires.
(8) JUDGE BLUE (1989)
(CASE FILES 13 – THE CONFESHUNS OF PJ MAYBE: prog 632)
Stop the press! Who’s that?
Yes – I noticed Judge Blue, the headbanded Tek-Judge (I think) assisting Dredd with his interrogation of PJ Maybe, even though we saw only a few glimpses of her in this storyline, including one of her badge naming her as Blue.
That’s her on the right in the panel above – and as a treat, I’ll throw the other anonymous antennaed Tek-Judge on the left of the panel into this special mention as well.
(9) XENA LOWTHER (1990)
(CASE FILES 14 – NECROPOLIS / DEAR ANNIE: prog 672)
I have to give special mention to poor Xena, as well as feature this panel again – that’s her in the upper right being confronted by Judge Death. She…takes a turn for the worse from here.
That’s the happiest (and prettiest) we see her from here onwards – although she narrowly escapes death at, well, Death’s hands, she’s left gravely psychologically and psychically injured, deteriorating into a corpse-like Death fangirl and ultimately conduit for the Sisters of Death to invade Mega-City One.
(10) AIKO INABA (1993)
(MEGAZINE 2.37)
Okay – she just squeezes into my special mentions as at Case Files 19, as she featured in a separate storyline in the same Megazine episodes as those with Dredd compiled in Case Files 19. It’s also special mention because as far as I’m aware she doesn’t feature in any regular Judge Dredd episode as far as I’m aware, although Dredd does mention her in one so he must have crossed paths with her or at least know of her.
Hondo City’s first female Judge Inspector – one could see her as the Hondo City predecessor and equivalent of Judge Beeny, wanting to change the system from within.