Owen Krysler

A dying member of Psi Division has a precognitive vision that Mega-City One will be destroyed unless the Judges can find the "Judge Child," a boy called Owen Krysler with extreme telepathic and precognitive powers. He also a birthmark on his head shaped like the Judges' Eagle. Krysler is destined to rule Mega-City One in its direst hour. Dredd is sent after the boy and tracks him across the Cursed Earth to Texas City where the Judge Child falls into the hands of the Angel Gang who escape from Earth. Dredd uses the ship Justice One to pursue the gang and the Child across a number of star systems and through various strange encounters with alien worlds.

Dredd becomes convinced that only by using Oracle Spice will he be able to find the Child, and after further dangerous adventures he gains this on the planet Necros. Oracle Spice gives precognitive powers to whoever takes it (similar to the spice from the Dune saga), but is very dangerous to the inexperienced user. Dredd orders a member of the Justice One crew, Judge Lopez, to take the Oracle Spice. This kills Lopez, but not before he reveals that the location of the Judge Child is known by the 'Jigsaw Man,' whom Dredd traces to the planet Ab. The 'Jigsaw Man' is a human called Prosser who had been the pilot of a spaceship hijacked by the Angel Gang, who are heading to the free robot planet of Xanadu. Prosser's nickname stems from the fact he is a victim of the alien wasting disease known as "Jigsaw Disease", which causes the victims to vanish piece by random piece. Just before he dies he tells Dredd that he believes the Judge Child is evil, because it was the Judge Child who caused him to catch the disease in the first place, apparently intentionally.

Dredd begins to doubt the mission but continues to Xanadu where he confronts and kills most of the Angel Gang, who had also begun to suspect the boy had been manipulating them. However the last of the Angel Gang is killed by the Judge Child himself. Finally having hold of the Judge Child, Dredd looks into his eyes and sees that he is evil. Believing that the ruler of his city has to be pure and uncorrupted, and that Owen Krysler is unfit to rule, Dredd abandons him on the planet and returns home.

City of the Damed

he story begins with a prologue set in 2107, which was the present day in the Judge Dredd strip at that time. Scientists have just built the first ever time machine, called Proteus, which has been successful in short-range tests (journeys of hours or days). Chief Judge McGruder orders Judges Dredd and Anderson to use it to go thirteen years into the future to investigate a prophecy that Mega-City One will be destroyed in the year 2120. This prophecy, made by a dying Psi Judge in 2102, was first mentioned in the earlier story "The Judge Child". It foretells that the city will be destroyed unless Owen Krysler, also known as the 'Judge Child,' rules the city, since only he can save the city from disaster. In that earlier story, however, Dredd decided that Krysler was too evil to be allowed to rule the city, and left him behind on the planet Xanadu. In 2104 Krysler tried to kill Dredd in revenge, and McGruder ordered his execution. Without the city's prophesied saviour, McGruder now wants to find an alternative solution, and sends Dredd and Anderson to gather intelligence.

2120
In episode one, Dredd and Anderson arrive in the future city. They find the whole place to be deserted and in ruins, having arrived after the predicted catastrophe – whatever it was – happened. Exploring, they eventually find signs of life: an emaciated citizen dressed in rags, who flees in terror on seeing them. In spite of their reassurance that they mean him no harm, the citizen commits suicide rather than be taken alive. The reason why soon becomes apparent when Dredd and Anderson discover that the judges of the future have somehow become vampires who feed on the blood of the public. The two time-travellers readily slaughter dozens of vampire judges, including a vampire Judge Hershey (who normally appeared as Dredd's sidekick in stories at that time).

Dredd retrieves a computer record of events leading up to the disaster. It transpires that the city was conquered by a being with vast psychic powers, known only as 'The Mutant'. All weapons were ineffectual against it. It conjured up monsters which massacred almost everybody; caused buildings to decay and collapse; created phenomena which defied the laws of physics. The whole city was overrun in a matter of minutes. Dredd, Anderson and all of the psi-judges were killed. McGruder and the rest of the judges were turned into vampires and began to prey on the surviving citizenry. A huge cloud of darkness covered the centre of the city, where the Mutant made his lair in the Grand Hall of Justice.

Dredd blinded
Shortly after learning of the city's fate, which occurred months before their arrival, Dredd and Anderson become separated during an attack by a horde of monsters. Dredd is blinded when one of them impales both his eyes with its claws, but he still does not lose his determination to find The Mutant. In one of the most memorable scenes in the history of the strip, the blind and wounded Dredd crawls through every ordeal The Mutant can create for him, until – tortured to the limit of his endurance – he can take no more.

The Mutant then meets Dredd face to face, and it transpires that the tortures to which he subjected Dredd were not intended to kill him, but were only for The Mutant's amusement. Unable to harm him, Dredd asks who he is, as The Mutant's identity is a mystery.

The Mutant reveals himself to be the reincarnation of Owen Krysler, a clone taken from his DNA by the ruler of Xanadu who wanted a psychic of his own. Unexpectedly, the clone had all of the Judge Child's memories, and greatly enhanced power. However something had gone wrong with the cloning process and he no longer had human form, instead having multiple limbs and a mishaped head.

Lamenting the fact that he killed the 2120 Dredd too quickly, the Mutant decides to make up for the wasted opportunity by killing the 2107 Dredd much more slowly. The corpse of the 2120 Dredd is now a mindless undead zombie (unlike the vampire judges encountered earlier), and The Mutant sets it in pursuit of the living Dredd. The Mutant reunites Dredd with Anderson so that she can act as his eyes, and the two try to flee, with the unstoppable zombie in hot pursuit.

The Mutant had believed that there was no way back to the time machine, but Dredd proves him wrong, and Dredd and Anderson manage to escape back to 2107. The zombie comes back with them, but deactivates as soon as they leave 2120. The judges report the destruction of the city to McGruder, who despairs of ever preventing the disaster, since the proof that it has happened is before her eyes.

Dredd's solution
Dredd however is not so willing to accept defeat, and proposes a solution: travel immediately to Xanadu and stop the cloning from taking place. When McGruder observes that there is an inherent danger in altering the course of history, Dredd points out that the danger lies in not altering it. McGruder agrees to the mission, and surgeons fit Dredd with bionic eyes which are superior to the originals. These give Dredd perfect night vision and a 50% reduction in blinking time. Dredd remarks to Anderson that he should have had the operation years earlier.

Dredd and Anderson arrive on Xanadu just in time to witness the rebirth of Owen Krysler. They manage to kill him, and then kill everyone who was involved in cloning him. However since the zombie Dredd from 2120 still exists as a museum exhibit, and Dredd still has bionic eyes, they still cannot be sure whether they have succeeded in averting the disaster or not.