Mean Machine Angel

Real Name: Mean Angel

Identity/Class: Human cyborg

Occupation: Criminal

Affiliations: The Angel Gang, (formerly and briefly) The Three Amigos (Judge Dredd, Judge Death, and him)

Enemies: Judge Dredd

Known Relatives: Elmer "Pa" Angel (father), Fink, Link, Junior (brothers), Seven-Pound Sadie Suggs (first wife), Portia Wuss (second wife)

Aliases: Mean

Base of Operations: formerly Cursed Earth (America, c. A.D.2100), more often various Iso-Cubes, Mega-City One.

First Appearance: 2000 A.D. #160 (Fleetway, 12 April 1980)

Powers/Abilities: Mean has superhuman strength due to his cybernetic enhancements. His mood is controlled by a dial on his head, which ranges from Surly to Brutal. His favourite tactic when fighting someone is to charge them at high speed and then head butt them with his metal forehead. Since this is tough enough to dent steel, it tends to kill your average human.

History: Born into the notorious Angel family, a gang of Cursed Earth desperados, Mean Angel proved to be badly misnamed, a friendly and peaceful child, much to the chagrin of his villainous father. Pa tried to turn his son into a vicious killer like the rest of the clan, but to no avail - so finally he resorted to more extreme measures, and kidnapped a top Texas City cybernetic surgeon. Under Pa's direction, the innocent child was transformed into a brutal (but not very smart) cyborg, with his brain modified to turn him a cold-blooded killer.

Some time later the Angel Gang kidnapped the so-called Judge Child, Owen Krysler. Realising the value of their catch, and that the Law in the form of Mega-City's top Judge, Dredd, was on their tail, they stole a cruiser and fled into space. They finally made planetfall on the Grunwalder's planet of robots, were they had their final showdown with Dredd. The entire gang, Mean included, were killed. For Mean though, this was not the end.

Owen Krysler, who had been judged by Dredd as evil and abandoned on Grunwalder's planet, sought vengeance. He obtained a fluid which could resurrect the dead, and used it to revive Mean. The cyborg Angel travelled back to Earth, where he teamed up with his surviving brother, Fink (who had struck out on his own prior to the Judge Child incident, and thus not gone into space to die with his family). Together they attempted to kill Dredd - instead Fink was killed and Mean imprisoned.

Since then Mean has been in and out of Mega-City's Iso-Blocks, constantly escaping (or being released for special missions that he has the skills to help with), and constantly being recaptured. During one of these cases, Dredd took off Mean's remaining human arm, not that Mean seems to miss it. Mean has also discovered he has a young son from a brief marriage, a child every bit as sweetness and light as he used to be.

(Mean Machine Angel Heart Part 1, Judge Dredd Megazine #218) He recently had a warden device implanted into his head to try and stop his extreme violence - when he gets angry he feels pain. He has also married Porsha Wuss, an Iso-cube visitor with a history of getting attached to prsioners she works with. Mean has been released by his doctor, who feels that the warden device will make him a fit member of society - there is also the fact that Mean's doctor is the inventor of the warden device.

Comments: Created by John Wagner and Alan Grant.

Thanks to Iain Nixon for additional historical details for the character.

Mean Angel turned up briefly in the 1995 movie. Whatever the other faults of the film, the depiction of Mean wasn't one of them, as he looked spot on. He was played by Christopher Adamson.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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