Mayor of Mega-City One

Mayor of Mega-City One is a fictional office in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. The most significant mayor to appear in the comic was serial killer PJ Maybe, in disguise as Byron Ambrose.

The real political power in Mega-City One is not held by the mayor but by the unelected judges, headed by the Chief Judge. However, the citizens are allowed some very limited degree of self-government in the form of a democratically elected council headed by a mayor, with powers over relatively minor matters. The office did not really exist in any meaningful sense between the years 2104 and 2117.

Mayors

Mayor Amalfi was mayor until he was implicated in the theft of body parts from the city morgues, which were being illegally sold for use in illicit transplant operations. When discovered by Judge Dredd he accidentally fell to his death while resisting arrest. The true circumstances of his death were covered up to prevent a scandal.^[1]

Mayor Jim Grubb was mayor from 2093^[2] to 2104. In 2101 he was arrested by Chief Judge Cal and held in custody in a psychiatric ward, to remove a possible focus point of opposition to Cal's tyrannical reign. Later that year, following Cal's demise, he was re-elected, although the election was disrupted by Father Earth's calamitous attack on the city.

After the Apocalypse War of 2104 Grubb went missing and was presumed dead. However he later resurfaced, having fallen victim to a strange disease (eventually called Grubb's Disease), which gradually turned his body into a fungus. His last words were "please don't eat me!"^[3] An airport was named after him.

Following the War the ruined city was struggling to get back onto its feet, and no new mayor was chosen for some time. Instead the chief judge deemed it more expedient to assume direct control over all aspects of governing the city. However in 2106 matters had returned sufficiently to normal for the Justice Department to allow elections to resume. However, the public had such contempt for the mediocre candidates on offer that they voted for a joke candidate, an orangutan called Dave.

Mayor Dave the Orangutan was probably the most popular mayor the city ever had. He was allowed to run for office as there was no specific law to prohibit it, although the Judges' real motive for allowing the election may well have been to undermine the credibility of democracy as a viable system of government. After his assassination in 2107 no more mayors were elected for ten years.

In 2117 Chief Judge Volt reinstated the city council and the mayorship, as part of his constitutional reforms to give a little more power to the people.^[4] Few of the new mayors have been named in the Judge Dredd strip since then, although in 2120 Dredd ended the career of an unnamed mayor by leaking scandalous information about him to the press.^[5]

In 2129 Mayor Katz was murdered by serial killer PJ Maybe, prompting an election. Maybe stood as a candidate for mayor using a false identity, and won the election by framing his rival for other murders. Maybe was believed to be Mayor Byron Donald Ambrose.^[6] Surprisingly, Maybe actually proved to be a very competent and popular mayor, and even had Dredd's support. Nevertheless, he still found time to murder several people, including his own deputy mayor. After three years in office, he was finally arrested when he tried, unsuccessfully, to murder the chief judge, and his true identity was uncovered by Judge Dredd.^[7] The truth was kept secret, however, and the public and media were informed that Ambrose had died of natural causes.^[8]

Ambrose/Maybe was succeeded by Mayor Tony Blore.^[9] Maybe kidnapped and assassinated him in 2133.^[10]

See also

• Democracy (Judge Dredd storyline)

References

1. ^ Dan Dare Annual 1979
2. ^ 2000 AD prog 122
3. ^ 2000 AD progs 275-276
4. ^ 2000 AD prog 957
5. ^ Judge Dredd Megazine vol. 3 no. 40
6. ^ Judge Dredd Megazine no. 263
7. ^ 2000 AD progs 1674-1686
8. ^ 2000 AD prog 1687
9. ^ 2000 AD prog 1744
10. ^ 2000 AD prog 1758