Tom Judge

Origin

Thomas Judge was a priest. That was before he met a man, who came to ask him what he should do if someone offends him. Tom’s answer was simple look into your heart and you know what to do. This man then went and killed his wife, stabbed her 97 times and then he fried himself along with his two children in a bath-tub. Tom blamed himself for the man’s actions. After that he started to waste away his live with liquor and women.

Major Story Arcs

Universe and End of Days

Now Tom Judge ends his birthday night quite ordinarily, with a bottle of booze and two hookers. Having trouble with sleeping he accidentally happens on the Rapture, hidden behind the loose brick, he takes it and he hears it whisper. Suddenly a woman bursts through the door and shoots one of the hookers, who turns out to be a demon. The woman, named Tilly Grimes tells Tom to wear the amulet. As he does as told, he transforms himself into something. He loses conscious for a while and when he awakens, the demons are dead. Tilly then blows up his apartment to cover their tracks. Next big surprise in Toms life is a man he meet, he’s called Nick and he’s the Devil.

Nick tells Tom the story, that there are no Heaven only Hell, and all who die go there as a natural evolution and their souls are harvested and used as a currency there. Nick also tells that Tom is supposed to decide the fate of the universe. Next the Devil asks him a favor, to find Jackie Estacado from hell and read him a letter and see what happens, Tom then is lead to hell. There he meets Charon the taxi driver, who takes him to second circle. Tom get warned not to wonder to seventh circle, only access to there is by train and no one has come back from there only the Conductor. The ride ends and Tom goes on a search for Estacado. When he finds Jackie, Tom somehow knows who he is, and reads him that letter devil gave. While reading the letter, Tom transforms into the Rapture. Giving Jackie Estacado hope again he sets him free from hell and back to earth. Tom realizing what his power now is, transports himself back too. Taking a breather, Tom and Tilly hang out in her apartment. It is soon attacked by Pentagon troops under Mr. Black orders. They blow up this apartment too, and escape. Tilly then leads Tom to a backup hideout.

Tom is introduced to co-conspirators and is shown the tech hidden there. One machine is called GIMP, an artificial gateway to hell. Tom’s next mission is to travel back to hell and talk one guy about Mr. Black. He ends up in the train what he should avoid. After finding out what he wants he releases the info source, and meets the Conductor, Tom thinks that Conductor is the God. Next day is the anniversary of Tom’s transformation; he decides to seek out the victims of that man in hell. The killer is now a land owner there, and his wife and children are his insurance. Tom releases them and the killer is taken to seventh circle. Tom considers himself also saved now. Devil has information that Mr.Black tries to take down Hell’s stock exchange, thus bringing it all down, Tom must go and save it. But as it turns out it was a setup, Black tried to off Tom and only place to do it would be in hell dimension, with the new guns that he developed. Devil sent Tom there just to make money and raise his stocks. Tom however figured out what game Devil was playing and bought his company’s stocks. Tilly takes everyone out to picnic to bond, she hides that one of them is dying in final battle. When night falls; angels, demons and military attack and Tom Judge is smacked in the middle of it. Angels however were on Tom’s side for some reason. The demons are killed and the battle won.

The Devil’s gone nuts and is locked in an asylum. Tom visits him there, and is told of other Artifacts that are the greatest force in the universe when brought together, Artifacts mentioned are: Witchblade, Darkness, Angelus, Blood Sword, Heart Stone, Wheel of Shadows and of course Rapture, they are supposed to be God’s final message to his own creation. It is the end of days, and it all was planned by Mr.Black. He gas attacks the city and kills thousands of people. It was only a way to get Tom Judge to the city. Mr.Black reveals that he who wields rapture has a say on who rules hell, he wants to rule it, and Tom according to prophecy has to decide on End of Days. Black tells Tom that he has no choice but to select him as a new ruler, then he puts a gun on his head and pulls a trigger. Tom decides to give the Rapture to Conductor in exchange that he takes Mr. Black on a ride to seventh circle, Conductor accepts. But when Tom is handing over the artifact, he appears back on earth still holding it.

Witchblade – Signs and Portents

Tom meets with Tilly months later and they spend a night together. Tom is hunted by a demoness named Lachryma and he is killed in his apartment, and the Rapture is taken from him.

Angelus

Tom Judge was in Hell and again became the wielder of the Rapture, however it’s currently unknown how he obtained it back.

He had a small encounter with Angelus Warriors who went to Hell to recover the Wheel of Shadows for Sabine and said to them that carrying more than one of the 13 Artifacts is a bad idea as they tend to get the bearers killed.

Artifacts

Tilly Grimes came to Hell, and put Tom on a train out of Hell, Tom wakes up on the train and knows the Curator‘s address for some reason. He goes to see him and he explains that Tom’s return to Earth heralds the joining of 13 Artifacts and that is not a good thing. The 13 artifacts were brought together, and a new world was made by Jackie Estacado.

New Universe

Tom Judge is an FBI special consultant specializing in paranormal cases and is assigned to a crime scene where the body of a Bulgarian mobster that was killed by Jackie Estacado and the Darkness and found by Rachel Harrison, who is the current wielder of the Heart Stone. Also at the scene are Danielle Baptiste, now an NYPD detective, and Patrick Gleason, her partner. When Tom shows up several minutes later, he dismisses Dr. Harrison and explains that he is an ex-priest who works for the FBI and is a special investigator. He gets close to the corpse and uses a form of psychometry to gain insight on the victim’s last moments and sees Jackie in the Darkness form and several on his imps. He receives some ridicule from Baptiste and Gleason and tells them he will visit Estacado “unofficially” as there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime, only the fact that the Bulgarian mop is in a dispute with the Franchetti crime family that Jackie has recently left leaderless and gone legit.

Tom arrives at the fairly secluded Estacado mansion in New Jersey where he meets Jackie’s wife, Jenny, and daughter, Hope. After briefly speaking to both, he finally meets Jackie and the two converse about the dead mobster. Tom sees a suit of ancestral knight armor that looks like Jackie in his vision, after asking about it, Jackie dismisses Tom and he returns to St. Anne’s Church, which is closed and for sale. While recording his thoughts, he removes his shirt, revealing the scars along his entire abdomen in the shape of the Rapture artifact. He is interrupted by Tilly Grimes, who claims to have been looking for him and is wearing the Rapture. Tom grabs it, asking where she got it and has a vision, seeing how the universe is wrong, and remembers his entire life from the old universe, before the 13 Artifacts were brought together. Tilly doesn’t understand and thinks that Tom is trying to grope her and she activates the Rapture’s power, causing Tom to back off. Tilly then asks about the scars but Tom avoids the question and leaves to get air, Tilly follows him.

Tom and Tilly try to makes sense of what is going on in a park, Tom thinks that he might be going crazy and sees Tilly’s appearance flicker between her old universe one and her new universe one. Tilly tells him that being crazy explains what he is seeing but asks him to explain what he is talking about anyway; he tells her about the 13 Artifacts and how there are little things different with the new universe compared to the other, like Tilly having the Rapture instead of Tom. Tom remembers he has Dani’s business card from the crime scene and calls her and asks her about the Angelus. She doesn’t know what they are talking about and as they speak, they are attacked by a man claiming to be the Angelus. Tilly turns into the Rapture but is quickly overpowered by them man and the Rapture falls off of her and Tom picks it up and puts it on, saying that it feels right and quickly overpowers the man. As soon as he does, five more people show up, all claiming to be the Angelus. As Tom fights off four of them, learning a new way to use the Rapture’s powers, the last one attacks Tilly but before Tom can rescue her, Dani Baptiste shows up and kills it. After they are sure they are safe, Tom tries to give the Rapture back but Tilly tells him to keep it. Dani asks what is going on and Tom explains that she should be the Angelus, as she was in the old universe and they all go back to the Church; as Tom explains to Dani more about the 13 Artifacts and they brainstorm ideas about why the Angelus is so different, believing that Jackie has somehow changed the world, as Tilly uses her numeromancy to see that Jackie is at the center of everything and Tom decides to pay him another visit.

As Jackie is driving away from his house to try and fix the situation with the Bulgarians, Tom, in Rapture form, attacks him and destroys his car. Jackie retaliates with a large demon but Tom manages to fight it off and throw his car at him, but it again does no real damage. When Tom accuses him of changing everything, Jackie depowers and tells him why: he didn’t want his daughter, toddler Hope, to die and when he recreated everything, he tried to separate people from their Artifacts and destroy the Angelus but when he couldn’t destroy it, he sent it to multiple hosts to weaken it so it couldn’t fight him and then he explains that he did it all for his family. Jackie then leaves, claiming that the only reason Tom gets a free pass this time is because Tom saved him when they were in Hell. Tom walks back to the car, where Tilly and Dani are waiting for him, the three talk about what is going on before coming up with a plan to restore the Angelus and put Jackie in check by waiting out in the open because the Angelus was seeking the Rapture. Tom gives it to Dani and leaves to draw the Angelus in but it chooses the newly arrived Finch as its host instead of Dani. Tom and Tilly rush back to the scene where it is apparent that the Angelus has taken over Finch’s mind and leaves to destroy Jackie and Tom is furious as this was not what he wants. As the Angelus flies to Jackie’s mansion and attacks him, Tom follows and arrives just in time to stop Jackie from killing Finch and the Angelus. Tom and Jackie get into a heated conversation and the only reason that it does not escalate is because Jackie does not want to fight so close to his family and he claims he has all of the time in the world to settle the score with the Angelus.

Later, a week after the Bulgarian mobster was found, Tom goes to the hospital ER where Rachel Harrison works to speak with her about the Heart Stone. The pair makes small talk when she finishes with a patient before Tom asks about the Artifact and Rachel claims it is a family heirloom from her grandmother; but when Tom asks if it does anything unusual, Rachel admits that it allows her to see a person’s aura, like what kind of person they are and if they are healthy. Tom explains that it is an Artifact but is interrupted by John Becker, Rachel’s soon-to-be ex-husband, and the two men argue; when John leaves Tom tells Rachel that the Heart Stone seems safe enough and to call him if Jackie Estacado tries to contact her before she has to leave to help a patient.

Several days later, after Rachel returned to her hometown, Tom and Tilly arrive to tell her that there is no reason Jackie would come after her. He also gives Rachel some light congratulations about getting used to the power of the Heart Stone before Tilly gets a call that Tom is needed in Washington DC to help with a murder case.

Tom and Tilly arrive at the Lincoln Memorial quickly and get a look at the scene, a man with a hole in his chest at the center of writing that is in the victim’s blood. Tom takes control of the scene and tells Tilly to take the writing down and, along with Tilly’s observance of the murder taking place on a ley line, claims that it is a ritual for something and angers the DCPD detectives on scene and leaving. When the pair is out of an earshot, Tom admits to recognizing the language as the Language of Hell but can’t read the advanced writings, only knowing that it is for a summoning ritual. The next day, Tom goes to the National Cathedral, as it was the victim’s place of employment, and meets the groundskeeper, who is possessed by a demon. The men walk outside and the demon is dismissive of Tom as he is no longer a priest, and reveals his true form before attacking Tom, who changes into Rapture and fights back. Tom is able to quickly overpower the demon and nearly kill it as it is a minor one trying to make a power grab, and it retreats back into the groundskeeper. After getting caught by some security guards and admitting to being an FBI agent, he and the groundskeeper go to the local jail. After the local detectives are unable to get anything out of the man, Tom volunteers to preform and exorcism and is allowed to. When he enters, the demon claims that it won’t work because Tom is not a believer anymore but Tom counters that he believes enough and begins. During the exorcism, the demon tries to fight back but cannot and Tom is able to exercise the demon and free the groundskeeper before telling the cops to get the man a lawyer who can give a good insanity defense before leaving. Tilly confronts him and tells him to do more for the man but Tom says he cannot as the man’s DNA is all over the crime scene and says that the pair needs to return to New York City as they have more important things to worry about, like the Angelus.

Sometime later, Tom breaks into Danielle Baptiste’s apartment while she and Finch are in the realm of the Angelus. When the two women return, and are less than surprised by his presence, he tells then that he needs the Angelus, and by extension the rest of the Artifact bearers, to put a stop to Jackie Estacado and the universe that Jackie created.