Judge Edgar

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Judge Edgar (painted by John Burns)
Judge Edgar (painted by John Burns)

Judge Jura Edgar is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. Although she is not evil or a murderer in the manner of most villains in the Judge Dredd series, she is nevertheless one of Dredd's adversaries. She was the head of the Public Surveillance Unit from 2100 to 2122, and then the governor of a prison farm in the Cursed Earth.

[edit] Fictional character biography

Edgar became head of PSU when she lost the use of her legs after receiving a back injury when wounded in the line of duty. She moved around using a hoverchair (anti-gravity wheelchair), and became renowned for her strict discipline and high expectations of her staff. She became PSU's longest serving head, serving twenty-two years. She occasionally used the wealth of confidential information at her disposal to play power games with other judges to increase her own influence. This led people to compare her to the 20th century FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and she acquired the nickname "J. Edgar Hover" (only ever used behind her back).

In 2117 she was discovered to be illicitly keeping sensitive information on other senior judges, which had been compiled by Judge Cal for the purposes of blackmail when he was head of the SJS, the Judges' internal affairs division. Chief Judge Volt decided to take no action against her, but when Judge Hershey succeeded him as chief judge in 2122, Hershey immediately had Edgar arrested and investigated by the SJS. On trial before the Council of Five, Edgar defended herself with skill and defiance. She briskly and brusquely discredited what had initially seemed to be overwhelming evidence, reducing the prosecution case to nothing more than empty innuendo, and claimed that the charge was politically-motivated.

Besides the seniority of the defendant, Edgar's trial is also notable for being the only occasion when Judge Dredd ever sat on the Council – having always declined a permanent seat – when he agreed to sit in a vacant seat to make up the numbers for the duration of the trial.

Although Edgar was acquitted of all criminal charges, she was still dismissed from office by Chief Judge Hershey. Judge Niles, who was head of SJS and who had personally led the investigation (and brought the whole affair to Hershey's attention in the first place), was transferred from SJS to take over command of the PSU.

Edgar was demoted to the lowly position of commanding Cursed Earth Correctional Facility 17, where she remains.

During the "Chief Judge's Man" story arc she was astonished to be asked to help Dredd catch the killer, and there is clearly too much bad blood for the two to ever reconcile. While head of PSU she forced Dredd's friend Galen DeMarco out of the Justice Department, as well as numerous other run-ins with Dredd.

In the recent story "The Edgar Case" she is shown to be in very ill health and on the verge of death.

[edit] Bibliography

All stories written by John Wagner.

  • "The Cal Files" (art by John Burns, in 2000 AD #955-959, 1995)
  • "The Scorpion Dance" (art by John Burns, in 2000 AD #1125-1132, 1998-1999)
  • "Volt Face" (art by Colin Wilson, in 2000 AD #1167, 1999) (cameo appearance only)
  • "The Cal Legacy" (art by Colin Wilson, in 2000 AD #1178-1179, 2000)
  • "The Edgar Case" (art by Patrick Goddard, in 2000 AD #1589-...., 2008)

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Unknown		 Head of PSU
2100–2122		 Succeeded by
Judge Niles
v • d • e
Judge Dredd
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