PJ Maybe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PJ Maybe

PJ Maybe (left), painted by Cliff Robinson
Publication information
Publisher IPC Media
First appearance 2000 AD #534 (August 8, 1987)
Created by John Wagner, Alan Grant (writers)
Liam Sharp (artist)
In story information
Full name Philip Janet Maybe

Philip Janet Maybe is a fictional character in the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd. He is a serial killer, and has currently assumed the identity of Mayor Byron Ambrose, who he murdered.

Contents

[edit] Fictional character biography

The only child of the Maybe family and a relative of the wealthy Yess family (a family of trouser makers), he was a child genius and serial killer. (His middle name is Janet because his parents wanted a girl.) He deliberately kept his high intelligence secret, by learning to spell badly and act stupidly, in order to avoid getting caught. He killed for the first time at age 12, by murdering a neighborhood couple who he chose at random from the phone book, as an experiment. He moved on to gradually killing members of the Yess family, setting things up so his father could assume control of the company. After being captured by Judge Dredd, he was sent to an asylum.

After Necropolis, he escaped and fled back home (where he witnessed his parents' suicide). Shortly afterwards, he was contacted by a family friend, Mrs Urchison. He killed both her and her only child, and used the family's face changing machine to alter his appearance to impersonate her son. After inheriting the family fortune and killing several more associates, he was apprehended by Dredd as he was escaping to Ciudad Barranquilla. By this time he had murdered 21 people before his eighteenth birthday.

Imprisoned for seven years in Iso-Block 666, he escaped again by drugging his psychiatrist and another patient with a mind-altering drug, to convince both of them that the hapless patient was in fact PJ Maybe. Using the Second Robot War as cover, he left the Iso-Block and attempted to change his face into that of a billionaire named Gunga Dinsdale. Tricked by a back street merchant (who disfigured him), he killed a street judge nearby and fled the city.

Once free, he stole the identity of Pedro Julio Montez and faked his own death. Maybe had his heart removed and replaced with an artificial one, the real heart being given to Judge Dredd as proof of death. The heart went on display in the Black Museum inside the Grand Hall of Justice. He later went back to Mega-City One to set up a lucrative business deal with the city. This was all subterfuge for his real plan: to kill six childhood tormentors for accusing him at age 6 of attempting to injure them (which he had done, but he felt that they should not have accused him anyway). After killing five of the six, he realised that Dredd might identify and protect the sixth, since Dredd now relaised that Maybe was in fact alive. He therefore drugged a pilot and ordered him to crash into the sixth victim's apartment block, igniting an inferno that killed twenty thousand.

Shortly after his escape, several ambassadors from Mega City One came to Ciudad Barranquilla with Dredd guarding them - a cover for the Judge's secret attempts to locate him. Maybe was prepared for this, and murdered four ambassadors to taunt Dredd. He then kidnapped doctor and millionaire philanthropist Byron Ambrose and switched Ambrose's heart for an artificial one. After having his own DNA records swapped with those of Ambrose by drugged judges, he then tricked Dredd into believing he was dead by letting Ambrose die in a fire, to be identified as Maybe from the DNA and the heart, while Maybe assumed his identity. Maybe also had Ambrose's real heart swapped for his own in the Black Museum, and ordered the drugged judges to kill themselves, to avoid any possibility of his plans being discovered. He returned to Mega-City One, already planning more killings.

In 2129 Maybe was elected Mayor of Mega-City One after killing the mayor, running as a candidate in the ensuing election, and framing his opponent for the murder (and a string of other murders). While Maybe is now in a place of power (though given the status of the mayor's office, not very much), his murders led Dredd to suspect that once again Maybe has cheated death. By Christmas, he began killing for fun again (starting with the deputy mayor), though at the same time he has proven to be a highly effective civic leader, even gaining Dredd's approval.

In early 2130, a biography of his life was published; Maybe planned to kill the author. A young boy named JP Buwick began emulating PJ Maybe's early killings after reading the biography (including signing the killings "PJ Mabey"), and Maybe became paranoid that his identity was known and he was being challenged. He tracked down Buwick but was beaten to the punch by Judge Beeny, who was investigating Buwick's murders. Instead he killed the biography author by the same method he had intended to kill Buwick with: drowning her in a PortaPool of jelly which was then allowed to set, and left for Judges to find.

[edit] Methods

  • His personal assistant, accomplice and lover is a robot named Inga. PJ seems to be in love with Inga, noting how much more reliable robots are than humans. She seems to be the only thing he cares about, and while faking his death she was the only thing he retained, even though recent events have indicated that the almost unique robot could lead to people discovering his real identity.
  • Even following successful escapes, Maybe is incapable of stopping his spree or changing his M.O. significantly. This has twice led to him being caught by Dredd after successful escapes, and PJ was twice forced to fake his own death to escape Dredd's trail. He also seems unable to remain away from Mega-City One. At one point he had successfully taken control of billions of credits in Ciudad Barranquilla and faked his death well enough to satisfy Dredd, only to return to his home city a few years later and engage in a spree of murders that led Dredd to learn of his continued existence, track him down and force Maybe to fake his own death again, costing him his money and nearly his life.
  • Maybe likes to "experiment" with his murders, for instance his creation of a robot device for use in his first murder. "Creative" killings like leaving copper skysurf pants for a skysurfer (who was then struck by lightning), drugging people into doing his killing for him, various unusual killings when he took revenge on a group of people who tormented him as a child (which made Dredd suspect his survival once again). Maybe rarely resorts to firearms, preferring his own methods of killing.

[edit] Stories

All the stories published up to 2005 have been collected in The Complete P.J. Maybe.

Reprinted in the The Henry Flint Collection

Not yet reprinted:

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Judge Dredd
Judges:
Villains:
Characters:
Storylines:
Spin-offs:
Crossovers:
Locations:
Other media:
Publications:
Miscellaneous: