Counting down my Top 10 Girls of Judge Dredd for the episodes compiled up to Case Files 19 – it’s a running list which I will update for each volume, with some of the best entries yet to come from future episodes…

Like my Top 10 Heroes, Judges tend to predominate the entries, with six of my Top 10 Girls of Judge Dredd as female Judges – and half of those are Psi-Judges, not surprisingly given the prevalence of female Psi-Judges in the comic. Of course, it helps that Psi-Judges don’t wear helmets, but I’d be willing to bet that Psi Division might have the highest proportion of female Judges, perhaps reflecting a higher proportion of females in the psi-active population.

 

 

(10) BABES IN ARMS – TIGER HUNTER NEE MARLOWE (1992)
(CASE FILES 17 – BABES IN ARMS: prog 776)

 

For my Judge Dredd top tens, I tend to draw my wildcard tenth place entry from the most current or previous Case File volume in my Mega-City Law reviews. However at present there are slim pickings from Case Files 18 or 19 so I’ve gone with the titular Babes in Arms of the four episode roaring rampage of revenge in progs 776-779 from Case Files 17.

“They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…Tonight, Mega-City One and Judge Dredd will feel that fury.”

Of course, there are four of the titular Babes in Arms, four ex-wives from Mega-City Two seeking out their former husbands in Mega-City One – who, let’s be honest, have it coming. A collective entry may do for a special mention but I have to pick one for a top ten entry. Fortunately, again that’s an easy choice – the first of the babes in arms we see, who also is the best, Tiger Hunter – or Tiger Marlowe prior to her marriage . Yes, that’s her actual name – and I must confess I fell a little in love with Tiger when I first saw her, striking quite the figure (somewhat reminiscent of this episode’s artist Greg Staples’ art of Niamh in Slaine), a blue-eyed wild redhead with a calm tone of voice but fire in her eyes as she confronts her cad of a husband. The other babes in arms didn’t quite do it for me but Tiger…

Sadly, the Babes’ roaring rampage of revenge can only end one way when it comes up against Judge Dredd. Even poor Tiger looks spooked to see Dredd is involved. Fortunately, she doesn’t end up dead but in an iso-cube, although unfortunately I don’t recall any subsequent appearance.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(9) PSI-JUDGE KARYN (1991)
(CASE FILES 16 – RAPTAUR: Megazine 1.14)

 

Introduced as a Psi-Judge hotshot in the Megazine Raptaur story.

I suppose that’s ex-Psi Judge Karyn now, as her hotshot career was cut short when she became host to the vampiric Shadow King

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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( 8 ) PSI-JUDGE KIT AGEE (1990):
(CASE FILES 14 – NECROPOLIS: prog 676)

 

Poor empath Psi-Judge Kit Agee – served up by Kraken Dredd to be used as a conduit for the Sisters of Death and kick-start Necropolis

Bonus points for being gal pals with Anderson and nicknaming Dredd “His Majesty”.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(7) WU WANG (1989)
(CASE FILES 13 – ON MEETING YOUR ENEMY: prog 622)

 

Wu Wang (or so she calls herself) was introduced all the way back in Case Files 13 prior to Necropolis, as a female disciple of Stan Lee’s dojo, bent on vengeance for Dredd’s defeat of Stan Lee, a.k.a Deathfist, “the best martial artist to ever come out of the radlands of Ji” who ended up in an iso-cube courtesy of Dredd.

In that episode, she was not named – although she should have been dubbed Lady Deathfist – and despite her obvious enthusiasm for her training in destroying a robot duplicate of Dredd, bided her time for three years until we saw her again.

In fairness, Dredd did unexpectedly take the long walk and then there was the whole Necropolis thing the next year.

Anyway, she returned for a four-episode story, Art of Geomancy, in progs 762-765 compiled in Case Files 16.

Funnily enough, he just happens to be doing airport border control duty when she arrives on her flight, presumably from Sino-Cit 1 or Sino-Cit 2. She could have got her vengeance there and then but to paraphrase one of my favorite lines from American Dad – sure she could have killed him immediately with her knowledge of pressure points, but she wanted to try something much more elaborate and unnecessary. In this case, that involves literally sticking a paper with her calling card on his back, the character for Deathfist and the character for rolling thunder…or wu wang. Apparently the character can also convey surprise or the unexpected – which is ironic as she’d now lost any element of that.

She also has a curious choice of ninja stealth outfit – a swimsuit design not unlike that of the Marvel comics character Psylocke, and worse, in white, but as terrible as it is for ninja stealth, it’s what gets her this entry in the top ten, albeit as something of a placeholder until the likes of Demarco or Oola Blint come along.

Anyway, she springs the trap and captures Dredd – sure, she could just kill him but she wants him to break him first, to have him apologize, for honor or ‘face’. Ironically, Dredd uses surprise or the unexpected – his back-up Judges arriving = to get the jump on her. No iso-cube for her either – he just kills her, snapping her neck, although to be fair his options were very limited from a single opportunity. Still, it seems like a double standard compared to what happened to Stan Lee.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(6) VIENNA DREDD (1979)
(CASE FILE 3 – VIENNA: prog 116)

 

You must have seen this one coming. Or perhaps not since she vanished as a young girl from the comic for 23 years, returning as an adult. Yes – she gets in my top ten up to Case Files 17 on a technicality, as she appeared as a child in a single episode, but I’m taking it, with an eye ahead to her reappearance as an adult in future episodes.

That’s right – it’s Dredd’s niece, daughter of his corrupt clone-brother Rico.

She was introduced all the way back in prog 116, the first episode collected in Case Files 3 – the same episode that saw Dredd send her away for 23 years. It was worth it just to see “Uncle Joe” pushing Vienna on a swing – adorable!

The plot of the episode is driven by Vienna being kidnapped by someone seeking revenge against Dredd – a recurring plot point for Vienna when we see her again as an adult.

As a final venomous sting, her kidnapper tells her that Dredd killed Rico, something Dredd had kept secret from Vienna, for obvious reasons of the therapy THAT would involve. Yet Vienna forgives him for killing her father, because “Uncle Joe” must have had a good reason.

Seriously, I wiped away a tear at that. Even more so as Dredd tells her guardian, Mrs Pasternak, that he will see even less of Vienna – and hopes that Mrs Pasternak will help Vienna forget him. As he thinks to himself as he walks out of Vienna’s life, “I’m a judge. Someday I, too, will be killed. Vienna couldn’t take that again, not a second time. She’s suffered enough because of me. Let it end here”.

And indeed we did see less of her – nothing – until those 23 years later, when she was to return into Dredd’s life on a more enduring basis. After all, she was too good a character to let lie, as a reflection of Dredd’s humanity, with all the conflict that brings with the Law

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
B-TIER (HIGH TIER). At least for now until we reach those episodes where she reappears but I’m counting her from her first appearance.

 

 

(5) JUDGE DEKKER (1984)
(CASE FILES 7 – SUPERBOWL: prog 370)

 

A promising female Judge – whom Dredd thought to be his best rookie – blazing through a few episodes before fading out of sight, until being revived as a character (by writer Garth Ennis in the 1990s) only to be killed off (by Ennis in Judgement Day). Talk about women in refrigerators…that old trope in comics of female characters being routinely killed off (named for one such character stuffed into a refrigerator).

Dekker was introduced with somewhat more fanfare than the similar Judge Perrier – a rookie Judge assigned to Dredd for her final field evaluation to qualify as full Judge, and one whom Dredd muses to be his best rookie ever. She passes with flying colors – attributing her success to Dredd’s own text on comportment. Dredd you magnificent bastard, she read your book!

In appearance and role, she resembled the more enduring Judge Hershey, although Hershey was not formally Dredd’s rookie – probably because the writers hoped to reuse that character formula.

Unfortunately, she vanished from the comic until a decade or so later, as writer Garth Ennis was fanboy of the 1980s Dredd comics and revived her character, but even more unfortunately Dekker went out with a bang during the Judgement Day epic

RIP Judge Dekker

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(4) JUDGE PERRIER (1982)
(CASE FILES 5 – APOCALYPSE WAR: prog 255)

 

Yes, last entry was something of a spoiler for her in this entry but Judge Perrier deserves to be memorialized within the Judge Dredd comic as the unsung hero of the Apocalypse War. She was introduced as a tough as nails street Judge and member of the Mega-City One resistance force in the Apocalypse War. And as has been pointed out by Judge Anon’s A Short History of Female Judges, she singlehandedly turned the tide of an entire battle (and much of the fighting within Mega-City One) by turning over a powerful new weapon – the stub guns – to Judge Dredd and his guerilla force.

Sadly, she only featured in a few panels in that epic and dropped out of sight until writer Garth Ennis took a liking to the character and used her in the 1990s. (Judge Anon opines that was because Ennis was a huge Dredd fanboy and an even huger Apocalypse War fanboy). Even more sadly, Ennis killed her off in the Judgement Day epic, albeit in quite moving fashion

RIP Judge Perrier

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(3) LIANA (1989)
(CASE FILES 12 – THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF PJ MAYBE, AGE 14: prog 599)

 

Yeah – I’d kill for her too, PJ.

Briefly the girlfriend of PJ Maybe, Liana earns her place in my Girls of Judge Dredd from this pose alone in prog 633, looking fine after her morning swim – although she was first introduced as his love interest back in prog 599. Like his parents, she was completely oblivious to his “psychopathic tendencies” as a juvenile serial killer.

In fairness he did actively try to avoid killing his targets when she was his girlfriend, although that was more to avoid suspicion – but that slipped up through sheer bad luck, ending up with him apprehended by Judge Dredd and detained in a psych cube.

Sadly, we only caught a few glimpses of Liana like this in these episodes – and while PJ was to return, we didn’t see Liana again. But she’ll always have a place in my heart (and probably PJ’s) from this pose alone.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(2) (CHIEF) JUDGE BARBARA HERSHEY (1980)
(CASE FILES 4 – JUDGE CHILD QUEST: prog 161)

 

Judge Hershey was memorably introduced, not quite as Dredd’s rookie, but as a rising new Judge picked for Dredd’s deep-space planet-hopping Judge Child Quest – shortly after her graduation from the Academy of Law in 2102 at age eighteen. She so impressed Dredd that she returned in the Apocalypse War, where she was part of Dredd’s hand-picked elite squad to take down the Soviet mega-city East Meg One. For nearly two decades thereafter, she regularly appeared as Dredd’s junior colleague, before being promoted to become his superior.

Barbara Hershey – or Judge Hershey to you, punk – is one of the two primary female judges in the Judge Dredd comic, the other of course being Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson. Dare I call her the brunette Judge Anderson?

In appearance, Hershey shares Anderson’s preference for not wearing helmets, characteristic of a Psi-Judge for the latter but unusual in a street Judge for the former, although Hershey’s sci-fi bob was drawn to resemble a Judge’s helmet. They also share their preference for the occasional high-heeled boots. Otherwise, Hershey was drawn for a sterner, more – ah- judicial appearance than Anderson’s characteristic softer appearance (originally modelled on singer Deborah Harry), as befitting the latter’s more empathic nature as a Psi-Judge. That isn’t to say that Hershey is not of similarly striking appearance – she even has her fans within the comic’s storyline, although that often overlaps with something of a fetish for female Chief Judges. Well, female Chief Judges that weren’t McGruder. Notably Hershey’s face is apparently a highly sought after model among dominatrix s€xbots. Yes, Chief Judge!

The strongest comparison is in their narrative importance within the comic, although Hershey would rank below Anderson in character focus (and lack of her own spinoff title, until recently). And of course, each had very different destinies. As Psi-Judge, Anderson has followed the road less travelled (although the stuff of Psi-Judges makes for more interesting stories, hence the spinoff title). Hershey was the street Judge par excellence – and as noted above, rose to THE top spot as Chief Judge, rising through the ranks to the Council of Five and appointments as acting Chief Judge and Deputy Chief Judge.

And one of the best features of Chief Judge Hershey is her sass – she doesn’t take crap from anyone, least of all Dredd himself. As Chief Judge, she continues to have a good relationship with Dredd, but let’s face it, Dredd has his issues from time to time (and from writer to writer).

 

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(1) PSI-JUDGE JUDGE CASSANDRA ANDERSON (1980)
(CASE FILES 3 – JUDGE DEATH: prog 150)

 

Judge Dredd’s – and anthology publication 2000 AD’s – most iconic and enduring female character, something which may be related to her status as the comic’s primary pinup girl. A status that may also be in the actual narrative or ‘in-universe’ in the comic as well, depending on how seriously we take the advertisements with her as model for Yess Trousers, the contractor for those judicial leather uniforms.

She was introduced in 1980, along with the comic’s most iconic and enduring supervillain, in the Judge Death story arc, as the primary female character in Judge Dredd – in both senses of the first major female character and the most substantial one, even spinning off in storylines in her own name.

She also served as the introduction to Mega-City One Justice Department’s ‘psychic’ judges against such supernatural threats as Judge Death, although they use the characteristically science fiction nomenclature of ‘psi’ for the Psi-Division or Psi-Judges. Anderson is introduced as Psi Division’s leading telepath (and precognitive), with her appearance originally modelled on contemporary singer Debbie Harry.

She was also introduced as something of a foil to Dredd, albeit not in the same villainous way as Judge Death – as opposed to Dredd’s laconic and taciturn expression, she has a cheery disposition (regarded by Dredd as flippant), which lends itself to cracking jokes, often at Dredd’s expense. Then again, this is part of her nature as a Psi-Judge, as they all tend towards eccentric personalities by Justice Department standards (and tolerated as part of their useful abilities). In Anderson’s case, her ability earned her the enduring trust of Dredd – and she remains one of the few people who regularly calls him by his first name Joe or that he trusts enough for his most important missions. It wasn’t just her ability that earned his trust, but her strength of character and courage, however hidden under her ‘flippant’ disposition – demonstrated in her introductory story arc by her heroic self-sacrifice to save the city, sealing herself and the villainous Judge Death within a protective encasement Mega-City One’s ‘miracle’ plastic boing.

Of course, both she and Judge Death were far too interesting and popular characters to remain wrapped in plastic…

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

 

S-TIER (GODDESS TIER)

(1) PSI-JUDGE CASSANDRA ANDERSON

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

(2) JUDGE BARBARA HERSHEY

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

(3) LIANA

(4) JUDGE PERRIER

(5) JUDGE DEKKER

(6) VIENNA DREDD

(7) WU WANG

(8) PSI-JUDGE KIT AGEE

(9) PSI-JUDGE KARYN

 

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(10) TIGER HUNTER NEE MARLOWE – BABES IN ARMS