Mega-Metropolis One is as a lot a personality in Decide Dredd comics because the titular iron-jawed avenue decide. Unimaginably huge, the town covers the whole japanese seaboard of the US, stretching from the northernmost a part of America (together with components of Canada) to the southernmost tip of the Florida peninsula. The megalopolis can also be densely populated, serving as residence to tons of of tens of millions of individuals.
The sprawling supercity made its first look within the Decide Dredd universe within the late Nineteen Seventies by way of comedian tales by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra printed in 2000 AD. Since its introduction, Mega-Metropolis One would see its huge inhabitants take hit after critical hit. Varied wars and pestilence over the many years would considerably cut back the variety of folks residing within the metropolis.
Decide Dredd’s metropolis began as an prolonged city space stretching from Washington, D.C. to the Massive Apple within the late 2020s. It was supposed as a metropolitan space that connects the nation’s capital to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and different East Coast states, offering housing and work for these residing in and across the area. Its inhabitants would balloon within the subsequent few years, laying the inspiration of what would turn into the primary American mega-city. It could shortly develop in dimension to accommodate the unstoppable progress of its inhabitants, enveloping Massachusetts (and past) within the north, Florida within the south, and components of Ohio within the west.
In 2070, the worldwide Atomic Battle transforms nearly all of the US into radioactive wasteland. Mega-Metropolis One survives the nuclear struggle due to its experimental laser defend know-how. But it surely quickly finds itself attracting tens of millions of refugees from much less lucky American cities. The state of affairs forces the town to resort to constructing towering condominium blocks that may home greater than 50,000 folks. Block building over the following 30 years causes Mega-Metropolis One’s inhabitants to achieve 800 million by the beginning of the twenty second century. By the mid-2100s, nonetheless, that quantity could be decreased to half its dimension.
Because of the excessive crime price inside Mega-Metropolis One, loss of life is nearly like a every day incidence for its residents. Going into the twenty second century, nonetheless, the already hardened inhabitants could be additional traumatized. In 2104, a number of block wars would erupt throughout the megalopolis, leading to main casualties. However that’s really only a diversion manufactured by the Soviet Judges of East-Meg One in Russia to launch a nuclear assault on the southern sectors of Dredd’s residence turf, taking 150 million lives. The following radioactive fallout, nuclear winter, and hunger of this occasion (dubbed the Apocalypse Battle) would additional inflict an enormous loss of life depend.
Decide Dredd would later put an finish to the struggle by giving East-Meg One and its no-good Soviet Judges a style of their very own medication. However the Apocalypse Battle causes Mega-Metropolis One’s inhabitants to drop from 800 million to 400 million. Barely simply rebuilding after a nuke assault, the town would once more face one other adversity within the early 2110s because of evil witches who flip Mega-Metropolis One right into a Necropolis dominated by undead judges favoring slaughter over avenue justice. With Dredd retired (and later changing into amnesiac), the corrupt Justice System would result in 60 million deaths by 2112.
In 2126, terrorists get their arms on a dozen nuclear weapons and set them off round Mega-Metropolis One, immediately killing 4 million. Nonetheless reeling after yet one more nuclear bombing, the town could be beset only a 12 months later by the Half-Life epidemic, a psychic illness that turns folks into murderers, taking one other million lives. However these occasions pale compared to 2134’s Day of Chaos, whereby a organic WMD wipes out practically 90 % of Mega-Metropolis One’s inhabitants. From 400 million inhabitants three many years earlier than, that quantity drops to about 40 million by the mid-2130s.
Nonetheless, these main occasions don’t hold the megalopolis down for lengthy. By the beginning of the 2140s, Mega-Metropolis One would see its inhabitants recuperate comparatively shortly to breach the 100 million mark, bearing in mind the fixed inflow of immigrants after the occasions of the Day of Chaos. By the 12 months 2145, the inhabitants estimate is round 130 million. But when Mega-Metropolis One‘s historical past in Decide Dredd teaches something, that quantity will probably take one other main hit quickly.