Judge Edgar

Judge Jura Edgar is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. Although in most of her stories she is not evil or a murderer in the manner of most villains in the Judge Dredd series (though in her last story it transpires that she is responsible for a number of murders), 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.

Fictional character biography

An ambitious judge, in the 2090s Edgar was part of a small group of judges that committed vigilante murders, under the alias of the Citizens' Court. By working at PSU, Edgar was able to ensure that the others were not caught. After seventeen killings, she had the group disbanded so it could not cause problems for her career advancement.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.^[3] She occasionally used the wealth of confidential information at her disposal to play power games with other judges to increase her own influence. One notable example of this is when, to avenge herself on Judge Dredd for a perceived slight against her, she orchestrated a disciplinary investigation into Judge DeMarco – one of Dredd's associates – which led to DeMarco's resignation.^[4] Edgar's reputation for this sort of behaviour 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).^[5]

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.^[6] 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 claiming that the charge was politically motivated.^[7]

Besides the seniority of the defendant, Edgar's trial is also notable for being the first 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.^[8]

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 remained for eight years.^[9]

By 2130 she was in very ill health and on the verge of death from cancer. As part of a final scheme for revenge, she steered Dredd towards the remaining members of the Citizens Court, in the hope that Dredd would be killed by one of them resisting arrest. By the time Dredd had uncovered her involvement she had died, too late for him to arrest her for the murders.^[10]

Bibliography

All stories written by John Wagner.

• "The Cal Files" (art by John Burns, in 2000 AD #959-963, 1995)
• "Sleaze" (art by John Burns, in Judge Dredd Megazine vol. 3 #40, 1998)
• "The Scorpion Dance" (art by John Burns, in 2000 AD #1125-1132, 1998-1999)
• "Endgame" (art by Charlie Adlard, in 2000 AD #1160-1164, 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)
• "Revenge of the Chief Judge's Man" (art by John Burns, in 2000 AD #1342-1349, 2003)
• "The Edgar Case" (art by Patrick Goddard, in 2000 AD #1589-1595, 2008)

References

External links

• 2000 AD profile