Once mortal, the man who would become Judge Mortis was a psychopathically fanatical law keeper in a parallel universe. In his youth, he attended Judge School, where he first encountered Sydney D'eath, whose views he quickly grew to admire and emulate. Sydney had a simple philosophy: All crime is committed by the living, therefore, all living things must die. After graduation, he joined Sydney's ranks as a lieutenant, joyfully taking part is his leader's insane killing sprees, murdering citizens for the slightest infraction of the law.

One day, Sydney and his three colleagues discovered a strange cave where the Sisters of Despair, Phobia and Nausea, dwelled. The evil sisters were powerful necromancers and transformed the four law keepers into undead abominations: Judge Death, Judge Mortis, Judge Fear, and Judge Fire--the Dark Judges. Finally possessing the power to make his apocalyptic vision reality, Judge Death, and his three friends, immediately proceeded to cleanse their world of all life. The resulting uninhabited wasteland became known as Deadworld.

Having succeeded in making their twisted, utopian vision a reality--and not having anything left to kill--the Dark Judges grew bored. Fortunately for them, one day, visitors, using dimension jumping technology, happened to arrive on Deadworld. Naturally, these travelers, being alive, were in violation of Judge Death's edict, and were promptly found guilty and slain by the Dark Judges, who then appropriated the dimensional equipment for their own use. Now, the fearsome foursome could travel the corridors between realities, seeking out other worlds where they might practice their warped sense of justice. These wanderings have brought them to Earth several times, but, so far, Judge Dredd, and his allies, despite heavy civilian casualties, have managed to stop the Dark Judges from transforming the planet into another Deadworld.

Judge Mortis is undead, and cannot be truly slain by any known method. He does not eat, drink, sleep, breath, etc. While it is possible to destroy the body he currently inhabits, this is only a temporary setback, as Mortis' spirit survives and can readily inhabit another vessel. Damage inflicted on his rotting form must be significant to be effective. Judge Mortis can, for example, shrug off multiple stab and bullet wounds, so long as the structural integrity of the body, in the larger sense, remains. The vessel has to be badly mutilated, or destroyed outright, for Judge Mortis' spirit to abandon it. In spirit form, the Dark Judges can possess and influence humans to do their bidding. Mortis, and his friends, rely heavily on this tactic when all four of them are in spirit form and need new bodies. They use the possessed individual(s) to obtain and prepare corpses for them (typically through the act of murder). Once they acquire, and inhabit, these new vessels, the puppet becomes expendable and is immediately judged.

Judge Mortis' mere touch causes objects to rot and age at an accelerated pace. His caress can reduce a healthy human adult to a festering corpse in seconds. In addition to killing, Mortis sometimes uses this power to prepare fresh bodies for the spirits of his three comrades, and himself, to inhabit--his ministrations ensure that the corpses are in the "proper" state of ripeness necessary to accommodate the Dark Judges' souls.






Materials:
Newsprint, cardboard from a cracker box, white paper, Kleenex, paper plate, wire twist ties, white/hot glue, marker, nail polish, ink, and acrylic/watercolor paint.

Dimensions*:
(*The dimensions for this model can vary, depending on how the joints are positioned. The numbers given are for the figure in a 'neutral' standing pose.)
11.5 cm/4.5 in. x 5.2 cm/2.0 in. (highest point x widest point)

Articulation:
Twenty-eight points total: Jaw, neck (5), mid torso, waist, tail (6), shoulder pads (2), shoulders (2), elbows (2), wrists (2), thighs (2), knees (2), and ankles (2).

Time:
Approximately three days; construction ran from 8/28/07-8/31/07, with no work being done on the 30th.