Judge Kraken
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Judge Kraken is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip featured in the long-running UK comic 2000 AD. Kraken was originally one of the Judda, an army of rogue clones created by the renegade Judge Morton Judd from the DNA of Mega-City One's greatest judges, and hidden within Ayers Rock in what is left of Australia. Kraken himself was cloned from Chief Judge Fargo, and was therefore Judge Dredd's clone brother.
Kraken was taken prisoner by Mega-City One judges following the failed Judda teleporter incursion into the Grand Hall of Justice, after which he underwent a lengthy process of deprogramming in order to overcome his loyalty to the Judda. He was then trained with the intention of eventually replacing Judge Dredd (technically his clone brother), who had been showing increasing signs of disillusionment with the judge system.
Matters finally came to a head in the events recounted in the story Tale of the Dead Man, when Dredd was assigned Kraken (now a cadet judge) to assess his suitability to adopt the role as a full street Judge. Kraken performed impeccably, his skills and judgement outshining even those of his assessor. However Dredd was able to detect lingering traces of loyalty to the creed of the Judda, and failed Kraken, who was then sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Immediately following this assessment, Dredd announced his resignation from the Judges, and took 'the long walk' into the Cursed Earth. However, Chief Judge Silver had secretly ordered that Kraken be spared from execution, and, overruling Dredd's decision, appointed him a full Judge. He furthermore covered up Dredd's disappearance from the city by ordering Kraken to assume his identity.
Shortly afterwards Kraken was visited by the Sisters of Death, who, by manipulating his doubts and confusion, were able to control his mind. They used him to trap Psi Judge Kit Agee, whose body they used as a psychic dimension bridge between Mega-City One and Deadworld, then to bring back the Dark Judges themselves from dimensional limbo, thus creating "Necropolis", a city under their complete control. The Dark Judges set about systematically exterminating the entire population. 60 million people were slaughtered.
Dredd, with assistance from Judge Anderson, former chief judge McGruder and a handful of cadet judges, was eventually able to defeat the Dark Judges. Kraken, who by then had been enslaved and had himself become a Dark Judge, was summarily executed by Dredd for his crimes against the city.
