Morton Judd

Judge Morton Judd is a major villain in the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd and is the main antagonist in the Judge Dredd storyline "Oz" and also appeared as a flashback character in "Origins" which tells how the Judges and Mega-City One came to be.

Origins
Judge Judd was Head of Genetics in the Justive Department and was a major figure in the Council of Five. He had proposed to start cloning Judges and began his work under Chief Judge Clarence Goodman. His most notable success was Judge Joseph Dredd himself, who had been clone from the DNA of the founder of the Judges Chief Judge Eustace Fargo. Judge Hollins Solomon had an immense dislike of Judd due to his amorality.

After the Atomic Wars began in 2070, Mega-City One was in complete chaos so Judd had another idea to police the city with Hundreds of Millions of citizens - To clone the citizens as well as the Judges to create an obediant and law-abiding population. While there was some support amongst Judd's colleagues, Chief Judge Fargo opposed the idea, stating that the Judges were meant to protect the citizens, not control them.

As a result, Morton Judd attempted to assassinate Fargo but failed and Judd and his followers were setenced to execution. Fortunately for them, howeber, they were rescued at the last moment and dissapeared from Mega-City One with genetic material.

Judd's Plan
No one had been able to find Judd and he was presumed dead until 40 years later. Judd and his followers had built a secret base inside a cave of Ayers Rock in the Radback (radioactive outback) of Australia. Judd is planning to clone his own army of "Judges" and several of them with teleportation devices to assassinated key Judge targets to conquer Mega-City One, which he feels is rightfully his.

Judd's Downfall
Unfortunately for Judd, one of his very own clones, Judge Dredd, has managed to captured one the clones he sent to assassinate him and used the clone's teleportation devices to teleport back to Judd's base. Panicked, Judd began a mass assualt in the Grand Hall of Justice but Dredd, using the teleportation device, has beaten him there and warned the Judges there about Judd's plan. Dredd proceeded to teleport an armed nuclear warhead back to Judd's base and it destroyed Judd's base, killing Morton Judd and the rermainder of his followers.

Legacy
There was one clone who survived, Judge Kraken, who was one of Fargo's clone and was taken prisoner and re-indoctrinated to be a Judge. He replaced Dredd when he went on the Long Walk and was a major character in the storyline Necropolis.