Judge Beeny

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caption = Beeny as a cadet (illustration by Colin MacNeil).
character_name = Judge Beeny
publisher = Rebellion Developments
debut = "Judge Dredd Megazine" vol. 3 no. 20 (1996)
creators = John Wagner and Colin MacNeil
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full_name = America Beeny
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Judge America Beeny is a fictional character in the "Judge Dredd" comic strip in "2000 AD" and the "Judge Dredd Megazine". She appeared as a cadet in most of her stories, graduating to full street judge in a story published in early 2008. ["2000 AD" prog 1569]

Fictional character biography

Beeny is the child of the two main characters who appeared in the first "America" story, America Jara and Bennett Beeny. She herself first appeared briefly in the sequel to that story, but her first main story was the third in the "America" trilogy, ["Cadet," in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #250-252, 2006.)] in which she took a lead role.

In 2119 Beeny was enrolled as a cadet in the Academy of Law by her father just before his untimely death, and served well enough to qualify for the accelerated graduation program. In her tenth year, as with all tenth year cadets, she was required to plan and execute a criminal investigation on her own. Allowed to choose her supervisor, she chose to work with Judge Dredd, and decided to take another look at the terrorist attack depicted in the previous "America" story, since she had decided that the first investigation had failed badly (leading indirectly to the Total War terrorist bombings).

During her assessment Dredd noted Beeny's skill, comparing her to a ten year graduate, though he did suspect that her insistence on going through the paper trail first was a means of needling him, as Dredd's hatred of paperwork is legendary. In a later story she was specifically chosen by Dredd as part of his team investigating the city's mutant facilities. ["2000 AD" #1542-1545] In 2130 she graduated to full judge at age 15, after only twelve years in the Academy (the usual time being fifteen years) — one year quicker than Dredd himself managed. In fact her graduation had been accelerated on Dredd's recommendation. She is however partnered with veteran Judge Roake, until she gains enough experience to venture out on her own. In one of her first cases she investigated and solved a series of PJ Maybe copycat killings.

In spite of her parentage (she was descended from anti-judicial activists), America Beeny appears to have the makings of a very good judge. She does however want to reform the system from the inside. With both parents dead, the closest thing she had to family was her father's old robo-servant Robert. When Robert was destroyed in an attempt on her life Dredd observed "we're" your family now."

Dredd appears to see Beeny as an ally in his quest to reform the Justice Department (which began after the story "Origins"), since while like him she believes in the ideal of instant justice, she also believes that it needs to be reformed to become that ideal.

References