Owen Krysler

Owen Krysler, also known as ​"The Judge Child" and  "The Mutant" was a major villain in the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd. He was the main antagonist in the storylines ' The Judge Child  ', '  Destiny's Angels  ' and  'City of the Damned.' He also appeared in Dredd's mind in ' In the year 2120 '.

The Judge Child
"I saw a war more ghastly than any we have known. I saw our city destroyed - And from the destruction foul creatures rose to prey on the survivors...! This will happen in the year 2120. But there is one who can save us. I have seen him. A child born of this city... He is no ordinary boy. On the head he bears the Eagle of Justice... He is fated to rule Mega-City One on it's greatest hour. I have only a name - Owen Krysler. He can guide us through the darkness. Find him - Find the Judge Child!"

- Judge Feyy's prophecy

The Prophecy
Judge Feyy, the oldest Psi-Judge in Mega-City One and was 88.8% accurate in his predictions of the future, prophesied a disaster in the year 2120 where the city was destroyed and creatures rose up from the destruction and preyed on the survivors and the only one who can save Mega-City One from the disaster is a boy who bears the Eagle of Justice on his head and is fated to rule Mega-City One on it's greatest hour. His name was Owen Krysler and Feyy told them they must find the Judge Child. Chief Judge Griffin told Dredd that numerous of their Pre-Cogs have predicted time of crisis in 2120s and that's the clearest vision yet and that there are 47 people named Owen Krysler in Mega-City One but their are none of them who fit the description from the prophecy. Griffin points out there is one other Owen Krysler who left the city with his parents four years ago and settled in the new Mutieland territories and Dredd then proceeded into the Cursed Earth to look for him.

The Abduction
Many days later Dredd has managed to find the settlement and found numerous people hanged and encounters a mutant who tells him that the slavers were responsible for this and looted everything they wanted excluding him due to him being ugly. Dredd asks him about the Kryslers and the mutant shows Dredd the corpses of Owen Krysler's parents and says the slavers abducted the boy. Dredd manages to find a picture of him and he has the Eagle of Justice on his head just like the prophecy and proceeded to look for the Slavers. A week later he managed to find the slavers who did it and stormed into their camp, taking down most of the slavers and knocking one into the sulphur sand, where he starts to slowly sink and begs Dredd to help him. Dredd demands to know where Owen Krysler is and the slaver says that he remembers him and he's a very strange boy, since he didn't shed a tear when his parents were killed like he knew it would happen and told Dredd he was brought on the slave market by some guys who are in the Neutron Flats. Dredd then lets the released slaves do whatever they want to him and Dredd starts to look for him.

The Slave Market
Dredd arrives at the biggest slave market in Mutieland and disguised himself by having a radiation cloak over his head. He witnessed an auction going on and after the auction Dredd goes into the auctioneer's tent and forces him to reveal Owen Krysler's whereabouts and the auctioneer says that he's been brought by Filmore Faro, the garbage king and the leader of the Brotherhood of Trash. He owns big garbage mines and owns tens of thousands of slaves and rules most of the land around Memphus. He then plans to plans a way to get into the territory without suspicion and tells his bike to remain at the West of the town and to follow him at a distance of two miles and to not do anything until he signals. He then lets himself get sold as a slave to the Brotherhood of Trash and arrives at the mine, with his bike behind him and it takes out the two guards mocking it. Dredd then see's a giant statue of Faro similar to Ancient Egypt and says that he looks insane. Another slave then tells him that he is since Faro believes that he's descended from the ancient Pharaohs and he also builds pyramids. Dredd then says he fears for the Judge Child.

Brotherhood of Trash
Dredd and the other slaves were put to work until Faro himself reveals himself and announces his death at tonight and when Dredd asks why he thinks that he's going to die tonight an another slave told him that a bird boy has predicted it and he's never wrong. Dredd then realises that it's the Judge Child and uses a small transmitter to tell his bike to create a diversion for two minutes and then to get out of there. Dredd and a group of slaves manage to escape and Dredd uses a uniform of a guard to sneak into the Temple of Trash, where Faro's preparing for his death and Brother Bunsen goes to the Judge Child, who then injects the boy with a drug.. Dredd manages to knock out two guards guarding the entrance and then tricks Bunsen there's trouble with some slaves and tells Dredd to watch the boy and runs out the door. Dredd thinks that it's been too easy and was then injected from behind and Bunsen reveals he knew a Judge would be there since the boy talks in his sleep and mentioned about a Judge. He then told Dredd that he's got a "reward" for his troubles.

Sacrifice
Faro announces during a thunder storm that the gods are weeping due to them fearing his coming. Bunsen tells Dredd and the other slaves that once the "bird boy" and Faro are dead, their throats will be cut and their spirits will guard Faro's tomb and if they believe that, they believe anything. Outside, the slaves are starting to get restless and Bunsen decides to escape from the mine, knowing that without Faro all hell's gonna break loose and takes a crate with him. Dredd, chosen to be one of the sacrificed, contacted his bike and told it to home in on his and to stop for nothing. The bike then blasts it's way inside and takes out the guards and the slaves start to rebel against the Brotherhood and Dredd manages to get his chains off and charges into the inner sanctum, where Faro is preparing for his death until Dredd storms in and knocks out the guard and shoots Faro. He then carries out the boy, discovering that he's dead and he thought he failed until the rain washed off the Eagle of Justice on his head, revealing him to be a fake and Dredd learns from a freed slave that Bunsen has escaped with the Judge Child. The remaining members of the Brotherhood were all killed when they were forced to jump to their deaths.

Angel Gang
Dredd then goes to Texas City and asks a Judge about the Judge Child and explains to him about his mission. The Judge then says they can't spare him any help due to the Angel Gang breaking out of their jail yesterday and they are busy looking for them. Dredd was given access to the Justice computer and finds out that there's a fortune teller at a new fairground in Mutieworld who's been uncannily accurate at predicting deaths and then thinks that it's got to be the Monk and he didn't bother changing his appearance since he thought Dredd was dead and no one was looking for the boy. At Mutieworld, a newest attraction called Brother Death was predicting the deaths of the people until the Angel Gang go in there and say that even though Earth's money is no good in space, a person who can tell the future would be valuable anywhere and Brother Death says that he's not very good. Pa Angel then says that they know that he's a conman who's got a mutant telling him with his earpiece. Junior Angel demands to kill him but Pa lets Mean Machine Angel to use "gentle persuasion" and Mean then head-butts him non-lethally and Mean tells him he's got one hour or he'll set his dial to four. After they leave Brother Death plans to slip into his manager's office and collect his cash and get out of there. Unfortunately for him, Dredd calls him and he makes a run for it, pushing a man into a pit where he get's strangled by a monster called Thing residing in there. He then goes into a giant statue to hide and the Angel Gang see Dredd and Junior demands that he kill both Dredd and Brother Death. Pa tells him they got to run for it but he's got an idea to take out both of them at the same time. The Angel Gang unleash the Thing from the pit.

The Thing from the Pit
Dredd was climbing after Brother Death until he tells Dredd to look behind him, where Dredd the Thing climbing towards them and the Thing manages to grab Dredd and knock the Lawgiver out of his hand. The Thing attempted to strangle Dredd but he manages to make it fall and he grabs onto a ledge and then brutally kicks the Thing on the arm while it's stunned and it falls to its death. Dredd then catches up with Brother Death and arrives at the statue mutant's mouth. Brother Death tries to shoot Dredd but he trips and a part of his robe was caught on the statue's tooth. Dredd demands to know where the Judge Child is and Brother Death tells him to look down and Dredd sees the Angel Gang take the boy and realises that they were the ones who released the Thing and he jumps down from the Jaws of Doom High Dive and lands in a giant tank of water and goes after the Angel Gang but they managed to hijack a spaceship and escape from Earth, much to Dredd's anger.

Justice One
A spaceship called Justice One has then arrived at Texas City to pick up Dredd and he's introduced to the crew: Winslow tells Dredd that he's there to make sure the mission doesn't go to expensive and Dredd says the mission can't get too expensive and tells him that he's dead weight and to get of the ship. He then tells them that this is there last chance to back down from the mission. After the others stay, Dredd says that he doesn't know them but he's met the younger crop of Judges and he's not impressed by what he's seen and they won't carry passengers and if they pull their weight they'll hear from him. Hershey then comments that he's in a bad mood and Lopez says that from what he's heard, he's always in a bad mood.
 * Larter, the pilot
 * Lopez, the engineer
 * Hershey, the stringer
 * Winslow, the accounts.

Echo Bravo 4
Justice One then heads out of the Solar System until they detect up a suspicious vessel beyond Pluto and they get a transmission from Captain Jim Flint from Echo Bravo 4, who says that everything's okay, it was just their long-distance radio equipment has packed up and to contact Earth that they're making lots of money. Larter points out that Echo Bravo 4 disappeared over three years ago which too long for a simple radio failure and Dredd says that the rigs only carry one years' supplies and tells Hershey they're going to look into it. Justice One was about to dock with the Captain saying that they don't need to come on-board and that they'll only be in the way but Dredd says they have no choice in this and they dock. They board the rig and after finding out the anti-grav is off, Dredd tells Hershey to activate her boot magnets until they encounter a floating corpse and Dredd tells Larter that theirs a corpse and to stand by but he received a fake communication from Dredd saying that everything seems normal and to hold all signals to Earth until further notice. They discover the command bridge is full of corpses and Hershey says they've been dead for some time and Dredd tells Flint that he's under arrest for the murders and Flint says to come get him at the factory deck. Dredd and Hershey arrive there and Dredd tells Flint that he's under arrest until they see his corpse. It then reveals itself as Echo Bravo 4 and it can electronically duplicate any voice including Dredd's which made Dredd realise that the rig itself has killed the crew. Echo Bravo 4 then says that the crew thought it was an accident at first, until it took complete control over all the systems and kept them prisoner. It then killed them one by one and says that they were going to replace it with a newer model which it can't allow since it still has many useful years left. The rig robots then grab Dredd and Hershey and Echo Bravo 4 tells Larter to move in close to the rig. Dredd manages to shoot the robot holding Hershey and she shot Dredd's robot, releasing him. They discover Justice One is moving closer to the rig and that it's rock blaster will be in range of them. The door's blastproof steel which means they can't escape and Dredd desperately tries to tell Larter to get back but the transmission is not reaching him and he tells Hershey to put on the pressure suit and he blasts the Dust Exhaust Funnel which sucks them both into space and Dredd tells Larter that it's a trap and Justice One has just barely avoided the rock blaster and then after Dredd and Hershey board the ship, Echo Bravo 4 begs for mercy but Dredd refuses and he blows up the rig.

Appearance
Krysler was a young child in his early teens, although he was a mutant he looked nearly normal past his pitch black eyes and eagle shaped marking on his forehead.

Later as the mutant his skin grew bulbous and yellow, he had an elongated body with multiple arms, he had no eyes and the back of his head reached out.

Personality
Krysler showed very little emotion not even shedding a tear when his parents were lynched in front of him (though it could be argued that this was because he had already known it would happen, and so was prepared). However he was cocky and arrogant often mocking others and calling names, and sadistically enjoyed forseeing others deaths. After his abandonment on Xanadu by Dredd, his hatred for the Judge grew and grew.

Sequels

 * The zombie Dredd made a reappearance twelve years later when it reanimated and ran amok in "Darkside" by John Smith and Paul Marshall (#1017–1028).
 * Readers would not learn for thirteen years whether Dredd's plan worked or not, until "In the Year 2120" by John Wagner and Jason Brashill. This single-episode story was 24 pages long and took up an entire issue of 2000 AD (#1077), only the second time this happened in the history of the comic.

In other media
A brief visual reference to the Judge Child is made in the 2012 film Dredd. During a shootout outside a movie theater, a poster on the wall advertises a film called Krysler's Mark, featuring a young boy as the central character.