To say that Judge Joseph Dredd has made a few enemies in his time is a bit of an understatement. Ever since his 1977 debut, 2000 AD‘s most famous son has had to witness his beloved Mega-City One repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt thanks to the efforts of a colorful gallery of recurring villains and wrongdoers. And if the last 39 years have proven anything, it’s that you don’t last long when you go head to head with Joe Dredd.

Obvious SPOILERS follow! 

Writer and Dredd creator John Wagner recently teased in a podcast that this year he was intending to kill off a surviving major character. This went on to whip up a frenzy of online speculation, as fans tried to figure out which of Dredd’s friends or foes may end up meeting their maker. Well, the question has at last been answered with the release of this week’s edition of 2000AD, which saw the legendary lawman finally cornering and dispatching infamous serial killer PJ Maybe.

PJ Maybe has been one of Dredd’s most persistent and colorful adversaries. Again created by Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, Maybe first appeared in 2000AD back in 1987. The super intelligent son of a wealthy family, he was born ‘Phillip Janet Maybe’, mainly because his mother had rather he had been born a daughter. Finding enjoyment in the murder of others, Maybe hid his keen mind from the outside world, and would go on to slaughter his family and inherit their wealth, before embarking on a campaign of mayhem and murder.

He had survived all of the major storylines that largely wiped out the rest of MC1’s population, even managing to outwit and capture the Dark Judges on one occasion. Famed for his ability to disguise his features and personal appearance, for a time he also impersonated the City Mayor (who he’d already killed), and actually managed to massively raise his victim’s approval ratings in the process.

But yesterday, Joe Dredd managed to succeed where countless nuclear holocausts, deadly plagues and supernatural entities had failed. Cornering his old enemy atop a trans-hub, he finally passes judgement on the demented killer. One lawgiver round later, a grenade that the falling Maybe was holding detonates, allowing him to go out in a blaze of glory, but leaving little to be bagged and sent off to Resyk.

2000 AD PROG 1998 is on sale now.

Will you guys miss this colorful killer? Or do you think he may have somehow managed to avoid death YET AGAIN and faked his death? Sound off below!

Source: BleedingCool