Episode I: Judge Whitey
First print date: March 5 1977
Prog appearance: 2
Writer(s): Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell and Peter Harris
Artist(s): Mike McMahon (original; this is the colourised reprint, which was created by Carlos Ezquerra)
Total episodes: 1
The year is 2099, the place New York City. In the towering metropolis that the old city has become in the almost twenty-second century, the likes of the Empire State Building, once the pride of the New York skyline, have collapsed into ruins as much taller buildings claw their way into the futuristic sky, and this erstwhile icon of the American Dream is little more than a shell of itself, a hideout for criminal gangs. It is to this old landmark that a Judge speeds, on his way to make an arrest. The “perps” though have seen him coming, and are ready with a laser cannon, which they unleash before the Judge can get within firing distance, and he is blown off his bike. Their leader, Whitey, exults that he has killed a Judge and vows that Judge Alvin will not be the last of their number he kills, though he does profess disappointment that it isn’t the famed and feared Judge Dredd that he has killed. Putting on the dead Judge’s helmet he capers around, proclaiming himself Judge Whitey.
Back in the Halls of Justice, the Chief Judge congratulates Dredd on lowering the crime rate since he came on the job. Just then a call comes in from Justice Central, to say that Judge Alvin’s motorbike has returned with him cuffed to the handlebars, dead. There’s a note from Whitey, taunting the Judges. Furious, the Chief Judge wants to send in an air squad to take out the whole rat’s nest once and for all, but Dredd restrains him. “Who will have respect for the law”, he asks, “if we can’t handle one criminal?” He climbs aboard his bike and heads to the scene. Cleverly, though, and not wanting to run into the same trap his late comrade did, he sets his motorcycle on automatic, so that when Whitey and his crew start blasting, he is already behind them and firing.
With his other two companions shot dead, Whitey is arrested and Dredd sentences him to life in prison for “the most odious crime of all --- the killing of a Judge.” Whitey laughs, saying no prison can hold him, but Dredd grimly informs him that he is going to spend the rest of his life on Devil’s Island, which might not seem so bad until you see that this is a huge, high-rise prison right smack in the middle of one of the city’s busiest motorways, where the speed limit is 250 mph and massive juggernauts hurtle by day and night. No peace, no rest, no chance to escape: the perfect holding area for the city’s worst criminals.
I AM THE LAW!
Very early on, we’re told that Judges have the power to dispense whatever sentence the law requires to any perps, or criminals they arrest. They have some leeway but must always follow the letter of the law: a Judge couldn’t for instance sentence someone to death for littering; the punishment must always fit the crime. It seems to me a bit odd that Dredd did not shoot Whitey. He shot both his companions out of hand, and to be fair, he had no actual proof that either of them had been involved in the murder of Judge Alvin, and yet he let the guy live who boasted that he was the killer. I guess it was really a case of sacrificing logic for a plot device, as Mills obviously wanted to introduce the idea of Devil’s Island, which is a pretty clever one. Ain’t no way you’re getting out of
that prison!
Dredd mentions at the end, when the Chief Judge ruminates that they will all one day end up like Alvin, that there is no better way to go in his book: dying in defence of the law. If there’s one thing that’s crystal clear and unalterable in Dredd’s mind it’s the law. He makes no exceptions and accepts no excuses. He doesn’t have a mother, but if he did, and she broke the law, he’d send her to the iso-cubes without a second thought.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Like any series starting off, be it on TV or in a comic book, some aspects of the story are being tried out here, and will change over time. New York City quickly becomes Mega-City One, which remains the metropolis in which Dredd live and works, although he does venture outside it from time to time. His motorbike will soon be named as a Lawmaster and vastly upgraded, his gun will be called a Lawgiver and will have a vast array of settings for dealing with any situation. Although a clever idea, I don’t believe Devil’s Island is mentioned after this, all perps just being sent to the iso-cubes, or the juve-cubes for younger offenders. The map below shows the layout of Mega-City One, but even that has changed over the course of the series, expanding its borders and going from approximately 150 million people to over 800.
Later, too, criminals like Whitey would have been unable to fire a Judge’s weapon as he does here, as it is confirmed that a Lawgiver is coded to the specific DNA pattern of the Judge to whom it’s issued, and even another Judge picking it up and trying to use it will cause it to self-destruct, possibly taking off the arm of the offender.