Kleggs

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caption=Brian Bolland's depiction of Judge Cal and his army of Klegg mercenaries from the cover of Prog 98.
species=Klegg
publisher=| publisher = IPC Magazines, Fleetway Publications, Rebellion Developments
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Kleggs are alien mercenaries in the Judge Dredd comic books.

A Klegg looks rather like a large man with green, scaly skin and the head and tail of an alligator or crocodile. They only take payment in meat, since they are pure carnivores. They are reasonably intelligent, but their ferocity and propensity for eating their foes dominate others' perception of them.

In the story "The Day The Law Died", the insane Chief Judge Cal hired in the Kleggs to put down a rebellion inspired and led by the outlawed Judge Dredd. With their "Klegg-Hounds" (alien beasts rather like large dogs with crocodilian heads, which track enemies by tasting the ground where they have passed) the Kleggs kept the citizens of Mega-City One cowed and terrorized. Their battle-cry was "Klegg-Hai! Klegg-Hai!" and, in "The Day The Law Died", they also preceded this with a war-song: "slicey slicey, oncey twicey, claw and fang'll kill Dredd nicely! Meaty beaty, chop 'em neatly, death or glory no retreatee!". Cal appointed their leader, Grampus, deputy chief judge.

After Judge Cal's death, the Kleggs were outlawed from Mega-City One; any citizen who sees a Klegg is required to either kill it or report it immediately to the Judges so that they may do so. Although most of them left, some remain, hidden here and there in the ruined parts of the city. Due to bitter memories of the Kleggs, other, more peaceful aliens have found Mega-City One less than welcoming on occasion.

The Kleggs live on in space, where their society is essentially feudal, and briefly had a space-based military alliance with Sino-Cit. However, despite their ability to use technology, they rarely do much beyond simple raids on other planets with no aim beyond killing - "The Corps" by Garth Ennis showed Kleggs (which looked quite different from the regular ones and may have been a mutant strain) launching raids on MC-1 space colonies, and "The Kleggs" in Judge Dredd Megazine #201 had them raiding the Index Planetary Archive.

It was revealed in "The Kleggs" that some of the ruling classes have actually had an education, though they often have problems getting the grunts to understand about taking prisoners alive.

External links

* [http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=KLEGGS 2000 AD profile]