Armon Gill
Encyclopedia
Armon Gill, also known as the Chief Judge's Man, is a fictional villain from the Judge Dredd
comic strip in 2000 AD
.
ex-military assassin
with cockroach
and leopard
gene
s to give him enhanced endurance and agility. He was recruited by a rogue judge
(named Michael "Iron Mike" DeKlerk) to murder political activists who criticised the Justice Department. He believed he was working for Chief Judge Hershey
herself. After he was captured by Dredd (who believed he was planning to kill some aliens he was escorting) he infiltrated Correction Facility 17 where he assassinated a prisoner, Bubba O'Kelly (his predecessor who was blackmail
ing DeKlerk), but when his promised rescue failed to materialise he became disillusioned and embittered. Escaping, he fled to Texas City territory where he killed a Texas Ranger and took his identity.
Upon re-entering Mega-City One
, he tried to contact the Chief Judge
on a public telephone, where DeKlerk attempted to assassinate him. Managing to escape the assassination attempt, he then sought to assassinate the Chief Judge by infiltrating the North West Hab Zone Tunnel Project where he managed to board "Jaws" (a massive driller
vehicle). Dredd attempted to stop him but was too late as the Chief Judge was apparently killed in the ensuring fight (she was shortly afterward revealed to be a robot decoy). Gill, fatally wounded, was shot dead by the judges. DeKlerk himself committed suicide after writing a confession implicating himself as the mastermind.
All three stories have been collected in a single volume:
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
comic strip in 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
.
Fictional character biography
Gill was a genetically engineeredGenetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
ex-military assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
with cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
and leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
s to give him enhanced endurance and agility. He was recruited by a rogue judge
Judge (2000 AD)
Judge is a title held by several significant characters in the Judge Dredd series, which appears in the British comics 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine...
(named Michael "Iron Mike" DeKlerk) to murder political activists who criticised the Justice Department. He believed he was working for Chief Judge Hershey
Judge Hershey
Judge Barbara Hershey is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd series that appears in British comic 2000 AD. For nearly two decades she regularly appeared as Dredd's sidekick, before being promoted to become his superior: she was chief judge for nine years...
herself. After he was captured by Dredd (who believed he was planning to kill some aliens he was escorting) he infiltrated Correction Facility 17 where he assassinated a prisoner, Bubba O'Kelly (his predecessor who was blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ing DeKlerk), but when his promised rescue failed to materialise he became disillusioned and embittered. Escaping, he fled to Texas City territory where he killed a Texas Ranger and took his identity.
Upon re-entering Mega-City One
Mega-City One
Mega-City One is a huge fictional city-state covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. The exact boundaries of the city depend on which artist has drawn the story...
, he tried to contact the Chief Judge
Chief Judge of Mega-City One
Chief Judge of Mega-City One is the title of several supporting characters in the Judge Dredd comic strip published in 2000 AD. The chief judge is dictator and head of state of Mega-City One, a fictional future city of around 400 million people in 22nd-century America...
on a public telephone, where DeKlerk attempted to assassinate him. Managing to escape the assassination attempt, he then sought to assassinate the Chief Judge by infiltrating the North West Hab Zone Tunnel Project where he managed to board "Jaws" (a massive driller
Driller
Driller may refer to:*Driller , the oil rig occupation*Driller, videogame*The Driller, a giant Cybertronian worm-like creature controlled by Shockwave in Transformers: Dark of the Moon...
vehicle). Dredd attempted to stop him but was too late as the Chief Judge was apparently killed in the ensuring fight (she was shortly afterward revealed to be a robot decoy). Gill, fatally wounded, was shot dead by the judges. DeKlerk himself committed suicide after writing a confession implicating himself as the mastermind.
Publication
The tale was told in three parts:- Judge DreddJudge DreddJudge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
(all written by John WagnerJohn WagnerJohn Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
):- "The Chief Judge's Man" (with Will Simpson, in 2000 AD #1244–1247, 20012001 in comics-Year overall:* Marvel Comics withdraws from the Comics Code Authority and established its own rating system for its publications.- January :* January 23: Fred Ray, Superman's primary cover artist of the 1940s, passes away at age 80.- September :...
) - "On the Chief Judge's Service" (with Colin MacNeilColin MacNeilColin MacNeil is a British comics artist, best known for his work on 2000 AD and in particular on Judge Dredd and other stories within his world like Shimura and Devlin Waugh....
, in 2000 AD #1263–1266, 2001) - "Revenge of the Chief Judge's Man" (with John BurnsJohn Burns (comics)John M. Burns is an English comics artist, with a career stretching back to the mid-1960s.- Biography :His initial work was as an illustrator for Junior Express and School Friend...
, in 2000 AD #1342–1349, 20032003 in comics-January:* January 2: Kid Colt artist Jack Keller dies at age 80.- April :* Action Comics #800: Double-sized anniversary issue, "A Hero's Journey," by Joe Kelly, Pascual Ferry, and Duncan Rouleau...
)
- "The Chief Judge's Man" (with Will Simpson, in 2000 AD #1244–1247, 2001
All three stories have been collected in a single volume:
- The Chief Judge's Man (RebellionRebellion DevelopmentsRebellion is a British computer games company, based in Oxford, who are most famous for the first Aliens vs. Predator computer game. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.-History:...
, 20062006 in comics-January:*January 1, 2006: Newsweek offer a look back at 2005 through editorial cartoons. *January 2, 2006: The Cincinnati Enquirer cartoonist Jim Borgman starts a blog to detail his creative process...
, ISBN 1-904265-81-2)